And when it comes to maximizing your online
reach, you will need a marketing plan.
But you have to be even more specific than
that as there are different ways to promote your business.
Therefore, if you want to rank higher on organic
search for your keywords, an SEO marketing plan is the ticket!
In this post, you will learn:
What a marketing plan is all about
The different goals of a marketing
plan
Reasons you need one for your
small business
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a road map on how you
propose to promote your products or services to your target market.
There are many types of plans for different
small businesses. With SEO, a great example is found in SE Ranking.
Alt text: SE Ranking business marketing plan
Its marketing plan covers the following SEO
factors:
Keyword research – Identify keywords related to your business that you should optimize for your website
On-page optimization – Set up tracking codes to analyze and measure your siteās traffic and conversions. Also fix your site structure to help search spiders crawl your pages much easier.
Mobile optimization – Ensure that visitors can properly view your website on mobile devices. That means your site must have a responsive design to adjust to the size of the deviceās screen size.
Content strategy – Learn how to create content that search engines and your target audience will love. Includes developing a content marketing strategy using your blog.
Off-page optimization – Increase off-page signals such as building backlinks and citations. These help the search engine to index your pages faster and better
Social media strategy – Leverage social signals to your site that could help increase your organic search rankings
These factors help you gain a better understanding
about your siteās SEO.
From here, you can develop a marketing
campaign based on what youāve accomplished in the checklist.
SE Ranking is more than just an SEO marketing plan!
Find out how this software can improve your site’s SEO performance from top to bottom. Check out my SE Ranking review by clicking on the link.
Purpose of the marketing plan
The goal of a marketing plan is to increase
your visibility in your market. If done right, you can see an uptick in
engagement with your brand, if not an increase in sales and revenue.
Unlike others, the great thing about an SEO
marketing plan is the ability to scale and measure the fruits of your labor. We
will talk about this in a bit.
Why you need a marketing plan
I already touched upon some of the reasons why you need a marketing plan for your
business. But itās best to list them down here so you know the benefits of a
successful marketing strategy.
Leverage online assets
If SEO isnāt part of your marketing mix yet,
then nowās the time to integrate it.
Almost everybody uses their mobile devices and
laptops to find solutions for their problems.
And if your site is what theyāre looking for,
then they can visit your site and become your clients.
But that wonāt happen unless you donāt
optimize your website for organic search!
By creating a marketing plan geared towards
improving your SEO (if not your digital marketing campaign), your website can
shoot on top of Google search.
As a result, more people will see your site on
search engine results pages (SERPs), leading to more clicks to your site.
Fortify your siteās foundations
For starters, you want your site to have a
clear hierarchical structure and pages optimized for low-hanging fruit
keywords.
However, doing that without a step-by-step
process to guide you is tough.
An SEO marketing plan will lay out the details
for you so you donāt have to scramble for information.
The marketing plan should also be easy enough
to understand and follow even if you have zero experience in SEO.
Because setting up an optimized site is hard
enough.
Plus, you donāt want to conflicting
information about SEO in your research. Best to have the details in your
marketing plan so you can simply worry about improving your site.
Using SE Ranking, you can click on the āHow
toā button to show the exact process of doing a task.
Establish clear business goals
But before you develop your website, you need
to have a goal in mind.
Answer this question:
What do you want visitors to do once theyāre
on your website?
As you know, visitors donāt amount to anything
if you donāt have a call to action.
So, if theyāre not on your site to subscribe
to your email marketing list or buy a product or service, then whatās the
point?
You want to assign a dollar value on your SEO
campaign.
Therefore, a marketing plan helps you
determine measurable goals to make sense of your small business marketing.
From here, you can use the data gathered by
your analytics tools to track your process.
See in the results if you are hitting your
goals. If not, tweak your campaign to make sure it is going according to plan.
Develop marketing strategies
By breaking down the factors in your SEO
marketing plan, you can scale your business using different strategies.
Bulk of your marketing strategy will deal with
off-page optimization.
Backlinks are the most crucial ranking factor
for your site. The more high-quality links you can generate for your site, the
better your site will rank.
However, links from authoritative sites take
time to acquire. Youāll have to jump through several hoops to earn that link.
While link building presents certain
challenges, your marketing plan should help make things easier.
It provides you a full view of your siteās
current progress in SEO. Therefore, having access to your plan gives you ideas
on how to approach your upcoming strategies.
For example, you can compare your existing
link profile with your competitors and see links they have that you donāt yet.
You can then plot up a campaign where you try
and acquire missing backlinks to boost your link profile.
Ensure the success of your
business
Simply put, your marketing plan helps you
achieve your goals and grow your business faster.
Without a plan, you donāt have marketing
objectives laid out for you.
Therefore, you do not know which factors to
prioritize and strategies to run for your site.
Not to mention, an SEO marketing plan allows
you to track and measure the organic traffic youāre generating.
Use the data available at your fingertips to
determine which campaigns to launch and maximize your growth.
Turn your marketing plan for SEO
into action with SE Ranking
Now you know the value that a small business
marketing plan brings to the table. But you should also know a plan isnāt the
same as a marketing campaign for your
siteās SEO.
The plan only gives you an idea of what you
need to do to attract more organic visitors to your website. So, if you want to
put your plan into action, you need a strategy or campaign.
As business owners, however, developing an SEO
marketing campaign requires you to have access to data about your website.
You must know how much traffic you are generating,
where youāre getting them, and how you can get even more.
From here, you will have all the information
you need to help you achieve business growth online.
Aside from giving you access to an SEO
marketing plan, SE Ranking also does:
Track your rankings
See how high youāre ranking for your target keywords over time based on your current SEO campaign
Monitor your backlinks
Identify the most valuable backlinks your site
has and keep track of their status. If you lose the link, avoid losing your
site rankings by asking the site owner to restore it.
Analyze your competitors
Check out how your competitors are faring,
which keywords they are ranking for, and how strong their link profiles are.
You can also spy on their strategy and figure out why they are so successful so
you can emulate it on your site.
Research for keywords
Find low-hanging fruit keywords that your site
should optimize for to rank for them and increase your organic traffic.
Run an on-site audit
Let the tool analyze your site for errors and areas of improvement. This ensures that your site is in tip-top shape and is optimized to rank for SERPs.
