3 Free Research Tools to Improve Your SEO Keyword Effectiveness
To say that the competition in the content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) worlds for commanding good keywords is fierce would be an extreme understatement. In fact – and I’ll say a little more about this at the conclusion of this article – if you’ve been trying to compete solely by winning good “organic” search engine results page (SERP) placement, it’s probably time to consider funding an Adwords (or similar) program. Let’s look at some free tools that will dramatically aide your keyword research. The first two will help in both organic and paid campaigns; the third is only useful for paid campaigns. 2 free keyword analysis tools The Simple Long-Tail Keyword Generator is a free keyword research tool where you put in your main keywords, some descriptive keywords and some modifiers. It generates a lenghty list of long-tail keywords. If you’re a local business and decide to use this tool, be sure that you include pertinent geographic locations among your modifiers. Key Tools Limited’s Keyword Tool will generate 750-plus Google keyword suggestions for free. You can pay to get additional statistics for each keyword. This tool uses the Google auto-fill-in feature to find additional long-tail keywords, so it might suggest some keywords that you would never have thought of on your own. Either of these two free keyword tools can be used to help you craft blogs and other content marketing materials to boost your SEO and they can also be used when you decide to opt for some paid keyword-based ad campaigns. However, when you take that step, if you want to be really efficient you need to understand negative keywords. What are negative keywords? When you start to pay for ads, you want to focus in as tightly as possible on the people who might actually want your product or service. Your first impulse might be to get your ad in front of as many eyes as possible. That just ends up costing you money with very few results to show for it. The first step is to use long-tail keywords, but you can narrow – or filter – them down even more by using negative keywords. For example, if you own a jewelry store you might want to create an ad campaign to promote your “wedding bands.” If your store is in Santa Fe, a good long-tail keyword would be “wedding bands Santa Fe.” However, if you decided to bid on this long-tail keyword and you closely examined your results, you’ll find that your ad is being displayed (and occasionally clicked on) by people who are looking for a wedding band to play at their reception in Santa Fe. In this case, you would want to make “music” and other similar terms (Top 40, Country, Dance, etc.) negative keywords. Free negative keyword tool WordStream has a negative keyword tool that you can use 30 times for free. It will help you get started and may be all you’ll need. Finding negative keywords can be a tedious job and many small business advertisers only discover them after they have a bad experience. This tool will eliminate some of the pain of paying for ads that have absolutely no chance of producing results. Of course, there is always the standard Google adwords keyword tool and it’s...
read more5 Off-the-Wall Tips to Boost Your Small Business
I’m a collector. Some might call me a hoarder, but I haven’t filled my living room with boxes of unopened Hummel figurines purchased during any late night cable shopping sprees. No, I collect business tips. Usually they are big enough that they can command an entire article in this space. However, sometimes I end up with a pocketful of smaller tips that are more or less unrelated to each other. Today I’m going to dump them out on the coffee table and share them with you so they’ll stop burning a hold in my pocket. I may want to develop some of these tips a little more deeply in the future, but I didn’t want to keep them all to myself any longer because I think they will prove very useful for many of our readers. 1. Canonical URLs. I’m starting out with a rather technical issue, but it can be critical for your SEO. Here’s the problem: Sometimes you have the exact same content “filed” under several different headings or categories on your website. If those different pages use a different URL for the same content, it can cause search engine problems for you. You need content under one URL and have the secondary pages (different categories, etc.) point back to that single URL. As I said, this is a bit technical, but if you’re with me this far you probably understand enough of the issue to check it out and see if you have this problem. If you do, find a good web developer and fix your site structure. 2. How to get an “authority” to promote your site. I’ve written before about improving your “celebrity status” and authority, and finding ways to “ride on the coattails” of established authorities is one way to do this. Here’s an easy strategy to pull authorities onto your website: Ask them to curate material around a topic for you. One way to do this would be to ask an authority to name his or her five favorite business books, 10 favorite blogs, etc. You can even offer to organize the article. Put the authority’s by-line on it, feature it in your social media with the authority’s handle and you’re well on your way to getting that free coat tail lyft…I mean lift. By the way, this is a tip that I think can be developed into a longer article and if you have any ideas you’d like to share to get authorities on your team, put them in the comments below. 3. Jump on new social media platforms. New social media platforms are being launched every year. The emergence of Blab comes to mind. Not all will be wild successes, but you shouldn’t wait around to find out which will become the undisputed champions. Here’s the deal: It’s much easier to get noticed on a new social media platform than on an established platform. Further, the founders of the new platform might even notice what you’re doing and you can get yourself featured in their promotional materials. Of course, if the platform turns out to be a dog, you can just move on. 4. Generate revenue from your blog. Try a modest “up sell” from your blog. Offer an excellent check sheet, spreadsheet, white paper, or video module that enhances...
