Roundabout August 2014, Google announced that it was including HTTPS as a lightweight criteria for aiding page ranking.
When Google said this, not a whole lot of people took the news truly to heart.
Previous exploration of the statistics had shown that HTTPS was pretty much a parallel of HTTP and that there was no real overlap between them.
But now, suddenly, in the last week or so—HTTPS traffic has had a big ranking boost. Is this Google’s realization of a statement that Matt Cutts made in 2014 about wanting to see more rewards for sites using TLS?
Reviewing What SSL & HTTPS Content Is
To understand why this is an important issue, let’s define these two acronyms. No insult to anyone’s intelligence: it really is something that needs defining.
HTTPS stands for “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure“, which is, in layman’s terms, a more secure version of the HTTP that we all know and love. Its major use is in sites that traffic in sensitive information, i.e. banks and other e-commerce based pages. HTTPS is easy to spot online as it’s usually prefaced by a padlock icon right before the site name in the address bar.
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and is the successor to TLS (Transport Layer Security). SSL encrypts a connection (as opposed to a single file) ensuring that all data that passes through the connection is secure and unable to be tampered with by external entities. Together, HTTPS and SSL provide a solid layer of security and a good deterrent to malicious entities.
What Does HTTPS Have To Do With SEO?
Until recently, HTTPS (if it was even considered relevant to SEO) provided a very minor rankings boost, typically less than other indicators such as high quality content. This seems to have changed recently. In the last few days, the investigation of HTTPS URL’s on page one of a search increased dramatically compared to the previous ten days. This in itself is news and cause for concern. What is it that’s making these HTTPS sites rank so well all of a sudden? When we assess the possible causes we are left to assume that either:
Google’s algorithm updated to a point where HTTPS is now considered a lot more important to page ranking or
A massive movement of one or more popular domains from HTTP to HTTPS.
Taking these two as our premises, we can now set out to get to the bottom of this crazy swing in page rankings.
Welcome to HTTPS, Wikipedia! Following the Statistics Trail
The first thing we have to see is if there was a large domain that shifted across from HTTP to HTTPS that might account for a huge (9.9% in fact) change in page ranking for HTTPS pages. A cursory glance allowed us to discover that Wikipedia, a page that already accounts for a lot of page-one traffic, was slowly doing a changeover to HTTPS. Since Wikipedia makes up a large volume of our page-one rankings then it may be safe to assume that their switch is what skewed our readings by such a large margin. The only way to figure if Wikipedia’s change was what caused our statistics spike is to leave it out of considerations to see if this is an HTTPS gain and not one due to Wikipedia’s massive bulk.
When we isolate our statistics to remove HTTP/HTTPS from the results (by considering them both as equal), we still see a change (although obviously less massive than before) when it comes to page-one rankings. This translates to the idea that HTTPS may be getting a boost in rankings from somewhere. We can see that having HTTPS as a protocol is beneficial to the user and maybe this provides a further clue as to whether this is just an anomaly or something more in-depth.
HTTP Content & Google’s Overall Perspective
Google has changed its Internet focus from being search oriented to being user oriented. They have realized that by catering to users first, they are building a trustworthy presence on the Internet. How they are doing this starts with their algorithm changes. From the time Panda was released to Google’s mobile update a couple months ago, we can see how Google is slowly making webmasters consider their audience. Gone are the days when a page’s ranking was based solely on the amount of keywords it had stuffer per total page count on the screen. Now it’s all about user benefits and HTTPS offers a lot of benefits to the average user. HTTPS is especially important in situations where sensitive information may be at risk.
HTTPS exists as a method of empowering the user by ensuring that all information that concerns him or her is unable to be broken into by a third party that is unaffiliated with either side of the connection. HTTP doesn’t allow for protection of a user’s account information or ID and if it is used on a login page then it can be vulnerable to penetration by third parties and makes for a great target for people to obtain information about a user. If this is a Google update, it is centered on the user (as most of the modern updates to their algorithm are) and rewards sites that put users first.
What This Means for Us as Content Publishers
We understand exactly how important any addition to Google’s algorithm is. Although it’s not a confirmed addition it has all the bells and whistles associated with a Google update. The only way we’ll know for sure if it’s a permanent Google update is when Wikipedia’s site finally settles down into HTTPS mode and we can observe the ripples on both the HTTPS and HTTP side of things. In any case, what we should be considering is how HTTPS can help our users since it’s likely that in the future whether your site is SSL-compatible or not may actually affect your search ranking a bit.
