Do you need a better way to manage your blog content? Looking for a tool to outline your blogging workflow from beginning to end? In this article, you’ll discover how to effectively organize how you brainstorm, write, and publish your blog’s content with Trello. #1: Create a Trello Board for Your Blog Workflow Trello is
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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
Posted by bridget.randolph
Part 1: An overview of structured data for SEOSEOs have been talking about structured data for a few years now — ever since Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Yandex got together in 2011 to create a standardized list of attributes and entities which they all agreed to support, and which became known as Schema.org. However, there's still a lot of confusion around what structured data is, what it’s for, and how and when to implement structured data for SEO purposes. In fact, a survey carried out last year by Bing found that only 17% of marketers are using (or were planning to use) Schema.org structured data markup.
In this two-part series, you’ll learn the basics of structured data: first we’ll talk about what it is, and how it relates to SEO (Part 1), and then I’ll take you through a simple process for identifying structured data opportunities and implementing structured data on your own site (Part 2).
What is "structured data"?"Structured data" as a general term simply refers to any data which is organized (i.e., given "structure"). For example, if you have a bunch of scattered Post-It notes with phone messages about meetings, dates, times, people, etc, and you organize these into a table with labeled rows and columns for each type of information, you’re structuring the data.
Example of unstructured dataPost-It 1: “John called, confirming 3pm on Wed at Coffee Shop”
Post-It 2: “Don’t forget your 10am meeting at Mary’s Office this Friday”
Example of structured data|
Meeting With |
Date |
Time |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
|
John |
Wednesday |
3pm |
Coffee Shop |
|
Mary |
Friday |
10am |
Office |
Structured data can be used in many different ways, such as using Open Graph markup to specify a Facebook title and description, or using SQL to query a relational database. In an SEO context, "structured data" usually refers to implementing some type of markup on a webpage, in order to provide additional detail around the page’s content. This markup improves the search engines’ understanding of that content, which can help with relevancy signals and also enables a site to benefit from enhanced results in SERPs (rich snippets, rich cards, carousels, knowledge boxes, etc). Because this type of markup needs to be parsed and understood consistently by search engines as well as by people, there are standardized implementations (known as formats and/or syntaxes) and classifications of concepts, relationships, and terms (known as vocabularies) which should be used.
There are three syntaxes which search engines will typically support (Microdata, JSON-LD, and microformats) and two common vocabularies which can be used with these syntaxes: Schema.org and Microformats.org. If you’re reading up on this topic, you may also see references to RDFa, which is another syntax.
*This all gets pretty confusing, so if you’re feeling less-than-crystal-clear right now, you might want to check out this great glossary cheat sheet from Aaron Bradley.
When we talk about structured data for SEO, we're usually talking about the particular vocabulary known as "Schema.org." Schema.org is the most commonly used approach to structured data markup for SEO purposes. It isn’t the only one, though. Some websites use the Microformats.org vocabulary, most often for marking up product reviews (h-review markup) or defining a physical location (h-card markup).
In addition to being able to use different vocabularies to mark up your site, you can also implement this markup in different ways using syntaxes. For Schema.org vocabulary, the best ways to add markup to your site are either through using the Microdata format, or JSON-LD. With Microdata markup, your structured data is integrated within the main HTML of the page, whereas JSON-LD uses a Javascript object to insert all of your markup into the head of the page, which is often a cleaner, simpler implementation from a development perspective.
The Microdata approach was originally the recommended one for SEO purposes, but Google’s JSON-LD support has improved in the past few years and now it is their recommended approach when possible. Note, however, that Bing does not currently support JSON-LD (although hopefully this may be changing soon).
How does structured data support SEO?Google, Bing, and other search engines encourage webmasters to use structured data, and incentivize that usage by providing benefits to websites with structured data correctly implemented.
Some of these benefits include search result enhancements and content-specific features, such as:
These enhanced search results can also improve your click-through rate (CTR) and drive additional traffic, because they are more visually appealing and provide additional information to searchers. And improved CTR can also indirectly improve your rankings, as a user behavior signal.
Implementing structured data on your site is also a way to prepare for the future of search, as Google in particular continues to move in the direction of hyper-personalization and solving problems and answering questions directly. Tom Anthony gave a presentation about this topic not too long ago, titled Five Emerging Trends in Search.
Common uses for structured dataPart 2 of this series will go into more detail around specific structured data opportunities and how to implement them. However, there are certain common uses for structured data which almost any website or brand can benefit from:
Knowledge GraphIf you have a personal or business brand, you can edit the information which appears on the right-hand side of the SERP for branded searches. Google uses structured data to populate the Knowledge Graph box.
