How I Generate 18,800 Visitors from Google Without SEO or Ads

February 7, 2020

If you want to get traffic from Google, how would you go
about it?

Chances are you are either going to leverage SEO or pay for
some ads.

But what if there was another way to get traffic from Google? A way that didn’t take as long as SEO and didn’t cost money like paid ads. And no, I’m not talking about Google News… there is actually an easier way.

It’s so effective that it drove 18,800 visitors to my site in the last 3 months. Just look at the screenshot above.

So, what is it?

Google Discover

Similar to how you have feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, did you know Google has a feed for you.

It’s called Google Discover.

If you mainly use Google on your laptop or desktop computer, chances are you haven’t seen it. But if you have the Google mobile app or the Chrome mobile app, you probably have already seen it.

Here’s what it looks like on an iPhone:

This is Google’s version of a social feed.

Here’s how it works… Google Discover results, which appear below the search box on the Google mobile app and Chrome mobile app, show a summary of web pages as cards. These cards are a scrollable list of topics, almost like a social feed, that you can browse on your mobile devices.

Tapping one of these cards from Google search home will send
you directly to the page you just clicked on.

And if you are wondering why you are seeing certain stories
that others may not be, it’s because the recommendations are based on search
history, interactions with Google products, and who you choose to follow
directly via Google Discover.

But here is where it’s getting interesting…

Google Discover is everywhere, you just don’t know it

Discover results for some topics also appear within the
search engine results under the label “Interesting finds.”

If you click one of these stories, it’ll take you directly to that web page, or, if you click to see “more stories” at the bottom of the Interesting Finds card, it’ll bring you to a new Google Discover user interface where you can follow that topic, follow related topics, and explore related Discover listings.

Now if you have a Pixel phone, you’ve seen Discover a lot, but again you just haven’t realized it.

By simply swiping right on your Pixel phone home screen you
get a customizable and personalized feed just like the image above.

Now, you may be wondering, how is this different than just
using Google News? Because they have a top stories section which is kind of
like a feed, right?

Unlike top stories, Discover doesn’t limit rankings to what’s published most recently.

If Google thinks a user would find earlier content
interesting, then Discover might show it. Discover also features videos, sports
scores, entertainment updates such a movie, stock prices, event info for things
like a music festival, and much more.

Google is positioning Discover as a content hub for all of your interests just like Facebook is doing with their feed.

In other words, this is Google’s version of your Facebook
feed.

Similar to following a hashtag on Instagram, you can follow
a topic of interest on Discover. Also, similar to Instagram’s Explore Page, you
don’t need to follow anything to get content you might like. Discover is aiming
to show you content you’d be interested in before you even know you want
it.

The key is “before you knew about it.” Just like how Facebook and Instagram do the same thing.

So, why should you care about Google Discover?

Because it can drive you a ton of traffic.

Just check out one of the clients of my ad agency, Neil Patel Digital. Look at their Discover traffic.

They generated 3.64 million impressions in the last 28 days
and 79,000 clicks to their site.

That’s a ton of traffic. In addition, all of those impressions help with branding.

Now you may not care about branding but the larger your
brand, the easier it is to rank on Google. Brand search volume is more correlated
with rankings than links or domain authority.

And as Google’s ex-CEO stated:

Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.

So, all of those impressions you can generate from Discover are great because they will help put your brand out there. It helps with the concept called the Rule of 7, in which when someone sees or interacts with your brand 7 times, they are much more likely to become a loyal customer.

This can also help with Google’s E-A-T algorithm updates. It is the best way if you want to build up your expertise and credibility as an author. Discover is a simple way to help you get there.

So, how can you get more traffic from Discover?

How to optimize for Google Discover

Luckily, it’s not as complicated as SEO and the results happen
much faster. Still not instant, but over time you should see your Discover
traffic continually rising.