read moreHow to squeeze maximum value from your blog
To be successful, small business owners must learn how to get the most value out of every dollar they spend and every ounce of effort they invest in a project. However, one of the reasons many small businesses have unsuccessful blogs is because they fail to get all the value from the work they put into it. This causes many to simply give up blogging, resulting in poor search engine optimization and ineffectual content marketing. Easy ways to make great content One way to get the maximum value from your blog is to rework and repurpose content. Here are some examples: Do a series of articles on a topic and turn them into a white paper. Turn a few white papers into an ebook. Do a video or podcast version of a written blog, or vice versa. Convert a blog into an infographic or cartoon. Convert a blog into a Slideshare presentation. Those are just some of the ways you can reuse or repurpose existing blog content. But there’s one important first step you need to take before you can do any of those things: You need to create “evergreen” content. How to find evergreen content Evergreen content is content that will be as relevant three years from now as it is today. For example, I find that my readers get very interested when I post something about a controversial political issue and I get rewarded with a lot of page views. However, those posts are soon dated and while they drummed up a lot of traffic for a week or two, they soon become irrelevant. In contrast to this, I have some articles on evergreen topics that draw traffic to my website every day and will continue to draw traffic for years to come. In the long run, they are far more valuable than the short-lived, popular articles. The challenge is to find evergreen topics. If you know your niche at all, you’ll probably be able to come up with some of these right off the top of your head. But when you want a little inspiration, try these strategies. Search Amazon. Go to Amazon.com and find categories of books that relate to your topic. Find the bestsellers in these categories and then look to see how long they have been selling well. Choose topics that cover areas similar to the material in the bestsellers that have been on the charts for years. Answer Who? What? Why? When? How? Answering these questions will lead you to the “big ideas,” and the answers to the “big ideas” tend to stay the same for a long, long time. Explain “how to.” Related to the previous strategy, are all of the how-to articles. Remember, new people are getting interested in what you do everyday and they need some basic how-to instruction. In other words, there will always be a fairly high level of demand for mastering the basics. If you need some inspiration, go to YouTube and do a search on the term “how to” and see what people are watching. By the way, if you go beyond “how to” and also address who, what, where, and when, you may have most of what you need for an e-book or extensive white paper, which you can give away in exchange for...
read moreSmall Business Gets a Voice on Over Regulation. Finally.
