Google

  • Research

    • SAVE TIME EVERY DAY WITH A GOOGLE DRIVE FILE TREE

    Posted on

    UPDATE: ORIGINAL FILE TREE TOOL NO LONGER WORKING!

    When this post was originally released, we used a tool created by a third-party developer. This tool is not longer being updated. We are in the process of creating our own tool for this purpose. If you are interested in accessing this tool when it’s ready, enter your email above. Cheers!

    Nora

    The world is full of many different kinds of trees, but none is more useful for business than the Google Drive File Tree. If you’ve worked with Google Drive for any amount time, you may have become frustrated with finding documents and folders- especially with shared content within your Drive.

    Solve the Google Drive organizational nightmare with a file and folder tree that you can generate instantly. Get the simple instructions delivered to your inbox by entering your email above. Then you can follow them yourself or pass them to your virtual assistant/freelancer.

    USING KEYWORD SEARCH VS. SIFTING THROUGH FOLDERS

    Hollie

    Although Google Drive has a search bar which lets you keyword search for specific folders and files, this can cause confusion and be more time-consuming if you have similarly named files and folders or if there are multiple files within shared drives. The Google Drive File Tree will provide a clear overview of everything in your Drive.

    Nora

    The File Tree is not meant to be a replacement for the search bar in Google Drive, but rather an additional tool to help you and any other teammates (current or future) to navigate Google Drive. It also helps you to consistently add new documents in more logical places within the folders instead of just randomly guessing where they should go. This can be an invaluable time-saving practice in the long run.

    Hollie

    Generating the File Tree is extremely fast (takes just a few minutes) and will also help you to restructure the folders in your Drive. You’ll also be able to pinpoint and consolidate duplicate folders which contain similar content.   Once the File Tree has been created, you can easily save or print the HTML file for your reference. Being able to print the tree makes it easier for you to adjust or restructure your folders and files. You may also want to hang your printed hierarchy tree somewhere in your office so that you and your team members can see at a glance the likely places where the content you are looking for will be. It will regularly reinforce the organizational structure that you have created.

    HOW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES CREATE LESS HEADACHES

    Nora

    While creating a sound organizational structure for your files and folders may make you want to get a lobotomy, it will make it so much easier for you to scale your business in the future by allowing new team members to quickly and painlessly sift through documents to find what they need. Like with any aspect of your business, get into the mindset that you’re creating a multi-million dollar business and do things right from the ground up. The organizational structure for your documents is no exception. In fact, you’d be surprised how much time is wasted in new businesses due to disorganized files and lack of structure.

    Hollie

    In this day in age, many of us are using freelancers and outsourcing many of our tasks. Once you’ve generated the tree, it will not only show you where files are located within folders but also provide direct links to those folders on the Drive. This gives you a great alternative way to navigate or help others find what they need within the Drive with ease.

    Nora

    Follow the simple instructions in the SOP included at the top of this post. It’s one of the best time investments you can make early on in your business. Enjoy!

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • Research

    • FINDING YOUR COMPETITORS IN GOOGLE (so you can crush them)

    Posted on
    Nora

    Let’s put the “anal” in Competitive Analysis! I nerdily just cracked myself up with that one. But seriously, competitive analysis is tedious and dull, and yet absolutely critical for you to do for your website. The competitive analysis template that is downloadable above will help you get this task done without the headache. Once you’ve finished, you’ll have a good understanding of your market position and have a wealth of new sources for content ideas, designs and social media strategies.

    Hollie

    It’s easy to get convinced that you’re the only person out there creating a website about a certain topic or product. Maybe you haven’t heard of or come across one before that provides the information or resources that yours will have. It’s time to put in a little elbow grease and find out exactly what’s out there and whether those sites are strong competitors to what you are offering. By the way, having competitors shouldn’t scare you out of creating your site. On the contrary, having competitors often validates your idea, proving that there is a market out there interested in your service or product.

    If your website is already live and you still haven’t done a competitive analysis, don’t worry. No matter what stage you’re at in your business, you can glean great insight and inspiration from understanding who else is out there working in a similar niche.

    Nora

    You might be afraid to seek out your competitors, thinking that you’ll discover someone out there who’s beating you at your own game. Suck it up, soldier! It’s better to understand the threats facing your business and tackle them head on than to blindly find the competition after you’ve already sunk your blood, sweat and precious time into your project.

    Hollie

    There are various methods of doing competitive analysis, but the one we’ll be focusing on here is to find out who your competitors are in Google. Unless you have a massive marketing budget (congrats for you!), you’ll want to make sure that people are able to find your website when they search in Google.