Here are 3 simple tips that will help:

Be sure to use high-quality images. Images appear with every Discover result, so relevant and high-quality images that accompany your content is important. And just like with your headlines and titles, try to choose images that are more likely to entice clicks. Images that are shocking or evoke curiosity will do the trick.
Content is king, but if you don’t write about the right stuff then you won’t show up. Check which topics Google suggests following inside of Discover to see if those topics align with your website. If it does, consider using their suggested topics as a guide to what people are interested in and write similar content. Of course, you don’t want to copy others, you want to go above and beyond so you can one-up your competition. Use Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique to do this.
Hopefully, when you’re creating your website content, you’re already taking some time to think about maximizing your content. What do I mean by that? Maximizing your content means thinking about your website as an API for your content. So yes, your content lives on your site, but hopefully, you’re creating it keeping in mind how it can be posted or promoted in other areas so you can secure backlinks and attract social engagement across other relevant channels. To do this you need to focus on topics with shareability, topics that are trending, topics with growing interest, and also focus on leveraging clickbait and enticing titles and headlines. Remember that Google Discover is like a social feed. If you’re only trying to make your content work hard for you on your site, you’re not getting enough out of it.

Once you make a deliberate effort to go after Discover
traffic, it’s time to measure how you are doing.

Analyzing your traffic

Chances are, you use Google Analytics. But to see how well you are doing on Discover, it’s easier if you use Google Search Console.

Head over to Search Console and log in.

Now, on the left side, you’ll see a navigation menu.

I want you to click on “Discover.” (You’ll only see this option if you hit a minimum threshold in Discover traffic)

You’ll now see a report that looks something like this.

Compared to the screenshot I showcased earlier, I barely get
any Discover traffic.

Why you may ask?

Do you notice a trend with my chart? Well, I tend to publish content every Tuesday and that’s the day I get Discover traffic.

Similar to any other social network (and unlike traditional SEO), you mainly see traffic as you post new content. It’s not long-term traffic that is consistent, instead, you keep getting quick bursts of traffic.

I only blog once a week, but if I write multiple pieces of
content a day, my Discover traffic would skyrocket.

Conclusion

Whether you are a fan of Discover or not, it doesn’t matter. As a marketer, you need to look at it as another channel.

Data has already shown that it is popular and as long as
Google keeps pushing it, people will use it.

So why not leverage it to your advantage and harness it to drive traffic and sales for your site?

Plus, you should never rely on traffic from just one channel alone because the moment an algorithm change happens, it can crush your traffic. That’s why you need to take an omnichannel approach and leverage any relevant channel out there.

So, what do you think of Discover? Do you use it on your
phone? Have you thought about leveraging it for traffic to your site?

The post How I Generate 18,800 Visitors from Google Without SEO or Ads appeared first on Neil Patel.

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Subdomain or Subdirectory? What They Are & How They Affect SEO

February 7, 2020

One of the most heated debates that I’ve been apart of is when I was arguing with my best friend that Taylor Swift is a good dancer.

The first thing you should know about me is that Taylor Swift is my favorite artist, so you’d have a hard time convincing me she’s bad at anything (because she isn’t).

That’s how I imagine the debate is between two search engine optimizers who debate whether subdomains or subdirectories are better for SEO.

As a marketer, that debate can cause confusion.

Below, let’s review the differences between a subdomain and subdirectory and how they affect SEO.

Essentially, it’s all about site hierarchy.

Subdomains appear before the domain name in a URL, such as blog.hubspot.com, instead of a subdirectory, which would look like this: hubspot.com/blog.

A subdomain can be used if portions of your site are extensive enough that they need a separate hierarchy. When it comes to a subdirectory, though, all portions of your site branch off of the main domain.

So, how can a company use a subdomain? Below are the most common ways:

1. Support: Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to have your customer support on your main site. For instance, Google uses support.google.com instead of google.com/support. The main reason is probably because of the site structure. Google.com is a search engine, and Google’s Support line doesn’t belong to its Search business line. Therefore, it needs its own subdomain to properly connect with and serve its users.