The most commonly used markup allows you to provide additional context for:
Using this markup allows your site to show up in the SERPs as a rich snippet or rich card:
Google’s rich cards examples for "Recipe"
If your site has several items that would fit the query, you can also get a “host carousel” result like this one for "chicken recipes":
In addition to these types of content markup, Google is currently experimenting with "action markup," which enables users to take an action directly from the SERP, such as booking an appointment or watching a movie. If this is relevant to your business, you may want to express interest in participating.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)If your site uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), you’ll want to make sure you include structured data markup on both the regular and AMP pages. This will allow your AMP pages to appear in rich results, including the Top Stories carousel and host carousels.
Social cardsAlthough Open Graph, Twitter cards, and other social-specific markup may not have a big impact from a purely SEO perspective, this markup is visible to search engines and Bing specifically notes that their search engine can understand Open Graph page-level annotations (although at the moment they only use this data to provide visual enhancements for a specific handful of publishers).
If you use any social networks for marketing, or simply want your content to look good when it’s shared on social media, make sure you correctly implement social markup and validate using the various platforms’ respective testing tools:
You can include structured data in your AdWords ads, using structured snippet extensions. These allow you to add additional information within your ad copy to help people understand more about your products or services and can also improve click-through rate (CTR) on your ads.
Email marketingIf you have Gmail, you may have gotten a confirmation email for a flight and seen the information box at the top showing your flight details, or seen a similar information box for your last Amazon order. This is possible due to structured data markup for emails. Google Inbox and Gmail support both JSON-LD and Microdata markup for emails about various types of orders, invoices and reservations.
Although using structured data markup is necessary to be eligible for rich snippets and rich cards, there is no guarantee that simply adding structured data markup to your site will immediately result in rich snippets or cards. Sometimes it may not show up at all, or may appear inconsistently. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong.
Myth #2: Structured data is a ranking signal.Using structured data correctly can help search engines to better understand what your content is about and may therefore contribute to a stronger relevancy signal. In addition, studies have shown that rich snippets can improve click-through rate (CTR), which can lead to better rankings indirectly. However, the use of structured data markup on its own is not a direct ranking signal.
Myth #3: Google can figure it out without the extra work.Sometimes it’s tempting to skip extra steps, like implementing structured data, since we know that Google is getting smarter at figuring things out and understanding content without much help. But this is a short-sighted view. Yes, Google and other search engines can understand and figure out some of this stuff on their own, but if you want them to be able to understand a specific thing about your content, you should use the correct markup. Not only will it help in the short term with the things the algorithms aren’t so good at understanding, it also ensures that your site itself is well structured and that your content serves a clear purpose. Also, Google won’t give you certain features without correct implementation, which could be costing you on a large scale over time, especially if you’re in a competitive niche. Apart from anything else, studies have shown that rich snippets can improve CTR by anywhere from 5%–30%.
Additional resourcesIn Part 2 of this two-part series, we’ll be looking at the practical side of structured data implementation: how to actually identify structured data opportunities for your site, and how to implement and test the markup correctly.
But for now, here are some resources to help you get started:
In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you: Have you implemented structured data markup on your site? Share your results in the comments!
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Would it just be easier to quit Twitter?
That’s the question social media marketers are asking these days about the little blue bird.
Not all that long ago, Twitter was a terrific way to interact with your customers, fans, and colleagues, as well as a solidly reliable method to create engagement around your own content.
Only one of these is still true.
No doubt, Twitter remains a conversation platform for media and influencers. And Twitter’s role as a customer service platform remains strong, partially as a result of positive functionality tweaks.
But as a way to get new people to discover your content and read your blog post, or listen or your podcast, or watch your video? Nah. Twitter just doesn’t do that these days.
New research from our partners at RivalIQ found that the average engagement rate on Twitter for brands is now 0.049%. That includes all likes, comments, retweets, etc. Every action but clicks.
Twitter average engagement rate is now just 0.049% (the new banner ad?)
Click To Tweet
Thus, according to RivalIQ’s 2017 Social Media Benchmark Report, a tweet to 10,000 followers will, on average, generate 4.9 engagement behaviors.
FOUR. POINT. NINE.
The New Banner Ad?Per Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights, the average banner ad click-through rate is 0.05%. This means that Twitter’s engagement rate is actually less than the click-through rate for the much-maligned, often-mocked banner ad.
Twitter engagement rate is now lower than banner ad click-through rate. Yikes.
Click To Tweet
Interaction rates in this vicinity do not mean that the tactic is pointless. Considering there are millions and millions and millions of dollars spent on banner ads every day, somebody is making a CTR of 0.05% pay off.
