Crafting your offer is a great starting point on your pitch. Your goal here is to find a need and fulfill it, making your product worth what you charge. There are many types of offers. Use this worksheet to think through the process.
Main offer
What’s your main offer?
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Make this the focus product but let them know buyers get discounts for other products
Upsell – Remember, upsells are any product you offer after the customer has decided on a product. They are closely related to what the customer buys: maybe an upgrade, customization, or accessory.
Downsell – These are less expensive products that you offer to a customer who says ‘no’ to your more expensive products. They can also be payment plans for the initial products.
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Provide slightly less expensive than the one they said no to
Remember, your products tell a story. Make sure that they flow together smoothly, and that they “mean” what you want them to mean.
Examples:
Short: One or two upsells, maybe one downsell. Suggest recurring payments, but make them optional. Bump recommended, but optional.
Medium: Two or three upsells, one downsell. Recurring recommended, but optional, with an optional bump offer too.
Long: Three to five upsells, two to three downsells, and recurring and bump offers as well.
How would you like to construct your offer? Use the space below to brainstorm the proper offer for your market. Remember: You can test different offers over time as some may be more effective than others!
Now that you have the different templates to craft your sales offers. The next step is how to make sense of it all. I like the STEAM system
Schedule your content
Track your analytics
Engage your audience
Advertise your profile
Monetize your traffic
This works for any media format and platform.
The Platforms that you can start on to get momentum:
Facebook Personal Profile
Facebook Fan Page(s)
Facebook Group(s)
Youtube Channel(s)
Instagram Account(s)
Snapchat Profile
Periscope Livestream(s)
Twitter Account(s)
Pinterest Board(s)
Additional Networks
Flickr (Instagram Integration)
Linkedin (SEO Purposes)
WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Blogspot.com
EmpowerNetwork.com
BuildingaBrandOnline.com
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA
Because social media networks have high authority, which means that they can rank well in Google, and get you tons of FREE traffic, leads & sales.
Therefore – It’s WISE to set up your brand on “multiple” social media networks, and follow the STEAM system to develop a plan for each one, and then build some link popularity to them to help rank them well.
For example, let’s say you buy a brand new domain name (abcmoney123.com). Now when you list that site in Google, it’s not popular because there are no sites linking to it, so why should Google rank it higher than all of the other sites that were already there. If it were that easy, we would all just buy domains and get millions of visitors.
Versus: Facebook.com/ABCmoney123
How can you get your social media profile more popular to rank higher?
Link Popularity
Internal Links
Links from other pages on that social network to your profile
Example: Link from https://fb.com/myname personal profile that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks fan page.
Example: Share posts from my page to my personal profile.
Example: When OTHER people share your posts and page.
Example: When a post starts going viral, you start getting more internal links to your page/profile
Best way: Boosted Posts.
External Links
When other websites on the internet link to your profile
Example: Link from https://clickbucks.xyz that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks
Example: Links from your other social media networks that point to your main profiles. (Twitter, Youtube, etc)
Example: Write a guest blog post for someone elses blog, and link to your social media profiles in the guest author bio box.
For example: I set up a new Periscope.
http://periscope.tv/clickbucks
Link Popularity Strategy:
INTERNAL: Naturally I’ll get tons of internal links by getting popular on that platform (hearts, engagement, followers, etc.
EXTERNAL: I’m going to start posting links on tons of websites, blogs, any chance that I can going to my periscope.tv account.
EXTERNAL: Drive traffic from other social media networks (like Facebook Ads) – Because google takes into consideration “traffic” as part of their authority.
What is it? Well it’s exactly what it sounds like.
You’re going to rank for somebody’s product before it launches and “jack” their launch. I actually don’t like the term “jacking” or “jack” because it makes it sounds like we’re doing something wrong. But trust me the product creators love and encourage us doing this. (As long as you’re not giving their product shit which is frowned upon.. I mean unless it’s a complete scam)
FINALLY THE METHOD GUARANTEED TO MAKE SOME CASH
So what I like to do is go look for Clickbank products that are about to be released using a few websites that people use to announce their launches (You’ll find them listed below)
I’ll find ones that I think are good and will sell really well. You’re going to want one that you think a lot of people are going to be interested in because if nobody is interested in it well nobody is going to Google it and you’re not going to make any sales. (I stick to business/internet marketing niches)
The reason we want products that aren’t released yet is because nobody else is doing SEO for these terms yet which means… You’ll get #1 EASY I mean that’s what it’s all about minimal work and major returns.
Then you’ll want to build either a page or website around the product.
You’ll be targeting two keywords that should look like this “product name” and of course “product name review” . Depending on how Googles mood is at the time of the launch the domain matters. You can get exact matching domain names to product launches or you can get relevant domains to use when targeting the launch. Just know what Googles doing with domain names and keywords at the time you build this out.
Information! Don’t be scared to contact product creators and ask them for a review copy or anything can help you. A review copy will help you weed out the crap and see if it’s something you truly want to promote. 99% of the time they’ll be happy having you promoting their product and will help in any way they can.
Here is a list of websites you can use to find upcoming Clickbank Launches
http://www.cb-analytics.com/new-products.php
http://www.jvnewswatch.net/
http://jvlaunchcalendar.com/
http://jv.affiliatex.com/
http://www.clickbanklaunchforum.com
Attention! I bookmark the product launch calendars and any aggregator sites that show me when these products launch so I can come back regularly and scout opportunity for launch jacking. Organisation in this method will add extra $$ to your commission payouts.
Really we boil down launch jacking to having really good SEO so that you rank high for the product terms before the actual product release date. This comes down to having really juiced up web pages and some authority in Google’s eyes already so you are on Google page 1 for any search terms and keywords associated to the product.
To start you can not get anywhere without a website. You need a website, in most cases it doesn’t have to use keywords that the product would use. That tactic might work depending on the time you apply it/ Google is one temper-mental beast if you get it wrong.
There are methods where you can use other websites to promote the offers but these require some more SEO knowledge up front.
So first off comes the on page SEO
On Page SEO For Affiliate Websites
Meta Tags
Alright so I set the Meta Title to “Far From It Review” even though the keyword I’m targeting is “Far From It” I did this just because it’s got Far From It in it still and I thought it would look extremely fishy if I used only Far From It and then I included my brand name in the title as well so it looked like this “Far From It Review – Money Mindset”
Now for the meta description I just put a nice little description in there and included the words “far from it” twice within the description. I like to include my main keyword twice ALWAYS in the meta description now I could have also done “far from it” once and “far from it review” once that would have worked as well.