2. Different Regions: If you serve multiple regions, whether nationally or internationally, using a subdomain would be a good idea. If you had a site in German and one in English, it wouldn’t make sense to list those as subdirectories. For instance, Craigslist uses subdomains for the different regions it serves. Here are two of its subdomain sites: orangecounty.craigslist.org/ or stgeorge.craigslist.org/.

3. Blog: Many companies choose to have their blog as a subdomain. In fact, that’s what HubSpot does. If you’ll notice, the page you’re on right now is a blog.hubspot.com page. However, this specific article is in the Marketing subdirectory of the blog.hubspot.com subdomain. Sites may choose to have their blog as a subdomain if they have a content campaign in mind that’s large enough in volume to deserve its own hierarchy and growth path (more on that in a minute). Additionally, a subdomain is useful for a blog if you want to create a niche authority.

4. Ecommerce Store: For companies that sell merchandise, in addition to their regular product or service, they can put their ecommerce store on a subdomain. For instance, that’s what HubSpot does. Aside from our main software hubs, HubSpot merchandise is available at shop.hubspot.com.

5. Events: If your company hosts events, it might be a good idea to partition that section of your site into a subdomain. Again, this is helpful when you want to distinguish a section of your site from your regular product or service. Microsoft does this with its events.microsoft.com.

Ultimately, subdomains are still a part of a website, but when a search engine goes to index those pages, they’re considered a separate entity. Below, let’s dive into how these affect SEO.

How do Subdomains and Subdirectories Affect SEO?

Some SEO experts believe that Google’s crawlers could confuse a subdomain for an entirely different website from the main domain. However, Google says its crawlers can recognize subdomains as extensions of parent domains.

According to Google, the site crawls, indexes, and ranks subdomains and subdirectories the same way.

In the video below, Google Webmasters Trends Analyst John Mueller says, subdomains generally don’t hurt a site’s rankings. In fact, he says Google is smart enough to see your main domain and subdomain as being tied to the same website.

Some SEO professionals argue that subdomains don’t share the authority it receives from inbound links (or backlinks) with the root domain. The reverse can also be true; because subdomains are considered separate entities from your root domain, it may not inherit any of the link authority you’ve already built to your core website content.

Additionally, if you’re optimizing pages for the same keywords on your main site and subdomain, you could be competing against yourself.

On the other hand, other SEO experts argue that subdomains make it easier to navigate your site. Ultimately, this leads to a better user experience, which could result in better engagement rates, therefore improving your SEO.

Additionally, subdomains can be beneficial if you have a large corporation and the subdomains serve a different purpose and essentially function as a separate business.

For example, Disney has subdomains such as cars.disney.com, shop.disney.com, and movies.disney.com.

Since these subdomains serve very different purposes, it doesn’t matter if the sites don’t share the same authority from backlinks, because they probably aren’t targeting the same keywords.

According to some SEO experts, another benefit is that subdomains can help build niche authority. For instance, you might want your blog to be considered a separate entity from your product or service.

Conversely, if your site doesn’t have any extensive verticals on your navigation, then you might not need to use a subdomain because you want as many links going back to your main site as possible. If you don’t have a compelling reason to use subdomains, then subdirectories work just fine.

Although this topic can often be confusing, ultimately the decision depends on your website’s needs. Subdomains can provide organization and structure to your site for complicated site hierarchies. If you don’t have the need, then using a subdirectory can help bring all the “link juice” to your main domain.

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How Brands Can Leverage Pinterest To Make Sales

February 7, 2020

Did you know:

Pinterest is such a key part of the buying journey for its users that over 90 percent of weekly active Pinners use Pinterest to make purchasing decisions.

Talk about buying power!

Not only are Pinterest users making purchase decisions on the platform, 83 percent say they are making purchases specifically based on the content they’ve seen from brands on Pinterest.

Pinterest is no longer simply a place to save ideas and build dream boards. Instead, Pinterest has turned into the world’s largest visual discovery platform.

And there are a lot of opportunities for brands.

We had a chance to chat with the team over at Pinterest about some of their best practices for brands looking to increase sales. We’re excited to share those lessons with you!

