I thought it will be beneficial to share the process as it is not as straightforward as we believe.

How to do international keyword research? 

1) Understand the intention of the searcher – this is vital, you have to know exactly what the person is searching for and what they want to achieve by performing this search.

2) You have to understand the buying cycle, and where in this buying cycle your potential customer is. Do they only do research? Or do they know they want ‘green Nike trainers size 8’

3) Check what keywords your competitors are ranking for and choose ones that would be suitable for you – do not go for everything as this will not always be the best choice.

4) Use your favourite tools for ideas like Google Keyword Tool, Aherfs, Semrush, UbberSuggest etc.

5) Collate all the data in one place and choose your priorities.

6) Once you have your keyword research in place, write your content so that it provides the best answer to the question and do not forget your keywords.

It is pretty easy right?

Why do we differentiate between international keyword research and ‘normal keyword research’? .

Because you will need to do all of that in a different language.

Can I translate my existing list of keywords?

The short answer is no.

Here is why:

Google actually does get that one right – but this is my favourite example – imagine you are not using Google translate just translating word by word – ‘jechac’ in polish language means drive and ‘autobus’ is a bus so the outcome is you are actually the driver of the bus.

Take in polish is ‘wziac’ but we do not use it exactly the same way as you use it in English language, it simply means pick up something and take it – so what do we end up here with ? You picked up the bus and went somewhere

Now I know both languages so even if I used google translate I would see this is wrong – but if we do not know the language how do we know?

Structure and Culture

Each language is different. It may have a different structure than your native language but also people using this language may search in a different way. There was an interesting research by Innovation Language Management which revealed that in Western countries we use nouns to perform our searches whereas in Middle East people prefer to use verbs. There may be 100’s of other similar aspects.

Content is about communication with your visitors, so keyword research is a tool in this communication, and to communicate with people effectively you need to be familiar with a culture of this country.  Ask yourself questions like:

How do they talk to each other?

What words do they use?

How do they like and don’t like to be approached and talked to?

Another interesting research conducted by Webcertain revealed differences in search results in different countries, which suggests that intent varies country by country.

Here are type of search results user would get when searching for ‘chair’ in China and in USA.

In the US 60% results were about style and shape of chairs, whereas in China this type of search results accounted only for 20% .

Having said that, in my opinion – and not only mine, many other search experts in the field agree – you will need a native speaker to consult with on international projects.

Alphabet

Yes, this is also something to consider. The Latin alphabet is not the only one people use. Did you know that there are languages/alphabets where you read right to left? Which does make a difference when copying and pasting for example. Although I did know that, Ihadn’t considered copying and pasting issues before Jimi from Bootcamp Media mentioned it!

The same language – different country

Here it does get easier, but you still need to consider differences. You may not need someone from the USA to work with you all the time but it would be good to dive into differences between American and British English and possibly, consult the outcome with a native to be sure. 

In this case you won’t say anything like driving the bus, because you will know it is wrong – but you may miss on some great opportunities because in Britain we say things differently.

Here is an example from lingerie industry:

United Kingdom searches for ‘knickers’ and ‘panties’

United States searches for ‘knickers’ and ‘panties’

The search volume does not change for ‘knickers’ but for ‘panties’ we have UK: 27,100 vs US: 201,000 – it is a massive difference.

Here is another example from food industry:

Search in United Kingdom for ‘sweets’ and ‘candy’

Search in United States for ‘sweets’ and ‘candy’

This time there is a difference for both keywords, but for ‘candy’ the difference is massive. UK 27,100 vs US:450,000

You wouldn’t always go for the one with the highest search volume, but if you are strong enough to do so, forgetting about those subtle differences within English may cost you losing a lot of revenue.

Where do people search?

In Google right? The majority of times – yes. But whereinternational SEO is considered, you have to remember that there are places where Google is not the most popular search engine, for example:

Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, 70% of all searches are performed in Baidu, so if you are considering working with a client from China you will need Baidu specialist or a comprehensive training to start with.

Yandex processes 51% of searches in Russia, Google on the other hand processes 45% – pretty close huh? But you still wouldn’t like to lose this 51% would you? This is why, when considering working on Russian website – Yandex specialist is a staff addon to consider or/and educate yourself in.

Conclusion

To conclude, when international SEO is considered it is always a good idea to either employ or consult a native speaker, or a very high-level bilingual specialist, depending on a size of the project. I am not saying it is impossible for a British company to work on a website in the US or Australia – it is the same language I know, and we can do our research. I am saying in this case it is always a good idea to speak with someone who knows the US or Australian culture and can direct us to the right words – otherwise we could be losing revenue and not even know about it. What I am also saying is – it is close to impossible to work on a website in completely different language – even Google translate makes mistakes and it is very unfair to the client to charge them for Google Translate.

The post Comprehensive Guide to International Keyword Research appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

How e-a-t works and Google patents

Search engine journal article covers few interesting questions focusing on E-A-T and google patents. What does E-A-T stand for? This is definition of E-A-T- “Expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the creator of the main content, the main content itself, as well as the website.”. Going back to questions asked and answered in the article:

1. How Does Google Know Who a Site’s Authors Are?
2. Does Google Only Look at On-Page Factors & Links to Identify Authors and Experts?
3. Can Google only recognize entities contained in its Knowledge Graph?
4. How does Google determine if a person or brand is a real expert, or authoritative in their field?
5. How does a website get classified as YMYL?
6. Does Google measure E-A-T on the author, page, domain, or brand level?

Read the article by Search Engine Journal here.

How to do keyword research for Affiliate sites

If you are looking into building an affiliate site prior to Black Friday or any other event, this article can be of great help. SEO of affiliate sites is very god tool that can grow incredibly without much budget.