    Blog image organic seo template
    Nora

    People that find your website by searching in Google or other search engines like Yahoo or DuckDuckGo are called “organic traffic” because they naturally find you without being served an ad or visiting your site directly through your URL. The more organic traffic you get, the less money you’ll need to spend on advertising to attract an audience. Plus, organic traffic is often more valuable than traffic created through advertisements because the people that come to your site are those who actually want to be there!

    Determining Your Target Keywords

    Hollie

    Before you start this competitive analysis, you’ll need to know which keywords you are targeting for your website. That is, what would you want someone to be typing into Google in order to find your site?

    Nora

    For example, pretend you run an e-commerce site that sells luxury dog beds. Potential customers might type keywords like “best dog beds” or “most comfortable dog beds” into Google in order to find your website.

    If you already know which keywords you are going after, great, keep going! If not, take 20 minutes now to learn some strategies for picking great keywords from the links of resources that we’ve wrangled up below.

    Hollie

    As a general rule, you should aim for keywords for which it will be possible to rank in the first page of Google. If all the links in the first page of Google are already being dominated by big names like Wikipedia, eHow, etc. for a keyword, then throw it out and go after some different ones. If you’re not sure about the strength of your competitors, you’ll know more about where you stand after completing the competitive analysis SOP available above.

    Here are some resources from trusted sources for choosing the best keywords for your website:

    1. Beginners Guide to SEO (non-affiliate)
    2. Keyword Research (non-affiliate)
    3. Niche Site Keyword Research (non-affiliate)
    Know your keywords blog graphic
    Nora

    Once you have your keywords ready, you can collect thorough data about your competitor’s websites. This task takes a bit of time but it doesn’t require any special skills. If you are strapped for time, pass the SOP document to your freelance worker and they will handle it for you.

    Hollie

    Even if you’ve done a competitive analysis in the past, it’s best to run the research again every six months or so to make sure that there aren’t any new players on the market that you are unaware of. That’s why we recommend getting into the practice of outsourcing this task using the SOP template so that you can get it done regularly by a freelancer or virtual assistant without sucking up your own precious time.

    Steps for Completing the Competitive Analysis Template

    Nora

    The process in the SOP template provided entails plugging your keywords into Google while using a special Google address that doesn’t skew the results based on your location or previous searches. This is all explained clearly in the SOP’s step-by-step instructions.

    Afterwards, you will record the websites that come up within the first 15 positions in Google. You’ll then evaluate each of these sites using a free tool that will help you determine how strong of a competitor those sites are and how difficult it will be to outrank them in Google.

    How to find google competitors template blog image
    Hollie

    You can find key information, such as your competitor website’s domain authority, using some great free tools. These tools allow you to peek behind the curtain of your competitors, rather than having to guess. In online business data is king, so use it to your advantage. 

    Nora

    The SOP download includes simple step-by-step instructions that anyone with basic computer skills will be able to manage. It will take you or your freelancer through all of the steps necessary to finish a competitive analysis and uses some excellent free online tools to collect the information that you need to determine your position in the market.

    Get everything you need delivered to your inbox now by entering your email in the box above. Good luck with your business!

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • Content Creation

    • Complete These 10 Things to Improve Your Blog Post Ranking

    Posted on

    The blog post template that you can download above provides you with 10 areas that you should consider before, during and after you’ve written your blog post. It’s simple to use, just full in the details under each heading, and then transfer each section onto your blog. You can make one for to plan every blog post you write, not just to ensure you don’t forget to add these essential details that will improve SEO and readability, but you can also use it as a method to outsource your blog posts.

    We use a version of this template for our SOP Template blog posts, and you can easily customize this template to fit your own blog post requirements.

    Do Some Keyword Research

    Hollie

    Before you start writing your blog content, do some keyword research. Although keyword research is becoming more difficult, you can still get a good idea of a keyword or phrase by simply searching for it using google.com/ncr and the Moz Chrome plugin. You will be able to see how your competitors are ranked for that specific keyword and decide whether you are able to write something that is quality enough to rank higher.

    Nora

    If you have a search bar on your site, you can use a plugin or service such as Swiftype to see what people are searching your site for. This may give you clues as to what to write about in future blog posts. You should also consider that certain content will be searched for in Google at different times of the year, so you may want to write content associated with a specific holiday or event.