So in short
“Far From It Review” Meta Title + My Brand Name (Money Mindset)
“Far From It” twice in the meta description
Alt Tags
I included two images on the page both of which I utilized the Alt Tags. This is an SEO must so hope all you aspiring internet marketers are using it. For the image at the top of the page the Alt Tag I used was “Far From It” and the one I used towards the bottom of the page was “Far From It Review”
Two images both with alt tags, one read “Far From It” the other “Far From It Review”
Keyword Density
In the article you shouldn’t focus on keyword density AT ALL. In my example I wrote the article just for what I thought would convert best not once should you consider “Keyword Density” you need to focus on conversions. But for the sake of statistics I used the term “Far From It” 3 times in 500 words so the density was .6% I bet your articles is still using the standard 3%
Never focus on keyword density
In the end my keyword density was .6%
H1, H2, H3, Bold and Italic
Again you should feel the same way about using Heading tags and bolding your keywords. Over optimization is a real thing and you never want to fall prey to it. Don’t focus on bolding your keywords unless it fits the article. Don’t use heading tags unless it’s in your title or the title of a new paragraph. Just use them where they fit! Make your articles for the reader not for what you think will rank best because chances are that won’t rank best. In my article I used the H1 tag once and didn’t use any other headings. I didn’t use Bold, Italic, Strikethrough or underline once in my article.
Never over focus on these things one H1 tag is enough
I used one H1 tag and no other heading tags the keyword was “Far From It”
I didn’t bold, Italicize, underline any of my keywords.
Affiliate Links
This time I actually did things a little differently because usually you’ll use hyperlinks within the text but for some reason I decided to only use my images as affiliate links (though one of the images is just big text that reads “Get It Here” in large blue text) So I have three affiliate links all together. One of them is in the top left of the article (The Hotspot) which is the headshot of the two authors of the book. The second is actually embedded within a video review which is on the page (I Used Simple Video Pro WordPress plugin to do this) then the last affiliate link is the one I explained above “get it here” at the bottom of the article in large blue text.
Three affiliate links on the page
Two of them are IMG links
One of them is embedded in the video review
Text links are still great I just chose not to use them because I thought they might have made it a little bit more difficult to rank and the original purpose was to win the competition.
Off Page SEO
Preparing your website is 70-80% of the work. There is still something else required when launch jacking, big powered up juicy backlinks from other domains. These help tell Google that your web pages mean something. It’s like a show of trust from other domains to yours.
I look at it 2 ways when building these links:
First: I need social trusted links
Second: I need a mix of backlinks from other websites, press, media, images, video sites and social sites
Method 1: My Social Shield of safe backlinks that I can control and point to parts of my website as I please. This is me building profiles, comments, sharing and writing content to links to something I want to rank. I control these and can switch them at any time. This is very manual I usually pay a link builder to do this.
Method 2: External backlinks from websites, editors, mentions, press or paid for link exchanges or guest posting articles on other blogs. Ill do as many guest posts and paid link exchanges as I can before launch date. Ill also look at hiring a link building to write about me site and product promotion to send me traffic and authority signals that Google can see, and in turn reward me with higher rankings.
It takes me usually (Google owns the rank leaderboard) around 8-18 days to get some rankings that I can start to monitor and push as I get more content and backlinks working. Sometimes they rank in 8 days or so but most take 2-3 weeks to move.
You wont start day 8 on Google page 1 that will happen but you need to be persistent with the work prior to the launch. If you put in that work it will move the needle, your first couple of attempts you will learn a lot about how Google behaves.
What Results can you expect?
Before anyone can answer that there are some variables that are at play. Launch weeks are usually the big money earners and then your sales should trickle in as you get to 2 weeks onwards.
How much commission does your chosen product pay up front?
How much commission is paid if theres a funnel being used? This means you could make 2-5 times more from 1 paying referral.
Where in Google do you rank for the main keywords? How much traffic does it drive you?
What other keyword rankings do you have and what traffic do they bring in?
When you can answer these you can look at it this way to find your answer.
I get xx traffic from the main keywords
I get xx commission for someone buying the front end product
I get xx commission for any other sales during the sales funnel for that customer
Typically you should calculate conversions as 5% of your total web traffic for the first purchase
Then if theres a funnel its 5% of the previous 5% number that may convert again.
Thats your answer
Launch Jacking Niche Sites Lifespan
Most launch jacking sites will churn and burn out. They are all ranked and converting during launch month and then slowly die off as the affiliate moves onto another product launch or affiliate product.
Some launch jack websites will stay ranked for a period of time ongoing after the product launch, as long as that sales page is still active you should leave your sites active just ticking over. They can make you money months and years after the product release. Just schedule a 6 month review of the website so that it gets some TLC and can continue to rank and bank.
Expenses of Building a Launch Jacking Affiliate Website
This can vary but depending on how aggressive you want to go.
If you are doing your first launch jacking campaign you may want to have a website and a landing page set up. Id say you have no sales funnel software at your disposal so you are doing manually. If you want to try sales funnel softwares try these recommendations: GoHigh Level and Click Funnels.
Manually:
Buying a domain $9-18
Buying web hosting $4-20 per month
Time to build and theme your website will be your own time or a contractor for $$$
Content for your website you can use a contractor for $40-80 per article or ChatGPT for free
You will need social links that you can build with time or use a Fiverr or Upwork link builder for $20
You will need external links ranging from $40-1000 depending on how hard and powerful you go. These links could scale up depending how fast you want to rank. Some links sell for $2k+
Advertising budget if you want to run paid advertising to the landing pages – $100-10,000
You could get started for as little as $300 or as much as you have at your disposal.
Some experienced affiliates go hard with a 5-20 niche sites all targeting the product. This is aggressive and usually the more experienced affiliates who have systems and teams do this method. This is a bit more expensive hence the seasoned affiliates taking this road.
They spend it knowing they will make back 2x at least.
IT SCALES SO DAMN EASY anyone can do it and it MAKES so much money if you scale it.
Do yourself a favor go out and try this for yourself see how easy it is. You’re going to make money and you’ll get addicted to how EASY this truly is no need to over complicate it!
The only thing holding you back is you not taking action. If you pay attention, monitor where the money intelligence is and take action you can get a slice of the new product pie. Rank web pages before products get released in a nutshell thats as simple as it gets.
Today I’ll let you in on a little secret. I used to be a massive nerd for the SEO tactics and strategies that push web pages up through the ranks of Google and other search engines. The thrill and journey of taking a website that had either low grade rankings or was brand new and getting on the Google leaderboard (Page 1) for my targeted keywords was a pure satisfaction that not many people can understand.