The audit also paves way for the tool to monitor the changes on your website. Doing so lets you keep track of all the changes in a period and revert back to the old version if necessary to restore a page’s ranking.
In this Netpeak Checker review, you will learn everything you need to know about this URL analyzer tool.
This isnāt your usual SEO tool, mind you.
If you want to break down every URL you come across with using different SEO parameters to help you make an informed decision for your campaign, then this is for you!
SEO is so competitive nowadays that your site will barely make a dent in your industry despite how optimized your site is. Tried-and-true tactics no longer work in general – you need something new and fresh to maximize your results of your efforts.
In fact, a simple tweak to help you boost your site’s organic search performance matters. It’s not about the depth of the tactic you will implement. Sometimes, even the smallest changes in your current SEO approach can make the biggest impact.
Therefore, instead of thinking big, why not think granular?
For example, instead of looking at a page as a whole, why not analyze the page using the different factors that govern organic search?
This reason is why you probably need Netpeak Checker in your SEO arsenal more than ever.
Note
All links that point to Netpeak Checker are affiliate links. If you click on the links and successfully subscribe for an account at Netpeak Checker, I will receive a commission of the sale. If you like the tool, then I would highly appreciate it if you sign up for Netpeak Checker using any of the links here or byĀ clicking here.
Why do you need to analyze URLs?
When analyzing a URL of a page, whether it’s from your site or competitors’, you probably look at it from a user’s perspective. You look at how fast it loads, how informative the content is, and how easy the presentation of the content is to the eyes.
At the same time, you also want to balance that viewpoint from the perspective of a search spider.
I’m aware that it’s best to think like a human when it comes to building your site pages if you want them to rank on Google search for your target keywords. By creating content that people will find helpful, you can attract more site traffic and retain them to browse other pages on your site.
However, you want search spiders also to love your site. That means:
Looking at your site’s backlink profile (same with your competitors!)
Analyze your site’s social media performance (while social media has no direct effect on SEO, your performance in this channel is considered a social signal, which could have an indirect effect on your organic ranking)
Compare pages based on SEO parameters of well-known services (Moz’s Domain Authority, Majestic’s Trust Flow and Citation Flow, and more)
Evaluate competitors based on different SEO factors and see how you fare against them (also shows you what you need to improve on)
and more!
Having this data at your disposal allows you to dig deeper into your SEO campaign. It’s probably more work, but as mentioned earlier, a potential change in your strategy for the better could be the difference from last to first place on organic search rankings.
While as crucial as analyzing URLs is, the actual process of doing so is a royal pain in the ass.
To analyze a page, you must use different tools to unearth the other SEO metrics. For example, to find its Domain Ranking, you’ll need to log in to your Moz account to find the score there. You need to log in to Majestic for the Trust and Citation Flows.
In other words, you will have to cross-check with reliable tools to find the data you need to determine the SEO factors of a URL. A single URL could take over an hour to get all the data required for your SEO research. If you’re to include the other URLs to review, it’ll probably take you weeks and months to fetch all the data before you can fully conduct your analysis!
With Netpeak Checker, you can review as many pages as you want and SEO factors as possible with a click of a button. From here, all you need to do is sit back and relax, as the tool will do the heavy lifting for you.
Instead of the weeks and months of struggling with each URL, Netpeak Checker can help you analyze hundreds of URLs and data in minutes!
How to Use Netpeak Checker
There are many uses for Netpeak Checker as part of your SEO strategy. Here are some to get you started:
Find sites to submit guest posts
Analyze your (or competitors’) backlink profile
Determine how optimized your site pages are and get an overview of your overall site performance
For the sake of this example, let’s do the third way on how to use Netpeak Checker.
Launching the tool
Once you subscribe to an account, download and open Netpeak Checker from your desktop. The tool is currently available for Windows users only, but they’ll make it available to Mac OS and Linux users soon.
The tool will take some time to load on your computer and sync with the online database. The speed depends on your hardware specs as well as your internet connection.
Netpeak also developed Netpeak Spider, which is similar to Screaming Frog SEO Spider. I could probably review this tool in the future if all goes well (Netpeak, I’m looking at you š )
Click on the Start button to launch Netpeak Checker.
Before starting a project, you want to determine the parameters that the tool will fetch from each URL you enter. Netpeak Checker can review over 1,200+ parameters (!!!) related to SEO. While you can use all parameters as you wish, you need to focus on only the most important and influential factors to help make it easier for you.
Choosing and setting up the parameters
Most of the parameters that you can gather from Netpeak Checker are free. Below are some of the ones that you should use when analyzing your URLs:
On-page – Get down and dirty with multiple parameters to choose from under this category. Aside from the usual on-page factors (title, description, subheadings, etc.), you can also see content download time, content size, and links to social media sites to help you better understand the page’s SEO.
Google SERP – You want to check how the URLs appear on search results by checking on the Title and Description under URL parameters. If you’re checking on homepage URLs, you may want to consider finding out the page’s indexed URLs, related pages, and site links under host parameters.
Bing SERP – Bing could bring value to your site as the second-largest search engine in the market. You can analyze the page based on URL parameters only.
Alexa – Global Rank is a good enough parameter to help you determine how your site stacks up to sites all over the world. If you want to focus on your performance locally, then choose Local Rank instead.
Social shares – Find out pages with the most shares on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Stumbleupon.
To see the different parameters you can check using Netpeak Checker and the explanation for each, click here.
You can easily set up the parameters for your project by clicking on them at the left side of the dashboard.
While these parameters will help you dig deeper into the SEO performance of each URL on your list, you’ll need better data than. I’m referring to the ones provided by third-party services like Moz, Majestic, SEMrush, and others.
However, to gain access to these parameters, you need to enter the access token and other details from those sites into Netpeak Checker.
Accessing premium parameters
Click on Settings > General from the menu bar. A new window will open that will show you the parameters that you need access tokens to access.
Unless you’re subscribed to Ahrefs, Semrush, Serpstat, and others or at least have an access to their respective API/access token, I’m afraid you won’t be able to use them as part of your analysis.
However, it’s not a total waste because you can still gain access to Moz’s data from here.
While Domain Authority (DA) is only an approximation of how Google views a page, it’s still one of the most sought-after parameters in SEO. The higher the DA, the more authoritative the site is. So, if you want to determine how valuable a page, you should track its DA to get an idea.
