Engaging content often comes as a response to current events, trends and public discussions. However, marketers rarely talk about the ways to stay on top of the latest news for the purposes of developing relevant content and building links. This blog post discusses the tools that make catching up with the relentless news beat easier. […]
Even though the year is not over yet, there have been some big changes in Google search in 2019 that have already impacted on the results and the user, along with all the SEO agencies and companies.
The future of search looks like it will have actually less search, as weird as that might sound. Google performed lots of changes in SERP, lots of algorithms and features were added and updated, which make things even more complex. While in some countries Google search lacks in optimization, other countries experience major fluctuations.
That being said, we’ve searched through our memories and the web to understand how Google has changed in 2019 so far and here are the top highlights:
Last year alone, Google performed 3,200 changes to their system, including features and regular updates meant to keep the results relevant. Moreover, they say evolution is the key to face the changes.
“Sometimes the web just evolved. Sometimes what users expect evolves and similarly, sometimes our algorithms are, the way that we try to determine relevance, they evolve as well.”
John Mueller
Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google
1. Pick up Where You Left off on Search
Right at the beginning of the year, Google added a new feature that helped users who perform mobile searches and launched activity cards to help users pick up where they left off. For example, if you look for search queries such as clean eating receipts or clean eating diets and you are logged into your Google account, you’ll be able to find an activity card at the top of the results page. That way, it provides easy access and it is a handful way to continue exploring and read your previous searches.
You’ll only be able to see the pages you’ve visited, along with the searches you’ve made. You can either click on the pages that you viewed before or perform another search to discover other aspects to that topic. That way, you can pick up where you left off on Google search.
Moreover, you can bookmark a specific receipt and add it to your collection for future reference. Your collection can be accessed by looking in your menu on the top left of the Search page or through the bottom bar of Google app. You can have as many collections as you want.
Easily edit your search activity and card by deleting pages or turning them off by tapping the three-dot icon.
The change performed by Google using this method was desired to make search history more accessible and more useful, help users follow their interests, build new habits, keep up with their tasks and keep valuable information on sight.
2. Confirmed Broad Core Update in March
The first confirmed update of this year from Google happened on March 13. Initially, the name was Florida 2.0, but Google themselves named this update Google March 2019 Core Update. The unlucky 13 came on a Wednesday.
The updates could be spotted using cognitiveSEO signals, by looking at the chart. In case there are big fluctuations, marked with red bars, that means there are possible updates. Below you can see a printscreen from the tool how the core update looked right on that day.
Google made it official on Twitter, where you can see the whole thread and the discussions on the topic:
This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see these tweets for more about that: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoXhttps://t.co/tmfQkhdjPL
While Google performs lots of focused updates nearly daily, there are some broad algorithm updates that happen several times per year. This update was about quality, designed to improve the overall results with no other specific details.
For every site that was impacted by that, there’s nothing they can do to fix it. Apparently, that’s what Google SearchLiaison said through a tweet. Building great content should be everyone’s mantra. Link building, social media marketing, online presence also matters in the SEO industry; so things remain the same.
There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.
Google SearchLiaison
Since content is mentioned, most probably it was a content related update, focusing on the quality it provides for the user. To stay ahead of competitors you should always search for the opportunity to deliver great content that becomes viral. Look for trends and evergreen content. With this in mind, ranking in Google will look like a gamble. Personalization and localization will become crucial and your focus will change upon that.
3. New Way to Explore Information with Google Discover
Named Google Feed when it was first released and later Google Discover a few months ago, the tool was planned to surface relevant content to the users, even when they’re not searching. The product is used by more than 800 million people each month to stay up to date.
Google Discover works very smoothly based on preferences, by following certain topics, customer’s behavior and search history. The tool recommends your content related to anything you might be interested such as sports, TV shows, actors, public personalities, brands, flights, travel, weather info and may more.
Google Discover can have major implications on how the user will interact with search and web. Since a user can personalize its search and select only the things that interest them, the Google Search itself might lose some of the popularity. With that in mind, a business will not compete to be in the first 10 positions to win the user’s heart, but rather in the top 1-3 (at max) because that is the number of results a user sees on a mobile screen when performing a search.
So, when a user searches for a topic, Google looks at the pattern for each user and tries to understand the subtopics related to each other. Based on the data collected, Google Discover will surface relevant topic that might interest the user next, predicting their future search.
Discover is one step ahead.
Discover has a lot of potential and it might change user behavior regarding online searching and information consumption.
4. Enriching Search Results Through Structured Data & Search Console
Google has always encouraged websites to add markup to their content for the search engines to understand better what that’s about. Implementing structured data on your website will probably offer you the chance to receive an enhanced appearance in Google search results.
In 2019, Google is pushing website owners to use more structured data for highlighting all sort of content and achieve more goals through a lot of great new features:
Increase brand awareness: for logo, local business, and sitelinks search box.
Markup your content for more traffic: for articles, breadcrumbs, events, jobs, Q&A, recipes, reviews.
Highlight products on SERP for conversions: for price, availability, and review ratings.
Which such a big range of content that you can use structured data for, the SERP has definitely changed. The newest additions to the list are structured data for FAQ and “How-to” type of content. For example, “how-to” content can be highlighted, by adding structured data to the steps, tools, duration, and other properties. Take a look at the example below:
Moreover, you can build how-to guides actions and FAQ answers with markup for Google Assistant, which means that how-to & FAQ answers can also be surfaced on the Google Assistant. Take a look at the example below:
All the structured data can be supported both on Google Search and Google Assistant and in Search Console, where you can see reports and monitor your website’s performance.
In case there are some errors and Google Search Console detects some issues you’ll see them on the Enhancements report.
The Structured data reporting from GSC has lots of advantages and allows you to review errors, warnings and valid items, plus the pages associated with such issues.
5. Mobile-First Indexing by Default for New Domains
This year, at the end of May, Google announced that as of June 1, 2019 mobile-first indexing was enabled by default for all new websites. On that day, it became official that websites should present the same content to users and search engines for both mobile and desktop devices.
You can check any link from your website in Google Search Console using the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console. Doing so, you’ll see how it was crawled and indexed.
With this Mobile-First Indexing launching, Google search is changing, showing the same content on mobile and desktop, forcing sites to comply for them to keep their rankings (for both mobile and desktop). For newly designed websites Google is determining them to check factors such as parity of content (including text, images, videos, links), structured data, and other meta-data (such as titles and descriptions, robots meta tags) to comply with mobile-first indexing.
As mentioned before, Google recommends websites to be mobile friendly and keeps encouraging responsive web design. Since mobile-first indexing has been running websites, should use a single URL for both desktop and mobile websites.