1. General comparisons
2. Branded comparisons
3. Product reviews
4. T&A keywords

Comparison site ideas is a good starting point and with not much effort you can get great results. Another option are product reviews, which is pretty much self-explanatory approach.  Lastly its important to cover T&A – Build trust with your audience. People are more likely to trust your product recommendations if you can demonstrate expertise in the topic. Build authority through links. People are generally more likely to link to useful, non-commercial content than pages that exist to line your pockets.

Check out original post from Ahrefs here.

Top five takeaways from the Golden Quarter 2020

During Awin’s webinar, the Global Strategy Director Kevin Edwards and panel of experts share insights of what they have learned from this year so far. Discussed various obstacles and opportunities that Q4 offers, and how it can help inform ecommerce strategies for the coming months. You can watch the webinar here. We have listed the five takeaways from Awin below:

• Affiliates are providing an increasing volume of converting traffic to retailers during Q4
• Black Friday’s digital adoption in the UK will influence ecommerce growth this year
• 2020 could be the first time Black Friday overtakes Cyber Monday for online share of sales in the US
• Amazon’s relocation of Prime Day won’t stop shoppers spending big over Q4
• Be nimble, stay informed, and think about how you connect with the mass of new customers coming online for the first time

Read the post from Awin here.

 Awin launches interactive self-help center to better support publishers

Awin launches interactive self-help center with over 150 informative articles. The Partner Success Center offers access to a multitude of knowledge resources at the push of button, empowering  publishers to make the most of affiliate marketing network.

Check Awin help help center here.

The state of Affiliate Marketing in 2020

Affiliate Marketing in 2020 can be very rewarding and risky at the same time. We had to adapt quickly in both professional and personal life. However it was very rewarding year for many retailers and ecommerce businesses even with restrictions circulating around. It’s important to keep up with constantly changing scenery of affiliate marketing.

Rakuten covers few interesting affiliate marketing questions:

1. What Is Happening in the Affiliate Space Right Now?
2. How Can Advertisers and Publishers Leverage Their Relationships?
3. What Does the Way Forward Look Like?

Read more from Rakuten guest post at Toolbox here.

Top 15 acquisition channels that work consistently for getting new users

Entrepreneurs handbook article covers what channels worked for 470 interviewed founders. How did those founders go from zero to users? The channels are sorted by the number of “successful mentions” (meaning, the founder mentioned in the interview that a particular acquisition channel is working for them).

Here are just some examples for the article:

• SEO (after being successful with another acquisition channel).
• Platform-specific marketplaces.
• Reddit posting.
• HackerNews.
• Using your own network/connections.
• Niche Communities/Forums.
• Facebook Groups.

Entrepreneurs handbook article.

Influencer Marketing Show 2020 – Global

Influencer Marketing Show in 2020 is an amazing opportunity to get insights and knowledge nuggets. The tickets are free for limited time so keep an eye while the stock lasts. IMS is a great opportunity to get in touch with attendees whether you are an agency, influencer or a brand. As IMS organiser describe – “With the IMS Global event platform you can easily arrange one-to-one video chats with any attendee based anywhere in the world!”.

IMS Live Access Pass gives you access to sessions as they happen with a 12 hour grace period. However, there are other options like VIP ticket that allows you to watch the show for the next 12 months.

Check the IMS event sign up page here.

The post November Affiliate Marketing and News appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

But this is something all marketers should action.

There is an old maxim in Poland that Shoemaker always walks around without his shoes, it means that whatever your job is or whatever you are good at you usually do not do it for yourself, and this is true. It usually happens because you feel you do not have time to do these things for your business because of important client work, or meetings or whatever else.

However, you have this great asset, you have this skill and you do not have to pay anyone for it, you can just do it yourself. Pretty much every business needs marketing because this is the way you find your potential customers – and you can do it for yourself.

Read on to see why the title says treat yourself as your own client.

Find time for your business

You would never say I have no time to do this client work or to deliver this task, would you?

Why would you say this when it comes to your own business?

I get it, I was the same, preferring to scroll LinkedIn constantly looking for new paid opportunities instead of, for example, writing a blog post for my business, like this one.

True, it is different – but this is not an unpaid opportunity – this opportunity will probably pay off a lot more than one client would. Because it builds my company’s credibility, it shows potential clients that whatever we say we can do, we are also doing it for ourselves – we are becoming our own case study to show off – do not waste this opportunity.

Prioritise

Of course, client work is important, and client prospecting is also important – this is why you need to allocate time and prioritise. Tell yourself you will spend 2 hours a day or at least 1 hour a day on ‘client work’ for your business – and stick to it.

Plan the work

Now imagine your business is actually your client, your highest paying client! What do you do? What is the process? Plan it. Plan Audits, Competitive Analysis, blog writing. Plan everything you would do for a client, make a to -do list or a trello /asana/whatever you are using board, to prioritise tasks. Now is the time for all necessary planning to make sure everything will go smoothly.

Do the work

Execute your plans. Do not say you don’t have time for it because that would mean you are saying you do not have time for your highest paying client.

Working on your business will actually show your potential clients that you are good at what you do, it will help you with client prospecting, it will help you to get in front of new potential customers.

If your strategy says you need to write one blog post a week – do it. Stick to your strategy and do not quit after one week explaining to yourself that there is no time for it. I dare you to find 1-2 hours a day, and stick to it. It will pay off.  At the end of the day – you work for your clients, so they can find new potential customers, why wouldn’t it work the same way for you?

The post Why marketeers should treat themselves as their own clients appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

New Google Analytics announced

Businesses use Google Analytics on every day basis to understand their customers. Its crucial to understand every marketing channel and that every £ is spent well. Google have created more intelligent Google Analytics solution to help you understand how to increase ROI. The new google analytics has machine learning at its core to help with insights. The essential insights introduced are:

1. Smarter insights to improve your marketing decisions and get better ROI
2. A more complete understanding of how customers interact with your business
3. Built for the long term
4. The future of Google Analytics

Here is the link to Google announcement – click here.