    Write a Compelling Headline

    Hollie

    In order to persuade people to read your article, you want to craft a headline that will captivate your audience enough to click through and read more. To improve your SEO, try and use your chosen keyword or a variation in your headline.
    It can sometimes be difficult to know if your headline is catchy enough, and there are tools and resources that can help you write a headline that your potential readers will be interested in. Coschedule have a great tool, called the Headline Analyzer. It breaks down your headline and gives you a score out of 100 based on a variety of elements, including how ‘wordy’ your headline is and the emotional and unusual words you have included.

    Nora

    Check that your headline does not exceed the limit for Google results, as the title will be truncated once you hit a certain amount of characters. You may do this on purpose to create suspense and add further interest to your content. Also take into consideration if you want to include your site’s name at the end of your title.

     

    If you’re using the YoastSEO plugin for WordPress, you can see a preview of your headline before you publish your blog post. You can also see a basic preview if you use Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer, but Yoast also allows you to edit your SEO title, post URL and metadata.  

    Include Optimized Images

    Hollie

    Having an eye catching feature graphic will help attract your potential readers attention, whilst also promoting and increasing the chances of shares on social media. Images help break up your text, and hold the reader’s attention as well as providing a relevant visual aid to your content.

     

    When choosing images either for your blog post’s featured image, or images that appear in your post, make sure to use royalty-free images, or include a citation if you have taken the image from another source. There are plenty of resources for royalty-free images, including Pixabay, Shutterstock and GraphicStock. Some of these resources offer free images, but many provide a yearly subscription of high quality, unlimited downloads on vectors, photos and video content, or a package of X amount of downloads for a one off payment.

    Nora

    Alternatively, you can create your own images using a graphic design platform, such as Canva and BeFunky or you could outsource image design to a freelancer, if you want something different and customized.

    If you optimize your images, which is explained in the SOP, your images may also help your SEO and drive traffic to your site if they’re found in a search engine. Don’t forget to resize and compress your images as big files will slow down your site and affect your SEO.

    Categorize and Tag It

    Hollie

    Your blog post categories should be decided before creating your content and all of the posts that you write should fit into one of these categories. There are some ways in which you can decide which categories to choose for your blog

    Consider the ‘tone’ of your category names, and try and make sure all the categories have a similar level of specificity (the category shouldn’t be too broad a topic, or too narrow). You should also try and have as few categories as possible.

    If you’ve already got your blog up and running, you may want to do a ‘cull’ of your existing categories, if you only have 1 or 2 blog posts under one category or rename those that aren’t self explanatory or too broad a subject.

    Nora

    Tags are a way of narrowing down content that may overlap across several categories. They should be more specific than categories, and are also a great way to help your visitors navigate your site more easily. If you’re using WordPress, you can keep track of your existing tags from the Posts area in the menubar. When you’re adding tags to your blog post, you can choose from ‘Most Used Tags’. The larger the text, the more posts include the tag. You can also hover over the tag to see how many blog posts contain that particular keyword.

    External Links to Other Blogs

    Hollie

    Although you might think that linking to external sites will take your audience away from your site, this is a great way to improve your SEO, as it shows that you content has been researched and therefore more valuable. Linking to other sites that may be related to your content may also promote positive engagement between the sites and lead to further cooperation down the line.

    When you link to another site, you can have the page open in a new tab, instead of replacing your site with someone else’s. You can do this simply in WordPress by ticking the ‘Open link in a new tab’ box when adding a link.

    Meta Description

    Nora

    Your blog’s meta description provides the reader with a brief overview of what the blog post is about, or what they will get from reading your post. If you don’t edit this before publishing, Google, or other search engine will pull the first few lines from your blog post and use that as meta. It’s best to customize this to ensure click throughs to your site. If you’re using the YoastSEO plugin, this can easily be edited and you’ll see a preview of how it will appear in a search engine. The meta description should ideally include your keyword(s) or a variation of them.  

    Call Your Readers to Action

    Hollie

    Your blog post’s call to action is probably one of the most important sections of your post after the actual written content. A call to action is meant to prompt the reader to take the next step or ‘action’ after reading your post. Your call to action might be a free PDF for your reader to download in exchange for their email address or a prompt to get a free trial of your product. Your call to action should combine an attractive image with text that is to the point and interesting.

     

    Get ideas for your next blog post’s call to action from HubSpot’s article, 8 Types of CTAs You Should Absolutely Try on Your Blog.

    As mentioned at the beginning, you can use this blog post template in a few different ways; fill it out yourself and use it to make sure elements of your blog aren’t forgotten about, outsource your content by handing the template to a freelancer for them to complete. You may even want to complete the template yourself and then pass it onto a colleague who put the content onto your blog.