Click on the Moz API link to visit the page to get your Access ID and Secret Key. You must be logged in to your Moz account first before going to this page.
A new window on your browser will open. Click on the Dashboard link on the upper right part of the page.
Once on the Moz API Dashboard, click the Access tab to show you the details you need to enter on Netpeak Checker.
Enter these details, and you’re set to go!
Note: If you plan on running lots of pages using lots of parameters, then you should consider using an anti-captcha and HTTP proxies from this page. Both will help you gather data efficiently without entering CAPTCHA or getting flagged by Google for asking multiple requests at a time.
Running a project
Now that you have the parameters in place, you need to enter your URLs now.
Since we want to simply get an overview of your site’s SEO performance, you can run a quick Google search using the search operator “site:”domainname.com” to unearth the links.
Before conducting your search, make sure that your search will deliver 100 results (maximum) so you can gather more pages for each query from Google.
For the sake of example, we’ll use the search operator to get the indexed pages from QuickSprout.
To download the URLs, download and activate the Mozbar to export the URLs into a CSV file.
Once the extension is activated, you will see the Export icon on the upper left-hand corner of the page. Click on that.
You will be able to download a CSV file of the first 100 results of all the indexed Quicksprout pages on Google.
Open the file and copy all the Quicksprout links on column B of the sheet.
Copy the links and go to Netpeak Checker to paste the URLs. Click on List of URLs > Enter manually and paste there and click Add.
Once you’re ready, click on the Start button. Depending on the parameters you will be using, it could take a few minutes to an hour. In the meantime, you can use your computer for other tasks as the tool continues to gather information for your project.
When the report is finished, you will receive a message at the bottom-right corner of your page.
You can export the data for further review. To download the sample of the data, click on the link below.
Now that you have the data from Netpeak Checker, it’s time to crunch the numbers and see how you want to improve Quicksprout’s SEO performance.
Here are questions that you want to ask yourself in reference to the report:
Do your pages with titles and descriptions over 65 and 160 characters, respectively? Metadata that exceeds the suggested characters will be truncated from SERPs, which could lower your CTR. It’s best if you could shorten them so you could display the pages better.
Are your pages loading more than four seconds? 1 second is equivalent to 1000 milliseconds which is the metric used in Netpeak Checker. If your page loads more than 4000 ms under Content Download Time, then you need to find a way to decrease the loading time. You can also use the Content Size parameter for reference. Decreasing the Content Size by compressing the images and removing Javascript is the best way to go.
Which pages have the highest shares? Find out the pages with the most social shares on a specific channel (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You may consider updating the pages (if they’ve been published years ago) and re-promote them to the same channel where they got lots of shares to replicate your success.
Which pages have the highest Page Authority (PA)? This parameter from Moz allows you to determine the value of each page. You could use this information to help you spread your link juice to pages with low Page authority. For example, from your page with a high PA, link out to related internal pages with low PA to make your link juice flow to these pages.
These are just some of the many things you can do with the data gathered by Netpeak Checker. Depending on the applicable parameters you can use for any purpose you have in mind, you should be able to dig deeper with your SEO strategy by spending less time gathering data and more time developing and implementing a sustainable SEO campaign!
As mentioned, Netpeak Checker allows you to unearth massive amounts of data for lots of URLs in minutes, if not seconds. You don’t need to fill out a data entry or VA position to help you manually sort out the URLs using your preferred parameters. Simply run the tool and gather the data instantly. You can then focus on more important matters, such as refining your SEO strategy to increase your site’s SEO performance.
CONS: Doesn’t provide access to premium parameters
The available parameters are decent enough to help you analyze the on-page SEO performance of each site. However, if you want to get better parameters such as search traffic, total backlinks, and others, you will have to subscribe to paid SEO tools first and get their data (with the exception of Moz.)
Also, most of the tools can go as high as $69/month, which could be too pricey for some. Therefore, you’re left with parameters that are publicly available and doesn’t give you better insights into the SEO data of each URL.
This is not a knock on Netpeak Checker as it is a great tool and offers good parameters to help you establish your baseline. My suggestion is that Netpeak could hopefully offer the tool with access to the APIs and access tokens of the premium SEO tools, even if it means hiking up the price. I think this would be helpful to all Netpeak Checker users and will definitely put it up there as a must-use tool.
PROS: Good price point
For $19/month, Netpeak checker is definitely an affordable tool. It’s not a turnkey SEO solution like SEMrush or Ahrefs, but what it does, it does great and it reflects on the pricing. As a complementary tool to your SEO strategy, the tool is something that SEO experts would be willing to pay for.
CONS: Annoying start-up process
It’s ironic that a time-saving tool can be slow and bulky at the same time, and yet Netpeak Checker manages to be exactly both.
Opening the tool feels like a drag at times. Unlike cloud-based apps, you don’t have to wait for the data to sync with your computer. Netpeak Checker not only makes you wait by syncing the data online but also brings you to a splash page that shows both Netpeak Checker and Spider. I only bought Netpeak Checker, so I shouldn’t see Netpeak Spider when opening the tool.
I understand that showing Netpeak Spider is their way of upselling the tool to Netpeak Checker. However, the fact that you keep seeing it makes the entire experience disruptive from a user experience standpoint.
Statistic Number 1: According to a March 2017 study, more than 80% of the respondents used a search engine to look for a local business.
Letās get real reader, this means you need an online presence irrespective of what kind of business you are into. A website is an absolute must-have for all businesses to reach their audience and vice-versa. But creating a website is not enough. Itās more important to create a positive user experience through your website.
Positive user experience is based on a multitude of factors including the overall design, the user interface, the simplicity, credibility, and conviction of your content, and of course, the website speed, to name a few. Letās look into the latter.
Statistic Number 2: A staggering 57% of online visitors will likely leave your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, while 80% of the online visitors will probably never return to your website.
Clearly, reader, the speed of your business website plays a significant role in the quality of your user’s experiences and inevitably their choices.
A slow-loading website can frustrate online visitors and make them look for the same service elsewhere. And if youāre a freelancer, that spells catastrophe. Now you might think, āIsnāt it better to focus on improving my service or product? If it’s a good product or service, wouldnāt people want it?ā
The answer is no. Not unless youāve invented the time machine. Whether you are running an online retail shop or are a freelancer, a slow business website can kill new prospects for your business.