Twitter, I suppose, is the same. A minuscule engagement rate hasn’t yet convinced me to pull the plug on the platform. For now, Twitter is worth it just for the personal interaction and customer service elements alone.
However, big brand social media managers on my Social Pros podcast are consistently telling me that they are spending far less time on Twitter, and devoting little strategic muscle to the platform outside customer service. Further, almost no guests in 2017 have said that they are spending serious money on Twitter advertising, which exacerbates the underlying revenue issues at Twitter.
I’m not saying it’s time to bail out. But I am definitely saying that if your social media strategy relies upon a lot of audience interaction and click generation on Twitter, it’s probably time for an overhaul of that strategy.
Do you agree?
By now, whatever your business – for- or non-profit — you shouldn’t have to be persuaded that content marketing and social media are essential strategies to survive and thrive in the current zeitgeist.
The digital revolution won. Digital communications are a part of our daily lives. It’s fundamentally changed how people find you and communicate with you.
And it should be no surprise it’s dramatically changed the way nonprofit marketing and fundraising must be done to be successful.
Except… too many nonprofits don’t seem to have gotten the message. They’re still, for the most part, doing business the way they did ten years ago. Limping along with, at best, a half-hearted, slapdash approach to digital marketing. With no one person assigned to lead, manage or evaluate the program. This is causing nonprofits to wither on the vine.
Because if no one sees or hears your message, are you really there?
Are you wondering if LinkedIn is worth your time? Want to know how other marketers approach LinkedIn? In this article, you’ll discover new research insights that reveal what content performs best on LinkedIn, which industries use the platform today, and how marketers are planning to move forward. #1: Long-Form Content Performs Best It’s well-known that
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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
Posted by NorthStarInbound
This survey and its analysis was co-authored with North Star Inbound's senior creative strategist, Andrea Pretorian.
In the spring of 2017, North Star Inbound partnered up with seoClarity and BuzzStream to survey the state of enterprise SEO. We had a fair share of anecdotal evidence from our clients, but we wanted a more objective measurement of how SEO teams are assembled, what resources are allocated to them, what methods they use, and how they perform.
We hadn’t seen such data collected, particularly for enterprise SEO. We found this surprising given its significance, evident even in the number of “enterprise SEO tools” and solutions being marketed.
What is enterprise SEO?There is no single fixed-industry definition of “enterprise” beyond “large business.” For the purposes of this survey, we defined enterprise businesses as being comprised of 500 or more employees. “Small enterprise” means 500–1000 employees, while “large enterprise” means over 1000 employees.
Industry discussion often points to the number of pages as being a potential defining factor for enterprise SEO, but even that is not necessarily a reliable measure.
What was our survey methodology?We developed the widest enterprise SEO survey to date, made up of 29 questions that delved into every aspect of the enterprise SEO practice. From tools and tactics to content development, keyword strategy, and more, we left no stone unturned. We then picked the brains of 240 SEO specialists across the country. You can check out our complete survey, methodology, and results here.
Team size matters — or does it?Let’s start by looking at enterprise team size and the resources allocated to them. We focused on companies with an in-house SEO team, and broke them down in terms of small (500–1000 employees) and large enterprise (>1000 employees).
We found that 76% of small enterprise companies have in-house SEO teams of 5 people or less, but were surprised that 68% of large enterprise companies also had teams of this size. We expected a more pronounced shift into larger team sizes paralleling the larger size of their parent company; we did not expect to see roughly the same team size across small and large enterprise companies.
Interestingly, in larger companies we also see less confidence in the team’s experience in SEO. Of the companies with in-house SEO, only 31.67% of large enterprise teams called themselves “leaders” in the SEO space, which was defined in this survey as part of a team engaged broadly and critically within the business. 40% of small enterprise teams called themselves “leaders.” In terms of viewing themselves more positively (leaders, visionaries) or less (SEO pioneers in their company or else new SEO teams), we did not notice a big difference between small or large enterprise in-house SEO teams.
Large enterprise companies should have more resources at their disposal — HR teams to hire the best talent, reliable onboarding practices in place, access to more sophisticated project management tools, and more experience managing teams — which makes these results surprising. Why are large enterprise companies not more confident about their SEO skills and experience?
Before going too far in making assumptions about their increased resources, we made sure to ask our survey-takers about this. Specifically, we asked for how much budget is allocated to SEO activity per month — not including the cost of employees’ salaries, or the overhead costs of keeping the lights on — since this would result in a figure easier to report consistently across all survey takers.