As a content publisher your content is accessible by all users and information they submit to your site can be vulnerable to external penetration. This in itself is not too worrying if the information submitted is of a non-essential nature. Things get a little bit trickier when it comes to more sensitive information. HTTPS ensures that an eternal entity cannot spoof your address in the hopes of phishing information out of your visitors. Your audience trusts your site to the point where it would allow your site access to some information unequivocally. Having HTTPS on your site ensures that no on abuses this trust between you and your audience and makes you a more trustworthy site overall: an important factor in your overall page ranking.
Two Main Ways HTTPS Works
HTTPS ensures a connection is secured on both ends so that an external source cannot garner information passed over the connection for malicious purposes. How does this comes down a three-step process:
Encryption: Data passed from the client to the server and vice versa are encrypted to keep that information safe. This means that when a user is on a site, it is impossible for another user to “listen in on” or “eavesdrop” on the data being sent to and from the server.
Data Integrity: This means that the data going to and coming from the server cannot be changed. It stops attacks by “injection” where an external entity can change or edit data as to make it unusable by the server.
Authentication: This ensures that the server that the user is connected to belongs to the business they intend to deal with. It also stops “man-in-the-middle” attacks where another user spoofs the server in order to intercept data that is meant for the server which can then be decrypted.
How do I Add HTTPS support for my site?
There are a number of ways to do this but the most efficient method (and that recommended by Google) is to include server-side 301-redirect requests for any HTTP page to send the user on to an HTTPS secure page. Alternatively you can use a server that supports HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) which shunts users to an HTTPS site even though they entered an HTTP site in the URL bar. It serves as a drastic measure but ensures that you don’t serve unsecured content to your audience.
Why HTTPS May be Important in the Future
Methods of obtaining information through illicit means on the Internet is not exactly something new. From the early days of viruses that installed back doors in computers to the relatively modern practice of phishing, it is clear that we can’t ever wipe out the processes by which people are relieved of their valuable information online. And make no mistake, in the virtual world, information is as good as hard currency in the real world. In order to protect users that utilize our site and to ensure that we remain a secure and trustworthy domain to deal with, we should consider setting up HTTPS on our servers.
It may take some work, but the overall benefits would be worth it in the long run, especially if this Google update pans out and further enforces HTTPS favor.
Content marketing is absolutely incredible when you use a story in it. A storyline gives you the ability to create excellent content whether you are writing blogs, landing pages, product descriptions, and more. You can then send out this content, and convert people into leads, helping to grow your business and make it epic in whatever your industry is.
While developing a story in your content marketing is super awesome, it can be difficult, especially when you are running out of inspiration. I want to take a look at how you can actually gain some amazing content marketing inspiration from one of the leading genres in the fiction world, and one of my favorite genres to pick a book to read – fantasy.
Fantasy is a Leading Genre For a Reason
All you have to do is go to any bookstore or cinema and you can tell the constant theme in entertainment – fantasy. The fantasy genre has been around for quite some time with J. R. R. Tolkien being a huge influence, and “father,” of the genre. Fantasy is a genre that encompasses more than just trolls, orcs, and elves fighting a great evil. You have boy wizards fighting dark lords, a young man finding out he is from the land of faerie and falling in love with a star, and a whole realm fighting each other over a throne made of iron swords. You can even have fantastical elements set in large cityscapes, stories that mix fantasy and horror, and a lot more when you look for a fantasy story.
This wide range of topics and the ability to feel like good will win out over evil is often a huge draw to this genre, and it provides us with a unique take on content marketing. I want to take a look at how you can learn from fantasy to create epic, out of this world content that your clients are sure to love.
7 Great Lessons You Can Learn from the Genre
“Wait. My business isn’t in Middle Earth and we definitely don’t have any fairies flying around, so how will fantasy help?” Glad you asked! Here are some great ways I feel that fantasy can inspire your content, helping you create something absolutely incredible.