    You can also use this Blog Post Template in conjunction with our Content Calendar Template.

    Download this Blog Post Template at the top of the page to start planning your blog posts today!

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • Research

    • CREATE KEYWORD-RICH APP STORE METADATA

    Posted on
    Nora

    App Store Optimization (ASO) is a big topic for anyone working on a mobile app. For those new to the subject, it basically means futzing around with the title, description, keywords, and images that you upload to the App Store.

    There is plenty of advice out there that gives you up-to-date practices for the latest algorithm changes in iTunes and Google Play. Rather than write a massive blog post about the ins and outs of all the strategies, today we’ll be giving you a quick and dirty guide for getting started today with choosing keywords and building great metadata for your app.

    Hollie

    This SOP will give you a jumping off point and is designed to get you going in the right direction. Once you’ve completed this task however, the job isn’t done. In fact, with ASO the job is never done. Working on ASO is a constant tweaking process. Check out the More Resources section in the sidebar once you’ve finished this task to find out where to go next.

    THE ASO PERSONALITY TEST

    Nora

    Those who like tinkering with the details thrive in the task of finding the perfect mix of keywords, imagery, and content for ASO. These are the types of people who probably took apart the toaster as a kid, once they had discovered Daddy’s toolbox. If you’re not one of those people, it’s best to outsource ASO if you have the budget for it. You need a detail oriented person who loves statistics to get the most out of your ASO. If your budget is tight, you can at least get started with this SOP in order to get a baseline and decide how much effort to put in later.   

    IS ASO REALLY NECESSARY?

    Hollie

    Getting your app seen in the App Store is the best way to generate organic app downloads from your audience. There is no exact formula for completing this task, but there are some pretty stable principles that you can learn in order to get started.

    The two most important things for ASO is the title of your app and the keywords associated with it. When you choose to name your app, you should try to be as descriptive as possible. Make it obvious what the app helps people do. This is important when people are searching for your app in the App Store, because they have likely never heard of you or your company before.

    Nora

    Apple and Google both have their own set of requirements when creating the metadata for your app. For example, with regards to the title, Google only allows you 30 characters while Apple allows you quite a bit more. It used to be recommended for Apple that you utilize all of the characters available to you in the app title field in your meta-data however it seems to be the trend lately that Apple penalizes you for keyword-stuffing or adding unnecessary data in this field. The point is, create a title that is relevant and descriptive without keyword-stuffing.

    ASO is very similar to web SEO in that if you overuse specific keywords, you’ll be penalized. So when creating your keywords, try using some synonyms as these may be keywords that your competitors have not thought of.

    Hollie

    The next thing you should consider is your competition. If you rank for a keyword that has very high traffic but you rank in the 200s, this would be a waste of keyword space because no one will scroll down 200 apps to find you. Instead, go for more specific keywords or phrases for which you are most likely to rank in the top 10 slots within the App Store.  

     

    There are several free tools available for monitoring and choosing keywords which have high traffic but low competition in the App Store. Here’s a list of some of the good ones to get you started:

    1. AppTweak
    2. Sensor Tower
    3. SearchMan
    4. Mobile Action
    5. Appcodes
    6. App Annie
    7. Gummicube
    8. App Mind

    When using these tools, the most important thing to consider is relevance. The next thing you should consider is competition.

    Nora

    Google Play doesn’t have a separate keywords field in the metadata for your app on the App Store. For an Android app, you’ll need to strategically place your keywords inside of your app’s description. Google will also penalize you for over-using specific keywords so again, follow good SEO principles like you would on a blog post. Use descriptive words which excite your user about your app while using relevant keywords- but don’t overdo it.

    Google’s app description is also quite a bit longer than the description you’re allowed in iTunes, so feel free to be more informative and use this space to its entirety. Keep in mind however, that the user will most likely only read the first paragraph and decide based off of that whether not to download the app. Make sure the first paragraph clearly describes the benefits to the user and functions available your app.

    Hollie

    For Google Play, organic search makes up 80% of app downloads. Similarly to iTunes, Google Play has an algorithm for ranking apps. Most of this is a mystery, however there are some things that we do know. Among these is certainly ratings. If you have 200 reviews this will definitely have a positive effect on your ranking. A consistently high number of downloads will also improve your ranking in Google Play.