Here’s what we learned…

How people are using Pinterest

According to one survey, “47 percent of social media users saw Pinterest as the platform for discovering and shopping for products—more than three times higher than those who cited Facebook or Instagram.”

Seventy-seven percent of weekly Pinners have also discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest, and according to Pinterest, “people actually want to see content from brands while they’re on the platform–78 percent say it’s useful.”

Pinterest might not immediately come to mind as a platform to invest in for many brands, but it should.

Pinterest lives in a unique space on the internet where users are discovering content related to themselves and their aspirations rather than focusing on others, and this has turned it into a powerful platform for users to make purchasing decisions and discover new brands and products.

Clearly, Pinterest is not one to be ignored when it comes to your marketing strategy. Here’s how you can use the platform to drive sales.

How to leverage Pinterest for sales: 5 tips from the Pinterest team

There are some really simple ways that you can start leveraging Pinterest to reach new audiences and optimize your pins and profile for sales. Some of these tips might be easy to implement immediately while others might play into later strategies, let’s dive in!

1. Brand your pins

A whopping 97 percent of top searches on Pinterest are unbranded, according to the Pinterest team. For brands, this presents an opportunity to stand out and gain brand recognition through the platform.

Pinterest recommends adding a small logo in one of the four corners of your pin, this can be done really easily in a tool like Canva. You can play around with the design, of course, and add your logo wherever it feels best. In this example from Quip, they went with top centered to fit with the rest of the text on their image.

2. Create mobile-first content

As with most sites, mobile is extremely important on Pinterest. Eighty-five percent of Pinners are using the mobile app, so it’s important that your content appeals to them while they’re on their phones and appears properly in their feeds. If you’re linking back to your own content, it’s also important that the page that you’re sending users to is mobile friendly as well.

A tip from Pinterest here is to tailor your font size to phone rendering to make sure your fonts are legible on small screens and to design for a vertical aspect ratio. The ideal dimensions are 600 pixels x 900 pixels.

3. Create a similar look and feel

Have you ever clicked on a beautiful image on Pinterest only to be taken to a website that looks nothing like the pin? I have, and it left me really confused.

According to Pinterest, the best practice is to make sure your pins and your website have a similar look and feel, and that doing this pays off. In an analysis from Pinterest, they found that “Pins that went to landing pages with similar imagery had a 13 percent higher online sales lift.”

This example from Ettitude is really great. The pin they are sharing fits seamlessly in a lot of home decor and design tags on Pinterest.

And although their website uses different photos, it still has a similar feel to the pin.

4. Time your campaigns

A big element to social media marketing and campaigns is timing. When are people online and when are people talking about the things you want to talk about?

Luckily in the case of Pinterest, they release annual ‘Seasonal Insights,’ which helps take away some of the guesswork. A report that contains more than a dozen specific moments that take place throughout the year.

For example, their 2019 report shared that users start sharing holiday content in June all the way through December and that content related to the Summer starts getting pinned at the beginning of February.
They also have monthly trends reports. Here’s their latest for December 2019 trends on Pinterest, it shares specific trends like the search term ‘peach green tea’ is up 320 percent YoY!

These are great free resources that you can leverage to start timing seasonal campaigns around when people are starting to make specific seasonal purchasing decisions. I would never have thought that people start looking at holiday content in June but that’s super-specific information that can go a long way to help with timely campaigns.

5. Set up your shop

One of the main ways for Pinterest to help generate sales is for the products you are selling to be easily available through Pinterest. Luckily, the platform makes this really easy for brands to set up and feature prominently on their profiles.

Every Business profile on Pinterest has the ability for users to create a “shop” tab.

The shop tab is just what it sounds like, a place where users can go to see all of the products your brand is selling. On the flip side, brands can leverage that tab to share pins that link directly to their sales pages for the specific product.

Pinterest makes this whole process quite easy, they even have a method for importing new products through Pinterest Catalogs. All you have to do is have your data source approved and then as you add new products to your website, they get automagically added to Pinterest as well.