It adds gravity of the accomplishment when money starts to correlate with those rankings. As an affiliate operator I would be looking to rank pages that help promote my product offers and have web traffic on my pages where I am running display ads. This all adds up and makes it highly valuable to focus on SEO instead of paid advertising for clicks.
So now let me take you on a journey to the depths of Search Engine Optimisation.
Title tags
These tell both search engine spiders and human visitors what your page is about. Your title tag should definitely include your main keyword.
This is what goes into your <title></title> HTML. Also known as your Title Meta. Most people use the popular WordPress Plug-In’s “SEO Framework” or “RankMath” to create individual titles for each page.
You want it to be readable to the user and you want to use the keywords sparingly
# Example: Apple Computers – Buy Them Here
Keep your title short, and to the point and each page should have a unique title.
Meta Description
This specific html element falls under the category of a “meta tag,” and gives specific infomation about what your page is about. You should use the meta description to convince people to click through your site. Here’s what a meta description looks like in the Google search results:
Meta tags – these html elements live in the <head> of a web page, and basically tell the search engines what you page is about. Meta tags can also entice people to choose your page, over another page in the SERPs.
H Tags
These tags are used to structure the information on your page. The search engines definitely use this as a ranking metric. These are better known as “heading” tags, like <h1>, <h2> <h3> these are used to classify the topic h1 and sub topics h2 OnPage.
My preference is to use the plurals of the keyword example Hairdresser & Hairdressers
and use the one with higher search vol in the critical spots with the lower search vol in H2, image titles, content.
Here’s how to take advantage of H tags:
H1 – The role of the H1 tag has changed over the years. Previously, “best practices” would tell you to always put your main keyword in the H1 tag. But now, it depends on whether or not your are doing any link building. Let me explain. If you are NOT doing any link building (such as, you’re not using our RankBOSS service), then you should put your main keyword in the H1 tag.
If you are doing link building (a.k.a. using our service), you should Not put your main keyword in the h1 tag.
Why?
This will likely lead to an over-optimization penalty.
So, with that being said, the rest of this email will be under the assumption that you ARE building links. For the examples below, I’ll be using the “Apple Computers” keyword example.
–back to that H1 tag… since you are building links to this page, you want to keep your H1 tag generic. Use “branding” or “generic” keywords in the H1. For example:
<h1>Check Out Our Full Selection Below</h1> — notice there is no mention of “Apple” or “Computers.”
H2 Tags – These are for the main sub-headings within your content. This is where I’d recommend using your main keywords. For example:
<h2>Our Apple Computers On Sale</h2>
<h2>The Macbook Air</h2>
<h2>Macbook Pro Retina</h2>
<h2>Desktops</h2>
H3 Tags – Sub-sub headings. Examples:
<h3>13”</h3>
<h3>15″</h3>
Other tags – You don’t really need them, but feel free to use them if you have an actual need for the structure. If nothing else, they look good!
Here’s how you might structure a page targeting the “Apple Computers” keyword.
IN DEPTH HEADER TAGS
Use Heading tags to organise the ideas in a page of content. The overall idea of the article can be expressed in an H1. Then major “sub-ideas” in H2. Ideas that are part of an individual H2 Topic can be expressed under an H3 heading, and if that idea goes more granular then that sub-topic can be titled with an H4 and so on
I always imagine it as a folder structure. Here’s how I visualise it:
The red box is H1
Yellow folders are H2
Blue folders are H3
Green folders are H4.
You can arrange these in a visual way, then make them linear as you put them down the page, planning your article.
For example:
H1. How to write an article
H2. Intro
Content
H2. Section 1 – Folder A
Content
H3. Folder A1
H4. Folder A1a
Content
H4. Folder A1b
Content
H4. Folder A1c
Content
H3. Folder A2
Content
H3. Folder A3
Content
H2. Section 2 – Folder B
H3. Folder B1
Content
H3. Folder B2
H2. Conclusion
Adding some structure helps readers and Google bots read and understand the hierarchy of your articles. This makes the experience on the front end more enjoyable and easier to follow along with.
Optimise Pages For Multiple Keywords:
When it comes to OnPage optimisation, certain places are more valuable to have your keywords in than others. Based on my tests, in order of impact, from most valuable keyword real-estate to least valuable:
URL
SEO Title Tag (i.e.: <TITLE></TITLE>)
H1 (i.e.: Page title)
H2, H3, H4…
Content
Alt text
We can use this knowledge to our advantage, if we have multiple keywords that we want to target on a single page, which in our profession is standard operating procedure.
Let’s say we have the following keywords we want to target on the homepage in order of importance:
dog training
dog obedience
puppy school
potty training for dogs
dog walking training
We’ll start with our URL, making a branded domain, with an inner page targeting however many keywords we can fit in the URL without looking spammy. The following URL covers our two most important keywords.
Now for the SEO title tag. Again, let’s try to get as many keywords as possible in there, remembering the rules from the above.
SEO Title Tag: Dog Training and Obedience School | Pet Pros
Next comes our Page Title. Definitely get our top keywords in there, and lets also try to get some of the words that we haven’t included so far. Additionally, we’ll use a synonym “Canines” to get some semantic advantage.
Page Title: Dog Training School for both Puppies and Adult Canines Whatever we can’t fit, whether it be to length issues or it just not making sense for our sales copy, we can fit on
H2’s and H3’s. H2: Potty Training
H2: Walking your Dog Lastly, in the event that we have a long list of keywords, make sure to put them in the content somewhere.
Pro tip: Let’s say you’re trying to rank for the keywords “____ review” and “____ reviews”. You’ll need to include both ‘review’ and ‘reviews’ somewhere on your page. If these are important keywords, then definitely drop them in the URL, SEO Title Tag, or Page Title.
Keyword Density:
There is varied opinion about the exact number to aim for. My thoughts are between 1-1.8% for your main keyword. There is no magical number that is and represents the secret sauce every niche and keyword has competitive values that differ from others.
Pro Tip: Individual words of a keyword phrase matter too
Many people come to me and ask if they’re over-optimised. They only have “dog training” on their page 4
times, but “dog” is used 40 times and “training” is used 30 times. This has Panda-penalty written all over it.
Pro Tip: Keep keyword phrases down to only 2-3 occurrences:
once in a <header tag> and 1-2 times in the body of the content on the page.
Pro Tip: Keep individual words down to less than 15. What to do instead? Use synonyms.
(The above recommendations are for a 500-word article.)
I also suggest writing naturally and for humans not Google robots.
Using Synonyms
Synonyms are the most under-utilised tool in the OnPage arsenal.