    Users may also stumble across your app when doing a keyword search in Google when they’re working on a computer. Take advantage of this by making sure that your metadata is suitable for both experiences. Whether the user is on a small screened phone or at their work computer, make sure the metadata looks great and is easy to read.

    Nora

    Google also allows you some extra fields to enter information into that iTunes does not have. For example, there is a promotional text area which gives you the opportunity to write a one-sentence description that summarizes your app. This description is all that most mobile users will read of your app’s metadata because they will have to click down to view the full app description.

    STRATEGIES FOR TRACKING YOUR ASO

    Hollie

    Once your metadata is finalized, decide how you’re going to measure its performance. If you make any changes to the metadata, make sure you do it little by little so that you’re able to accurately measure the impact that it has on your app downloads and visibility in the App Store. Also consider that the strategy for each App Store will be different. Don’t be afraid to change the Google Play app description so that it’s totally different from the iTunes app description if it will improve your downloads or rankings. As long as it’s telling the story of your app, that’s all that matters.

    The SOP download provided above gives you detailed instructions for how to create optimized metadata that will fully utilize all of the opportunities available in the App Stores, both for Google Play and for iTunes. It lays special emphasis on walking you through the steps to do good keyword research. This is a task you can and should outsource from time to time in order to discover new keyword gems that can make a big difference in your App Store visibility.  

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • SEO

    • HOW TO GET YOUR SITE FOUND BY SEARCH ENGINES

    Posted on

    HOW CAN WEBMASTER TOOLS HELP GET YOUR SITE ON SEARCH ENGINES?

    Hollie

    Put simply, Google Webmaster Tools is a set of extremely useful tools (obviously) that help you to see what is happening on your website. Sounds like yet another way that Google can spy on you? Well, that’s kind of the point. One of the key features of Google Webmaster Tools is to get your website to show in Google search results, also known as indexing. This means that when people begin searching for a keyword that you are trying to rank for, it will show in their results. Basically, Webmaster Tools is essential for SEO and there’s a good chance you’ll get more traffic through Google if you’re using it. Although Google Webmaster Tools can’t guarantee you a top 10 ranking keyword, it will help your customers find you.

    Nora

    Connecting Webmaster Tools to your site is one of the first things you should do when setting up a site, especially since you want Google to begin indexing you as soon as possible. If you’re still in the design stages of your site, you can hold off on the indexing part, but once you have connected Webmaster Tools to your site, all you have to do is click a button to complete the process!

    Hollie

    Many of Google Webmaster Tools features allow you to track your sites performance in order to make improvements. For example, there are several additional resources such as speed testing your site. Once your site has been tested, you will be provided with a score out of 100 and ways in which you can improve the site’s speed across all your devices. This kind of test may seem simple, but can be the differences between disgruntled users fed with up with your slow loading site, and customers who enjoy browsing your user friendly site.

    HOW IS WEBMASTER TOOLS DIFFERENT FROM ANALYTICS?

    Nora

    You may have heard about or used Google Analytics before, but Google Webmaster Tools can be in used in addition to Google Analytics. In fact, some of the information provided in Webmaster Tools is not available within Google Analytics and we strongly recommend using both on your site.

    Hollie

    Google Webmaster Tools helps you to discover errors and spam that may be affecting your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as well as their user experience.  Like Google Analytics, it provides you with information about keywords that people can use to organically find your site. This information can be used to strengthen your position in Google search results.

    Nora

    One of the most useful features of Google Webmaster Tools is its sitemaps function, which shows Google what pages you have on your website in order to index them. if you don’t submit this index you’re unlikely to get as much traffic as if you do. In order to create a sitemap for your website you can use XML Sitemaps and upload it to Google Webmaster Tools.

    Hollie

    As well as showing Google what pages you do have on your website you can also use Google Webmaster Tools to prevent access to certain pages. So, for example if you have a private login area you might not want search engines to access these pages. You can use the Crawler Access feature to block Google from crawling or taking data from these pages.

    WHEN SHOULD I SETUP GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS?

    Nora

    Even if you have no idea how to use Google Webmaster Tools and don’t have time to learn right now, it’s a good strategy to set it up as soon as possible in order to start collecting data. Data that you have collected will be available to you in the future, but if you decide to wait to implement Webmaster Tools you can’t go back and collect data from the past.

    Hollie

    Not only is Google Webmaster Tools free, but it’s also pretty simple to set up, made even simpler with our SOP template that you can download above. The SOP gives you step by step instructions on how to connect your website to Google Webmaster Tools in order to start measuring your website immediately.