6. The June 2019 Core Update
Google announced on Twitter that a core update was rolling out on June 3, 2019. Similar to the update from March, it is part of the several broad core algorithm updates.
Tomorrow, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the June 2019 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this tweet for more about that: https://t.co/tmfQkhdjPL
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 2, 2019
While Google hasn’t made any official statements on the following update, John Mueller said that core update encompasses a broader range of ranking factors. As he said, that there’s nothing specific to fix, lots of websites experienced ranking drops. You can hear what he specifically said in the Webmaster Central office-hours hangout when a user asked him about the update:
I think it’s a bit tricky because we’re not focusing on something very specific where we’d say like for example when we rolled out the speed update.
(…)Sometimes the web just evolved. Sometimes what users expect evolves and similarly, sometimes our algorithms are, the way that we try to determine relevance, they evolve as well.
John Mueller
Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google
He reminds about a blog post written by Amit Singhal, formerly the head of Google’s Search team for 15 years, about the quality of the website which can really help the users in situations like these.
To understand a little better the situation, use cognitiveSEO signals and look at the fluctuations. Below is a printscreen with the evolution of search when the Google update was released.
I looked for rankings changes for sites that had ranking changes by at least 3 positions on desktop, mobile and local rankings for the first page of Google Search Engine for the US market. cognitiveSEO signals monitor over 170.000 randomly selected keywords for both desktop, mobile and local rankings to offer valuable insights of what happens in Google so you can spot significant fluctuations.
7. The Site Diversity Update Roll Out
Right after the June 2019 Core Update, Google rolled out the Site Diversity update which is completely different and completely unrelated. This update was created in the interest of the user so they won’t see more than two listings from the same site in the top results. In the screenshot below you can see the top search results for “create dental website” where www.pbhs.com has two search results.
Google explains that there might be situations where you could see more than two search results in Google when their systems determine that it is relevant to do so for a particular search. Whether it is content, website speed, Rank Brain, conversion rate optimization or any other factor, Google’s algorithm will decide what to show. The good thing is that it is improving and refined in order to offer more relevant results.
This site diversity change means that you usually won’t see more than two listings from the same site in our top results. However, we may still show more than two in cases where our systems determine it’s especially relevant to do so for a particular search….
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 6, 2019
It will be a while maybe until this update works wanders because there are still people who see more than two results from a website in Google search engine’s top results, as you can see if you look people’s tweets.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s public Search Liaison, says will affect only main listings though:
Sounds like the diversity update will only affect regular organic results and not affect features like featured snippets, people also asks, etc. https://t.co/gFz1E1bhd4
Continuing with diversity in SERP, Google wants to show more types of content including featured snippets with the results that might interest you, answers box, Knowledge Panels which can help you find key information or predict your searches using Autocomplete.
Their search results page doesn’t look like what we used to know, with a list of blue links and some ads. Now it is more personalized, offering information from lots of sources in all sorts of form: video content, visual content and text to connect you with useful information as quickly as possible.
If you look at the example below, you have lots of information above the fold allowing you to perform as fewest actions as possible and see everything with one click or two.
Takeaway
Ask for a new pair of eyes to look at your website to review it and find out new ways of improvement. Moreover, look together at who is searching through your website to find out what they are looking for, the flow. Evaluate user experience by looking at the user’s behavior. All these insights are a good exercise for you to understand the user better.
If the user is changing, their behavior will change, and therefore search will change. In this equation, your website should be changed -> improved. The search engine optimization role in the future of search gets even more complicated. Google for sure is shaping the future of SEO.
Wonder whether your CMO needs Artificial Intelligence now? This article explains the data problem AI solves and provides solutions and case studies to make the case to your C-suite.
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Content is the weapon of SEO. And SEOs like to use a twofold weapon, one that would win them the fight both on short-term and long-term. They call it seasonal (or topical) content and evergreen content. And, as always, there’s a debate between them: evergreen content vs topical content. Which one is better?
The thing is, is it a matter of “and” or “or”? Do topical content and evergreen content go hand in hand, or go separate ways? This debate is not only applicable to content marketing but to social media marketing as well, as both share the same types of content.
Nearly everybody tilts the scale in favor of evergreen content arguing this is the bee’s knees. But where does seasonal content stand in this? To what extent can holiday articles, Google updates, or top lists for a particular year really help and trigger ROI?
Each has their fair share of advantages and disadvantages. That’s where managing the right content strategy is an act of balance, like gymnastics, ballet, or figure skating. David Harry from SEO Training Dojo said in a cognitiveSEO talk that “Content strategies everything” and that is why you should know how to wield it in order to gain and not lose from it.
Although everybody tries to solve the crossword puzzle and find out which one has a stronger impact in the SEO blogosphere and on which one they should focus their efforts on, we’re all somehow chasing our own tails.
We shouldn’t be picking a single content type. Topical content and evergreen content actually intertwine. They need each other (more on this later).
This evergreen content vs topical content debate is similar to the one regarding passion vs love. The latter is everlasting and stronger, while the other is quite ephemeral, although fiery. Often times, you don’t even need to choose: you can have the best of both worlds.
However, you have to always think in the long run –what’s in it for you, is it worth deploying to earn money from this, is it relevant over a long period of time? But let’s discuss this over a cup of evidence and pros and cons listing. Then, you should be able to take a decision.
Seasonal or Topical Content
The Long Seasonal Content Story Short
Seasonal content also goes under the name of topical content.
A usual seasonal content definition would say it refers to content that is related to what’s trending, catering to the industry dynamics.
It usually delivers updated, relevant, and targeted information to an audience that is already well versed and familiar with the topic you’re writing on. Topical content is relevant during certain times of the year only and is usually pretty hip and niche disruptive.
Topical content posts are very common in industries that are constantly changing, such as tech and fashion, or to brands that usually have this kind of activity – news outlets, bet houses, and finance. Topical content titles go like this: The best country to spend your summer holiday in 2016, Winners and Losers of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Robinhood App is Available in Another Two US States, so on and so forth.
Seasonal content is divided into 2 categories:
time-based (certain seasons such as winter and summer, but also years as the cycle repeats every year)
event-based (Christmas, Easter, Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, Concerts and even Movies, although they end up becoming evergreen but lose traffic over time).
Some would add a third category, known as “true” topical content which, theoretically, is visited each recurring season or event relevant for that particular content (holidays, events, sales etc). However, seasonal content marketing is said to also include another category known as holiday-based seasonal content. But I personally think this is redundant, as this is already covered by event-based topical content.