The cost of government regulations is staggering and it’s a cost that only goes one way: Up. I just clicked over to the Federal Register website, where you can search and access regulations published since 1994 and on one single Monday, 26 new rules were published. There’s an old saying about “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” While no single regulation will break small business, it seems to me that they certainly have small business crawling around on its knees. How regulations hit small businesses Because small businesses must spread regulatory costs over smaller facilities, smaller numbers of employees and smaller annual sales, those costs have a much bigger impact than they do on big businesses. For example, if a small business has to get an environmental impact report in order to erect a new building, the firm that conducts the study doesn’t give a “small business discount.” But while we often hear these complaints, we seldom see anyone do anything concrete about the problem. That just changed. Enter Rethink Red Tape The National Association of Manufacturers and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC), in partnership with the International Franchise Association and Women Impacting Public Policy recently launched a coalition and advocacy campaign called Rethink Red Tape. The idea behind the campaign is to engage and work with lawmakers in Washington, D.C. as well as those in many states to get them to start listening to small business owners and do something about reversing this tide of increasing regulations. “The men and women who own and operate American startups and small businesses say complex and expensive regulations are among the biggest challenges they face when starting or growing their businesses or creating new jobs,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of SBEC. “Through Rethink Red Tape, we hope to change that. We need smarter regulation that balances the need to protect our families, consumers and the environment while promoting a thriving small business economy,” Kerrigan added. Small business owners empowered The project has a lot to offer small business owners. If you sign up for their email list, you’ll be included in updates as the group takes action. You’ll discover ways you can participate. Further, the website is a clearing house of pertinent information. Study up and make good points the next time your representatives in Congress hold townhall meetings. Share information with other local business owners. If your representatives hear the same message from a wide variety of local business owners, the lawmakers will have to take notice. Make your voice heard Why not gather some facts and write an op-ed piece for your local newspaper? Let the general public know how stifling these regulations are. Can you imagine what the impact would be if the movement to bring sanity to federal regulations got as much attention in the media as the movement to boost the federal minimum wage to $15. And frankly, I think far more people would benefit by reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses than would benefit by a higher minimum wage. No matter how you plan to participate, you owe it to yourself and the future of your small business to take a look at the Rethink Red Tape website and get up to speed on the problem....
read moreA List of Crowdfunding Platforms and Related Services to Mark the New SEC Rules
Good things come to those who wait. Will this proverb prove true for the new crowdfunding regulations that took effect today (May 16, 2016)? You can get all the details on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website (SEC), but the main upshot of today’s changes is to open crowdfunding investments to non-accredited investors, meaning folks of average and lower income and wealth. The new rules also allow companies to raise up to $1 million through crowdfunding over a 12-month period. The reason I kicked this off with the proverb is because these rules have been in the making since April 5, 2012, when the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was signed into law by President Obama. This act was passed with the hope of “reopening American capital markets to emerging growth companies.” American small businesses and startups with an eye toward growth should be the main benefactors of these changes – if the JOBS Act performs as advertised. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that it’s been nearly four years since the JOBS Act became law and it’s only now that we have the final regulations that implement it. Are economic, startup, small business, and capital market conditions the same today as they were four years ago when lawmakers were motivated to write this law? Of course not, but let’s hope that the ideas embodied in the act are still relevant and deliver the intended results. It’s important to note that as the crowdfunding model becomes more accepted and a bigger player in the financial world, a wide range of related products and services are becoming available to both companies and investors. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s Crowdfunding Demo Day and Celebration on the Hill has brought together a wide array of crowdfunding platforms and related services. For everyone who can’t make this event, I want to share the list of crowdfunding platforms and crowdfunding service companies that will be there because it will give you a much bigger picture of the crowdfunding scene. And, whether you’re a business looking for funds or an investor looking for a place to put your money, you’re certain to find some good companies to work with. Here is a list of crowdfunding companies slated to participate in the SBEC event: SeedInvest is a platform connecting more than 14,000 venture capitalists, angel investors and accredited investors to highly vetted startups without charging investor fees or carried interest. SeedInvest sources deals from top incubators, accelerators and venture funds. StartEngine is an equity crowdfunding platform, working to revolutionize the startup financing model. Their mission is to empower 5,000 companies to raise capital and create 1 million jobs in the next 5 years. North Capital’s TransactCloud platform is used by broker-dealers, funding platforms, asset managers, and issuers to offer, transact, and settle private placements and other exempt offerings. OfferBoard leverages a powerful technology platform and experienced corporate finance professionals to serve businesses raising up to $50 million in capital. VENTURE.co provides full service securities packaging and fundraising tools to emerging businesses and portals, and provides comprehensive transparent information to investors about offerings in a secure online platform. WealthForge is a financial technology company transforming the outdated way private capital is raised by providing innovative technology and helping capital to flow to its best potential. CrudeFunders is a...
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