It turns out that 57% of large enterprise companies had over $10K dedicated strictly to SEO activity each month, in contrast to just 24% of small enterprise companies allocating this much budget. 40% of large enterprise had over $20K dedicated to SEO activity each month, suggesting that SEO is a huge priority for them. And yet, as we saw earlier, they are not sold on their team having reached leader status.
Enterprise SEO managers in large companies value being scalable and repeatableWe asked survey takers to rate the success of their current SEO strategy, per the scale mapped below, and here are the results:
A smaller percentage of large enterprise SEOs had a clearly positive rating of the current success of their SEO strategy than did small enterprise SEOs. We even see more large enterprise SEOs “on the fence” about their strategy’s performance as opposed to small. This suggests that, from the enterprise SEOs we surveyed, the ones who work for smaller companies tend to be slightly more optimistic about their campaigns’ performance than the larger ones.
What’s notable about the responses to this question is that 18.33% of managers at large enterprise companies would rate themselves as successful — calling themselves “scalable and repeatable.” No one at a small enterprise selected this to describe their strategy. We clearly tapped into an important value for these teams, who use it enough to measure their performance that it's a value they can report on to others as a benchmark of their success.
Anyone seeking to work with large enterprise clients needs to make sure their processes are scalable and repeatable. This also suggests that one way for a growing company to step up its SEO team’s game as it grows is by achieving these results. This would be a good topic for us to address in greater detail in articles, webinars, and other industry communication.
Agencies know best? (Agencies think they know best.)Regardless of the resources available to them, across the board we see that in-house SEOs do not show as much confidence as agencies. Agencies are far more likely to rate their SEO strategy as successful: 43% of survey takers who worked for agencies rated their strategy as outright successful, as opposed to only 13% of in-house SEOs. That’s huge!
While nobody said their strategy was a total disaster — we clearly keep awesome company — 7% of in-house SEOs expressed frustration with their strategy, as opposed to only 1% of agencies.
Putting our bias as a link building agency aside, we would expect in-house SEO enterprise teams to work like in-house agencies. With the ability to hire top talent and purchase enterprise software solutions to automate and track campaigns, we expect them to have the appropriate tools and resources at their disposal to generate the same results and confidence as any agency.
So why the discrepancy? It’s hard to say for sure. One theory might be that those scalable, repeatable results we found earlier that serve as benchmarks for enterprise are difficult to attain, but the way agencies evolve might serve them better. Agencies tend to develop somewhat organically — expanding their processes over time and focusing on SEO from day one — as opposed to an in-house team in a company, which rarely was there from day one and, more often than not, sprouted up when the company’s growth made it such that marketing became a priority.
One clue for answering this question might come from examining the differences between how agencies and in-house SEO teams responded to the question asking them what they find to be the top two most difficult SEO obstacles they are currently facing.
Agencies have direction, need budget; in-house teams have budget, need direction
When we look at the third obstacles, we find the biggest reveal. While agencies find themselves hindered by trying to secure enough budget, in-house SEO teams struggle to develop the right content; this seems in line with the point we made in the previous section comparing agency versus in-house success. Agencies have the processes down, but need to work hard to fit their clients’ budgets. In-house teams have the budget they need, but have trouble lining them up to the exact processes their company needs to grow as desired. The fact that almost half of the in-house SEOs would rank developing the right content as their biggest obstacle — as opposed to just over a quarter of agencies — further supports this, particularly given how important content is to any marketing campaign.
Now, let’s take a step back and dig deeper into that second obstacle we noted: demonstrating ROI.
Everyone seems to be measuring success differentlyOne question that we asked of survey takers was about the top two technical SEO issues they monitor:
But when we asked everyone what their top two factors are when reviewing their rankings, we got these results:
For both agencies and in-house SEO teams, national-level keywords were the top factor, although this was true for almost-three quarters of in-house SEOs and about half of agencies. Interestingly, agencies focused a bit more on geo/local keywords as well as mobile. From when we first opened this data we found this striking, because it suggests a narrative where in-house SEO teams focus on more conservative, “seasoned” methods, while agencies are more likely to stay on the cutting-edge.
Looking at the “Other” responses (free response), we had several write-ins from both subgroups who answered that traffic and leads were important to them. One agency survey-taker brought up a good point: that what they monitor “differs by client.” We would be remiss if we did not mention the importance of vertical-specific and client-specific approaches — even if you are working in-house, and your only client is your company. From this angle, it makes sense that everyone is measuring rankings and SEO differently.
However, we would like to see a bit more clarity within the community on setting these parameters, and we hope that these results will foster that sort of discussion. Please do feel free to reply in the comments:
We’d love to hear about your experiences, in-house or agency, and how you’ve been able to demonstrate ROI on your campaigns.