A more reasonable use of the term topical content can also exclude seasonality. For example, a single time event such as an important politician making an outrageous statement can still be topical content, but isn’t necessarily seasonal. Same goes with shows such as “Got Talent” or “The Voice”. They are seasonal, but each have their own particular topic (artists names or different jury members).
Seasonal Content Benefits
Everybody says evergreen content weighs heavier from an SEO point of view. Yet, why does seasonal content still matter so much?
Should we analyze each blog, we’ll most likely discover both topical and evergreen content. And often times, seasonal content has a fair share in the blog post ratio. For example, here on our search engine optimization blog we write both evergreen content (general SEO questions) and seasonal / topical content (questions about SEO Google Trends, Google Updates, Tweets of Google officials, etc.).
Trendy, fresh, breaking new content is way catchier than general truths or case studies are.
News and fads get more attention.
When you’re publishing a piece of news, you will generally trigger an audience’s interest more than when you’re publishing on a topic they’ve seen countless times already.
One plus topical content has is that it can be transformed into evergreen content at almost any time. For instance, a How Did the SEO Landscape Influence Your Rankings in 2017 article could easily be updated to fit the year 2018.
Here are some top benefits you can get out of your seasonal content:
Seasonal Content Benefit #1 Writing seasonal content can greatly benefit your brand image. It sends the message that you care about the latest trends in the industry and like to be up-to-date. It shows interest in novelty and advanced information. This is how your audience starts trusting you and also becomes a client. Topical content shows that you want to stay relevant in your niche and you put your audience first. You care about what’s needed right at that moment. Topical content can easily satisfy readers’ needs and interests. By constantly providing fresh and up-to-date content, you are pushing forward the image of a trendy funky brand.
Seasonal content means that you care about the needs of the consumer in regard to various occasions and times of the year.
Seasonal Content Benefit #2What’s more, it can be relevant more than once, if the subject is trendy again. As previously mentioned, there’s a content subcategory which goes under the name of “true seasonal” and refers to content which can get back under the public eye. These posts can be revived on various holidays or sales occasions.
Seasonal Content Benefit #3 Another strong advantage is that topical content is good for selling things. People look for seasonal content to purchase stuff. This kind of content serves the user intent better and provides instant gratification. Whenever you craft and post a topical content piece, you help your well-versed audience make a better decision from a marketing and purchasing point of view.
People look for seasonal content with the intent to buy.
Seasonal Content Benefit #4 Moreover, topical content is very important when it comes to growing an audience. It helps you when building brand reputation and brand recognition. It creates buzz around your brand, although followers might lose interest at some point in time. Instagram is a great place to do that and get instant gratification, as well as Twitter. Topical content is top notch for instant success, word-of-mouth, gratification, and conversion. The down part is that followers can eventually bounce off once they stuffed their bellies with the info they were interested in, and never visit you again.
Seasonal content allows you to put your brand in the race.
Seasonal Content Benefit #5 Seasonal content usually triggers mobile-optimized strategies to help audiences land on and stay on your page longer. Seasonal content seeks to be concise yet comprehensive, all of that to satisfy their audiences with info delivered on the spot. This kind of straightforwardness needs the right user experience and interface. And that’s where mobile-friendly versions became the cool kids on the block.
In the seasonal content marketing realm, competition is far less to worry about. And this is because almost every business opts for evergreen-only content strategies.
Seasonal topics allow for fresh content creation with limited competition but a long enough lifespan to make a rate of return on the content creation cost.
Fireproof your content by creating topical content and FOMO, which is fear of missing out. Dictionaries say that it talks about FOMO as being an “anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media”.
Seasonal Content Benefit #6 Last but not least, seasonal content usually gets a great deal of traffic. But who doesn’t know that? Most probably, that’s the only reason people would rather deploy such content piece out on the blog. Sure the burst lasts only a while, but it’s big.
If you time it right you can also get a lot of backlinks to these types of posts. For example, we all hate spoilers but they sure do get shared a lot on the web. Movie fan theories, news about actors or future plans for series always get a great deal of attention on the web. You can then use an internal linking strategy to boost your other articles which get less links and you won’t have to rely on link building techniques to get your off page SEO done.
Seasonal Content Downsides
Although topical content has a great wealth of advantages to be deployed as a content technique, it also comes with a good share of disadvantages. And the sooner we accept and own it, the sooner we would spare ourselves of disappointment.
Seasonal Content Downside #1 Unfortunately, unlike evergreen content, topical content has an expiry date. It doesn’t sustain the same stream of traffic and social applause like on its first day after being published, and this goes over a long period of time. It creates short-term engagement, however grand and satisfying the engagement was first. And this is because topical content isn’t relevant all the time. It is a quick-decay content and has a limited lifespan of usefulness and relevancy.
In the end, topical content doesn’t deliver sustainable results.
Seasonal Content Downside #2What’s more, topical content kind of splits audiences and targets only those with advanced knowledge on the topic. It can register a massive hype, yet this is coming only from the well-versed ones, bearing no meaning to the rest of the readers.
Seasonal Content Downside #3Moreover, to new the users who want to enter the group, seasonal content can seem a little complicated and hard to digest, given the great amount of novelty and jargon.
Seasonal Content Downside #4 People can lose their interest little by little, either because of the aforementioned reason or because something else has already caught their attention. You just need to remember the news featuring who won the US presidency which was met with massive engagement, but shortly after they lost popularity as something of greater freshness and relevancy caught their attention, such as new laws proposed and adopted by those in power.
Focusing on topical content means you have to work your fingers to the bone to stay continually relevant and updated. You have to do your research day by day and never lose sight of what’s important in the industry, and hopefully be the first to release the news. Take the example of crypto news, where there’s so much fluctuation, speculation and breaking news relating either the rise of a particular coin or people who nailed it at mining, owning, or stealing digital coins. Such was the case, for example, for the massive news regarding the hugest bitcoin heist that took place lately. Other news on different topics took its thunder shortly after.
Another, say, disadvantage seasonal content bears is that although it brings something unique, the event happens just once in a while and has relatively too less of an authority over its audience. Furthermore, it needs a certain kind of audience for its content, and some might very well bounce off the page or spend very little time on the page due to their lack of advanced knowledge of the topic. Sometimes, readers are just curious people who drop out reading sooner than you realize.
How to Craft Seasonal Content
There are some common sense rules when it comes to crafting seasonal content. Make sure you follow them if you don’t want to waste time!
Firstly, to create successful seasonal content, focus on always making it useful and relevant – don’t write something if you only want to enlist in the seasonal post bandwagon. In addition, do keyword research very carefully.
Did you know?