To what end, you ask? Letās look at exactly what a slow website could mean for your business.
Studies have shown that slow loading can result in a serious increase in unsatisfied consumers who are not buying any of the offered products or services.
This undoubtedly has an adverse impact on your sales and conversions, especially if you are a freelancer with limited work-time.
2. Impact on web traffic
At a time when Netflix was consuming 15% of the Internet traffic globally, they decided to perform basic compression on its websiteās bandwidth. It resulted in a 43% drop in outbound traffic.
There are Good bots that help in improving a websiteās SEO. When you search for a website or its products and services, the search page lists the appropriate results- which in turn is made possible with crawler bots or search engine bots.
But there also exists Bad Bots. These bad Automated Bots currently make up a whopping 50% of the total web traffic! PriceMinister-Rakuten, a popular French E-commerce website, found that 75% of its website traffic came from bots. These Creepy Crawlies can make your wallet as empty as their hearts- they reduce your websiteās processing power, increase its load time, and can even shut it down!
To prevent bad bot attacks, use WordPress security plugins like MalCare.
A security plugin developed by the team at BlogVault, MalCare can safeguard your website from unwanted bot traffic and attacks, preventing website compromises and shutdowns. Powerful security tools like MalCare identity bad bots and prevent them from accessing your freelance website.
A slow-loading website could lead to a high bounce rate, and this is what Google interprets from it- āThe user left too soon. The user isnāt happy. Other users probably wonāt be either.ā
And, there you have it reader, the truth. While many other factors also determine the Google search engine ranking, Google frowns upon slow website speed as it makes the userās experience unpleasant which basically means a lower ranking.
A faster website enhances the user experience and engagement pushing users to spend more time on your website. In turn, this improves your page views and search engine optimization (or SEO), which basically means a better search engine ranking.
5. Impact on mobile users
Compared to desktop users, mobile phone users (especially, online shoppers) have lower attention spans and patience levels. This is why, from July 2018 (surprise), Google has made website speed an important ranking factor for searches made online from smartphones.
A 2018 statistic by Stone Temple revealed that more than 58% of the website visits globally were made from mobile devices.
Google reported that a web page that takes more than 3 seconds to load on a smartphone notes 53% of its visitors leaving the page.
Since websites are usually optimized for functioning well on a desktop computer, they may perform sub-par on a mobile device. Online users are thus, less inclined to engage with companies with badly designed mobile websites.
Now, that we have seen the extent to which website speed can affect your business, itās time to answer a simple yet persistent question.
So what are the best website speed optimization tips to get more leads and brownie points from Google?
Letās put our thinking hats on.
Website speed optimization tips for a freelance site
1.Ā Ā Optimize your Images
Size matters. The file size of an image is often much larger than it needs to be.
Just compressing your images can go a long way in reducing the load time. It is also important to use the right format for images.
You can reduce your image size by nearly five times with the right combination of file format and compression type.
However, you’ll need to experiment with each image or file format to see what works best.
Here are some more tips-
Use fixed-width and auto-height to make your images responsive.
Prioritize the quality and source of your images. Original high-quality images will make you stand out in the search results than images from a stock site or a low-quality image. Put up pictures of your previous work, if possible. Not only is it original, but it also goes a long way to act as social proof of your capabilities.
Use JPEG images wherever possible. Their file size is lesser than those of PNG images.
For logos and icons, use PNG format to save up on those dearest bytes.
Try to avoid using GIFs, BMPs, and TIFFs.
Make the file name of your image descriptive of its contents by using appropriate keywords.
You can use Image Optimization plugins such as TinyPNG, Imagify, and Optimus as well.
However, I would suggest using ShortPixel*, a WordPress plugin that automatically optimizes the images for you after upload. You can also tweak the settings to adjust image size and format to your liking.
2. Scrutinize those plugins
Considering that WordPress powers 1/3rd of all websites, itās important to address the various hindrances to the speed of WordPress websites.
First, identify what is causing your website to slow down.
There are many plugins that can improve your website load speed, however, too many plugins or a large, heavy plugin can do the exact opposite.
Use a Plugin Performance Profiler to identify those plugins that are outdated and/or bringing down your speed. Delete these plugins.
Secondly, evaluate your plugins in terms of functionality. What value are they adding to enhancing your user experience? Remove the plugins that arenāt significant.
Alternatively, you can install widgets or find lightweight alternatives for plugins. If itās too complex to handle, get a WordPress management solution that will help you optimize your siteās speed.
3. Avoid complex themes
Choosing the right WordPress theme that fits your requirement is integral to shaping the user experience.
As a freelancer, it is important to focus on how efficiently the theme helps you to convey the quality of your services than just how it makes the website look. Choose a theme that adds functionality efficiently.
Keep in mind that using graphics-heavy themes will drive down the value in terms of sales numbers, particularly in the case of e-commerce websites that need a large number of product images. This happens even if the UX is selected to suit your exact needs. Do not forget, every second count.
4. Fewer Ads
Revenue generation through ads may be tempting but the adverse impact on the overall UX deserves serious contemplation.
Remember, the user is visiting your site to see what you have to offer, not someone else.
The negative repercussions of an ad-heavy site clearly prevail over the monetary benefit of selling your online real-estate.
In some cases, pages may even simply refuse to load in case of any service interruptions caused by the ads.
Interrupting pop-up ads aggravate your customers to get irritated and easily ready to churn.
In addition, a user clicking on an ad on a page will be lead to a different web page. In essence, you are pushing them to leave your site. This would invariably lead to a lowered interest in coming back to your site simply because it is not on the top of their head.
Alternatively, focus on making your content more convincing by providing social proof of your service or product. And if you are placing ads, make sure they are at least relevant to your product/ service.
5. Use better fonts
Readability and typography play a crucial role in enhancing the user experience.
Evaluate which character sets are supported while picking a font. If your page calls for the support of multiple languages, use a font that can deliver a balanced experience to your users. Foregoing a āfullā web font and compressing web fonts results in delayed text rendering.
Also, do not use fonts that are over-the-top. Make sure your users know you mean serious business. Ensure you have clear, appropriate headings and subheadings and a proper structure to your website.
In the online space, speed sells. Frankly, the real sign of how well your website is performing is your sales performance.
Saving those precious bytes automatically drives up your website speed and lets you continually deliver an unparalleled user experience in the online market.