1. Give People Something Great that Fights Something Evil. When it comes to fantasy stories, you know the classic aspect that will be part of most any story whether old or new – the battle between good and evil. This is something that many people really enjoy about fantasy literature, and can be great for escaping when things get a little too overwhelming, especially when good wins in the end. But how can the classic good versus evil inspire your content? While you don’t have to go the direct route of fantasy, you can still give your clients this good and evil battle, helping them know how to win.
When you write your content, whether blogs, product descriptions, or anything else, you can give you clients a common problem and answer it with your product or services. For example, if you know that social media is the way to go when it comes to content marketing, you might find it hard to follow suit. Social media can be troublesome for many people, and if you don’t use it right, you won’t be able to get the outcome you desire. What would the answer to that be? Hiring a social media manager. When I write social media blogs, I give people a common social media problem, and I always answer what they can do when it comes to creating an effective strategy with an excellent solution. Therefore, I show people the “evil” side but then illustrate how good will win in the end, giving them a top of the line social media strategy.
2. Connect With Reader Emotions and Create Something Powerful. Fantasy does something that many genres aim to reach, but they don’t quite reach the mark of fantasy. So many fantasy stories are absolutely powerful and they connect with the reader’s emotions. This creates an amazing connection between the reader and the book, which leaves a major impact on their minds. Just think of your favorite fantasy story. How well do you connect with it? How do you feel when it is time to reread it? That feeling is what you want to happen with your content and you can do so by connecting with your clients and readers’ emotions.
Connecting with emotions is a powerful way to create content that converts, and help make your business an absolute success. You can create content that reaches emotions perfectly when you research your client base. You will know what they want to see, and also what makes them laugh, cry, or get angry. When you know this, you can write amazingly effective blogs and landing pages that will convince them to continue using your site and eventually buy your products.
3. Fantasy Tells Many Stories to Create the Major One. As you can see with fantasy, storytelling is amazingly powerful. People love stories, and this can make it a great aspect for your content marketing campaign. When you create a story, you are able to follow point two, and connect to the emotions of your client base, as well as visitors. Telling a story with your content isn’t as difficult as it may seem, however, so don’t let that worry stop you. Debbie Williams at Content Marketing Institute even gives some excellent questions you can ask to help you create powerful stories with your content, no matter your industry.
4. Create Evergreen Content for Something Familiar.
Photo courtesy Lord of the Rings.net.
The Lord of the Rings was and is, a huge influence on the genre, and you can see it in most pieces of fantasy literature you read. It is always wonderful to read something that is familiar, which is one of the reasons many people choose fantasy literature when they want to escape. How should this influence your content? Well, this is a great example of evergreen content as common fantasy tropes aren’t something that will ever go out of style. Evergreen content gives you the chance to write on familiar topics with your own flair while creating something that is going to last for a long time. Just look at how exciting the stories in The Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter still are! Start creating some evergreen content to help drive views and engagement throughout the next few months and years.
5. Reality is a Great Basis for Something Incredible. A top content tip that I see regularly, and completely agree with, is writing on something that is happening in your industry. Writing on the reality, or news, can be a great way to create exciting, new content for your readers. In fact, even basing your content on past items can really help amp it up and make something your clients want to read. All you have to do is look at Game of Thrones to see how basing content on reality can create something stunning and epic. George R. R. Martin has regularly stated that he based the non-White Walker and dragon parts of his story on medieval history. Just take a look at this excellent video that details the similarities between Game of Thrones and a huge part of history – The Wars of the Roses.
6. It is Fully Possible to Stand Out in a Sea of Similar Stories. As you can tell, standing out in the fantasy genre can be pretty difficult. However, it is absolutely possible for authors to stand out, creating something unique and powerful for fantasy fans. Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and author Neil Gaiman are great examples of this. How should this inspire you? Simply put, it can be daunting writing unique content where there are so many pieces that are similar to what you want to write. However, you can easily write content that stands out by understanding what your audience wants as well as letting clients see things going on in your business through photos and behind-the-scenes elements.
7. Your Content Can Connect Readers with Each Other. One of the many great things about fantasy is how it connects readers with hundreds and thousands (and millions) of others. How many people felt and feel the excitement when Harry Potter is told he is a wizard? How many cry (or epically freak out) over the deaths of beloved characters? We all feel this community when watching a show, film, or reading a book, and it can be such an amazing feeling. You can add a sense of community to your content, helping to promote engagement with clients. You don’t need to go the way of George R. R. Martin, but by giving your clients a sense of community by encouraging discussion, you can help them all feel like they are connected in some amazing way.