In order to nail a seasonable content piece, you need seasonable keywords. These keywords can be regular keywords + the current year, but they can also be keywords related to recent events, such as concerts or movies. These only will bring you the targeted seasonable traffic. This is what you need and you win should it rank well in SERPs.
The Keyword Tool & Content Assistant can help you with both keyword research and content writing, according to the type of content you are interested in ranking for.
Secondly, be prepared beforehand and do an editorial calendar with events and seasons you want to cover and get your content ready. Seasonal and even topical content can be prepared ahead of time, if you have some details about the event that’s going to happen.
If you know a movie is going live in a couple of weeks, you can prepare your topics, but you can also write about it upfront as people will be searching for it. Is it a series? Then you can also mention past events.
Thirdly, let your team know the impact indexation has on your content marketing strategy when setting up the topical content calendar. One of the main reasons would be that most people do their research on seasonal content (be it time-based or event-based) months before the actual time. What’s more, you need time for your article to be indexed in between the time you make it live on your platform and the time of user search.
So make sure that you start creating your seasonal content a little early, before users start searching for it and also leave a buffer period for it to properly get indexed.
source: seosmarty.com
As you can see above in Google Trends, interest for Christmas related queries begins somewhere in October, around two months before the actual event. You could be driving a lot of organic traffic all this time and you can also benefit from some social media marketing. But for that, you’ll need the content upfront.
That’s why having an editorial calendar will be very useful. You’ll know exactly when the content should be written, published and promoted.
Evergreen or Timeless Content
The Long Evergreen Content Story Short
Evergreen content is content that passes the test of time and remains relevant at all times. It usually develops a greater audience and traffic along time, but its growth is secure, constant, and sustainable. Evergreen rarely to never has traffic spikes, and although you don’t necessarily see results overnight, in the long run, you’ll benefit from constantly getting visits and backlinks.
Evergreen content is a love story shared by two: the content provider and the reader. They will always need and stick to each other.
Evergreen content is essentially made to educate audiences. It never gets out of style because people will always need this kind of content. Case studies, statistics, walkthroughs, product reviews, how-to guides, beginner’s guides, lists, top industry tips, best practices, checklists, tutorials, podcasts, common problem solutions, failure and success story, pros and cons article, all these are instances of evergreen content.
You can easily spot evergreen content ideas when bumping into titles like How to Tie a Bow, Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies Recipe, 8 Steps to Kick Off an Ultra-Powerful Link Building Campaign, How to Book and Pay for a Room With Bitcoin.
Whenever crafting evergreen content, pay attention to providing unique and relevant informational data. Make your content engaging, as readers could easily lose patience given that most evergreen content posts are quite long. Make clarity one of your guiding lights, as you wouldn’t want your audience to bounce off your page for finding your text exhaustive. In addition, always seek to write on topics of interest. Try to bring something new and authentic in your piece of evergreen content, as nobody likes to bump into the same thing everywhere. Although they might need the same thing over and over again, they’re expecting different or at least new results and insights.
If you can provide a quality answer to a timeless question, there will always be value in that answer.
Evergreen Content Benefit #1The number one plus evergreen content has is that it is timeless. Evergreen is a wealth of constant leads, traffic, shares, and social sentiment. Traffic to evergreen content will stay the same, meaning it will increase slowly but steadily, with slight differences, with the chance of rising even more and improving in accordance with the course of the website authority.
Even though evergreen content asks for more time and effort, given the nature of the posts (how-tos, case studies etc, all requiring strong research), they ensure continuous traffic on your content. At the same time, evergreen content is less demanding to produce, than seasonal is (and we’re not talking data and stats here). There’s no rush to find the news, no secondary resource problems.
Evergreen Content Benefit #2Another pro would be that timeless content builds brand trust in the long run, especially when researched properly. Readers will bookmark you as a source for quality, in-depth info when writing evergreen content, knowing that they will always find their answers on your website. Moreover, evergreen is proved to cater to the needs and interests of both new and old readers.
Social media profiles and blogs will carry on growing thanks to evergreen content.
Evergreen Content Benefit #3 Evergreen content stays relevant all year round, and it doesn’t matter the time you post it. This means it can be shared any time of the year. It is everlasting, should the website stay fresh and never get closed by the admin. In other words, evergreen content is timeless, anti-aging. It is content that creates long-term engagement. This type is content that doesn’t depend on the whims of seasonal events and topic, hence how to do a braid will always be in vogue. Evergreen content never expires.
Worthy to mention is that evergreen content also makes great use of topical content, by literally being relevant regardless of the season. It can be updated: lists, tops, case studies, or how-tos like the one available in the below screenshot. However, evergreen content rarely needs minor periodic updates to keep its usefulness. Evergreen content is not time-sensitive, and can easily be refreshed so as to keep its relevance over time, if needed. And search engines encourage webmasters to update old articles with fresh content as this would help in boosting your overall rankings. Quick tip: use the “compare and contrast” update technique, which means when you refresh some old seasonal content, make the update seem legit and relevant. Make it bring something new to the ideas expressed in the article.
Evergreen Content Benefit #4What other pro arguments in favor of evergreen content might be, you might wonder? Well, evergreen provides your website with greater authority thanks to the continuous diverse traffic flow. And this is because evergreen content is always trendy. It can gather backlinks much easier over time, while topical content is facing a rather difficult time at this. Evergreen content isn’t serving just the page well, but also the entire website.
Evergreen Content Benefit #5Last but not least, it is said that in terms of per-piece value, evergreen content is superior, empirically speaking. It ranks every week and every day compared to seasonal. Evergreen content is always trendy and in season, but the vice-versa is not (seasonal being evergreen). We can even say that whenever an evergreen piece of content is published, it officially starts its open season of continuous traffic and engagement.
If wondering how to make and repurpose evergreen content to get as many results as possible, check CoSchedule’s case with evergreen content.
source: www.coschedule.com
Evergreen Content Pitfalls
Compared to seasonal content, evergreen posts have way fewer disadvantages. And this is because evergreen content is more stable, and it pays off eventually along the time.
Evergreen Content Pitfall #1One con argument is that evergreen content can somehow tell the obvious and basic stuff. The information can reach a point where it becomes somehow worthless because there are too many sites that already provide that specific information.
Evergreen Content Pitfall #2Another pitfall is that there’s too big of a competition on evergreen content, therefore you’ll face harder times at getting noticed and ranked high in Google SERPS.
Evergreen Content Pitfall #3Not to forget that evergreen content also requires a great deal of research, when done well and quality is a rule of thumb. It is indeed more comfortable to write a timeless piece of content than a topical one, as you don’t have to rush to the first news provider, but it needs valuable resources such as time, in-depth research, and the spark of originality in order to bring something new to an already crowded and saturated content industry.