Google, Walmart, and Amazon also continually test their performance considering the importance of speed in todayās fast-paced world.
Are you ready to follow these website speed optimization tips
Simple tasks like the website speed optimization tips above will unfailingly help you serve content that increases user engagement by removing the problem areas. Speed sells and it sells effectively.
Visitors come to your freelance website looking for a service that you can deliver; the faster you deliver it to them, the more likely they are to come back.
If you’re looking for a Buzzsumo alternative, then this Social Animal review is for you!
Let’s face it – as good as Buzzsumo is as a content research tool, it’s too expensive for bloggers who are just starting out.
The lack of competitors Buzzsumo has in the market doesn’t make things easier. Until now!
In this post, you will learn everything you need to know about Social Animal and how you can use it to create compelling content and promote it to the right influencers.
Social Animal is a content marketing tool divided into five specific features:
Content research – Analyze your or your competitor’s published content and break down its performance according to different metrics. Also, find trending topics that you can piggyback on to increase your online visibility.
Content curation – Find relevant content that you can share on social media or discuss on your blog.
Influencer outreach – Find people on Twitter related to your niche with thousands of followers who can help promote your content.
Facebook marketing strategy builder – Search across millions and billions of Facebook posts to help you gain valuable insights. Then use the data to develop an effective strategy for this social platform.
Competitor monitoring – Find out updates and the latest news about your competitors in different online sources
Let’s dig deeper into its features to see how you can perform these tasks using this tool.
While reading this Social Animal review, you’re probably looking closely at what it does and see if it compares favorably to Buzzsumo.
And you have good reason to do that! You probably love Buzzsumo but you simply can’t shoulder the monthly costs.
Well, I’m happy to report that Social Animal is very similar to Buzzsumo which is a good thing!
Here’s how much they are the same, if not probably better to some extent:
Articles
If you click on the Articles link on the menu, Social Animal will show you topics that you can click on and use as inspiration to jumpstart your content research.
However, you’ll probably just find your topic using its search bar.
If you enter “content marketing,” it will show you these results:
Just like Buzzsumo, you can see the engagement numbers for each social media platform and their respective total figure.
Use this information to help you find content that people share the most in your niche.
Since there’s interest in this type of topic, you can use it as a template to create an even better version for your blog!
Now, I want to talk about the filters on the left sidebar.
If you’re not happy with the initial results, you can refine the posts that you want to see.
Here are the filters you can customize to get the best results for your search:
Search Mode – determine whether to show published or shared content in the results
Filter by Date – select the date range when the articles were published
Content Type – choose from listicles, how to guides, guest posts, and more.
Deep Search – Type the keyword or phrase you want Social Animal to find in the articles and show them in the result. Take note: Buzzsumo does not have this feature!
Domain – reveal posts published only on your desired domains
Author – find content written by a particular author
TLD – only show top-level domains on the results
Word Count – choose how short or long the posts you want to see from the results
Sentiment – show articles with positive, negative, and/or neutral sentiment
To do this, click on the Headline Analyzer option of the post on Social Animal.
You’ll see something similar to this:
It tells you the strengths and weaknesses of the headline. Use this information to create a better headline version for your post!
Other factors you will see to help you analyze the headlines of competitors are:
Emotional Analysis – shows the emotions the headline evokes from readers
Sentiment of the Headline – tells you whether the headline has a positive, negative, or neutral sentiment
Quick Scanning Eye – reveals to you the first words people see from the headline. Also shows which among the words are rare and common.
Dictionary and Synonym analysis – lists down similar words of words used in the headline
Using this option of Social Animal, you can be sure to come up with a headline that people will click on and read!
Add to compare
If you want to pit two high-performing articles against each other from your search, you may do so with Social Animal!
Click on the Add to Compare option for the two posts you want to analyze.
Comparing posts with the most shares gives you even more insights on how you should develop content similar to these titles.
For example, if a post received more Facebook shares that the others, then you need to see what made it more shareable on that platform and emulate its success!
View sharers
Let’s say a post generated tons of Twitter shares.
With Social Animal, you can see who those sharers are and analyze their influence.
To do this, click the View sharers link on the post you want to review.
From here, you can see who the sharers are and the number of followers and tweets they have.
Most importantly, you can export the list and reach out to them one by one once you have published a better version of the post they just shared.
Insights
Now, onto the fun part!
When writing the best content possible, you need to refer to actual and proven data.
The insights provided by tools like Social Animal helps you target the right angle for your topic to maximize its impact with your audience.
The Insights feature does exactly this:
You will see how much the topic is shared on social media, when the best times of publishing content about the topic is, and more!
The graph above shows you the number of shares and published articles about the topic attracted during that day.
However, it’s really difficult to differentiate which ones in the graph are the number of shares and published content.
More importantly, you can export the data and crunch the numbers using a spreadsheet.
Domains
If you want to see which domains generated the most engagement for the topic, then click on the Domains tab.
It shows the overall performance of the domain relative to social shares across the most popular platforms.
However, it doesn’t factor in the number of articles published in the domain about the topic, at least on this view.
Therefore, click on the Explore link to the domain that you want to analyze so you can see the articles with the most shares published in the domain.
Authors
This tab shows the most prolific writers of the topic.
Their performance is The number of social shares determine the performance of the authors.
Similar to the Domains tab, you can click on Explore to see the other articles attributed to the author.
Content analysis
If you’re about to hit “Publish” on your post draft, stop.
You need to know first which days of the week the topic gets the most shares on social media.
The Content analysis tab shows you the total or average engagement the topic gets from different platforms each day.
Judging from the results above, it’s best to never publish posts on weekends and Friday if you want to get the best results from your content.
And that’s just for this keyword! The results vary depending on your topic and niche.
Influencers
Similar to Buzzsumo’s feature, Social Animal’s Influencers feature shows you the different influencers in the keyword or topic you entered:
It shows you the Twitter users with the most followers and tweets.
You can filter the results using the options on the left sidebar to find specific influencers that suit your needs.
Personally, I feel this is where Social Animal misses the mark.
The data provided is limited and it doesn’t show more important metrics as seen on Buzzsumo (retweet and reply ratio, etc.).
Nonetheless, the results found here should at the very least help you identify whom to target once you’re ready to promote your content.