Double Double, Toil and Trouble
Do you want to make some wicked content that generates amazing leads for your business? Then just follow some of these inspiring aspects of fantasy literature to influence your content marketing campaign! What if you have a hard time creating content, you wonder? Never fear! Express Writers is here to swoop in on our awesome content dragon and save the day with fiery, epic content that is sure to spice up your website.
Take a look at our content marketing services to see just how we can help you create the fairest, most worthy content in all the land!
If you are unaware of what ModCloth is, you must not be into old-timey, vintage women’s clothes, accessories, and home décor. But really, who isn’t? I’m going to assume that most people are huge fans of this brand. I know I am. One thing I like about ModCloth is their amazing content marketing strategy. They really know how to organically sell themselves, and through this, they have shed a light on the retro, vintage appearance in general. Because marketing is so important, companies that do it well are always the ones people should be looking to follow.
ModCloth is an example of these content leaders. For a group that is dedicated to vintage apparel, they sure are forward-thinking in their marketing.
7 Ways ModCloth’s Content Is Killer
ModCloth has several content strategies that I love but here are six (and a half) things that they do that I think are especially innovative.
1. They use real models.
If you go to the ModCloth website, you will not always see the average model. ModCloth sometimes even uses their own employees to show off their great designs. In fact a campaign they ran earlier this year took several of their employees of all different sizes and had them model the same swimsuit.
ModCloth makes use of ‘real’ models in many different ways.
They were one of the first retailers to sign the “Heroes Pledge for Advertisers,” which consists of guidelines on limiting Photoshop use in ads.
They boosted their plus-size collection shortly after they signed the pledge.
If you want to model for them, they make it easy for you to apply even if you do not have modelling experience straight from their website.
In fact, they claim that they often find models in untraditional places, from, in their own words, “parties and shopping districts to airports and libraries.”
The reason this works is because they are committed to making clothes for the everyday girl, and they realize that if they want to sell to that everyday girl, they need to show potential customers what someone like them would look like wearing that outfit. Plus, not for nothing, it got talked about in the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Gloss, Cosmopolitan, and tons of other big name markets.
Lesson to Learn: Be up front and honest about your product. If you try to flatter and deceive, customers might use you once, but they won’t come back. Plus, this is such a rare concept that when you do it, tons of people will want to cover it.
2. They keep their retro-y vibe even in modern-y formats.
As does any e-retailers, and hopefully most if not all retailers, ModCloth has a blog, a Twitter account, Instagram, Tumblr, and you get the picture. All of these social media platforms have something big in common: they are all decidedly un-vintage.
How can a company that is dedicated to celebrating all things retro use modern forms of marketing?
The answer is by turning those modern forms into a retro playground. If you look at ModCloth content, you still get that vintage feel that you would expect from them. Through color schemes, images, and product descriptions, you forget that you are using technology from this era as you are transported back to the time that ModCloth wants you to envision.
What is the lesson here for all employees, though?
Remember who your audience is. You might not have young women who love that old-time feel as your target reader. So don’t advertise for them. But do figure out who you want to target, and then make sure your content reflects the image you want those people to feel.
Don’t let technology control you. To an extent, you have to follow the crowd. If Twitter is where the people are, you have to be on Twitter. However, just because you need to use these modern marketing methods does not mean you have to market on their terms. Turn these formats into platforms to showcase your visions.
3. They let their customers upload images.
Similar to the real life models point, ModCloth is great about encouraging people to upload their own images. Other places do this, but I have never seen it done quite as much as I have on ModCloth’s site.
When you go to view an item, you can see whole galleries of real customers wearing that same piece. This is a great concept for so many different reasons.
Free models. The more you get people to show off your product without having to pay them, the better it is for you.
Customers feel like they are part of your team. When you let them help, customers feel like they are part of the family. And the more they feel like they are part of the family, the more they are likely to remain a loyal customer.