We hope this guide helps you get started with or double down on your efforts with Pinterest. Let us know about your experience with Pinterest in the comments!

If you want even more Pinterest resources, the Pinterest team has created a free Pinterest Academy with tons of lessons in there.

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Danny Sullivan to keynote SMX Advanced 2020

February 7, 2020

Don’t miss this through-the-looking-glass talk about Google, plus an exclusive Q&A with Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

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2020 Valentine’s Day GIF Guide

February 7, 2020

This Valentine’s Day, forget a dozen roses. You need a dozen GIFs.

The reason: Eye-catching visuals like GIFs in emails can increase click-through rates by 42% and conversion rates by 103%, and may positively impact your sales.

Go ahead and add GIFs to your February email campaigns. The AWeber design team has already done the work for you and created 12 downloadable Valentine’s Day GIFs!

Just download them and add them to your emails using AWeber’s ridiculously easy-to-use Drag and Drop message editor. These GIFs will be a sweet treat for your subscribers — and your bottom line.

Not an AWeber customer yet? Create your FREE account right now, and see how easy it is to use one of these GIFs in our Drag-and-Drop message editor.

Download Your Valentine’s Day GIFs

Step 1: Find the animated Valentine’s Day GIF below that you want to use in your email.

Step 2: Save it to your computer by either right clicking the GIF and selecting “Save Image,” or by dragging the GIF to your desktop.

Step 3: Upload the GIF into your email template inside AWeber. Under image size, choose “original.” That’s it!

2020 Valentine’s Day GIFs

Spinning Heart GIF

You spin me right round, baby.
Right round like a record, baby.

It’s almost like the 80s band “Dead or Alive” is performing in your subscribers’ inboxes.

Valentine's Day GIF

Handwritten Love Note GIF

This is the email version of a hand-written love note to your crush. Your subscribers will LUV the middle-school nostalgia.

Valentine's Day GIF

Cupid’s Arrow GIF:

Like Cupid, you won’t miss the mark with this heart and arrow GIF in your email.

Best Valentine’s Day GIFs

Here are some of our readers’ all-time favorite GIFs from past V-Days.

Popping Balloons GIF

Want to make your emails “pop”? Use this fun balloon GIF.

Valentine’s Day Sale GIF

Glow bright in the inbox with this neon sale sign.

Valentines Day Sale GIF

Happy Valentine’s Day GIF

Make your subscribers’ hearts burst with this GIF.

Candy Hearts GIF

What’s almost as good as candy falling right into your mouth? This GIF.

Candy Hearts Valentines Day GIF

Love You GIF

Knock Knock.

Who’s there?

Olive.

Olive who?

Olive you.

Tell your subscribers how much you love them with this GIF.

Love Ya Valetines Day GIF

Heart GIF

What do you call a very small Valentine?

A Valen-tiny. Just like this small heart GIF!

Heart Valentines Day GIF

Happy Valentine’s Day GIFs

“You must be a keyboard, because you’re just my type.” No cheesy pick up lines required. Get the message across with these two GIFs.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day GIF

Candy Heart “Hugs” GIF

Give your subscribers a hearty hug this V-Day.

Show your appreciation year round

Want to show your love for your customers the other 364 days of the year? Here are some clever ways to deliver awesome experiences.

1. Send personalized notes.

Have you ever received a tweet from your favorite company? Or a lightning-fast response from tech support when you’re having an issue? It feels good to be acknowledged, doesn’t it?

Do the same for your customers and send a bunch of individualized emails. You can say “thank you for your business” to a new or interesting customer. You can send a quick note of thanks to your subscribers who gave your product, service, or program great reviews. Or maybe you can send followup emails to the ones who didn’t gave you good reviews — and ask what you can do better.

Include your contact info and tell them to get in touch with you if they ever have any questions.

2. Deliver seasonal content.

Get creative and think outside the traditional holiday seasons. For example, if you’re a coffee shop owner, you could send your subscribers a special coupon that they can use for a pick-me-up during tax season.