Facebook search
If you’re huge into Facebook marketing, then this Social Animal feature is right up your alley.
After connecting with your Facebook account, the tool will find posts related to your search query with the most shares and comments.
Use this information to join the conversation and build relationships with like-minded people.
Also, you can filter the results by date and post type so you generate the results you need.
As a suggestion, it would help if Social Animal can filter via language so you can exclusively get Facebook posts in English.
Analyze posts
Dig deeper on Facebook about your topic using Social Animal.
See how many published posts about your query and determine the best times, day, and content types to publish.
Also, you can view other factors like sentiment analysis, post analysis, and reaction splits.
These let you break down the Facebook activity of the topic and capitalize on aspects that your competitors haven’t worked on.
Once you’re logged in, you need to create a project for your blog or site.
Enter the best keywords and competitors you want to track for your project.
If you do this correctly, you will see the most popular articles for the keyword you entered.
If you scroll down the page, you will also see the most popular influencers, domains, authors, and Facebook post about the topic.
So how can you use the information found here to build your content marketing strategy?
For example, let’s take the popular domains for example.
Click on any one of the domains to view articles published there related to your topic.
Filter the results until you find the ones that suit your needs. For instance, you want the latest content that’s published within the last week.
If you like any of the articles that appear on the results, click Share Article to share them on your social media.
Ideally, it’s best to copy the link and schedule the post using a social media management tool like SocialPilot or similar.
But the point is this:
You can find the best and most relevant content about your topic to share and curate on your social media!
Here’s another example:
Let’s say you found a new influencer to reach out to or a Facebook post that you need to engage with later.
Instead of letting them slip away from your fingers, you can save them in Social Animal instead for future reference.
This allows you to organize your data and proceed according to plan.
So, not only is Social Animal a research platform for your content marketing. It’s also a platform where you can build and develop your project from the ground up!
Finally, there’s an option called Keyword Mentions on the Projects page.
Use this option to find the latest and most relevant mentions of your keywords and competitors.
However, it’s only the graph that you see from this page.
This option would work best if you can also see links to the keyword mentions for easy access.
Regardless, the data provided by Social Animal should help you understand the topic and your competitors much better.
Social Animal price
As mentioned in the introduction, Buzzsumo is expensive as hell.
And as much as you want to discontinue using that tool, there’s no other alternative in the market that you can move to.
From what you’ve seen so far, Social Animal is indeed a legitimate replacement for Buzzsumo.
But the real question is this:
How much does it cost?
See for yourself:
For half the price of Buzzsumo, you get unlimited searches and data from your subscription.
You can also export data at least 50 times depending on your plan.
Finally, monitor and receive five (5) alerts minimum regarding your keywords and competitors to keep a tab of their activity.
Comparing its price to Buzzsumo, Social Animal is a very efficient product!
There are stark differences in some of the features. But if your goal is to develop content that works, then Social Animal is a much better choice for you.
So we’ve blasted through the jam-packed features of the tool.
I discussed what the tool does and some of the things it doesn’t.
But to formalize my thoughts about Social Animal, below is what I feel are the pros and cons of the tool.
But before I begin, I want to say that I don’t consider pricing as an advantage for Social Animal.
I think that pricing is correlative to the results the tool brings to the table. And in my opinion, Social Animal’s price is just right.
Just because it costs lower than Buzzsumo, it doesn’t automatically make it a “steal.”
I’ll try to explain this factor as you proceed reading the review:
Pros
Awesome filtering features – I love how you can find the results you’re looking for by simply tweaking on filters to your needs. It’s a great way to find what you’re looking for without having to browse through all the data.
Breaking down the topic and most shared articles is a breeze – If your purpose of using Social Animal is to create better content, then you’re in for a treat! You can compare the best-performing articles and analyze their headlines to come up with more effective ones. The Insights help validate your topic and whether or not it’s worth pursuing and writing about in your blog.
Effective project management – You can save articles, influencers, domains, and any data from Social Animal. Do your research now and plan in advance by saving the most relevant entries for your project and perform additional research on each.
Cons
Influencers feature provide insufficient information – The tool doesn’t show the most relevant information about the influencers. Aside from the posts and followers, there’s nothing much to know about them. What are the chances they will reply to me? What kind of topics do they tweet about the most? These questions remain unanswered by Social Animal. And this is probably the most crippling aspect of the tool. If you can’t break down the influencers according to more advanced metrics, then you can’t create an effective outreach strategy.
Facebook Search feature feels half-baked – It does show you posts with the most engagement. And the Reaction Splits are a new touch. But I’m not very happy with the results for a single reason: it doesn’t let you filter out the language. If Social Animal can find a way to screen out non-English Facebook posts, then we’re on to something. But as of writing, this feature isn’t as impressive as it should be.
Verdict to this Buzzsumo alternative?
Now we’re at the end of this Social Animal review.
I’ve expressed everything I need to say about this alternative to Buzzsumo.
But let’s make it much simpler:
As a Buzzsumo alternative, I like Social Animal.
It does what Buzzsumo can do to a limited extent.
I think Buzzsumo is more loaded and provides better data and insights.
But from a price standpoint, Social Animal compares very favorably.
The Influencers and Facebook Posts features need more work, but the Articles and its filtering options are more than enough to justify the value of this tool.
As a stand-alone product, I enjoy using Social Animal.
As an SEO guy, I prefer tools like Serpstat to conduct my content research. But that doesn’t do justice to what Social Animal brings to the table.
At the same time, it’s not a social media management and scheduler like Social Champ and ContentStudio.
Nonetheless, if you’re looking to generate ideas for your social media activity, you can’t go wrong with this tool.
Expect to generate unique insights to creating content that resonates with your audience using Social Animal.
Naming your business is an important part of launching your brand as a freelancer.
It is very frequently the first thing that your leads will find out about your business.
It needs to be compelling and engaging so that it will draw clients in while also summarizing your brand and identity.
Although naming a new freelance business can feel difficult and challenging at first, it should not have to feel like you are stepping off the edge of a cliff while wearing a blindfold.
With these steps described in the article below, you can improve the organization of your ideas and get the most out of your freelance business name.
Naming your freelance business: Everything you need to know
Before we begin, I would like to introduce the writer of this post: Grant Polachek of Squadhelp. Here’s his bio:
Grant Polachek is the Director of Marketing at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with nearly 20,000 customers from the smallest startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation. Get inspired by exploring these good names for your business.