People see what it looks like off the shelf. One of the worst things about shopping online is that you cannot see how you will look in an outfit before purchasing. Just because it looks good on a model, does not mean it will look good on you. And even if the model is just an ordinary person, the photographer is taking the picture at just the right angle with just the right light. However, if you get to see the outfit worn by someone of the same size as you (the uploaders include their measurements and the size they ordered to help make picking the right size easier) in a real life situation, you are more likely to purchase it.
What should you take away here? Let your customers get in on your content marketing plan. They’ll give you free marketing and will want to keep coming back.
4. They give you access to their stylists.
ModCloth makes it easy to get the information you want most through their ModStylist feature.
Most sites have a chat feature where you can talk to a customer service rep. But ModCloth takes it a step farther. You can chat, email, or even call them for advice like what to wear for a big event; how to pick a style that will look right on you; and what the latest fashion trends are.
This strategy works because people want more than customer service. They want to know how to incorporate a product into their lives.
Say you order a dress from a regular retailer and want to know what shoes to wear with it, so you call up the customer service department. Chances are, you aren’t going to get much help even with the nicest of reps because they aren’t the ones who know the answers to these types of questions.
With ModCloth, not only do you get your questions answered, you can solve fashion dilemmas you didn’t even realize you had. And let’s be honest, if a stylist goes out of their way to help you look your best, aren’t you that much more likely to buy the pair of matching shoes they suggest?
Your lesson here is simple. If you want to make the sale, go above and beyond in your efforts to prove to people you are an expert in that product, you want to help them in the ways they really need help, and using your product/service is just what they need.
5. They let you pick what they sell.
If you really want to grow your customer base, let them pick your product. You know they’ll want it then. ModCloth does this through their ‘Be the Buyer’ feature.
Every now and then, they put up a possible item, and let viewers vote on it. If the people want it, it goes on sale. The idea here is to let the customers be the designers because the customers are who the designers are trying to please.
You can take away from this that, the more you give customer’s input into your product, the happier they will be. After all, nobody knows what they want better than they do.
6. They rock at Pinterest and Instagram.
When your product is visual, you have to be good at the visual based social media platforms. That is just a given. ModCloth knows this and uses it to their advantage.
First, they make it very easy to pin their outfits to personal Pinterest sites. If someone likes your product and wants to share it, they are much more likely to do it if you make it easy for them.
Second, they fill their Instagram account with pictures of their products in real life situations. They use stunning colors and vivid imagery that really catches the eye. However, they also use it to host challenges and contests to really get people sharing their favorite outfits.
What your takeaway from this is take advantage of whatever social media platform especially fits your brand. For retailers, image-based sites such as Instagram and Pinterest work. If you are a targeting business people, LinkedIn might work for you.
Whatever the platform that is going to help your brand the most, make sure you are really doing it right.
7. They rock at social media in general.
As mentioned above more specifically, ModCloth is just great at most social media platforms. So the lesson here is really straightforward. Have a presence on and be great at all social media.
Follow the Leader to Success
I could name 100 hundred other reasons ModCloth’s content marketing plan is great (and they aren’t even paying me to write this or even know that this article exists). So, if you are trying to figure out ways to jumpstart your content marketing strategy, maybe you can take one or two ideas from the ModCloth playbook.
There is nothing new under the sun. And guess what, I am not the first person to have said that. In fact, it was written in Biblical times by King Solomon. So if nothing was new back then, imagine how much more true that is today?
No matter what you write, you are not going to come up with something that has never been said before in some way—unless you are talking about exclusive news, are Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, or
What will make your content great is the unique spin you put on that old concept. When you read, you experience all of the things you want to express.
And once you have experienced them, you are much better equipped to share with others.
9 Quotes from Literary Geniuses that Tell You Why Reading Makes Your Writing Better
Reading makes you a better writer whether you are writing a novel or copy for your latest product. However, do not just take my word for it. I am going to prove my point through copious references to the words that have inspired me all from the mouths of the greatest writers and thinkers. You won’t be able to argue with me, because you have to admit they know what they are talking about. Which means all my reading has already paid off in writing this post alone.
“Genius is one percent inspiration … “ – Thomas Edison
So what if the other 99% is perspiration. Even Edison recognizes that to really be a genius, you need a little bit of inspiration. That is the purpose of books: to inspire the reader. When it comes to writing, reading a book does not magically make you a wordsmith. It does not have any actual magical powers.