How to Craft Evergreen Content
Evergreen content might be a little bit harder to create. Compared to seasonal content, where time and sync are of the essence, with evergreen content quality is of the essence.
The first step in creating successful evergreen content is to choose the topic and keywords well. Some pieces of content are more evergreen than others. For example, an article optimized for the keyword “SEO Guide” will last as long as search engine optimization itself exists. However, an article an a particular ranking factor might not last as much, as we all know that in our industry, things change very often. Articles on “meta keywords”, for example, are not so popular anymore, as this isn’t considered a ranking factor anymore.
Perform keyword research and select queries that have a decent search volume. Those are the best evergreen content ideas You can always try to optimize a piece of content for multiple keywords. You can also use the topic clusters & hubs strategy, where you have big general topics surrounded and supported by other relevant topics.
The second step is to make sure you answer every question about that topic. Don’t be fooled about competition. Sure, competition can sometimes be though, but there’s always a gap, be it in information, design, trust or tone of voice. A surefire way to make your digital content last is to try and answer all the frequently asked questions about your topic. If you don’t answer the users’ questions, they will leave and look for it somewhere else.
Structure in this case is very important. Users don’t really read an article from top to bottom, but rather skim through it. In order to keep them reading, you need to let them know upfront that their question will be answered.
For example, this article is optimized for both “evergreen content” and “seasonal content”. However, we’re answering multiple questions:
What is seasonal content? What is evergreen content? How to create seasonal content? How to create evergreen content? We also added the benefits and downfalls of each, so that users know what lies ahead.
Structuring it properly allows us to have the article navigation menu at the top. This means that the users will know if the answer to their question is there or not.
The third step is to update your evergreen content regularly, to keep it relevant. You might notice that the image above differs from the current article navigation menu at the top of the article. That’s because this article was updated with some fresh information, to keep it relevant.
Unlike seasonal content, where each update is a separate event that must be published under its own entity, evergreen content stays relevant by getting updated. For example, if you write an article on “how to get your car registered”, you might have to regularly update it depending on how the laws change, in order to keep it relevant. There’s no point in writing new articles for each change in the law, as users will have a hard time following that on your website.
So make sure you regularly update your content if you want it to last.
What’s the Ideal Mix?
And now we remain with the ultimate question: what type of content is more relevant to your business? Or, if willing to use both, what mix is more suitable for you?
Web content can be compared to perishing flowers, seasonal plants, and evergreen trees.
So which content flora will populate your website the most? Many content marketers rush into dismissing topical content for all the abovementioned disadvantages.
However, if we are to look at the pros and cons ratio only, although topical content has more cons than evergreen does, it is still richer in benefits (we’re talking numbers here).
Maybe it’s because evergreen content is too mainstream already.
Both content types can trigger organic activity to your website, that’s sure thing.
They both join powers to bring the best results to your content marketing strategy: evergreen content can suit all kinds of readers, at all times, while seasonal content suits only those well versed in that specific topic or industry, the ones who want to be kept up-to-date with advanced, upgraded news.
The smartest thing would be to make great use of both types.
Both types of content are equally important and necessary. So my answer to the question “Which one is better?” is: both are equally important as each contributes to the well-being of your blog in ways neither of them can cover for the other.
The path most webmasters take is that of writing a piece of content that is nearly topical to evergreen, one where they talk about something already established but with the twist of something that they’re selling or believing in at that point in time, hence making it rather trendy and relevant to the moment of speaking.
Others tilt the scale to evergreen content. Atomic Reach suggests a ratio of 1:4 – one seasonal piece of content to every four evergreens. It’s crucial that you strike the right balance. The ideal mix depends a lot on what you are looking for for your business – your objectives, your target audience, what they need and appreciate the most. It depends on your marketing goals: educate or convert into clients, fast or slow, now or everytime they land on your website.
source: semrush.com
Take this cognitiveSEO example: Unmasking The Hidden Digital Marketing Strategies of 9 Successful Startups is an article that brings us continuous traffic over time and it doesn’t show to stop anytime soon. It is a hit among our followers and a constant go-to source for information, data, and inspiration.
On the other side, there is this Google Penguin 4.0 Goes Real-Time! Massive Google Fluctuations article which we intended to be a seasonal article. And this is what it was: a smashing piece of content on a topic that was quite hot at the moment. We registered massive hype and engagement at the time of publishing and also a couple of days after, but metrics never displayed the same amount of visits and traffic as in those days. And this is because topical content gets you traffic spikes but rarely promises a neverending love story between the article and its readers.
By deploying both tactics, your message to the readers will be that you have a well-rounded perspective of your market needs and interests. Topical plus evergreen content equals the win of all kind of readers, bringing a diverse range of clients to your business.
Finding the balance between evergreen and seasonal content can set the tone of your feed.
Given that both have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages, you shouldn’t’ opt for a one-only tactic, but take them both and use them in your content marketing strategy. One tip: always create contextual links from your evergreen content pieces to your topical content so to help search engines like Google better index them.
We tend to always divide content up into two kinds of groupings: seasonal versus evergreen.
But you always want those, those are very important. And then, for the obvious fact that you need things to go out and get visibility to get Google-even. So you need stuff to always have out there to be alive and current and vibrant.
When comparing topical content vs evergreen content it’s like you’re putting a sprint and a marathon face to face. It’s not about which types of evergreen content or topical info is good and which is bad, but it’s a matter of merging.
Give yourself the treat of short-term buzz and long-term outcome, both promising to provide conversions and hype. Experiment with both, check out the ideas and examples tackled above, and see how each one works for you in terms of results (which one drives traffic for you).
And don’t forget: if you’re after more consistent posting and bringing in followers back to your site, use topical content, and if you seek to build up the pillars that give you better SEO results and a chance to reach out to new readers, also use evergreen blog posts.
Opt for a hybrid model: get the best of both worlds and include evergreen and seasonal content in your digital marketing strategy.
Also, never forget that content, be it evergreen, topical or seasonal, must be promoted properly! Share your content on social media and even promote it with ads. Most of the times, it’s not enough to just write content and publish it.
What strategy do you use on your website? Do you use seasonal content marketing a lot? If yes, do you also try to include evergreen content? Which one do you think is better? Let us know in the comments section!
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Over the past 7 years, I’ve learned a lot about digital marketing and SEO. I started this journey by building WordPress websites, but then quickly realized that they are useless if they do not rank on search engines.
That’s how I actually got into search engine optimization. I got lucky and landed a job for a company in a pretty competitive niche (bodybuilding supplements) pretty fast. Fast forward for about 5 years and now I run my own company. Now I want to take my SEO & Digital Marketing Agency to the next level but, before that, I want to share what I’ve learned during this time.