3. Reward your customers.

First-time customers could use a push to buy again and return customers deserve to be recognized. Give them a little something — like free shipping on their next order, a free consultation, or a downloadable resource that can help them make a buying decision.

4. Turn your 404 page into an opportunity.

A 404 doesn’t have to be a dead end. Instead, use it as a chance to delight.

One quick example: If you stumble upon a 404 page on the site Flooring Supplies — the UK’s largest online flooring company — it says “Floor…Oh … Floor!” Here are some more awesome 404 ideas.

5. Respond to questions and comments.

Join in on your customers’ conversation. Forums, Twitter chats, and your own social profiles are great places to start. When someone gives you a digital shoutout, respond! It’s a fantastic way to retain customers and maintain stellar customer service.

If a customer has an issue, give them your undivided attention. By simply listening and working with them to solve it, you can turn a negative situation into a position one. Check out these ideas for turning customers into raving fans.

Have more ideas for delighting your customers? Tell us in the comments!

Additional reporting by Kristen Dunleavy.

The post 2020 Valentine’s Day GIF Guide appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Uncategorized

Danny Sullivan to keynote SMX Advanced 2020

February 7, 2020

Don’t miss this through-the-looking-glass talk about Google, plus an exclusive Q&A with Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Uncategorized

Developing Loyal Fans: The Future of Marketing

February 7, 2020

Do you want loyal fans for your business? Want to know how to build a fanbase of loyal customers? To explore how to develop loyal fans, I interview David Meerman Scott on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. David is a marketer, speaker, and best-selling author. His latest book is called Fanocracy: How to Turn Fans […]

The post Developing Loyal Fans: The Future of Marketing appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

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Pinterest Shopping ads gain momentum as company revenues top $1 billion in 2019

February 7, 2020

The company also noted measurement and attribution improvements for advertisers on its .

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Uncategorized

Pinterest Shopping ads gain momentum as company revenues top $1 billion in 2019

February 7, 2020

The company also noted measurement and attribution improvements for advertisers on its .

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Uncategorized

How Brands Can Leverage Pinterest To Make Sales

February 7, 2020

Did you know:

Pinterest is such a key part of the buying journey for its users that over 90 percent of weekly active Pinners use Pinterest to make purchasing decisions.

Talk about buying power!

Not only are Pinterest users making purchase decisions on the platform, 83 percent say they are making purchases specifically based on the content they’ve seen from brands on Pinterest.

Pinterest is no longer simply a place to save ideas and build dream boards. Instead, Pinterest has turned into the world’s largest visual discovery platform.

And there are a lot of opportunities for brands.

We had a chance to chat with the team over at Pinterest about some of their best practices for brands looking to increase sales. We’re excited to share those lessons with you!

Here’s what we learned…

How people are using Pinterest

Pinterest might not immediately come to mind as a platform to invest in for many brands, but it should.

Clearly, Pinterest is not one to be ignored when it comes to your marketing strategy. Here’s how you can use the platform to drive sales.

How to leverage Pinterest for sales: 5 tips from the Pinterest team

1. Brand your pins

2. Create mobile-first content

3. Create a similar look and feel

Have you ever clicked on a beautiful image on Pinterest only to be taken to a website that looks nothing like the pin? I have, and it left me really confused.

This example from Ettitude is really great. The pin they are sharing fits seamlessly in a lot of home decor and design tags on Pinterest.

And although their website uses different photos, it still has a similar feel to the pin.

4. Time your campaigns

A big element to social media marketing and campaigns is timing. When are people online and when are people talking about the things you want to talk about?

5. Set up your shop

Every Business profile on Pinterest has the ability for users to create a “shop” tab.

We hope this guide helps you get started with or double down on your efforts with Pinterest. Let us know about your experience with Pinterest in the comments!

If you want even more Pinterest resources, the Pinterest team has created a free Pinterest Academy with tons of lessons in there.

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