Use synonyms to establish semantic relevance for a page without risking over-optimisation.
In the dog training example, we can use the following words instead of “dog” and “training”:
canine
k9
puppy
pooch
obedience
learning
instruction
Since our page is going after “dog training”, we can use “canine” and “instruction” with no worry.
We don’t care if we’re over optimised for these keywords because hardly anyone is searching for “canine instruction.”
But ninja tactic is to use these words to establish a high degree of relevance for the page.
Content Word Count:
People debate over how many words per page is optimal. No one has the exact number, because this matters on a per-niche and per-keyword basis.
For example, pages in the health niche (competitive), typically require more words to rank than others.
However, based on my testing experience and recent studies, the minimum amount of words you want on a page is:
Regular page: 500+ words
Product page: 500+ words & Bullet points that highlight features
Competitive term: 1,500+ words
To be safe, I’d recommend writing any page you want to rank with 1000 words or more helping your cause.
This can not be achieved every time, some clients may have highly graphical pages.
Stuffing pages for the sake of it won’t look right, think of the UX stick to the rules above.
There are limits on how many words you want on a page and it depends on the niche.
Imagine you are working on a local landscape clients website.
You have 3,000 words on the keyword target page, but every other competing ranked page has 700 words.
You my friend, are in overkill mode. Google likes content that is concise & to the point.
URL Structure (Permalinks):
Whenever possible, keep short and simple URL slugs, and have your keyword in the URL of the page. For example:
www.yourwebsite.com/buy-apple-computers
This part is pretty dependant on your site and your CMS, but optimally you want your URLs as short as possible with as much keyword stuffing as possible.
go with /%postname%
the shorter the URLs, the better – This also remove the trailing slash from every post and page. Make sure to set your custom URLs in your posts and pages though and don’t just use the title of the post/page or you’ll end up with massively long URLs.
Breadcrumbs:
Types of breadcrumbs. I like to use location based.
Location Based Breadcrumbs
show the user where the current page is located relevant to the whole structure of the site.
example: See All Departments > Electronics > Auto Electronics >
In-Dash Stereos
Path Based Breadcrumbs
visualise the user’s path which brought him to the current page. These breadcrumbs are dynamic and are usually based on the search results. With this type of breadcrumbs one and the same page can be accessed through several paths:
Consulting > Services > Implementation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Optimisation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Upgrade > Service A
Attribute Based Breadcrumbs
list the attributes of the current page
Best Uses of Breadcrumbs
Only use breadcrumbs when they help a user: for large, multi-level websites. These are for user first of all; if they also help SEO – that’s an additional benefit. Don’t add breadcrumbs just for the sake of adding good internal anchor text.
Do not link the current page to itself (the last step in the breadcrumbs should be un-linked);
Do not replace main navigation with breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs visualise your website structure horizontally while the main navigation shows its vertical structure listing its other categories and content types);
Use breadcrumbs consistently (this makes the user browsing your website feel safer and allows him to faster familiarise himself with how the site is structured)
Do not use breadcrumbs in the page <title> tag (this makes the title too long and untargeted)
Here is a cheatsheet for building well structured web pages that will help your affiliate products get some traction with Google.
Elevate your SEO game by implementing the following advanced techniques that not only sidestep spammy practices but also leverage Google’s sophisticated semantic synonym recognition to enhance your page’s relevance to a specific topic.
Mastering URL Structure:
Incorporate your primary keyword once within the URL.
Prioritize brevity while ensuring keyword representation.
Recent experiments indicate that shorter URL slugs deliver superior results.
Opt for concise, impactful URL structures both for homepage and inner pages.
Example:
Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training
Less Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training-guide-for-new-owners-of-puppies
Strategic Title Tag Placement:
Embed your keyword in the title tag, positioning it towards the beginning.
Optimize for conciseness and relevance.
Recent studies highlight the superiority of shorter title tags.
Delay the use of “click bait” words until achieving higher rankings (#1-#5).
Example:
Optimal: Dog Training Guide for Beginners | Obedience Tips
Suboptimal: Dog Training – How to train your dog – Dog Training Tips
Maximizing Meta Description Impact:
Leverage the meta description to enhance click-through rate (CTR).
While Google doesn’t directly rank meta descriptions, they indirectly affect rankings by influencing CTR.
Craft persuasive descriptions that entice clicks from search engine results.
Employ curiosity-invoking strategies to engage users and prompt clicks.
Experiment with capitalization and trigger words to stimulate interest.
Aim for a meta description length of no more than 156 characters.
Example:
Compelling: These sneaky Dog Training Tips will work on ANY dog. You’ll DEFINITELY want to check out our FREE …
Bonus Tip: Enhance intrigue by adding a “…” (dot dot dot) to incite curiosity and drive clicks.
As you wield these advanced techniques, remember that your affiliate marketing journey is an evolving process. By harnessing the power of precise URL structuring, impactful title tags, and enticing meta descriptions, you equip yourself with the tools to amplify your affiliate efforts and rise above the competition.
Page Speed
Fast sites rank better. But even more important, your visitors will not stay on slow sites for very long waiting for the page to load. There are many things you can do to increase your site’s speed.
First, check your site’s speed. Go here: http://tools.pingdom.com, or http://GTmetrix.com. Get a baseline of where you’re at, so you’ll know how much you’ve improved. You really want to see your site loading at least 80% better than other sites (as measured by Pingdom), and a total loading time of less than 2 seconds. You can work hard to make your site even faster than < 2 seconds.
If your site is slow, Pingdom will give you suggestions on how you can improve it. If you’re on WordPress, you’re in luck! There are some dead simple steps you can take to get some massive speed improvement within three minutes.
How to drastically improve your (WordPress) site speed in 3 minutes or less:
First, do basic site clean up, ie empty the trash, delete duplicate or unused images from the media library. Install a good caching plugin like W3 Total Cache. Install a great compression plugin (I use G-Zip Ninja Compression, which is free and works great). Literally install and activate, nothing more to do for this.
1. Install the W3 Cache Plugin & Activate it.
2. Once it’s been activated, in the WordPress dashboard, go to: Performance > General Settings
3. Enable “page cache” and “minify” Save it.
4. Now check to make sure your site is working properly. “Minify” can sometimes mess up a site. If it DID, deactivate “minify” and the problem should be solved instantly.
5. Check your page speed again to see your improvement, and how quickly your site is loading.
Pingdom Tools or GT Metrix will show what is causing the latency and is good to run before and after to gage results.
If your site has a lot of images, they could be really slowing your site down. Here are some things to consider:
Image Size:
Make sure your image file sizes are compressed (not necessarily the size of the image, but the file size. This will make your site load fast.