People fear SEO because of its uncertainty. Google isn’t straight-forward at all when it comes to SEO advice. Then, there are the Google Algorithm Updates which we all fear one way or another.
When comparing SEO to PPC, it seems that PPC is the safer bet. Although PPC also has the quality score which is tricky, there’s a lot more confusion that comes with SEO, which makes it harder to approach.
However, from my experience, it seems like SEO isn’t all that hard. At least not when you’re dealing with small/medium sites.
Most of the sites are pretty straight forward, with separate pages for each service. If you get lucky and run over a completely unoptimized website, the keyword research and title creation alone will bring in results.
Things actually become complicated when you’re dealing with the previous work of other SEOs or digital marketing agencies. Spammy backlink profiles, keyword stuffing and other things like that.
Of course, when you’re talking about big eCommerce websites, with hundreds of thousands of pages, things can get a little bit trickier.
But the fundamentals are the same. Make the site crawlable and indexable, have valuable content and optimize for keywords, earn some backlinks and you’re good to go.
2. SEO Does Take Time
Firstly, we have to talk about execution. Are you alone? I was. I had to do pretty much everything and, even if I outsourced content creation, it still took time to validate, edit and publish.
So, it can take a long time, especially if you’re a one man gang. We’ll talk more about this in the next lesson.
However, even if your execution potential is very high, if you’re planning on going the safe route, then it’s probably a better idea not to jump head first and rather test the waters before.
If you take massive action the first months but then stagnate or don’t do anything more later on, you’ll look suspicious. Why would a website be extremely popular for a couple of weeks and then not be popular at all? It sure does seem like someone was trying to manipulate the rankings.
Taking everything a little bit slower will provide the security that what you’re doing is fair and that you’re not trying to push things.
In my opinion, a website’s rankings reflect the level of success a business has. They’re interconnected. For example, if an eCommerce page only has 3 products, why would it be better than a competitor page with 300 products?
How can an owner expect to rank for the main keyword when it doesn’t meet the users’ expectations? A different strategy must be approached, either by optimizing for separate products, or a narrower, less competitive category keyword instead.
That’s something you should communicate to the owner. If he still wants to rank, then you’ll probably have to try some sketchy stuff, which will put his site at risk. Better avoid the stress upfront by not signing a contract.
So, consider this: if you have massive execution potential, expect to keep it up even when the rankings are high, or you might look suspicious and lose them.
Giving a good, realistic estimation of the time required will also build credibility. So far, my estimations with clients were very realistic. And through this, I’ve gained their trust long term. Promises kept, contracts still running.
3. You Need Quality Outsourcing Personnel
If you want to move ahead quicker in an SEO campaign, you’ll need help. Chances are, if you’re just starting out, that you don’t have money to employ people. However, outsourcing and subcontracting is a great alternative.
If you really want to be a search engine optimizer, then focus on having your backups when it comes to web design, servers and coding.
Most clients will often ask you about issues regarding e-mail and server issues, small content or web design changes and implementing new features, such as pop-ups.
So make sure you have at least someone who’s good at editing pages on popular platforms, such as WordPress and knows a little bit of CSS/HTML. It won’t be easy finding a programmer, since most of them already have a high paying job.
You can always take a look at platforms such as codeable.io where you can hire a coder. Be wary though, prices are by the hour and they’re not cheap.
You won’t have to pay for anything. Just charge the client for the work (you can even add a little bit extra, to cover for your taxes at least). But the client might always say “No freaking way am I paying that much to change the background color.”
However, what’s really hard to find from my point of view are good writers. They’re essential for SEO so make sure you start looking for them early on.
There are multiple reasons for that. Price range, quality and client expectations all get in your way. For some businesses, such as coffee shops, quality content might be easy to obtain. But if you’re working with someone selling building materials or medical equipment, average writers might not have the expertise to do it.
Then there’s also the issue of them not having a business of their own, which makes it harder to collaborate with them legally, at least here in Romania. The ones who do have businesses are either agencies with a lot of low quality content, or professionals with extremely high prices.
If your strategy is mostly based on content and you can call yourself a content marketer, then sooner or later you’ll need some writers. It’s better to start looking for them sooner.
Ideally, the client should write the content. They know their niche best. However, we know that’s not always possible. This takes us to the next lesson.
4. You Have to Leverage Your Work by Training Owners & Their Employees
Try to get as much information from the client as possible. They know their niche best. They know the clients’ possible needs and they know their products.
Firstly, try to get them to write the content if they have the time. A corporation owner won’t have time, but a small business owner might get the occasional weekend off and can squeeze 2 hours of high quality content writing.
Even if they don’t do the entire article, once you have your keyword research and content gap analysis done and have chosen a couple of topics, at least get the owners to outline key points which should be covered and provide inspiration sources for the writer.
You should always work with your clients to build an SEO opportunity seeking culture within their company.
Do they have employees who upload products on the site? Make sure they know how to do it from an SEO point of view.
Do they often go to conferences or meetings? Make sure they always seek a backlink opportunity with their acquaintances. What blogger friends do they have that could help with a campaign?
Remember though: make it clear that everything must pass through your approval before it gets implemented. They shouldn’t start any spammy link building and then blame you for bad SEO results.
5. Don’t Rely On Clients Delivering
Although it’s great that your clients accept to help you by providing all the information you have requested, don’t rely on them delivering it, at least not on time.
Make sure they are making progress on their task from time to time, if it’s a bigger one. If you talk on Monday that they will give you the list of employees to add on the site by Friday, call them on Wednesday and remind them that you’ll need the information on Friday.
If possible, set up a meeting and get all your questions ready to be answered right then, right there.
6. Avoid Taking Clients That Don’t Fit You!
Many requests can come from sketchy businesses or websites. Once someone wrote to me:
Client: “Hey, my website was hit by a Google Penalty after the recent Google Update and I can’t figure out why. Can you help me?”
Me: “Sure. What’s the website?
Client: “www.piratedmovies2019.com”
Me: “I think I already have an idea…”
Many other requests I get are for video chat websites, porn sites, loans and other barely legal or sketchy niches. However, the truth is that the niche doesn’t really matter. And it’s not up to me to tell you what your moral boundaries are.
However, I’ll tell you this: Those sketchy niches… are HARD. Not because the competition is good, but because it’s bad. Literally bad. More like EVIL.
Why? Because the earnings are big. And, although you can make good money there as an SEO, prepare for a heck of a ride. Competitors prefer to blow into your candle instead of making their own shine brighter. This means you’ll deal with SPAM, negative SEO attacks, DDoS and whatever other Black Hat SEO stuff you can think of.