Writing takes a lot of hard work. If you want to be a genius writer, you are going to need to put in that 99% of perspiration that Edison suggests. However, while you are putting in that hard work, do not forget that one percent. Read a book, and be inspired. That is part of the genius formula.
“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” – William Faulkner
George Deeb wrote an article for Forbes that says mentors are one of the most valuable resources you can get if you are an entrepreneur. Well, if writing is your enterprise, then you have access to some of the greatest mentors throughout time.
Take advantage of this. Tap into the resources of the masters and learn from them. Within the pages of a book, you will find all of the secrets of writing success. What other profession allows you that type of opportunity?
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde
Believe it or not, your reading preferences reflect on who you are. What do you enjoy reading? Sci-fi, romance, mystery? There is no right or wrong answer here, but your reading choices do say something about you.
They should also say something about what you write. When you write what you like to read, you know that you are pleasing somebody. And since one of the things reading does is show you that you are not alone in how you feel or act, you know that if you please one person, you are likely to please many.
So read to determine who you are, then write for that person. You will find that many other people want to read the same things as you.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” – G.R.R. Martin
One of the best things about reading is that you get to have an adventurous life even between all of your real-life adventures. As a reader, you get to discover things that non-readers never get to.
How does this translate into great writing? You have to be able to take your readers on an adventure. Whether you are writing the great American novel or you are selling sneakers online, you have to convince the reader that they are part of your story and that they want to continue on with you.
In order to get to a place where your writing transports your readers, you have to have been transported yourself. So reading allows you to travel to other places and have epic adventures, which will help you bring your readers along on all of the thrilling sagas you want write about.
“The more that you read, the more you will know.” – Dr. Seuss
Reading is educational. When you read, even a novel, you learn. What you learn depends on the book. Maybe you learned about some theorem in a physics book. Maybe you learned about the Civil War in a history book. And maybe you learned about the strength of emotions between the pages of a Romance.
Knowledge is never a bad thing. In fact, it is almost always a good thing. So, educate yourself. You cannot teach others anything unless you first learn it yourself.
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” – John Locke
If you really get into a book, you cannot help but start thinking. Great writing challenges your viewpoints and makes you question everything that you thought you knew.
Once you learn to start thinking for yourself, you stop spewing out facts, and you begin to write real, compelling material. If you do not first learn how to think, then nothing you have to say will have real value to your reader.
Readers do not want to read a list of facts unless they are reading the news. They want you to give them something to really ponder. But to get other people thinking, you first have to learn to think.
Sally Kerrigan, a writer for A List Apart, points out that writing is thinking. When you write well, you are not just creating noise. Read, then, so that you can figure out the signal you want to send to the world.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snickett
Giving sources builds trust. Proving your statements shows you are not just making things up. Reading allows you to find the information that is going to help you prove to your authors you know what you are talking about.
In other words, if people do not believe you, nothing you say matters. So prove to them you are not just throwing up smoke and mirrors.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” – Fran Lebowitz
Reading helps you form concrete ideas. It allows you to see viewpoints you might not ever before have thought of. It helps you connect with people of all cultures, races, religions, and genders.
If you want readers to connect with you, you have to first connect with them. Find out what people are thinking and what makes them who they are. Once you have developed empathy, it will come through in your writing. People will listen because they will see you really get them.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King
Stephen King has created a name for himself not only as a writer, but as a writing coach. Josh Jones, on Open Culture, took away 20 tips on writing that he has gleaned from King’s own writing tutorial books and interviews. Basically, what Stephen King say you should do in order to be a good writer is what you do if you want to be a good writer.
There is no lesson here like educate yourself or learn who you are. The only point, and it is a huge one, is that Stephen King said if you want to be a good writer, you have to make time to read. And that is reason enough to go grab a book right this instant.
Pick Up a Book, and Change Your Writing
There are many reasons to go out right now and pick up a book. Your writing is only one of those reasons. Listen to the words of all the wise writers and thinkers before you. If you want to write successfully, read frequently.
If you’ve been hanging around blogs over the last year or so, you’ll realize that citations are a big thing. Citation is a skill that bloggers need to learn in the twenty first century in order to see their pages rank well.
