How to prevent keyword cannibalization and rank higher in Google
You’ve probably learned by experience that if you “spread yourself too thin” you become inefficient and ineffective. The same thing is true with keywords. If you are actively involved in content marketing and create blog posts on a regular schedule, you may find yourself going back to the same keyword over and over again. If you do this, you run the risk of spreading your “authority” on that keyword too thin. You will end up with a lot of pages that rank low on search engines rather than one page that ranks very high. Every time you post a new piece of content using the same keyword, you cannibalize the authority of that keyword on previously published posts. If you’re muttering “Uh-oh!” right now because you realize that you have inadvertently created this situation, don’t worry: it can be fixed. And, I’ll show you a way to fix it that will have added benefits beyond just improving your ability to rank higher in search results. The power of long-form content Let’s take a bicycle shop as an example. We’ll call our shop Wally’s Wheels. Wally’s Wheels has a blog that has been posting useful articles on how to get a mountain bike ready for competition. Wally has written about the best bikes for competitive mountain biking, the best accessories for competitive mountain biking, and the best ways to set up your bike for competitive mountain biking. He’s been writing 500-word articles around the keyword “competitive mountain biking” for the last couple of years and now has more than a dozen of these. Unfortunately, no single article ranks very high in search results. What should he do? Wally needs to take those articles and combine them into one article that might be as long as 5,000 words. He then needs to create easy navigation to that long and informative article. He’ll probably want to have it on the top level of his homepage navigation bar. Hub and spoke strategy From within that article, he can link out to other related keyword articles on his website. This is a “hub and spoke” strategy. You use a fairly general keyword for the hub and you link out to articles built around longer tailed keywords. Jimmy Daly has a succinct article on the topic over on his website. Further, once you’ve created this in-depth article, you can use it in other ways. Create a PDF with the content and use it as a free download. You can offer this free download from within the article itself – as in: For a PDF version of this article click here! – and you can also use it separately in pop-ups and social media offers. In each case, you exchange the free download for an email-list signup to help get your email marketing program running in high gear. Does this strategy sound like it can give your keyword content marketing a shot in the arm? I think many small business owners will be able to use this. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s one of those projects where the end result is actually greater than the sum of each piece. There aren’t too many of those opportunities...
read moreThis week in small business: Greek philosophy and in praise of living with your parents!
It’s not every day (in fact there hasn’t been any day that I can remember) that Stoicism is discussed on these pages. We change that up today. Zeno of Citium would be proud. You’ll also discover great marketing tips and why young entrepreneurs should be living at home…and going to cocktail parties. (No joke.) Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Are you familiar with the ancient Greek Stoicism philosophy? This article says there are seven Stoic principles every entrepreneur should embrace. Natalie Clarkson explores how some young entrepreneurs have found success. It involves inspiration, innovation, and advice. Are you networking your tail off by attending conferences, expos, and the occasional cocktail party? Federico Guerrini says it’s time well spent in this Forbes piece. Hey entrepreneur! Still living in your old room at your parents’ house? Neil Patel says you’re on the right track! Marketing and sales Although Ben Lobel is writing for the Brits, his case for why small businesses need a streamlined marketing strategy applies almost universally today. How about focusing on topics rather than keywords? Matthew Barby thinks that’s the way to go. Nessica Davis outlines five often overlooked ways to transform your existing written content into visual content. Leadership, management, and productivity This Huffington Post article by Laura Dunn is a wealth of info on STEM, education, business, and women in business. Dunn has more women in business insights in this interview with Elena Hansen. Don’t miss Amanda Brinkman’s small business Q&A with Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec. Great communication is essential for great success. Be sure you aren’t making any of these communication...
read moreThe secret of a great small business team
The best leaders aspire to make those under them greater than themselves. Poor managers are fearful that those they manage may someday outshine themselves. If you want to achieve great success, you need to be the first type of leader I described. The reason is simple and I’ll give it to you in the form of a question: Would you like your company to someday be led by individuals who know more and are more competent than even yourself? When you have a team that can push your business further than you have been able to develop it, is when you can begin to step back somewhat from the day-to-day operations. And, if you can achieve this by the time you’re considering retirement, you are in the ideal position to enjoy profits from a business that is humming along. Or if you want to sell your business, having a team of talented managers busy taking it to the next level will boost your sales price. Check your attitude The first step is to do a gut check with yourself to be sure that you aren’t the kind of person who harbors envy at the achievements of others. The next step is to be sure that others in leadership positions on your team are the kind of people who encourage others to realize their full potential. This means that much of your job and the job of other leaders in your small business – at least when it comes to working with one another – is to be a coach and an encourager. And, you need to learn to take satisfaction from being a great coach. Have you ever noticed that the most successful coaches at the highest levels of sports weren’t the greatest players during their careers? In fact, more often than not, the greatest players do not make the best coaches. They fail to understand why others can’t play the game as well as they did. You aren’t the best marketer Let’s transfer that to the business world. The greatest managers in business, then, would be those who are able to get the most from their employees. They needn’t be the greatest marketer in the company, or the greatest software engineer in the company. They need to be able to make each marketing professional the best that he or she can be. They need to be able to spur software engineers on to doing the best work they are capable of. These qualities must be engrained in your company culture. Too often employees see the potential for promotion and growth within a company as a zero-sum game; when another person is promoted above them, their chances go away. You need to let people know that when the best people are doing the best work in the positions for which they are best suited, opportunities will be created across the board. So make a commitment to root out envy and in its place establish a culture of encouragement and support. And don’t forget that your leadership by example is the best way to spread this...