But this doesn’t just stop at the type of website or business they’re running.
Are they asking you to create videos for them? If you can’t outsource and profit from it, decline! Do they want graphic design? Do not purchase a Photoshop course! Decline. Outsource. Focus on search engine optimization.
Then there are the people. How’s the client as a person? Too pushy and you don’t like pushy persons? Decline.
I once met a client who was disappointed with his previous SEO providers. I asked him whom he worked with previously and his answer was “everyone”. Kinda’ made me feel the problem was with him and not everyone else so… wanna guess what I did? Yeah… that’s right. I said no.
I once declined optimizing a butcher’s website because I don’t like it when animals get slaughtered. It would’ve made me feel bad so I just refused it, although it probably had a good pay.
Taking a client you don’t really like or don’t feel comfortable with will make you feel less motivated. This might end up in you delivering poor results and you don’t want that to happen. On the long run, you’ll feel better and less stressed and you might even end up making more money.
I know it might be hard, but it’s a good idea to learn to say no. Early.
7. Perfectionism Holds You Back. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
Unfortunately for me, I’m a perfectionist. Although I’m not speaking from experience (I can’t say I’ve actually failed really bad so far), I can say this: I probably didn’t try hard enough.
Most of my life’s biggest lessons came from mistakes and I wish I could do more of these in my business as well. Now I’m not telling you to be a fool and to not be cautious. Everything is about calculated risk. Just don’t stop at calculating.
Overthinking, over-planning, constant supervision are not good friends and they set you back most of the time. In other words…
8. Focus on Important Tasks
As previously mentioned, clients will always ask you for minor things that will take you time. While changing a background color might take 5 minutes, adding a popup might take hours, depending on the platform.
Make sure you estimate right what you can do quickly and what you can’t do. Don’t spend hours trying to figure out how to implement that particular feature. The feature won’t be useful if the site isn’t ranking.
Focus on those important tasks related to SEO, such as publishing blog posts on schedule, constantly optimizing pages and seeking backlink opportunities.
Otherwise, these less important tasks, although small, stack up and end up taking a lot of time, leaving too little for dealing with the important things.
Source: grasshopperherder.com
9. It’s Useful to Have a Monthly Schedule & Estimate
As much as I don’t like relying on very strict patterns, as I feel they limit creativity, you do need some.
It’s good to have a checklist of SEO best practices you generally do for all clients (for an SEO audit) and it’s also good to develop monthly schedules for each client.
How many blog posts are you going to publish per month? When should you start looking for new topics? When do you launch a new wave of outreaches?
You can also purchase some nofollow backlinks from reputable sites which are relevant to your client’s niche. Avoid using the same sites for all your clients. If it’s a car rental website, look for car news publishers.
This will also help you deliver an estimate at the end of the month to justify your labor. Some clients don’t really care and if you deliver good results they will start ignoring them, but it adds to the transparency and helps you keep track of your progress (it acts like a journal).
10. User Intent & UX Really Do Matter
Once you get to the 1st page, you’ll start noticing that slight changes that align with user intent have a positive impact. Now it’s hard to isolate in order to see if the changes have impacted rankings, but it’s definitely worth taking a look at conversion rate, which will usually improve.
You have to figure out what makes a client buy or take the appropriate action that you want them to take and what makes them leave and never come back. Once you know that, you’ll know exactly what you have to do.
Do they want to see the price? Make the price font bigger. Are they looking for images? Put them first. Answer their questions and they will convert.
Here’s a good video to watch to understand the basics of UX:
A general rule of thumb is that your clickable objects are obvious. You can use tools like Hotjar or Yandex Metrica to figure out if your users are clicking where you don’t want them to click.
A good first step is to take a look at what the top competitors are doing. Don’t copy paste them, but consider that since they’re #1, it means that they’re definitely doing something good.
For me, working on improving the UX brought results in both rankings and sales. Even if Google doesn’t reward the UX changes with rankings early on, you can measure its success by looking at the conversion rate. Higher conversion rates mean more money and more money means more SEO, which eventually ends up in better rankings.
11. Tools Are Really Useful & They Save up Time
Having the luxury of being able to use the CognitiveSEO Tool was essential to my success. It saved me countless hours of work and sorting Excel files by aggregating everything into the platform, from backlinks and technical audits to rank tracking.
SEO tools can really help you speed up the optimization process, so make sure you pick the right ones and use them to leverage your work.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have a budget to spend on tools, you can obviously help yourself with free ones. Here’s a list of free SEO tools that I use in general, along with the CognitiveSEO Toolset.
12. Paid SEO Audits Are Better
When you do an SEO audit, don’t copy paste some info from a free tool. Firstly, the client might test you with that. Secondly, following that path your results might not be impressive.
Wasting too much time on things such as 100% PageSpeed Insights score or keyword density will really hurt you both short and long term. Instead, focus on important things such as indexability, keyword research, UX, content creation, title & meta description optimization and promotion.
A great deal you can make is to offer a free audit if they decide to sign a monthly services contract.
If they say no, they can keep the audit, but it’s going to cost them. This way, it’s not actually a free audit anymore, but it’s like labor included in a monthly contract. You’ll have to audit their site before you start the job anyway, right?
This way you’ll feel more responsible for the work, knowing that it’s actual work and not just a pitch. You also have the audit as an incentive for them to sign a monthly SEO services contract.
As a client, free SEO audits can cost you more than paid ones on the long run. So better get the real deal.
13. Links Are Still Important
There’s not much to say here. I always do technical things first while preparing the keyword research and content gap analysis. Then I immediately start the content optimization process and long term monthly content via the blog.
However, to really push it to the next level, I have to admit that links have definitely showed good results, especially when pushing from the 5th position to the top 3 ones.
So if you have a tough competition, you’ll still need to think of some ways to get sites to link to you, even in 2019.
14. Links Are Indeed Expensive
Obviously, the easiest way to get links is to pay for them.. But god damn, some links are expensive! And when I say expensive I don’t mean just money but also all the problems that paid links can bring (penalties for instance).
I’ve had cases in which certain publications have asked me for a client’s whole month budget just for one link. And I also had to provide the content myself!
The truth is that cheap links are also bad links and they’re usually not worth it, since they come from sketchy websites that don’t provide much quality. I know “bloggers” that write about everything… today they write about one brand and the next day about their competitor, recommending both.
However, I would high recommend that you nofollow those links. Even though you might think that they don’t, the truth is that nofollow links impact SEO. Not as much as the dofollow ones, but they do.