We’re going to repeat this survey again next year, so stay tuned. We hope to survey a larger audience so that we can break down the groups we examine further and analyze response trends among the resulting subgroups. We wanted to do this here in this round of analysis, but were hesitant because of how small the resulting sample size would be.
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Every week, the Social Pros Podcast serves up insights from real professionals doing real work in social media. Host Jay Baer and his guests dig deep into the inside stories and behind-the-scenes social media secrets at companies like Ford, ESPN, and many more. As Social Pros approaches its second birthday, we revisited some of Social Pros’ best conversations to bring you this list of the 12 most popular episodes since 2015—the best of the best.
12. How Buffer Does Social Media and Why Less Is More
Brian Peters, Digital Marketing Strategist for Buffer, reveals what Buffer’s arsenal of tools and data have taught him about the surprisingly promising future of organic content. This episode serves up fascinating insights into how transparency leads to content gold and why increasing engagement means posting less on social.
11. Which People Skills Are Most Important in Social Media?Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Local, teaches us how proper listening can make you a better person, partner, and social pro. As Kerpen explains, even the most well thought-out and perfectly executed social plan can fall flat if it loses sight of the essential humanity of its audience. Listen in to learn the crucial difference between “being interested” and “being interesting,” plus two simple questions that lead to deeper relationships.
10. When and How Does Snapchat Work for Business?Carlos Gil, Head of Global Social Media Marketing for BMC Software, defends Snapchat as a social tool for B2B and B2C businesses. Carlos knows a thing or two about raising brand awareness and driving global demand through social media, and his perspective on Snapchat is not to be missed.
9. How to Use Social Media to Delight Customers Across 11 BrandsWith a global portfolio of eleven brands that encompasses 638 properties in 52 countries, social and customer engagement can be both tricky and overwhelming for Hyatt. Luckily, they’ve got Dan Moriarty, Director of Digital Strategy and Activation. In this episode, he shares his approach to managing a global brand’s social across different platforms, experimenting with new channels, and breeding internal advocacy through employee empowerment.
8. Why Social Media Customer Service Is the New Marketing
80 percent of businesses think they are delivering great customer service, but only eight percent of those customers agree. In this episode, our own Jay Baer digs into this staggering statistic, with help from research featured in Hug Your Haters. You don’t want to miss this one.
7. How to Sell on Social When You’re Not Trying to SellRichard Margetic, Former Director of Global Business at Intuit, discusses social media’s role at different stages of the sales funnel and throughout every department of an organization. Listen in for insights on transparency, teachable moments from Google’s failures in social media, dealing with negative reviews, and humanity’s need to be social.
6. How to Use Influencers to Amplify Social MediaInfluencers are causing a marketing paradigm shift, and Heidi Sullivan and Todd Cameron can prove it. Heidi, Senior VP at Cision, and Todd, Head of Content and Strategy at TapInfluence, tease their Influence Pros Podcast and share their ever-evolving 50,000-foot view on influencer marketing.
5. Be More Productive in Social Than You Ever Thought Possible
David Horsager, business strategist and best-selling author of The Trust Edge, provides concrete steps to increase productivity and deepen relationships while maintaining peak creativity. His go-to tips for decluttering your professional life will help you get back to focusing on what you love about your job: creating and expanding relationships through creative social engagement.
4. The New Rules of Social Marketing and PRDavid Meerman Scott, Marketing and Sales Strategist for Freshspot Marketing, chats with Jay about the latest edition of his bestselling book, The New Rules of Social Marketing and PR, newsjacking, and the unification of sales and PR/marketing. You’ll hear this internationally acclaimed strategist’s take on everything from collaborative networking to the dangers of overzealous influencer marketing.
3. How to Use Content to Build Your Online Influence
John Hall, author and CEO of Influence & Co., pulls back the curtain on creating ambassadors and influencing people through content and social. In this episode, you’ll hear John’s expert advice on scaling influence, gaining trust, staying top-of-mind, and when to prioritize vulnerability over profits.
2. Podcasts and Facebook Are the New Community LeversComing in at number two is this must-listen episode with Jason Keath, Founder and CEO of Social Fresh. Jason dives deep into the low-tech ways social media experts are finding success, share his insights on the untapped potential of social media ads, and reveals why Facebook groups and podcasts are leading the charge in building tight-knit online communities.
1. Gary Vaynerchuk and the Currency of Attention
The most popular Social Pros episode of all time stars none other than Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia and legendary business-builder. In this episode, Gary talks to Jay about his approach to social media “land-grabbing,” his long game, building your brand in spaces you don’t own or control, and why you can never have too much attention.
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