read moreSocial media marketing benefits: Small business visibility, credibility, sales
“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. But if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar. I posted this Zig Ziglar quote for the members of my Outrageous Success Facebook group the other day and as I reflected on it, it occurred to me that it parallels the most important social media marketing benefits for small businesses…or for any sized business. We call social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram “networks” and that’s a fitting term. Small business owners should see what they do on these platforms as networking. You’re probably accustomed to networking in person; these social media platforms give you the ability to network on a vastly larger scale and with much greater ease. Who wouldn’t want to do that? Traditional person-to-person networking usually progresses like this: A desired outcome from a new relationship is conceived, An introduction is made, A relationship is started, The relationship grows deeper, and finally The parties begin to achieve their desired outcomes. It’s the same way in the online social network world. The ultimate goal is usually to make some kind of sale. However, you must first gain visibility, which serves to introduce you to a universe of prospects. You want that introduction to be pleasant so – as Zig Ziglar says – people will like you and listen to you. Then, as they are listening you grow the relationship to deeper levels, establishing your credibility, authority, and trust. When you have accomplished that you begin to get into a position where individuals from your social media network will do business with you. Let me share a few quick tips to help you at each step of the process so you can more easily enjoy social media marketing benefits in your small business. Visibility How to you get noticed in an increasingly crowded social media marketing universe? There are several strategies: Go vertical. By this I mean you decide to concentrate on one social media platform and mine it as deeply as you can for prospects. If you believe that your prospects are concentrated on one platform, don’t be afraid to try some ad to build your followers. Go horizontal. If you believe that you have solid prospects throughout the social media world, then be present on all of those platforms. Fortunately, with an abundance of WordPress plugins, Hootsuite, Buffer, and other apps, it is very easy to post on multiple social media platforms at the same time. Use hashtags. Hashtags don’t open the floodgates to new followers, but they do help. Get your employees onboard. Encourage our team to include news about your business in their social media posts. Liz Azyan gives some case studies in the article she wrote for Social Media Examiner. Credibility Consistency is central to establishing your credibility on social media. You need to engage your followers on a regular schedule with high-quality content. Another smart practice is to share the content of noted authorities in your field. This does two things: First it shows that you recognize authority and it may also result in a relationship between you and an established authority. As this new relationship grows, it is possible that the established authority will promote you a little in various ways. Sales Once your credibility is strong enough,...
read moreThis week in small business: And you thought ‘The Shining’ was scary!
Are entrepreneurs quaking in their boots? Are they out looking for trouble? This week’s collection of curated small business content looks at those questions! Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation See if you think this article is an entrepreneur’s version of The Shining: Does this keep you up at night? In a somewhat similar vein, this Salesforce blog suggests that great entrepreneurs go looking for trouble! Beauty entrepreneur Jennifer Walsh believes that risks are key to building your brand. Find out why in this Forbes article by Anushay Hossain. Leadership, management, and productivity Many of you will find the advice here quite useful: “How to Present a Compelling Argument When You’re Not Naturally Persuasive,” by Karla Cook. Hal Elrod is an entrepreneur who wakes up at 3:30 a.m. ready to go for it. If you want to know his secrets, you’ll find them in this CNBC article. A company is the sum of its people, so be sure you’re hiring this kind of person. Mike Kappel explains how to evaluate your small business and plan for those important but expensive big purchases. From data encryption to training your employees, this article gives you a good foundation in security measures to protect your small business from a cyber attack. Marketing and sales It’s no surprise that it’s harder than ever for marketers to break through the noise and earn customer attention and that’s why these marketing secrets will probably “change your game.” There are a lot of apps and SaaS on the web. Carmelo Hannity tells you how to choose the right SEO tools for your small business. In this ShopifyPlus blog, Nick Winkler explains how a Chinese entrepreneur with no technical expertise outmaneuvered big box stores to launch a $3-million-a-month fashion brand. As bright as they are, there are still five things CEOs don’t get about influencer marketing. Want to improve your SEO rankings? Melanie Green suggests answering common questions. Writing for USA Today, Steve Strauss looks at what makes a good press release (and a bad one) to help you get free publicity for your small business. (Steve knows what he’s talking about!)...
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