Alternatively install a great image optimiser (ideally, images should be optimised before uploading to the library but let’s face it, not many of us do that). I use Tiny PNG plugin, free for up to 500 compressions per month, and it works awesome. Install, activate, leave the default settings as they are. Register as a user and insert the API code that is emailed to you into the plugin settings.
Hover over the media library in the dashboard, select “bulk optimise” and let it do its thing. I’ve brought sites down from 22 seconds to under 3 seconds with just these 3 free plugins that take maybe 5 minutes to install and run.
Something to remember: using smaller images (the size of the image, not the file) will help with load times as well. Huge images are just SLOW.
If you have a lot of images, check out the “lazy load” plugin (http://wordpress.org/plugins/bj-lazy-load). This plugin will delay the loading of an image until a visitor scrolls toward that image. So, say you’ve got a nice, long post, filled with images. By using the lazy load plugin, the page will load quickly, displaying only the images at the beginning of the post. As the visitor scroll down the page, those images further down the page will load. This means that the page can load quickly, and will load images a few at a time, instead of trying for all at once.
Alt-Text:
Adding alt text to images is often overlooked but we know better and can use these to take advantage of the extra room to describe our website images.
Important – Alt text keywords DO contribute to overall page word count and keyword density.
For example, if you had the word “dog” in your content 10 times, and “dog” was in two alt tags as well, then your total count is 12 times.
Use alt text as if you were describing the image to a blind person. Don’t keyword stuff but you can include long tail or synonyms into the description.
Avoid having images that have “_” or “|” and instead look at using “-“ to seperate words.
What are alt tags actually for? Alt tags were designed for screen readers that help visual-impaired folks read webpages.
When the screen reader comes to an image, it reads the alt tag to describe what that image is.
Essentially, Google wants us to simply describe the picture.
If it’s a picture of a girl smiling, then label the alt tag “picture of girl smiling.”
Using the alt tags as intended is another reason I mostly choose not to optimise them. Think about your SEO strategy if you do optimise alt tags or not.
Geo Tag Images:
In local search we want to provide our clients with the best local relevance that we can. Using geo tags to add location points into the exif data of images will help us do this.
There is a significant amount of traffic that comes from google images search, and google maps images just look at the GMB insights of your clients. Don’t be surprised and instead act on this as a source of traffic others may not be exploiting. In some cases 5% or less traffic will result from images so in that scenario you can de-optimise the alt text so you only worry about keyword density OnPage and not on two fronts.
The bad news is geo tagging will be stripped when you compress images, a choice needs to be made to have more geo tagged images or faster loading websites.
Tip: add geo tagged images to Google my business and maps and leave compressed images for the website.
Process > Geo tag images then upload to GMB > Then compress and upload to the website.
Images OnPage:
Opinions differ about the specifics that there should be a specific ratio of HTML code (namely images) versus raw text, in order to make the search engines happy.
Based on my tests, I have never concluded on a magic number of how many images should be present per a given word count. But I do indeed recommend a simple rule of thumb that I’ve garnered from extensive conversion rate optimisation and split test experiments:
Never have a wall of text on the page.
There should never been a segment of your page where all the reader can see is simply a top-to-bottom block of text, with no graphics or structured markup (e.g.: table or list). Following this rule will keep you within safe bounds regarding both:
1) Keeping the search engines happy
2) Keeping your visitors interested in your page
Sitemaps:
the Google XML Sitemaps plugin on WordPress sites.
To keep it simple create a sitemap, if you can go advanced then split the sitemaps into into categories, priorities & frequency aren’t a must but make sure you use change dates.
Make sure once you’ve setup this plugin, that you submit your /sitemap.xml to Google’s Webmaster Tools – This is the main sitemap, and Google will then index each sub-sitemap on it’s own, you don’t need to submit each sitemap this plugin makes.
Googlebot is on your site for a couple of seconds at max at a time. Remove any unnecessary files that don’t need to be on your site – You want the pages you want ranked to be crawled, and having files like backups & unused PDFs just hurts your crawl rate.
Each website has a crawl budget per month and its important that if a client makes a lot of updates and changes that the crawl budget be spent wisely. This means fetch and render only when you need too.
Robots.txt:
Don’t Use The Default Robots.txt
Here’s the WordPress Robots.txt file that I use to keep these pages hidden.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: http://seoguide.com./sitemap.xml
You can also add in any link checking bots you want to block via this pastebin.
You’ll have to manually upload a robots.txt file with this code in to overwrite the default WordPress one.
Pingbacks:
Turn On Pingbacks
Don’t allow people to post pingbacks to your site, but notifying other blogs when you link to them helps get traffic and visibility.
Go here: /wp-admin/options-discussion.php for WordPress.
And check the “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article” box.
Link Functions:
An essential way to establish relevance for a page is to link out to an authority page in you niche.
What’s an authority page? Think WebMD.com, CNN.com, etc. Something with Domain Authority 70 or higher.
The ranking benefit of linking to authority sites is in the user reading enhancements. You are providing more value.
Pro tip: Don’t use Wikipedia for your authority links. This is what every other SEO on the planet is doing. Remember, Google doesn’t like SEOs, so don’t look like one.
For every page that you’re trying to rank, throw up an authority link somewhere past the fold. Putting it anywhere above the fold increases the chance that the reader will actually click on it and bounce from your page.
There’s considerable debate about whether or not to make the link dofollow or nofollow. The nofollow team wants to keep all their link juice on their site and refrain of leaking it off the page.
Since it hasn’t been empirically proven which one works better, I opt to keep it dofollow since the disadvantage of having no authority link on the page wouldn’t be worth it. If you’re worried about ranking another page, simply link to an authority page (DA 70+) that doesn’t rank higher than you already, or isn’t on the first page.
Pro tip: Create your authority links to open in a new window. This keeps your bounce rate low; in case the reader decides to click on the authority link. Example: <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/dog-training” target=”_blank”></a>
Using a Macro vs Micro OnPage Focus:
Macro – This refers to what you’re doing at the site level, such as your site structure, levels, links etc. This is the overview of your site from a crawlers perspective, as well as the perspective of the user.
Good Macro on-page revolves around making good decisions for both UX and SEO. You can use data to back up a lot of your decision making here, and it’s often THE MOST overlooked aspect of on-page with some of the bigger sites.
When we’re working with eCommerce clients, this is often what we’re spending hours and hours on in the first few months.
When auditing the macro level you need a human eye to find areas that are weak, and need improvement.