Tips to enhance and grow your existing Affiliate program for Q4

 PerformanceIn shares some insightful tips on growing your affiliate program for the most exciting period for any marketer. We really like the tips and some important dates to notes. We would suggest focusing on November and December (mostly gifting pre-Christmas and post-Christmas sale) as those are the strongest periods for most brands. Some important dates to remember in November:

• 11^th November – Singles Day – where unmarried people buy themselves gifts
• 26^th November – Thanksgiving day in US
• 27^th November – Black Friday – many brands begin Black Friday promos few days before
• 30^th November – Cyber Monday

Here is a list of questions worth asking yourself:

• Is your affiliate payout still competitive?
• Is your website optimised and capable of handling increased traffic?
• Are your promos and creatives locked in and completed?
• Have you prepared a gift guide that affiliates can use?
• Have you communicated with top producing affiliates on what can be done to scale for Q4?

Remember to plan ahead your November to make the best out of the peak season. We do not agree completely that Q4 is time to build your affiliate program. Our suggestion would be to communicate with your existing publishers and make sure that they are aware of your plans. Perhaps its time to push for extra exposure to reach the largest number of customers. If you have just opened your program or still planning to, focus on inviting new strong publishers as soon as possible perhaps with increased commission to incentivise them to join you.

Link to the PerformanceIN news post – click here.

How Can You Use Crowd Marketing It in Your SEO in iGaming?

Did you ever think of affiliate marketing and SEO to work together? Affiliate Insiders covers some key areas and shares some insight you might find interesting:

1. What is Crowd Marketing?
2. Boosting Popularity
3. Link Building
4. Social Media
5. Improving Conversions

Link to Affiliate Insider story – click here.

How to Optimize Your Affiliate Program for Growth

CJ Junction one of the larger affiliate networks have shared their thoughts about upcoming Q4. CJ points our the importance of technical readiness, by making sure your feed is correctly implemented and checking the tracking and pixel is correct. Organising publishers is worth looking into, making sure you are sharing right incentives to the right type of publisher. Its worth analysing and reviewing your existing program to push the right levers. CJ have noted it is extra harder to cut through the noise with pandemic and election. Here are some great tips to consider:

• Promote offers earlier than normal.
• Showcase unique offer messaging.
• Mobile usage rises significantly during an election season. Ensure your mobile experience is clean and invest in mobile media opportunities.
• Take advantage of consumer demand immediately post-election.
• Measure initial reactions to holiday campaigns and adjust if needed.
• Don’t assume that your holiday offers are breaking through the noise; reinforce the message before, during, and after the election.

Link to CJ article – click here.

Gaining customer trust in the cookieless era

There are multiple talks about cookies and what it means to brands and any other ecommerce businesses. ClickZ have written a great article covering insights from Deloitte Digital research.

The summary of the article:

• The end of third-party cookies brings an opportunity for brands to build relationships of trust with their customers. Ultimately, cultivating trust comes down to how brands handle customer data, however they come by it.
• Part of adopting a new approach to engaging with data is considering when and how first-party personal information is collected. The “how” is an important foundational detail, as it may set the tone for the marketer’s relationship with the customer, determining whether or not a customer chooses to opt-in to share their information at all.
• Even after consent is obtained, customers and prospects have the right to change their minds. It’s an ongoing conversation between a customer and a brand, and so the ability to grant or revoke consent at multiple points in time is critical.
• Smart data use provides relevancy, and the brands that are positioned to thrive in a world without third-party cookies will likely be those that recognize a simple truth: You earn the right to be personal by first being relevant.
• Ultimately, it’s up to the brand to use it to deliver better content and experiences and grow its customer relationships.

Link to ClickZ article – click here.

Affiliate marketing tips to improve your campaigns in 2020

This year had many twists and turns with pandemic impacting digital world of ecommerce. For many companies existing in online sphere it was actually a great year. We might had to have thrown 2020 January tips away or adjust existing strategy, but it seems that this year Q4 may be stronger than ever before with people been stuck at home and forced to buy mostly online. The article from ShareASale covers some key areas:

1. Building Trust
2. Building Relationships
3. Producing Content
4. Telling stories
5. Utilizing tools
6. Marketing Channels
7. Micro-influencers
8. Payment on influence
9. Social Media
10. User Experience
11. Mobile responsive websites

It is important to push this Q4 to make the best out of this insane year. Ecommerce brands have been very successful this year and it seems it’s only beginning of ongoing and increasing trend.

Link to ShareASale blog – click here.

Why Amazon is not a fashion leader

Amazon may be leader in many market sections but it does not seem fashion is one of them. Ecommerce News noted that Amazon.de is in sixth position in Germany. Amazon’s shop functionality is not designed for inspiration. Some information are missing which are important for online fashionistas.

Read more about Ecommerce News here – click here

Thank you for reading, if you and your business needs expert help in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Social, Ecommerce and Digital Marketing please feel free to contact us. Creatos Media team is always here to help!

The post October News and preparation for Q4 with Affiliate Marketing appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

Representing #CreatosMedia Izzy will be speaking in Katowice Poland “virtually” of course. FestiwalSEO Katowice is a great polish SEO event, if you are interested you can register and watch it here on Friday. The event will be in Polish.

FestiwalSEO Katowice was planned for 22^nd of May, due to pandemic it had to be moved not only to different date – 16^th of October – also it has been changed to virtual event. However, it will allow to join event from any place on earth as long you speak polish. This is a 8^th edition of the event and we are proud to be part of it. Apart from this year participation we will be joining next year!