So if you have concerns with coming up with a name for your freelance business, don’t hesitate to reach out to Grant and Squadhelp!
Also, I’ve edited the article to make it better. Nothing but the best for my dear readers š
So, let’s begin!
Build your brand
When choosing a name for your freelance business, it is useful to gather all of your branding ideas in one central place.
If you make a handy document, then you can check back to it throughout the entire naming process.
On your document, write down some of the things that you want to be central aspects of your freelance brand.
For example, you can answer questions like:
What do you do?
What are the values of your brand?
Why are the freelance services you are providing important?
If others donāt feel that you are passionate and invested in your own brand, then they will likely begin to question why they should care about your freelance business either.
Writing down a number of existing freelance business names that you think are effective can help you brainstorm names for your own new business.
Make it a point to take down notes on each of these names and write down what do you like about them and if you want to try to achieve a similar feel or vibe.
Keep writing down existing freelance brand names that you like until you end up with a list of eight to ten of your ideal names.
After you have gathered the top names then you can start to dissect them.
Write some notes in the form of bullet points that describes what exactly you like about each of your favorite names and why they work so well for their company.
Analyzing and dissecting your top existing freelance business names in your field can be a great exercise to give you some direction for the naming process.
Think about your audience
Another thing that you should consider when launching your freelance brand is the audience you want to appeal to.
For example, a clothing line targeted at older, accomplished, and professional women will have a very different voice and tone than a fashion line for women in college. And thereās a good reason for that!
Your brand name needs to focus on who you are appealing to and more than just you.
Most of the popular brand names have a target audience in mind and connect to them through shared values and emotions that resonate with them.
Take, for example, the investing app Robinhood.
This app helps people make the investment process free and simple for the typical person, not just the ultra-rich.
Their brand name for their business not only encapsulates their values to a tee by utilizing the story of the heroic bandit Robin Hood.
Robin Hood is a great choice for a narrative because it appeals to the millennial audience.
The name is both fresh and fun and also aligns with the values of convenience and fairness that millennials hold in such regard.
Look into the future
Where do you want your freelance brand to be in five years? What about ten years down the line?
If you are planning on starting a freelance business that might grow into different areas in the future, be wary of selecting a name that pigeonholes your brand.
At the beginning of launching your business, you may be creating a sock brand. You may feel that the name SuperSocks could be a great fit for your business.
But if you want to expand into other territories later on such as hats or gloves, SuperSocks would no longer a suitable name.
This means that you would have to change your established name which could confuse customers and ultimately lose business. Planning ahead can help you avoid a costly rebranding process down the line.
Try to capture your mission and values in just a couple of short project statements like these:
We need a name that captures our young, unique approach to selling high heels.
We need a name that establishes us as a traditional and trustworthy brand.
We need a name that hints at our animal-friendly business practices.
You can begin by writing a couple of project statements for your own freelance business.
Make Tough Choices
Now that you have put all of your ideas in one central place and have figured out what the type of name that you want, you can begin the process of coming up with name ideas.
One of the most important decisions that freelancers need to make early on when coming up with a name for their business is whether or not use their real name or a brandable name.
While there are merits to both of these options, it is typically preferable for freelancers to incorporate their own name into the business. This helps solidify the connection between the business and yourself.
Especially if you are the only freelancer working for your business, incorporating your own name into the brand name will make it clear to clients just who theyāre working with.
On the other hand, if there is any possibility of expansion down the road, separating your name from your company name is a must.
Collect some names
Now, itās time to put your thinking caps on.
Jot down every name you can muster that might work with the brand you are creating.
Donāt be afraid to think outside of the box, and donāt judge any of the names that you come up with at first.
Even if you donāt like it now, you may find that one of your brainstormed names could really resonate with your target audience.
Continue writing down as many names as you can think of because the more you have to cross off the list, the better idea you will have of the type of name that you are looking for.
When coming up with names, you must start broad.
Some names can be descriptive, intellectual, poignant, or classic. You can merge words to form a name or use two separate words to summarize your businessās appeal.
One helpful way to come up with brand names is by writing down an example for every type of name you can think of.
Getting out of your comfort zone when coming up with names will help you in the future and give you a variety of names to choose from.
Cut down your options
Finally, it is time to start making some decisions by cutting down the number of name options that you have brainstormed.
Start removing freelance business names that you know wonāt work for you until you have only five or six favorite names remaining on your list.
Now that you have some great options to move forward with, this is a great chance to start getting second opinions from your friends and family. Another group to get feedback from would also be your target audience!
When asking questions about your name choices, donāt just ask, āWhich of these names do you like the best?ā Make sure you frame your questions more neutrally by asking something closer to, āWhich of these brands would you be interested in learning more about?ā
Lock down your domain name and assess your risk
A solid domain complements a great brand name. This is because your website is where your prospective clients will find out more about what services you offer.
So, it is best to have as close of a match to your name as possible.
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”720″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#333333″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]Editor’s note:Ā Now hold up, playa!
Signing up for a domain name is another problem altogether. In fact, it deserves a post of its own.
However, instead of making it difficult for you, here’s what I suggest:
When signing up for a domain name, go with Siteground*.
It’s a web hosting platform that offers domain registration.
So why Siteground?
Simple: It makes your site load faster andĀ respond better for your visitors.
After signing up for a domain and a hosting plan, you can build a WordPress site within minutes and enjoy its blazing-fast servers and excellent customer support!
Again, click here* to sign up now and set up your freelance business website so clients will come knocking on your door.
[/mks_pullquote]
Trademark validation for your freelance business name is another great way to secure your name.
Run a trademark risk test so that you can rest assured that your brand name isnāt already in use by a similar freelance business.
Being proactive in preventing trademark risk will help you avoid any complicated legal issues.
Naming your freelance business is no walk in the park!
Coming up with an effective name can feel like a daunting task. So much of your success rests upon a name.
It is the crux of your freelance brandās identity, and it is the first connection between you and your clients.
You might think that all of the best names are already in use, or that you lack good ideas, but donāt worry. The perfect name for your business is out there and if you follow the steps then youāll find it in no time!
Being in the SEO game for a long time, you know the value that great SEO article writers bring to the table.
They help rank websites for their target keywords by observing the best on-page SEO practices on the articles they write.