Micro – This refers to what you’re doing on the page level, this is what most on-page tutorials, articles etc talks about. Using the right markup, longer content – you know the drill. This is often where most people get things right, however there’s a tendency to focus on the wrong things.
At the micro level you can improve rankings for a specific page and linked pages, opposed to macro level where you’ll often see sitewide ranking improvements.
When auditing the micro level you’ll often use tools to achieve this such as ScreamingFrog.
Broken Links and 404’s
Use browser extension (chrome) broken link checker to check your pages for broken links. 404’s and broken links are a negative ranking factor as the user experience is not enhanced but disadvantaged by the browsing problem.
Indexing:
Double check index with Screaming Frog
Finally, check your site for major errors by running a search using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. It’s free, and an awesome, powerful tool. There’s TONS of things you can look for, but the most important will be making sure the status codes say either “200” or “301.” If you see anything else, then you or someone you know more knowledgeable should take a look at getting those fixed. They can cause really big problems.
Ninja Tip – Embed google properties on your client website, Google loves Google and embedding a Google property on a website is one way to tell Google the page/site exists. Think Youtube videos and Google Maps.
Plugins
Check your plugins. If you have a plugin installed that you’re not using (even if it is deactivated), delete it. Plugins can slow your site way down.
For some recommended plugins (WordPress) see the resources at the bottom of this document.
Content Delivery Network
If you’re not afraid of something slightly more involved, then looking into a content delivery network (CDN), such as CloudFlare or MaxCDN. Using a CDN can give your site a big speed boost right away. Here’s how: a CDN distributes your content to multiple servers around the world. When someone visits your site, a server closer to their location can serve the page.
CDNs are not complicated; I really recommend you set one up. Seriously, the set up time will be like five minutes. If you’re running a media rich site, switching over to a CDN can cut your load time in half. HALF!
Managed Hosting
If you’re using WordPress, you absolutely should be using a service like WP Engine to host your site.
Why? An all-in-one managed WordPress host can speed up your site instantly. Caching and CDNs are built into the hosting service. It’s also completed managed for you, so you’ll never have to deal with another WordPress upgrade again.
SSL:
Should your website have SSL – Secure socket layer
If your client website takes payment online or collects personal data of its users then the answer is yes.
Note: October 2017 Google will show all http websites as insecure in the search results to add to the update from March 2017 where they began to show the browser URL as “Not Secure” for http websites where the https websites were shown with a green “Secure”.
Review Stars:
Another type of rich snippet is the review star. Having review stars on an affiliate product review page, for example, can be a significant factor in stealing clicks from the SERPs.
Example of review stars:
Getting review stars is extremely easy. I simply use the WP Structured Data Schema for WordPress. As of the time of this writing, review stars are only available for inner pages.
Warning: Google has been passing out manual penalties based on spammy structured data. As of now, most of the reports I’ve seen have been about manipulating location using schema, but I’m sure using fake ratings is a hot spot too.
Testing:
I’m a big believer of testing and having test “sandbox” sites to test techniques on that mimics real world client sites. Creating a mirror site to test on, not an exact replica but very similar but more lightweight.
BONUS: How to Rank Images in Google (Step by Step)
Ranking images in Google is very similar to ranking a Youtube video.
In fact ranking images is actually easier because the competition is lower (not many people are intentionally aiming to rank photos).
Here are the steps to rank an image…
1) Alt text: The alt text of the image needs to match or be a partial match keyword to what you’re aiming to rank for.
2) Content: The content surrounding where your image is hosted needs to be closely related to your target keyword.
3) Authority: This is relevant to the competitiveness of the keyword you’re trying to rank.
4) Syndication: Taking your image and embedding it on a network of websites, social media sites, image sharing sites and other web pages helkps boost the relevance of your keywords and image topic. This has helped me drive thousands of extra eyeballs to my product offers and view my display ads on my niche blog.
Think of sites like Flickr, Pinterest, Diig, Google Images and many more that all help push the relevance of the image. Monitor your progress and don’t stop with 1 image. If you can blanket Google Images search results with your image target thats a big opportunity that you should not waste.
SEO is a powerful strategy to use for your affiliate niche blogs, ecommerce websites and dropship stores. It might sound technical and a bit spammy but it gets results and it takes less money to start than advertising. Don’t sleep on SEO.
Building websites has made me a dump truck full of money for partner clients and businesses who needed a slick working website. I want to share my process, what I’m using and how I did it.
I used Go High level for this and it was drag-and-drop simple.
The key for me is finding the right business to speak to about the website build services. The building is simple, the upsell is simple and ongoing money will come when you show them the power of GHL.
Here are some use cases for the landing page builder and website features:
An agency could use GoHighLevel’s landing page builder to create landing pages for lead-generation campaigns. GHL comes with powerful online appointment scheduling features.
You could use GoHighLevel’s website builder to create websites for businesses that need a new online presence.
You could use GoHighLevel’s website builder to create custom landing pages for specific marketing campaigns.
You can use local service website templates, pre-built and easy to load up and deploy for a short turnaround time. This is your unique selling point over big team marketing professional services who take months to build websites.
You can also target e-commerce stores that have product pages and sell them high-converting landing page examples of their product. Use landing page designs that would work with their existing brand. The Gohighlevel templates are so easy to edit they won’t take you much time.
Here you can get free access to your own account at HighLevel, you can get started with a lead funnel that should bring you in at least 1 customer who pays for your subscription allowing you to grow.
Building Landing Pages In Minutes
I’ve built both websites and landing pages for money and I’ll say that the landing page build is the easy win. You need to make 1-2 pages instead of a full website. The only intense part is getting the images right and the copy used on the landing page.
Landing Pages are sales and conversion-focused targeted pages. The sole purpose is to make money from people who land on the page. Get your landing page builder for free here.
Landing page builder: GoHighLevel’s landing page builder allows agencies & freelancers to create professional-looking landing pages without any coding or design experience. This includes the ability to add text, images, videos, and forms to landing pages. For example, an agency could use GoHighLevel’s landing page builder to create a landing page for a new product launch.
The landing page builder and website features in SaaS Mode are powerful tools that can help agencies of all sizes create professional-looking landing pages and websites. By using these features, agencies can save time and money, and they can focus on what they do best: helping their clients grow their businesses.
Here are some additional benefits of using the landing page builder and website features in SaaS Mode:
Ease of use: The landing page builder and website features are easy to use, even for people with no coding or design experience.
Flexibility: The landing page builder and website features are highly flexible, allowing agencies to create landing pages and websites that meet their specific needs.
Affordability: The landing page builder and website features are affordable, making them a cost-effective option for agencies of all sizes.