Women in tech SEO – Interviewing Izabela Wisniewska, Creatos Media Co-Founder

Women in Tech SEO is a support network aimed for women in the Technical SEO. Izzy has joined Women in tech SEO this year and already have taken part in mentoring programme as a mentor helping other women. If you are a woman and interested in SEO it would a great place to join. The values of the group are:

• To be kind
• To be helpful
• To be respectful
• To be a safe and judgement-free community

The interview with Izzy covers many topics such as getting to SEO, tools and resources, the ‘Aha’ moments, proudest industry achievement, SEO advice, and what empowers you to be a brilliant woman. To read the interview click on the link here.

Every Youth brand should be on social platforms, but which?

To engage with young customers, it can be difficult to keep up. You can gain crucial advantage on your competitors if you are covering right channels targeting youth sector. So which platforms do you need as a business to be part of Gen Z?

• Instagram – it’s a favourite Gen Z place to discover brands, what Voxburner found out is that they think Instagram ads are the best.
• Twitter – typical teen does not post a lot on twitter but they do check it for news, memes and pop culture for digital natives.
• TikTok – Youth Trends survey discovered that 16% of 16-24s were using TikTok at least once a month. TikTok is a trend setting channel at the moment for Gen Z.
• Houseparty – was acquired by Epic Games, creators of Fortnite. The platform is experimenting with partnerships such as branded backgrounds known as Frames.
• Snapchat – used mostly by 16-24 it seems many brands ignore that channel. Snapchat was chosen by Gen Z’s and ranked as second favourite social media brand, only behind Instagram.

The research by Voxburner and Youth Trends can be found here.

Facebook and Artefact team up for marketing attribution guide

Facebook and Artefact have investigated process of tracking and ranking. Key factor was importance of marketing actions along the customer journey. Crucial finding in the guide was omnichannel shoppers having a 30% higher lifetime value. The guide is looking into how attribution is a critical enabler of efficient marketing as well as personalised experiences. Last topic was covering key steps and top practices to successfully fulfill Facebook Attribution and speed up your measurement journey.

Read more in the post from Digital Marketing Briefing here.

Google: The Context Around Links Is Secondary But Anchor Text Is Primary

We know that there are many uses of anchor text of links around the internet, but do not say much about where it is linking to. What Google has said is very interesting “context and content around the link is secondary”. Whether we agree or not, it would be worth pointing out that it was Google pointing it out.

To read and watch full post from Seroundtable here.

How to Rank in ‘PAA’ Boxes and If You Should by Ahrefs

According to Ahrefs – 43% of search queries now show a People Also Ask box. There are few important steps which Ahrefs points outs:

1. What is the ‘People Also Ask’ box?
2. Four things to know about ‘People Also Ask’ boxes
3. PAA boxes can appear in different SERP positions
4. PAA questions are seemingly infinite
5. PAA answer formats vary
6. PAA questions always trigger the same answer
7. Is it worth trying to rank in ‘People Also Ask’ boxes?
8. How to rank in ‘People Also Ask’ boxes

Read the whole post from Ahrefs here.

Social Media Affiliate Marketing

Social media can be a great channel for Affiliate Marketing with plenty tools available to help you:

• Automatically (via convert-a-link) to turn any direct links to advertisers into affiliate links.
• Using text links built using a link builder, like Awin’s.
• Using feeds to create comparisons between products or prices.
• With banners, content widgets or other types of creative.

Since the raise of social media affiliate marketers have been inventive and capitalised on the new platforms. What Awin has pointed out is that 45% of population uses social media, which is a huge number of people. Think of social media and for each recommendation to your friends you get rewarded commission per each sale.

Read more about social media affiliate marketing by Awin here.

Thank you for reading, if you and your business needs expert help in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Social, Ecommerce and Digital Marketing please feel free to contact us. Creatos Media team is always here to help!

The post Izzy at FestiwalSEO Katowice, interview with WTS, Gen Z, Social Affiliate Marketing, Facebook attribution and SEO PAA appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

Facebook Groups Recommendations

There are many business SEO groups on Facebook, but we have made a list of the ones we think are worth your time. The groups below are groups of which some of Creatos Media members are already part of. There are some great insights and knowledge shared in each group. Apart from learning more about SEO, marketing and affiliates you can share your own knowledge and experience with professionals. See our list below:

• Women in Tech SEO – group recommended for women by Izzy our co-founder.
• The Proper SEO Group – SEO methods and techniques.
• Sisters in SEO – another all women group recommended by Izzy, focusing on sharing SEO knowledge.
• Affiliate SEO Mastermind – covers affiliate SEO topics.
• SEO Signals Lab – knowledgeable SEOs.
• Marketing Cheat Guides – group focusing on sharing knowledge in digital marketing to build successful business.
• Niche Affiliate Empires – ideas to build a successful affiliate website.

Facebook Advertising News

Facebook have recently announced removing limitation on use of 20% text on the ads image. However Facebook still suggest to follow the guidelines.

1. If you decide to place text in your ad image, attempt using fewer words. Adjusting font size of your text may be a good starting point. Bear in mind the text needs to be easy to read.
2. Make most of the text that you use is in the body. Instead of taking space on your ads image.
3. Prevent dispersing text all over the picture.
4. Images with less than 20% text perform better.

Read Facebook guidelines here.

Google bot is learning to read HTTP/2

Google has been announcing that from mid November 2020, Googlebot will support crawling over HTTP/2. Google covers few interesting points:

1. What is actually HTTP/2
2. What is the reason for the change
3. How it works
4. How to opt in or out

There are many questions which google have answered.

Check Google webmaster central blog article here.

