Last week we talked about On-Page SEO and Usability. In that post we gave you an in-depth discussion an insight into the connection between the 2 topics, and then we moved on and looked at what factors affected on-page SEO and usability, such as site design, mobile optimization and internal links, and how a business can optimize each so that their site performs to the best of its ability.

This week, we’ll be talking about off-page SEO.

What is Off-page SEO?

Off-page optimization concerns factors that have an effect on your website or webpage listing in natural search results that aren’t controlled directly by you or the coding on your page, for example: links from other sites.

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

Last week in part 3 of our 10 part blog series we discussed the The 8 Key Factors in Creating Great Content. This week: Usability and On-Page SEO.

At first glance, you might think that usability and on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) seem like 2 completely different topics.

• SEO is about discovery – getting people to your website to begin with by making sure it shows up in search engines.
• Usability is about people’s behavior and how people are able to interact with your site once they’re on it.

And while the two are separate and distinct topics indeed, they also see a lot of overlap.

So how do they 2 topics relate to each other?

Search engines, despite their best efforts, can’t understand the value (or sometimes the lack thereof) of text the same way that humans can, watch videos or view images, so they are forced to use other signals in order to gage a site’s worthiness and rank them accordingly. These signals come in the form of meta information (no, not necessarily meta tags) about how people relate to sites and pages. This information can then be used by search engines as an insight over the quality of the pages.

For example, if you’re searching for “dinosaur bones” and come across a site that’s slow to load, doesn’t have any real data or information on dinosaurs, or dinosaur bones, and is hard to navigate – then you’ll probably quickly leave and move on to another site. It’s not valuable to you, and search engines pick up on that information.

Of course, it’s not quite this simple, but the general principle stands.

Search engines strive towards improving their performance by providing the best results possible for its users. To do this, they look for information on what kind of pages and sites most satisfy their searchers needs. This information includes:

• Pages and sites that are easy to navigate, use and understand
• Content that provides direct, actionable information relevant to the query
• Content that’s high quality, relevant and credible

Having great SEO but lousy usability means that you’ll get lots of traffic, but the visitors won’t turn into customers. Conversely, a site with great usability but lousy SEO simply won’t get many visitors, so it doesn’t really matter how good it is.

So it’s suffice to say that usability and on-page SEO often intertwine, overlap and affect each other in many ways.

Table of Contents

• Create Content That Can Be Indexed (alt tags, video & audio transcripts)
• Header Tags
• Metadescription
• Proper URL Structures (& best practices)
• Internal Links
• 301 Redirect
• Site Design for Usability (pop-ups, flash)
• Mobile Optimization (responsive web design, site speed)
• Website Updates

In last week’s blog post, Introduction to Spokal’s 3 Pillars of Inbound Marketing (Content Marketing Series Part 1 of a 10 ) I told you that you’d be hearing a lot more about content, and I wasn’t bluffing! Content is the foundation of inbound marketing, and by that I mean – nothing can work without it.

The only way people will ever look at your website, is if there’s content on it. The only way people can discover you on social media, search engines, advertisements etc., is through content. The only way you can nurture leads, is through content.

You’ve probably heard the term “content is king” before, right? Well, it might be bit cliché, but I’ve yet to see anyone adequately disprove it. Sure, you might have people claiming that content is no longer king, and say… quality is. But how, may I ask, can one have quality content without, well… content?

You see what I’m getting at here?

Content is the lifeline of your online business. Without content marketing, there is no inbound marketing. It’s an absolutely necessary subset of inbound marketing.

The good news is, the barrier of entry into who can create content is pretty low. As long as you can put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – you can create content. But the bad news is, content marketing isn’t easy. It takes perseverance, hard work, consistency and innovation (as well as a whole bunch of other things too!)

But I’m not here to tell you it’s going to be easy, I’m here to tell you it’s going to be worth it.

It nurtures leads, entertains followers, tracks your customers, reduces human error and streamlines repetitive tasks so that you can spend your time doing something more productive… marketing automation seems like a no-brainer for businesses looking to get online! 

But the reality is that it’s been slow to catch on. 

Whether that’s because of a lack of education, priorities lying somewhere else, or a complete misunderstanding as to what marketing automation is and what it can do for your business, there’s one thing that’s undeniable: It works.And the marketing automation statistics speak for themselves. 

But why have I only cited marketing automation statistics between 2013 and 2015? 

Did you know that 35% of a businesses data becomes obsolete after a year? And they say that statistics as it relates to the internet become outdated after about 2 years or so because, as we all know, the internet is growing rapidly all the time. And while older statistics can be still useful, they have to be taken with a pinch of salt – and there’s only so much salt you can add before your cholesterol starts to spike. 

So, in the interest of your health, I didn’t want to bog you down with anything that might be irrelevant. 

Did you know that over 3 billion people are on the internet today? It’s true! On average, Google processes 40,000 searches per second – that’s 3.5 billion searches per day!

Everyone’s on it! And, these searches aren’t just about browsing for funny memes, cat pictures and games to play when you’re bored with 78% of users say that they use Google to research products and services! 

That means people are using the internet – and the content that’s on the internet – with the intention to eventually buy.

For a business, the internet is probably the most amazing marketing tool at your disposal. Never before have you been able to reach so many targeted potential clients at such scale before. It’s unprecendented. It’s your Yellow Pages, TV adverts, magazine ads etc. all rolled up into one.

There’s an unfortunate rumor buzzing around the web that Google+ just isn’t the place to be.

It’s a wasteland!

It’s a Facebook wannabe!

There’s no one on it!

Etc. etc. etc. You get the drift.

Normally I wouldn’t pay any heed to rumors and gossip. I’m a try-it-and-decide-for-myself kinda gal. But I can’t ignore it anymore – not when small businesses are the ones who have to pay the price!

So listen up small business owners, marketers and everyone in between: Google+ could potentially turn into one of your biggest sources of social media traffic.

I know what you’re thinking! No way! She’s exaggerating! It can’t be!

But here’s the thing: Since I’ve started promoting content on Google+, Google+ has become Spokal’s second largest source of social media traffic after Twitter. (click to Tweet this!)

Cool, huh?