The Go High Level software builds into Shopify natively. This will make your life easier when building landing pages for e-commerce stores on Shopify. Ive been testing GHL with e-commerce stores and Shopify lately and I like the results. Here is a write-up I did about using Go High level for e-commerce.
I identify the opportunities. I want prospective customers who have easy-to-solve problems.
Find businesses that don’t have websites.
Find businesses that have garbage websites that need updating.
Find websites that sell things online.
Find websites that take bookings for services.
Find businesses that would benefit from improved conversion rates on advertising (they are actively advertising).
Second
Use GHL email campaigns to reach out to these businesses.
When reaching out to business owners show them some landing page designs and what could be if they work with you.
In your emails show an example of a website that you could build for them in the email.
Give them an easy-to-understand offer of services.
Provide a timeline, rough costs and how you build.
Drop the price and make it so valuable that they don’t have a reason to say no.
This means selling the website for $1,000-$4,000 and trying to sell-in services on the backend of that. For example, sell the website for $3,000 and then offer them SEO or Lead generation services for $3,000 a month bundled so you get $6,000 upfront and $3,000 recurring from that 1 client.
If you encounter any hesitation you can use the wide variety of features in Go Highlevel as throw-in items to make the deal sound more enticing. This creates a sense of urgency and boosts what key elements the client sees as value-adding to the already competitive deal.
Example add email marketing features
Example add automation for marketing emails
For example add in digital marketing agency services at a discount if it seals the deal
Third
Use GHL software to manage the processes.
Use GHL software to automate most of the work.
Build yourself or hire a specialist at Go High Level Builds.
You can charge extra for custom code and specific functions in your builds (Clients love custom features).
Provide an additional marketing strategy and throw in additional Gohighlevel Website Templates as a bonus if they sign.
Hand over the build to the client.
Get paid.
Rinse this method and repeat it 24/7.
It’s that simple. Rinse and repeat and you will be on your way to regular income-building drag-and-drop websites for clients with the option to sell in services with the website. There are hundreds of stories like this in the Go High-level community of people starting to get 1 client then 10 then 30 and then exploding their client book.
*Bonus setup of the full automated workflow for an extra $$ after the build. This is easy money because it’s complex to normal people but simple to techy online people.
**Bonus is to sell in sales funnels for all of their products or services. This provides the client with done for them beautiful landing pages with connected lead generation automation making it super simple for them to close sales.
Go HighlevelWebsite Builder
GoHighLevel’s website builder allows agencies to create custom websites for their clients. This includes the ability to add pages, sections, and content to websites. For example, an agency could use GoHighLevel’s website builder to create a website for a new client.
If you’re an agency that’s looking for a powerful and affordable way to create landing pages and websites, SaaS Mode is a great option. With its easy-to-use features and flexibility, SaaS Mode can help you create professional-looking landing pages and websites that will help you grow your business.
Use Cases for GHL’s Website Builder Features:
Here are some additional use cases for SaaS Mode:
A web design agency could use SaaS Mode to create a SaaS product that allows businesses to create their own websites.
A marketing agency could use SaaS Mode to create a SaaS product that allows businesses to manage their social media marketing.
A sales agency could use SaaS Mode to create a SaaS product that allows businesses to manage their sales leads.
SaaS Mode is a powerful tool that can help agencies of all sizes create and sell their own SaaS products. By using SaaS Mode, agencies can save time and money, and they can focus on what they do best: helping their clients grow their businesses.
Page Builder & CRM A Powerful Combo
The CRM features in SaaS Mode when combined with the landing page builder and websites you can make with GHL are absolute Fire in the palm of your hand. If you take this to a potential client you have a very value-driven proposition for them.
Data is what every company craves, more customer data, more leads and more sales. You are bringing the data with the GHL forms.
Then when you add the automation workflows that come native to High-Level software you can replace on average 1-2 employees that would be doing lead handling manually. In my experience, there are about 2-4 manual handlers of leads in a business.
The data automation from website leads can be captured and sent wherever you want, however, you want. Automated, I’m saying with no handling by a human. Crazy powerful 24/7 on autopilot.
I’ve used this at an agency and solo for my own consulting business. This works it just works, for small businesses, and medium businesses and I’ve seen it blow large enterprise businesses up by removing the roadblocks that they usually have at the lead entry points.
I’m a believer in Shaun Clark (Co-founder) and the Go High-level software as an evolving lead-generation platform that will make the life of online marketers easier. Having used most CRMs and lead gen platforms most were overpriced subscriptions with a lack of features that matter and fancy buttons that did nothing. Give me Go High Level any day of the week and Ill make money with it.
While using GHL at the agency I worked at we were able to have our salespeople out on the road meeting, greeting and signing up clients.
Building Websites for local services is an easy win, but when you stack the landing page with a powerful CRM like High Level you have a powerful advantage over agencies and freelancers. This is easy money.
Below is an example of a local services website (I did not build or design this one) that uses the GHL page builder and the lead generation forms making for a smooth lead capture funnel.
Example Landing Page Design from Go Highlevel Page Builder
Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck swimming through your gold vault, there are few good reasons to ever stop trying to boost the number of unique visitors your website attracts. The logic is just too obvious to ignore—the more eyeballs on your site, the more business you generate.
But running a company is hard work, and it’s easy to get distracted by other, equally important, tasks and strategies.
This article is for those business owners who want to get back to the basics—business owners who are ready to throw some money and effort at the top end of their marketing funnels.
Illustrate topical authority
Google loves serving pages that are likely to satisfy its users’ needs. The search engine is on a neverending mission to find ways to separate good content from bad.
Over the years, Google has used many techniques to do this. Keyword density and quality backlinks have traditionally been two of the biggest drivers here. But now, a new metric is starting to become increasingly influential in SEO: topical authority.
Topical authority is the ability to show expertise on a specific subject. Google is increasingly favoring sites that cover a specific topic in great depth over a series of posts rather than a single article.
More and more SEO experts are encouraging site owners to show Google that their site is an authority on a specific topic by publishing several posts on it.
In practice, Google likes seeing “depth” of coverage. For example, a single post on “The Benefits of the Keto Diet” may use keywords brilliantly and also have tons of backlinks. But if this topic isn’t covered elsewhere on the domain, Google is likely to penalize it in the rankings.
To prevent this and also see your articles get a ranking boost, write as many other meaningful articles on this topic as possible. Think about what other information readers may want about the keto diet and publish as many posts on it as you can.
The key here is not to replicate content or to create “fluff.” Use Google to see what questions people are asking about the keto diet, and answer the top five in a highly detailed article.