Ecommerce brands increasing engagement despite COVID-19

The article from IMRG shows us 5 ways of e-commerce businesses growing awareness during quarantine. The list consists of: 

1. Retention and loyalty
2. Cross channel data importance
3. Generate revenue with data
4. Focus on 3 A’s – Agility, Automation, and Alignment
5. Importance of personalisation’s per channel

Read more from IMRG here.

Seo Myths, would you agree with them?

Ahrefs covered some of the most trending SEO myths. What do you think, do you agree with the below?

• SEO is dead
• SEO is a one-time thing
• Google only ranks ‘fresh’ content
• Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for
• Duplicate content will get you penalized
• Social signals help rankings
• PPC can’t help you rank higher
• PageRank doesn’t matter anymore
• SEO is all about rankings
• Keyword research isn’t important

We have our own views about the above points, but please share your thoughts.

For Ahrefs full post click here.

Online purchases involve seven steps taking three hours, do you agree?

The survey for the actual article included 2000 people. There are really interesting insights into each step and the importance of trust and reviews involved in a buying process. Would you agree with all the steps? How long does it take for you to decide and buy?

Here are the seven stages of shopping by Digital Marketing Briefing:

1. Deciding on a need for something – 35 minutes
2. An online search for the product you want including social media sites – 33 minutes
3. Reading online reviews and going through recommendations – 29 minutes
4. Narrowing down between brands by comparing to other similar products for price and quality – 31 minutes
5. Share links with friends and family – 14 minutes
6. Getting something into your online or real-life basket – 19 minutes
7. Actually making the purchase – 24 minutes

Read the full article here.

Thank you for reading, if you and your business needs expert help in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Social, Ecommerce and Digital Marketing please feel free to contact us. Creatos Media team is always happy to help!

The post Digital Marketing useful lists – SEO, Affiliates, Facebook and Google announcement appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

Shopify platform SEO limitations and best ways to overcome them

Come and listen to Izzy our co-founder talk at #BrightonSEO ! The world’s largest search marketing conference is going virtual this year so it’s accessible to everyone wherever you are ! Take this chance and listen to so many great talks !

“While working on SEO for websites using Shopify – which works great from a purely e-commerce perspective – I had to face SEO limitations from the platform side. This talk will give you ideas and talk about ways to overcome those limitations or work with them and still win in SEO.”

Link to Brighton SEO 2020 – https://2020.brightonseo.com/speakers/izabela-wisniewska/

Creating Wikipedia page how and why?

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia site is not only highly ranked, but it has extremely high number of visits. You can see the screen shoot showing how popular the site really is. Those are only 2 examples of why its worth having your business on Wikipedia.

Apart from Wikipedia been recognisable website, it is habitually one of the first pages a person clicks on if they want to learn more about what your business does. If you want to increase brand awareness and visibility online we have found source from Ahrefs about page creation and Wikipedia instructions.

Link to Ahrefs article here and to instructions from Wikipedia here.

Why the youth marketing industry will never be the same after COVID-19?

Voxburner points out in their blog, the youth and student marketing industry has been upended by the pandemic, from the way we work with our colleagues and clients, to how we cater to youth, the Gen Z audience.

The main points covered by the author:

• Consumer priorities will change
• Ecommerce will be essential
• Work life will be transformed

Those are very valid points which we already know, but how those will impact youth marketing?

“For Gen Z in particular, we may see them valuing in-person socialising more, since they have been deprived of this during lockdown. Education and work experience is likely to be even more high priority than it was already for Gen Z, as skills and knowledge will give them an edge in a competitive job market.”

Read more in the Voxburner article here.

Gearing Up for an Omnichannel School Year

The 2020 back to school shopping season is underway, and Rakuten has surveyed 800 parents to find out what they’re shopping for and how much they are planning to spend this year.

For thousands of students and families across the U.S., going back to school in September will be unlike any academic year they have seen. After students of all ages spent the latter part of the 2019-2020 school year in virtual classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide quarantine, districts and universities are working rapidly to develop new protocols that will allow their students to safely return to in-school learning this Fall.

Rakuten Advertising wanted to learn more about how families across the country are feeling about the upcoming school year.  A  brief online survey was fielded in June 2020, resulting in 779 respondents from the U.S. It measured key groups: consumers with grade school, high school, or college age students, and included consumers with one or more students in multiple categories.

• There is uncertainty around students returning to in-school instruction
  • Over 50% of all grade school and high school shoppers were still unclear at the end of June as to how school would be conducted in the Fall.
• College students are split between in-person and online
  • 34% of back to college shoppers are not experiencing any changes to the start of the school year, and 32% of back to college shoppers have students attending online classes rather than in-person classes.
• Families are feeling the financial impact of the pandemic
  • 78% of parents have experienced some financial hardship due to COVID-19
• Shopping will occur at the end of summer, except in the Southeast
  • While August is when the majority of parents conduct their back to school shopping for all students, parents in the Southeast over indexed for starting their shopping in July.
• Those who are shopping are also thinking ahead to the holidays
  • Over 60% of all back to school shoppers are also browsing for holiday gifts, and over 35% shoppers are buying at the same time.

Rakuten Advertising – Back to School report click here.

Billion dollar company Mailchimp started as a side gig

It is the hard time we live in, impacted by pandemic and lost jobs. Ben Chestnut has been there minus the pandemic. He co-founded now multibillion-dollar marketing platform Mailchimp after being laid off from his web design job in 2000 as the dotcom bubble burst.

What would Chestnut do if he had to start a side hustle to make extra money today?

“I would spend my time freelancing,” Chestnut tells CNBC Make It, ”[and] helping small brick and mortar stores pivot their businesses online.”

“I could help these businesses tell their stories, stay connected with their customers and sell their stuff online by designing beautiful, shoppable websites, logos and other design assets, and by helping them with their digital marketing,” he says.