Think of these like high quality backlinks that affect the overall rank of your blog and also create a pretty large impact on how your audience perceives your blog.
What exactly is this citation thing anyway?
What are Citations?
Citations can simply be thought of as a means of presenting another website as a link within the body text of your own. The term stems from the academic field where extensive literature reviews usually result in citations that are lengthy and reference a large number of topics on the subject at hand. Similarly, citation in a blog or website references relevant topics so that readers who are interested in these topics can get further information if they so desire. Citations make up the major part of creating backlinks for your site in the modern era of search engine optimization.
Why are Citations Important?
Citations allow for the building of backlinks. The higher the quality of a backlink, the better your page ranks in search results and the more authoritative your own page is in comparison to others on the same topic. Citations are important for two major reasons. Firstly, they allow you to share contact with another, higher-impact blog. If enough traffic comes from your link to their site you may be able to form a suitable link sharing agreement, thereby increasing your traffic. Alternatively, and more importantly, a good backlink foundation allows your website or blog to rank well in relevant search results. The basis of your citations comes from proper use of something called the anchor tag.
What is this “Anchor Tag”?
Basically, it’s an HTML tag that replaces an actual HTML link with actual words. Thus instead of a URL, you can have a short description that, upon being clicked, sends the user to the URL hidden beneath it. Search engines utilize anchor texts to figure out the content of the site you’ve linked to. This means that proper use of anchor tags can affect both your linked-to sites and your own site. The use of the anchor tag represents a particular metric that search engines have taken to tracking termed link relevancy. Link relevancy is determined by what content is on the source page and what the anchor text attached to that source page represents.
Link Relevancy
Search engines cleverly utilize human beings penchant for linking relevant things to figure out exactly what the source page is relevant regarding search terms and keywords. Link relevancy indicators utilize this particular inclination along with complicated natural language processing in order to generate an idea of how relevant the link in question really is. Google’s Penguin update started being more specific in its determination of natural search terms and this allowed the algorithm to determine with a good degree of accuracy when it was dealing with non-organic links by determining if the same anchor text yielded the same link results each time. To this end, links should be made throughout the body of a page with as much variety as possible while still remaining relevant to the source page.
How Does Anchor Text Affect SEO?
As we said before, anchor text allows the building of links that raises the search rank of a page. After understanding search relevancy, we can now form a picture of what our anchor tags should contain to be proper examples of good SEO link building, from Backlinko. Remember that you’re trying to have different anchor texts that lead to your external page in order to create more organic content. To this end, what you should do is to brainstorm possible options that you may have for the creation of alternative anchor texts for your outbound links. It is important that you keep these thoughts in mind when developing your anchor tags:
Do NOT create zero-anchor situations such as “Click Here…”
Do NOT overuse anchor text. Overuse of anchor text makes a search engine look at your linking suspiciously and may actually hurt your search rank rather than helping it.
5 Types of Anchor Text
Anchor text comes in many types and each type has their own particular use. The most common anchor types that you are likely to encounter during your time building SEO type links are:
Zero Anchor Text: These are the text anchors that simply come with a “Click Here” appended to them via anchor tag. Not recommended at all.
“Naked” URL’s: This also defeats the purpose of the anchor tag as some URL’s are usually made up of non-words and incomprehensible strings of letters. On the off-chance that the link is actually made up of good keywords (as is the case in many links from WordPress blogs), the link might end up helping itself out.
Exact Match Anchor: One of the best anchor tags to use in a localized anchor tag strategy. These give a geographical area and a relevant keyword. In some SEO strategies, they allow for more localized searches which can lead to a much higher conversion rate.
Partial Match Anchor: This depends upon the ability of a search engine indexing bot to determine the relevant location and other information from the surrounding words in order to rank the link. It has the benefit of allowing you to be freer with your anchor text and helps you create more natural outbound links. Highly recommended.
Hybrid Anchor: These are a combination of links that associate different anchor tags with each other allowing for a more targeted strategy, while at the same time giving you the freedom to create links naturally. The links usually relate branded items with non-branded items and are also highly recommended.
The flavor of anchor text that you use can make it more difficult for search engines to rank the link and therefore affect your overall search ranking and how well regarded your site is.
