In an effort to spread Kayak's message of peace, love, and creating really awesome lead generation business websites, we occasionally contribute as regular columnists to other noteworthy blogs.
As a result, you might have missed some of our best stuff recently.
On that note, here are four articles that might have escaped your attention, along with a quick summary of each and a link to the full article in case you'd like to read them...
Is It Time to Hit the "Reset" Button on Your Business Website?
Occasionally, we work with new clients who have been so burned by bad SEO and marketing advice that what's left of their business websites are doing them more harm than good. Obviously, "blowing up" your existing web presence isn't a decision to take lightly, and shouldn't be your first course of action.
On the other hand, it’s sometimes the only thing you can do to get back into the good graces of Google, not to mention actual prospects and customers. When it's time to nuke everything and start over, there are three important steps you have to take:
- Choose the right replacement domain name.
- Get started with a well-crafted content strategy.
- Don't make the same mistakes you did before.
Want to learn more about when it's time to build from scratch, or to see what you can do to get a brand-new site climbing back to profitability quickly? View the full article.
7 Tips For Better Online Marketing Copywriting
High-quality web content is more important than ever, and yet there are a lot of really poorly written pages out there. Even if you have professional writers you work with, you probably have to put together the occasional post or tweet yourself. That means every businessperson should know some business writing basics.
Whether you're writing your own stuff or just supervising others, there are a few important guidelines you should follow to make your online writing more clear, crisp, and effective:
- Keep your ideal customer in mind.
- Write to be clear, not clever.
- Always back up your claims.
- End on a high note.
- Write once and edit twice.
- Read your writing out loud to spot errors.
- Don't publish something you'll regret.
Good copywriting makes all the difference in online marketing, and it's a lot easier when you understand the basics. This article has received thousands of shares!. See the whole article.
Are You Making the Most of Google+?
It's not hard to understand why Google Plus might turn out to be the most important social media outlet of all for marketers. It's growing quickly, and it has a number of features that Facebook and Twitter don't – not to mention the fact that it's backed by, and integrated with, the world's largest search engine.
Still, lots of businesses are ignoring G+ and hoping it will go away (it won't). If you haven't been making the most of it, here are a few things you should do right away:
- Complete your Google Plus profile
- Use your profile to introduce yourself
- Make your G+ page easy to find
- Get started with Google+ circles
- Find your most important contacts
- Stay involved with hangouts and discussions
- Promote your content via G+
Google+ isn’t nearly as hard to master as most business types think it is, and the potential rewards are much greater than they imagine. In other words, there is no excuse not to get started now. View the full article about Google Plus.
How to Survive a Hummingbird Bite
Every Google algorithm change leaves its share of winners and losers in its wake. With Hummingbird (algorythm update late Aug/early Sept, 2013), however, up to 90% of all search queries may have been affected in one way or another, and lots of businesses are still trying to figure out what happened to them (and why).
A starting point for assessing Hummingbird-related damage is understanding that the shift wasn't really meant to punish certain websites, but came about as the first step in a larger philosophical shift by Google. Instead of relying strictly on keywords and links to determine the right "match" for searchers, the company is looking for contextual clues about content and quality.
The best way to deal with that isn't by trying to stay ahead of the next algorithm change, or even necessarily updating your pages – it's pursuing a content strategy that's based on common sense and searcher engagement, rather than technical SEO details.
Google updates are going to continue to chip away at sites that rely on "traditional" search engine optimization. To read more about why, and see how Hummingbird fits into the picture, check out the complete article now.
Curious to see what else we've been up to on the Internet? Don't want to miss the next great online marketing article? Follow us on Google+ for regular content updates!
Learn more about content marketing and the art of search findability by reading the book, or reaching out to one of our team members today.