“Many beloved brick and mortar businesses are having to create an online presence for the first time, so this is one way I could leverage my design and marketing skills to help these businesses.”

Read the article about Mailchimp here.

Thank you for reading, if you and your business needs expert help in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing and overall Digital Marketing please feel free to contact us. Creatos Media team is always happy to help!

The post Creatos Media – September 2020 News appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

When scrolling through my Linkedin page I am noticing many colleagues post that many of us are out of work or losing clients these days. It has got me thinking. Who is at the biggest and smallest risk of losing income during the coronavirus pandemic ? Majority of Europe is getting back to normal slowly, but in UK we are still in lockdown ,so what is the outcome of the pandemic for various industries ? Who is still losing, who lost a lot and who won ?

What professions are ( don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound nasty) ‘first world’ enough to be suffering so much now. I know SEO and marketing does but we are kind of in the middle, probably because there are so many businesses that want to use coronavirus pandemic in their marketing, but who is not as lucky as we are ?

Here is what we think and why. The timings are based on the United Kingdom Strategy, we are not completely in a lockdown yet but we can already feel the pressure on our economy. Based on experiences from Europe we can predict which businesses unfortunately will suffer the most.

It is an informative post for all of you, but if you are in any of those professions make sure you have some savings that will keep you going. 

Businesses that are obviously suffering during coronavirus pandemic 

Restaurants 

As we are told to avoid public places and some of us need to self isolate, people are now eating at home and ordering more than actually going to the restaurants.

Beauty salons

In a beauty salon you can’t keep away from the client so people are scared to use their services plus it’s a ‘luxury service’ and when we need to avoid leaving the house unless it is necessary, we can’t really visit beauty salons. 

Hair Salons 

Same goes for hair salons, we can’t keep away from each other at hairdressers and its a luxury service, it does not seem right to use it during such difficult time.

Airlines

All travel industries will suffer, because countries are closing their borders, flights are cancelled or even if not, people are not buying new tickets because they are scared to travel during the world pandemic.

Party planners

It goes without saying that currently people do not want to throw parties, and soon they probably won’t be allowed to, once the government bans mass gatherings. 

Cinemas & Theaters 

In a time of social distancing, cinemas or theaters aren’t a go to anymore, vast majority of people if they are going out they prefer a forest or a field where they won’t meet too many other people.

Children Clubs

Although we are being told that children can often show no symptoms if they contract coronavirus, parents are being cautious and whoever can stop bringing their child to playgroups. 

After School clubs

Schools just about to get closed as we are writing this post, but many parents were concerned way before that, they had to send their children to schools but after school clubs are not compulsory so many parents may decide it is also not safe especially after schools get closed. 

Fitness Instructors

Group fitness classes can get crowded, and it is easy to catch a virus in those settings, therefore many instructors are canceling either because of drop in numbers or for the good of their class participants.

Night Clubs Adult Clubs

Night clubs are crowded almost all the time , especially in the big cities, that’s why those will s]]irely lose a lot even before the government decides to lockdown the country, simply because people will be scared to go for nights out.

Travel Agencies

For a very similar reason as airlines – people don’t want to go for a holiday during pandemic.

High Street Retailers

These will be probably hit very hard, as customers will shift even more towards online shopping.

Hotels

There will be less holidays but also less business trips, face to face meetings etc, basically anything that requires meeting and can be postponed or changed to online at some point probably will be which means no need for a hotel.

Gyms 

There is 100s of people everyday at the gym, it goes without saying that it is easy to contract virus over there. Thats why people are already cancelling their memberships.

Community  Clubs

Community activities aren’t a must and if we are told we need some social distancing now it means – no community clubs.

Events Planners & Organisers

We are steps away from banning mass gatherings, it is already unsafe to be in crowded places and unfortunately good events are exactly that.

Football Industry

Football matches usually gather a lot of people, and unfortunately those mass gatherings are very unsafe now. Matches won’t be happening at all, or even if , will be happening without the audience. 

Sport Clubs

Similarly like with after school clubs, sport clubs are kind of a luxury that we can live without so in a lockdown. 

Businesses that are less obviously suffering during coronavirus pandemic 

Dentists

Technically it is a healthcare, but we won’t be going in for routine checks or to whiten our teeth. 

Private Health Care

Again, we will be limiting our private care appointments the absolute minimum during the world pandemic. 

Parkings

Logically, if we are going out less, visiting galleries and shopping centers less, we will be using our cars less and park them less anywhere but home.

City Transport & Taxis

Analogically, people without cars will be using public transport less.

Private Child Care

What we mean is private nurseries and preschools, because actually private childminders may earn more during school lockdown.

Private tutoring and courses

Again, any private course providers like PT training courses will suffer, but once we go into quarantine online courses providers may earn more. 

Cobblers, Seamstress, Tailors

It goes without saying, we won’t be fixing our shoes, trousers or be needing new tailored dresses during this most scary period. 

Removals

Of course some people will be still moving especially if it goes for a long time, but the ones that can wait with it, definitely will.

Plastic Surgeons

Again it goes without saying, people are scared to go to the hospitals for needed appointments so they will definitely re-scheduling their plastic surgeries.

Fashion Models

In such scary times, less of us will be thinking about fashion shows and trends, also after a ban of mass gatherings, fashion shows won’t be taking place.

Builders

Any construction work in our houses will be probably waiting to pandemic so logically builders won’t have that much work.

Housing Agencies

Not only people will be scared to look at houses now, but if we want to buy we will wait to see the prices after this crisis. 

Who lost at the beginning will earn later/ now

The reason here overall will be the same, at the beginning people are focusing on panic buying food and toiletries but after a few weeks, they will get bored of buying soap and sitting at home, so they will start buying more stuff to kill time.