When displaying search results for the term “keto diet,” Google also shows some very handy content under the heading “People also ask.” For instance, “What can I eat on the keto diet?” and “Is the keto diet bad for me?”
Don’t answer this question inside your main article. This is an amazing opportunity to show topical authority by publishing a dedicated article for every single one of these questions.
Build backlinks through outreach
Backlinks are still important.
Sure, SEO tactics like “topical authority” (we’ll get to this later) may have started to hog the spotlight over the past 18 months. But, that doesn’t mean Google has completely forgotten how big a signal of quality it is when external sites link to one of your blog posts.
But how can you increase the chances of your content being referenced by a reputable third party? I’ll share two crucial tips.
It’s worth noting, though, that all of these tactics will have benefits outside of increasing the chances of landing a backlink. So try not to think about them purely from this perspective.
Create new knowledge
Websites aren’t going to link to your content if you don’t give them a reason to do so. And the best reason of all is if you’re the only site that offers information they can’t find anywhere else.
If you’re sitting on an email subscriber list or social media following that’s big enough to mine for new knowledge, consider conducting surveys and building data from responses.
Reach out and ask your followers questions about your industry. Convert their feedback into blog posts or infographics that shine a new light on an existing topic. This information could be extremely valuable for one of your peers looking to make a specific point in one of their own blog posts or marketing material.
Data is immensely referenceable – a fact evidenced by the WyzOwl domain having close to 20,000 backlinks, according to Uber Suggest.
Another way to create “new” knowledge is to interview reputable industry experts and thought leaders. Get them to weigh in on an issue closely related to your industry.
These articles, often called “expert roundups,” take a lot of time to complete and require a ton of legwork, but the payoff can be immense. A well-populated roundup post is packed with highly referenceable quotes that support claims made by your peers.
In most cases, you’ll also score backlinks for roundup posts because the person being quoted wants to show their contribution.
Make the right people aware of your amazing new knowledge
If you’ve spent weeks creating a 4,000-word blog post packed full of awesome referenceable material, you’d be crazy to just sit and wait for people to find it organically.
This is where “outreach” comes into play—the assertive, diplomatic act of suggesting to someone that a link to your data would benefit them.
A word of warning: this is not a simple undertaking. It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not something you’re going to implement over a long weekend.
There’s a ton of great content online about the finer points of outreach, but a quick summary of the process won’t go amiss:
Use Google to find blog posts that cover the same keywords as your blog post. These are your competitors’ posts.
Using a tool like Ahrefs Link Explorer, find the sites that have backlinks to your competitors’ posts. These are your prospects.
Prepare and make email contact with your prospect. Your job here is to make a solid case for them to link to your content. This is a delicate process that needs a lot of preparation and communication. Do your homework before taking this step.
Forget, just for a minute, the marketing industry’s understandable preoccupation with creating content that ranks on Google.
Sure, it’s madness to completely overlook this aspect of SEO-focused content marketing. Your blog post means very little if it’s never going to be found using a search engine. Having said that, Google rankings shouldn’t be your only concern. When you publish a post that offers exceptional, evergreen value, you’re creating a marketing asset that will attract visitors for as long as it’s on your blog.
SEO concepts like keyword density and search volume should heavily influence your marketing strategy. However, it’s fine to occasionally put these aside in favour of creating content that delivers extremely helpful, evergreen information.
Certain subjects are just always popular amongst the citizens of the web. People always want to get healthier. They always want to find interesting things to entertain themselves with. Business people always want to find strategies to become more successful.
Everyone wants a better night’s rest. It’s a matter of mental and physical health that affects literally everyone on the planet. Sleep isn’t a “seasonal” activity either. It’s an unavoidable part of the human experience. Until people evolve out of their need to sleep, this is as evergreen as content gets.
Focused Niche Down Approach
The internet is a big place. It’s everything—all the information.
When fishing for traffic with content, casting your net wide means you’re trying to attract hundreds of millions of people. If you succeed… fantastic. You’re going to see an overwhelming influx of traffic.
But success here means you need to beat some pretty stiff competition for Google’s ranking. And the average small business website has virtually no hope of doing something like that.
A feasible alternative is to throw several smaller nets into very specific areas of the digital ocean. In practice, this means aiming for smaller niche audiences with your content’s topics and keywords.
Rather than aiming for the biggest possible audience pool with a topic like “How to Grow Your Small Business” or even something slightly less ambitious like “The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your E-Commerce Business,” the blog post aims for a very specific audience.
By creating information in this specific niche, Finli is making two outcomes very likely.
Firstly, their chances of ranking on Google are much better than if they’d aimed for a more saturated topic.
Secondly, the chances of their content being shared on social media are higher. That’s because online communities typically form around very specific topics, like the business of martial arts.
Worth noting is that you won’t achieve these two goals simply because you choose a niche topic. Even a very specific subject is still going to have a ton of competition. You’ll still have to apply the fundamentals of SEO to ensure your content ranks. And to increase the chances of your content going viral, focus on delivering genuinely exceptional information.
Use Social Media to Promote Your Website
Some brands have done an excellent job at building an audience on social media. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Like generating traffic for your website, you face tons of challenges when growing a following on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
But persistence and following proven strategies will pay off in the long run. People are hungry for excellent content on social media, and if you deliver, they will come.
But that’s not what this section of our piece is about. We’re here to talk about how your social media presence can be used to channel traffic to your website.
Skillcrush usesits Instagram account brilliantly to direct traffic to its website. The brand uses a super simple, highly effective tactic. Directly above the website link on their Instagram bio, the folks from Skillcrush were smart to tell users about the benefit of visiting their home page: “Take our free 3-minute quiz to find out if tech is right for you!”
They’ve attached a compelling hook to their website link.
Sure, some Instagram users may click on your website link purely out of curiosity or because they want to find out more about your company. But if you give them a solid reason to go down the rabbit hole, you’re getting the most out of this element.
On Facebook and Twitter, Skillcrush chooses to adopt a slightly different approach. Instead of using a functional CTA (the quiz), the brand opts to appeal to users’ emotions.
“Digital skills are job skills. Learn the web development & design skills you need to get the money and freedom you deserve.”
“Skillcrush is an online platform and community for learning coding and design skills to change your career.”
Both of these passages aim for the visitor’s heart by using emotive language. More than half of workers in the United States are unsatisfied with their jobs. Skillcrush leverages this fact to channel traffic to their product—a product capable of changing lives.
When creating your company’s social media profiles, make sure to give compelling reasons why followers should click through to your site.
How to Dropship on Facebook Marketplace (Free & Paid)