15. Links Can Be Obtained For Free (#naturally)
Yes. You’ve heard me right. It is possible. Even for small websites in uninteresting niches. But links don’t come that easily.
You can’t just publish your post and pray that it will rain backlinks. You have to promote it. Be it through direct e-mail outreach, organically on social networks or through Facebook ads, your chances of landing a backlink will increase.
You need to be persuasive. The truth is this requires both earned skills and some talent. A good way of increasing your success rate is to get under their skin. Don’t outreach directly with what you want, but try to build a relationship before. In general, you have more chances if they also get something in return, so figure out how you can help them first and they will help you back.
I’ve started conversations by asking about soccer, favorite movies or personal stories. Many people share these experiences on social media. Follow them for a while and try to start a conversation. Once they reply the first time, your chances of collaborating are already high.
Also, when you’re starting with e-mail outreach, make sure you’re outreaching to people that might be interested in collaborating with you. If you do your research well, your chances will increase even more.
Some even go one step further by writing posts specifically for the people they’re about to outreach. For example, if you see someone constantly talking about certain aspects of a diet, you could write about it on your nutrition website and then outreach them.
Most of them will at least be happy to share the post on social media and, even if it’s not quite as good as a backlink, it still helps make your post more popular. Who knows, maybe someone else who follows them will see your post and link to it.
16. The More Money Clients Have, the Less They Stress You Out
Don’t get me wrong. People are all different and character is what matters most. I’ve had people that have money and stressed me out a lot.
However, in general, the ones that don’t have the money upfront or always postpone payment for different reasons might also be the most demanding and they can also be the first to call you out if you take a bad step.
Generally, people with money have a better understanding of how things work and they ask more questions about what the final result will be and fewer questions about how you’re going to achieve that.
If your offer isn’t ridiculously high, you’ll have an easier time signing a contract for a decent pay. They are focused on the final result and don’t micro manage you too much.
However, they are also the most fierce if you try to scam them or take them for fools, so make sure you avoid that. They have good lawyers.
17. Be Firm About Your Schedule Upfront
I’ve made the big mistake of always answering the phone and trying to serve the client immediately whenever they needed assistance. However, that put me second and, over time, it affected me both personally and professionally.
Even if you work from home or if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to have a limit on how much you work.
It’s a good idea to tell your clients upfront that you prefer to be contacted via e-mail (or your preferred social network channel) and that your schedule is between xx AM and xx PM.
I know it’s all #GaryVee and stuff and I love him, but don’t overwork yourself or you’ll get too tired to be motivated at all.
If the clients keep calling you all the time, you can consider telling them that the hours spent act as marketing consultation sessions which can be billed.
18. Transparency Matters More Than Quick Results
Many clients that come don’t have any SEO training. Most of them will ask questions about Google’s algorithms that might seem silly. Answer then with calm and honesty.
If you’re dealing with someone who’s had bad previous experiences, being transparent might help even more. If the others have promised them #1 in no-time and haven’t delivered, do you think they will fall for it again?
Instead, tell them that nobody can actually promise you that. If they want to work with you it’s good and if they don’t, it’s also good. You can instead promise them that you’ll do your best.
Sounds like couple therapy, doesn’t it? Well, you and your client are sort of a couple and communication is very important. You have to make it very very clear what you need, what you’re going to do, what they can and can not do. And they should communicate things back to you as well.
Make sure your clients understand that they can’t make any modifications to the website without consulting you first. SEO can be affected by anything, so make sure they know this.
More importantly, make sure they don’t start getting backlinks from sketchy websites. Sure, it’s a very good idea that they always seek backlink opportunities, but this doesn’t mean they should also start any link building without telling you.
When talking about big changes, make sure you have a written consent, either via e-mail, SMS, social media or even paper. It’s best via e-mail as it’s harder to lose.
20. Most People Who Want SEO Don’t Have Websites on Popular Platforms
This might not make you happy, but many people that really need SEO campaigns don’t run on popular content management platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla or Magento.
Those platforms are already pretty SEO friendly and there’s usually a lot of information on the web that covers specific cases related to them.
Prepare to deal with very weird platforms, as well as custom built sites which are either old or simply not SEO friendly.
This might be a case of SEO lesson no. 6 (not an ideal client). However, if you’re just focusing on the SEO part strictly and can guarantee that someone else will implement the changes, then it’s good.
But again, if you don’t want to waste time, just don’t take clients that don’t meet your ideal criteria.
21. Programmers Are (Sometimes) Difficult to Work With
Disclaimer: I’m not trying to insult anyone. Programmers are awesome. If you’re a web developer/programmer, then you should definitely have a good understanding of technical SEO.
This might just be something local, but 2/3 of times I’ve got the impression that they have a can’t do attitude, an excuse or something similar.
A common mistake I see with programmers that build custom websites is using the same titles as URLs, menus and slugs and not having enough flexibility.
So, if I create a page with the title “X lessons I’ve learned from optimizing small/medium businesses” then the URL will be automatically generated as “x-lessons-I-ve-learned-from-optimizing-small-medium-businesses” and that same title will be in the menu of the site, which isn’t quite favorable.
Again, most of these issues don’t come with WordPress and seem basic knowledge to us, but for PHP developers it might be different, they might focus on other things they find more important.
Explaining the importance is essential but you also have to be assertive in your communication. Most of them are always trying to be nice, but you can feel that tension somewhere… Sort of like you’re addressing a criticism on their work, as if it weren’t good enough.
Sometimes though, they might have good arguments, such as “That would probably cause a security issue, are you sure it’s worth it?” to which the answer would be “If you’re certain it causes that much trouble, then probably not”.
If you want to save time, record videos showing exactly what you mean instead of e-mail texting. A video recording of your screen showing where the changes should take place + your voice explaining the process will be more effective.
Prepare for bugs and let them know upfront that it’s not a 1 time deal. In one case there were some redirect issues in which URL parameters with unique identifiers from Facebook would result in a blank page. The programmer fixed it, but then we figured out that Adwords parameters do the same.
Then some other bugs came out and so on. At this rate, both you and the programmer can get annoyed, but keep your calm.
It might sound logical and simple to you, coming from a world where these small issues don’t really exist (WordPress) but to them and their platform it might not be the same. However, some SEO training won’t hurt. They should be interested in learning these things. The truth is that the code can be pretty, but it doesn’t matter if the site doesn’t rank.
It’s a different thing when they understand how SEO works, though. For example, the awesome programming #team here at CognitiveSEO definitely isn’t a difficult one. And believe me… our CEO is a champion at finding bugs.
What SEO lessons have you learned in your journey as a digital or content marketer? Which one was the most important? Please share in the comments section below!
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