Fashion Industry

There was a massive drop for fashion industry at the beginning but we can see now that people are buying more online so fashion is getting their customers back and when the shops re-open in short time – they will gain even more because people definitely miss their shopping trips.

Toys Industry

People were at home with their kids, as long as shops are selling online – they won’t loose their income.

Furniture and DIY Industry

Well, 45 minutes wait to get a can of paint in B&Q told me a lot but, the 8km queue to Ikea in UK after it re-opened says it all.

Sports Equipment

Apparently, home gym equipment is now more expensive than ever – especially that in UK we can’t be sure when gym’s re-open.

Who earns the most during coronavirus pandemic 

Pharma

It goes without saying. First of all, people are panic buying now and all medicines are disappearing from the shelves, in two years time we will experience increased waste of expired medicines, that’s for sure. More medicines will be also needed as during a pandemic of course more people will get ill.

Personal hygiene products producers and retailers

People are panic buying, and it also seems like more people started to use soap, which is scary. Personally, when I see toilet paper disappear from the shelves I am kind of glad soap does as well.

Food producers 

Again, people are panic buying. I wonder how much of this food will end up in bins maybe once this is all over or even before. Anyway, any cupboard food manufacturers will earn a fortune. 

Grocery stores & Supermarkets

Manufacturers do not sell directly to people, they sell to grocery stores and supermarkets. 

Netflix and similar services

These guys will earn a fortune I am telling you. Every second article, facebook post , instagram post is telling you to chill out and watch some netflix. In fact I had them at the bottom but decided to bring them up, as I think this pandemic will play very important part for them.

Lumber industry

Well, mostly toilet paper. Who would have thought. 

But also people may need more paper to play with kids at home.

Amazon & Ebay

It goes without saying, people are buying more stuff online than ever.

Gaming Industry

Surprise, not only online games, but mostly. People are playing all sorts of games with their children now and over a half of them will probably need to buy those board games. 

Online Streaming Platforms ( Youtube, Twitch)

More people watch =more people see the ads. You may argue that companies will now reduce their ad spend, but there will be others who will increase it. 

Online Communication Platforms ( Skype, Zoom)

More and more work is now happening online , business meetings, fitness classes etc. 

Labs

They will need to work extra hard to develop a cure for coronavirus. 

E-books

People have more time to read now, to read they do not need to leave their houses. We say ebooks here but also traditional books will increase their earnings. 

Contraception Manufacturers

Well what else ? If they won’t increase their earnings, I am sure the baby industry will in sort of 9-12 months. 

Truck Drivers

Higher demand for food = more deliveries= more work for truck drivers. 

Logistics

We need more deliveries to/from supermarkets, from amazon and ebay, someone needs to coordinate that.

Adult Online Entertainment

Similar to youtube, more people spend time at home, and more people spend time online.

Journalists

There is such a high demand for news now that journalists can keep covering it and people will be still interested. 

Online News Outlets

Same as above – they will have more traffic than ever.

These are the ones that we think will earn and suffer. After observing what is happening the past few days, we came to the conclusion that all online industries will come out of it stronger, because more and more businesses find ways to work online. Fitness instructors , teachers are running online sessions, more businesses will understand that their employees can work online, more people will buy online and may stick to it. 

The post Complete list of businesses affected by Covid-19 appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

7 basic SEO mistakes to avoid 

We live in a digital era, we have mentioned it a couple of times on this website I know, but that’s the truth.

That’s why SEO and all other digital marketing channels are a game changer for many businesses, especially online based. SEO has been around for some time now, personally I have been involved in SEO for nearly seven years. Through this time, the industry has changed a lot. I remember starting guest posting when it has actually been a thing. [L1] Despite these industry changes, I can still see the same SEO mistakes being repeated time and time again, even by people who have worked in the industry for a while, like me. Everyone makes mistakes, you simply can’t know it all (although I have met a couple of people who think they do!). There are some basics we should all know and follow. I have listed the most obvious SEO mistakes that I have seen people repeating, but please do share more.

1. No On-Page Optimisation

This one really bugs me, if we google any SEO guide this is one of the first things we see. I don’t know why people neglect to do it, when it is actually the easiest one.

All it involves is conducting keyword research, writing and optimising content. It is simple as that.

When I started in 2013, it was popular, which is why I can’t believe that seven years later there are still some specialists, and more worrying some agencies, that do not do it. One of the first things you do when you take on a client or when you become an SEO Specialist for a brand is run an audit including on page, run a keyword research and then write optimised content. Despite all the new fancy stuff, which don’t get me wrong are great and work, Googlebot still uses keywords to rank websites. Why would you make this simple SEO mistake and not use keywords?

In 2019 Moz shared a White Board Friday on On -Page Optimisation, se it below:

 

2. Optimising for wrong keywords

There are also many cases where we go a step further. We do have content, but wait… those keywords don’t seem right. While usually people do understand that if they are selling let’s say clothes, they shouldn’t optimise for computers, but what they don’t get is that not all the pages on your website should be optimised for ‘money keywords’. What do I mean by this term? I mean keywords people use to search when they want to buy something. So, let’s say I am looking for ‘red dress size 10’, what I want to see as a buyer are collection pages or product pages showing me red dresses I can buy.

What I don’t want to see is a blog post about ’10 best fashion shows’. Some people believe they should optimise everything for their product and this is not and never has been the case.

Let me tell you what is going to happen if somehow your blog post about ’10 best fashion shows to attend this year’ is going to rank for ‘red dress’, even if I click I will most likely bounce back, your bounce rate [L2] will increase and I may remember your brand negatively, as id didn’t show me the content I wanted to see.You could argue that you may still sell those red dresses and maybe I will try to find them on your website myself.  This is not going to happen, not unless you are a huge, well-known brand, which if you are you have probably have done your SEO right (usually, trust me those huge retailers also make very simple mistakes)

3. Keyword cannibalisation

This one often goes together with the one above, but not always. If we optimise everything for ‘red dresses’ those pages will cannibalize each other. Simple as that – Google won’t know which one to rank and in the end you may end up not ranking at all.