How Can I Generate Authority Links? 7 Key Ways
Authority links in the past (as close as 2013) was a whole different game to what it is today. In fact, if you follow the same link-building strategies that you would have done in 2013 today, it’s likely to hurt more than help. When you’re trying to generate authority links for your site, it’s important that you follow best-practice. There are a few very successful ways to build backlinks that are high quality and help your search engine ranking immensely. A few of these are:
Create a Resource: Developing a resource is as simple as compiling a single location that gives information to visitors. What resource links do is they give other websites a handy place to link to that covers all their needs in a single URL. This makes it attractive to link to this resource site and allows a lot of traffic to come through it through linking and cross-linking. Resource pages are useful and amazingly good at generating high-quality backlinks, and all it takes is a little bit of skill in content curation. Knowing your audience also does a great deal for creating resource pages that are beneficial to them, making it all the more likely that you’ll generate backlinks from that page.
Bridge the Content Gap: One of the hardest things for site owners to do is to catch the attention of their target demographic. It’s what many content producers and marketers spend countless hours trying to figure out. How to attract your audience’s attention is one of the most important things you learn in advertising. Bridging the content gap means reaching out to your audience and grabbing their attention by giving them something that they want but that other content hasn’t managed to satisfy yet. You’re trying to fill the gaps left by other content producers. There are countless opportunities that exist out there that have yet to be explored. All it takes is a little bit of imagination.
Use the Power of Infographics: If you don’t know what an infographic is, you probably haven’t seen new content at all in the last 3 years. Infographics are a unique way of blending text copy and images into a nice, holistic piece of content that catches the eye but doesn’t bore the audience with tedious walls of text. If anything, infographics are the way that all content marketers should seek to converse with their audience. Developing infographics on trending themes is a great way of getting backlinks and sharing what you know at the same time. These text-pictograms have become one of the most effective ways of leveraging an audience’s attention span to your own benefit.
See what the Competition is Doing: Monitoring the places other sites you compete against in your niche are doing is a great way for you to develop an idea of where quality backlinks are to be found. You can start off by studying the types of links your competitors have by doing a system of competitive auditing. From that you can come up with a plan to outperform them. Imitation has always been the sincerest form of flattery and if your opponents have managed to find a workable solution for getting high quality backlinks, then you can follow suit and do what they have done, even improving on their methods immensely.
Capitalizing on Broken Links: Google’s main source of determining how well your site ranks on the Internet is still based heavily on your links. In such a case a broken link could spell disaster for a site’s link-building hopes. Enter broken link building. Essentially, in this type of strategy, you spot a link that leads nowhere and point it out to the webmaster of the site, while at the same time asking for a link where that dead one currently is. It’s a very good strategy for developing a rapport with owners of authority sites. One link from an authority site can generate as much or more traffic than ten mid-range or low-impact sites can. That’s a lot of traffic to spotting a broken link.
Find the Influencers for your Niche and Interview Them: Influencers make up a major part of content marketing strategy. They’re called “influencers” because their opinion usually sways a large portion of a target demographic. One of the reasons that they are such influential people is because a lot of people are interested in them. Interviewing an influencers creates a post based on what you found out about that person and also provides an authority link for others who may want to garner information about or directly link to information that supports one of their article’s points. This is another type of resource site with the same overall effect: a lot of links coming inbound from high-authority sites that raise your overall search ranking.
Content Repurposing: You might have had content that performed well but seems to be a bit dated now. You don’t have to toss it out as old content, but you can refurbish it and republish it as repurposed content. Some of the content you made at a previous date was probably not well received because at that point in time your article wasn’t a relevant piece and the industry’s attention was held elsewhere. Giving it new form and function allows you to resurrect these posts, especially if they become more relevant in the present day. Repurposing content and presenting it in an alternative format (such as on Slideshare) makes for a great draw for social media sharers, since Slideshare is much more suited to a social media platform. Repurposing content in this way can gain you a lot of inbound links through social media shares and external linking.
Keep an Eye on your Citations
After understanding how important citations are, and how they function, you’re in a much better place to deal with citing links correctly and increasing your search rank through dedicated link building. It might seem like a tedious process, and at times it can be, but it’s far more effective at getting your traffic and search rankings up than almost any other method of promotion out there. It works hand in hand with SEO strategies to guarantee that your site finds itself among the top search results for a particular keyword.