Ultimately, they convert fairweather site visitors into customers with their compelling writing style.
So, if you’re:
an aspiring writer who wants to turn his/her passion for writing into a profession
website owner or agency looking to hire talented writers to help their business
Then you’ve come to the right place!
This post discusses the skills and discipline that the talented and most sought-after SEO article writers have. If you want the full process from keyword research to publishing, my complete SEO content writing guide covers it step by step.
By knowing these skills, you can build your writing business on these foundations or find a writer who meets these qualifications.
What separates good SEO article writers from the bad ones?
Before we start, this post is written by Rana Tarakji. Here’s a short bio about her:
Originally from the U.S., Rana Tarakji is an SEO analyst, the founder of One SEO ā a multinational link building company -, and author of Off-Site SEO Guide: A Hands-On SEO Tutorial For Beginners & Dummies, who now lives in Beirut, Lebanon. Ranaās work has appeared in a wide range of publications in print and online, including Life Hacker, Upwork, Christian Today, Newswire, and many other outlets.
Also, I’ve edited the post and added my thoughts to make it more useful to you dear readers.
Get it? Got it? Good.
Let’s begin!
Researches for keywords strategically
One of the main factors that bring visitors to a website is when the content matches the keywords they searched on Google.
For professional SEO article writers, they never write content without a target keyword in mind.
This means they conduct adequate research prior to using keywords in their articles.
They dig deep and find out which words to best use if you want to rank for a niche. Professional article writers in the SEO scene also learn about SEO trends and use them to their articleās advantage.
The best professional SEO article writers know that behind every keyword possess an intent.
For instance, if you want to rank high for a keyword, you need to understand why users are searching for that keyword in the first place.
You can classify user intent may be classified as:
Navigational – Do they want to learn more about the brands specific to that keyword?
Informational – Are they looking for information about that topic?
Transactional – Do they want to buy something that relates to the search phrase?
As you can see, for each type of intent, users have a corresponding agenda!
Professional SEO writers take the lead here by producing content that is most fit and helpful to the user intent behind your customerās search query.
By imagining a preset persona of your target customer, they can generate articles that can offer a solution to each search query.
In turn, users get more enticed with every targeted solution your site has to offer them.
And the more users your writers attract with this intent-based strategy, the better your siteās organic traffic can become!
Creating content that matches your customerās needs is one thing. But SEO article writers also ensure that each write-up they produce mirrors niche authority and credibility.
A mark of content credibility is its uniqueness and how insightful it is to readers. Regarding the latter, SEO writers research for information that can help back up their claims in the content.
Aside from fact-checking and source-citing, professional SEO article writers also take time to thoroughly proofread their work.
This is because they know that SEO-wise, well-written and error-free articles always attract natural links and stand a greater chance at ranking on top as opposed to those that are poorly written.
Editor’s note
Sorry to butt in again, but we need to talk more about proofreading your work.
In case it’s not yet obvious to you, but writing error-free content is of utmost importance!
A couple of Facebook members in a group made fun at a post I promoted with incorrect spelling. I covered that embarrassing ordeal in this post.
And you know what, they have every right to do it!
That’s why you must be vigilant with your content before sharing it to an audience.
If I have to choose one tool that I have to use, I’ll go with this tool any day of the week.
Read my review about Grammarly Premium to understand why. (Hint: Grammarly got the highest score among all the tools I’ve reviewed!)
SEO article writers produce content that is readable and engaging
Professional SEO writers aim for the readability of their articles.
They are aware that engaging articles are the ones that are clear, organized, and, simple.
They lessen āfluffā and go straight to the point.
Every word and sentence on their articles are deliberate and purposeful.
That means simplifying industry jargons to help their target users understand the article.
The more logical and smooth-flowing the article, the better!
Aiming for the top (via featured snippets)
Another secret that professional SEO article writers keep is their constant goal of getting to the top of SERPs.
Your typical SEO strategy already addresses this with the usual on-page and off-page SEO campaigns. But professional SEO article writers may take a different route.
Remember the trend of voice search and the rise of search assistants (think āhey, Googleā)? SEO writers aim their articles to respond to them through their articles.
So, when a user asks Google via voice search, their articles can turn up at the topmost part, also known as a featured snippet.
Here’s an example of a featured snippet for one of my posts. Search “missinglettr review” and you will most likely see this.
All they have to do is to make your siteās articles structured to a voice search-friendly format.
They do this by answering queries in a direct to the point manner. They can also make use of bullets and numbered lists so that the assistant can read the information one by one.
Finally, they fill their articles with statistics and facts to back up their content.
Maximizing content length
SEO article writers take time generating high-quality content. That also means (but is not exclusive to) lengthier content.
This hits your SEO goals in two ways.
One, it appeals to web crawlers and search engines more since longer content means a better chance to spread and utilize your target keywords.
Two, it enhances user experience. Assuming the content is comprehensive all throughout its 1,000-2000-word length, then you give more value to your siteās visitor as you offer him with more information.
Adding the right images
Professional SEO article writers know that articles are not just all about the text. They know that adding visual content like images and videos can help keep their focus.
Apart from providing a break from paragraphs, images can also help clarify the information that your articles convey.
For example, infographics and diagrams can help customers understand a complex concept that can otherwise be too wordy to elaborate.
But they do not just dump images and add an alt text tag to make it more SEO-friendly. Professional SEO writers attach images that are appropriate to the content.
When it comes to infographics, they either create one or choose a pre-made version. In any case, they include the ones that will increase your siteās organic traffic and not drive them away.
Creating catchy titles and headlines
Aside from ensuring that the title, headers, and tags of your articles contain your target keywords, professional SEO article writers make it a point to make the article titles catchy.
Titles are also a factor when you click on a search result. An article with an ambiguous and keyword-stuffed phrasing is less appealing than the one with wit and flair.
Because social media feeds like that of Facebook are full of attention-grabbing content, they write posts with click-worthy headlines to gain traction to their social media followers.
They leverage the power of likes and shares to build better brand recall and recognition for your business.
They never fail to include a link of your siteās website URL on every post, so their followers can visit their site for more information about them.
Advantageous use of analytics
Aside from their content, professional SEO article writers also take their time to review the results of their content.
The information you can gather from platforms like Google Analytics contains useful SEO insights that SEO article writers can leverage.