Sometimes there is ‘good cannibalization’ but this one is usually small – let me give you an example, if I look for ‘red dresses’ just in general, I would probably be happy to see these two:

Your product page (or filter page yes!) showing me red dresses

Your blog post about 10 most beautiful red dresses of the season

I still wouldn’t like to see your post about ’10 best fashion shows to attend this year’ – this is not my intention at the moment.

So, if both first examples manage to rank highly for red dresses – in my opinion this is a good thing, because:

a) you will get people at the beginning and middle of a buying circle who may just search in more general way

b) you own more space on the first page (by ranking highly, we are talking about the 5 first positions of page 1)

Ahers came up with a very simple way to find and fix cannibalisation issues, read about it here.

4. Keyword stuffing

Sometimes we see the complete opposite to number one – we get people who want to rank and optimise their content so badly, that they use the same keyword 50 times in a 400 word long piece. This is not the way to go. The general rule of thumb is – if it doesn’t sound natural it is probably keyword stuffing (or poor writing skills).

 

5. Duplicate Content

There are many SEO specialists that do not check for it and do not fix it, next there are many websites with huge duplicate content issues. Again we have a similar story as keyword cannibalization – how does Google know which is the most relevant page? In the end they may not rank you at all.

 

A very common cause of duplicate content, especially in E-commerce websites, are filters, which can also be optimised, or if they don’t bring any value, they can be de-indexed. (but usually they would, so optimised)

Moz created Duplicate Content Guide for 2020, where they explain everything you need to know about duplicate content.

6. Not creating link- worthy content.

Despite rumours  that links will not be important going forward, for now they are important.

Link building is extremely difficult these days and people have started confusing it with Digital PR (they do share a common ground do not get me wrong!). I will be speaking about this common ground in Poland in May if you’d like to find out more, but to the point. It results in people thinking they are doing link building and they are not, or the opposite, they think they are doing digital PR and they are not.

In 2020, we do need link worthy content to get links – especially given the fact that Google does not want us to ‘build links’ they want us to ‘earn links’.

With all of that in mind, brands do not want to spend money on blog content, they do not want to spend time and resources on creating bigger, interactive pieces because they think it’s not worth their time. SEO’s don’t believe you can actually earn links from those pieces, as such, agencies do not invest in resources to promote this content. This is not the way to go. Yes, sometimes your great content won’t get links – but you do need to try to make it valuable and promote it so people find out about it. This is the world we are living in.

7. Lack of mobile optimisation

Yes, this one falls into basics now, and that’s why it is listed as one of top basic SEO mistakes to avoid.

 

I remember  Christmas shopping last year and looking for a book for my mom. I found a really good book shop with many positions but obviously I found this from my phone and a lack of mobile friendliness put me off the site so much, that I went somewhere else. We are very demanding as customers these days – we want things to be made easy for us. The majority of the time we spend online is actually from our phones – so if you want to be up to date – a website optimised for mobile is a must. If you still don’t believe me, here you will find some very interesting mobile stats from Front Burne Marketing.

These are the most common SEO mistakes that I have seen and that come to my mind, but I am sure there are many more. It is important to learn to walk before we run – so before you focus on all the fancy SEO stuff, which I will say that again, are great, make sure you have got your basics covered.

The post 7 basic SEO mistakes to avoid appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.

Google rolled out it’s Core Algorithm Update earlier on today, it is called ‘May 2020 Core Update’

Looks like Googler’s are super-fans of Star Wars too and they wanted to wish us ‘Happy Star Wars Day’ with a gift  

To the point.

Why is it important ?

We do care about all Google Updates obviously. Because we want our websites to perform well in search results. However this one seems especially interesting since it’s the first update since COVID-19  Pandemic began.

Google has since confirmed that user’s search behaviour changed, and as Matt Southern from Search Engine Journal said ‘  With the May 2020 Core Update, Google is faced with the unique challenge of catching up with how the world is searching.’  we completely agree with this statement. 

What is Broad Core Algorithm Update ?

Google Algorithms are systems that filter the search results and deliver the best answer for the query – in simple words.

Broad Core Algorithm Update is exactly what it says on a tin. It’s an update of some sort for this system to improve the results we get when we type a search query into Google.

What does it mean exactly? That we can expect ranking movements in both directions depending on how well we have been following Google guidelines and best practices.

What is the difference between Broad Core Algorithm Update and other updates ?

The main difference between Broad Core Algorithm Update and other Algorithm updates we know such as Penguin, Panda BERT etc is that with those ‘Named Updates’ we are told what the update is targeting; in other words what part of the algorithm Google wants to improve. 

With Broad Core Algorithm updates we do not get this information, however sometimes we can assume what it targets by analysing the outcome, like with Core Algorithm Update August 2018 – nicknamed ‘Medic Update’ as industry experts noticed that medical and health related websites were the main target.

What do we do now ?

Regarding this update nothing really, especially now – all we can do is observe. Regarding drops of ranking caused by this update or regarding any future update ?

The best advice is to :

1.Follow Google’s Guidelines

2.Remember to create your content for users not search engines first

3.Try to be best search result for a given query

4.Keep repeating those three not only around updates but all the time

5.By following only point FOUR you won’t have to worry much when Google releases an update.

May the FOURTH be with you Jedi Masters and Padawans. 

The post May the 4th be with you – Google Broad Core Algorithm Update May 2020 appeared first on creatosmedia.co.uk.