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • SOP Library

    • Set Up a Personalised Email Address for Your Niche Site

    Posted on
    Hollie

    If you’ve decided to create your own niche website and have purchased your domain, you’ll almost certainly want to create a personalised email address that includes the name of your website.

    Nora

    There are some domain name registrars such as godaddy.com who offer email as part of their web hosting packages, but Google Apps offers lots of great additional tools that you will find extremely useful for your business.

    Hollie

    When we were setting up SOP Templates, we looked at quite a few different services, even some free ones (and who doesn’t like a freebie?!). But, we both agreed that Google Apps was the best option, because frankly we can’t live without all the apps, integrations and features that have become essential to us in our business.

    Nora

    Although Google offers a free email service, Gmail, a personalised email address such as  ‘email@yourdomain.com’ is far more professional and helps build trust between you and your customers.

    Hollie

    Even though I used it myself many moons ago, I would stay away from the other well known free email service providers like hotmail and yahoo (sorry!) if you’re going to use your email address to communicate with your customers. I also recommend keeping the first half of the email simple by using a first name or a noun.

    Nora

    Google allows for a lot of versatility and functionality in its business tools. Whether you are using Google Analytics to track website data, or are using Google Draw to create graphs and diagrams for your business, the Google suite is definitely made to integrate well across its Apps.

     

    While creating a business account with Google does have a small fee, it is incredibly affordable considering all the benefits you get that is useful for any business, including storage and access to Google sites where you can create and share company information.

    Hollie

    Some of the great functions of Google Apps include being able to sync across all your devices. Not only can you access your Gmail account and Google Apps on your desktop computer but also on your mobile devices. With Google Apps, you get 30GB of storage to store your emails plus Google Drive documents, spreadsheets and slides that you need for your business.

    Nora

    Since I started to use Gmail and Google Drive, I save all my files as a Google document or a spreadsheet. That way, if I ever need to pass on an SOP to a freelancer, or just check a file on my phone, they’re always accessible.

    Hollie

    If you’re going to be working with other team members, you’ll almost certainly be taking advantage of Google Drive. The permission settings in Google Apps are highly flexible and allows you to set very specific sharing settings between you and your co-workers or freelancers. You can give people full access to your documents and folders and allow them to edit files. Alternatively, if you only want to share a single folder, you can give ‘read only’ access to certain people in your team. Another setting allows your team members to leave comments on your work, without changing the actual document.

    Nora

    Luckily, Google keeps a record of every change you make on a document, so if you accidentally makes changes to a file (I’m talking from experience here), you can revert back to a previous version (phew!).

    Hollie

    If you’re using Google Apps for Work on your site you’ll probably want to create email addresses such as ‘support@yourdomain.com’ or ‘info@yourdomain.com’ that you can add in the initial setup of Google Apps, or go back and create them later.

    Nora

    Setting up Google Apps for Work can easily be outsourced by passing this SOP on to your freelancer.

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • SEO

    • FIND BROKEN LINKS ON YOUR WEBSITE (AND FIX’ EM GOOD!)

    Posted on
    Hollie

    Broken links can sometimes happen accidentally if a page or post on your website has been deleted, moved and not redirected or if an outbound link on another site no longer exists. They can be difficult to find and fix if you don’t regularly check your site so to save time, you can use a plugin, which checks your site and fixes the broken links automatically. Alternatively, you can outsource the task and systematise fixing the broken links on your site.

    Nora

    A broken link checker will search your entire site for issues and invalid web pages. This SOP will show you how to use both a plugin for your WordPress site, or to use a link checking site. Both options will help you find broken links and achieve the same positive results for your site.

    Hollie

    Another method that we have added to the most recent version of the SOP is to use Google Webmaster Tools to find broken links. This is probably the most reliable and thorough method to use, although you do need to connect your site to Webmaster Tools, which you can do simply by following the SOP. The crawl will specifically show errors of bad searches or links that have clicked on your site that you can then correct. The console also provides a date for when the error was first seen and allows you to fix in bulk if you have a major issue on your site.

    WHY ARE BROKEN LINKS SO BAD?

    Nora

    If you have affiliate or outbound links that are embedded into your blog posts or resource pages on your website, they may break without your knowledge, and could provide your customers with a bad user experience (ouch!). 

    This kind of thing has probably happened to you personally, even on well-developed websites. A blank screen or PAGE NOT FOUND message can be frustrating and distracting and may cause some of your customers to leave and not return. Apart from upsetting your audience, it will also affect your ranking within search engines such as Google and Bing.

    Hollie

    You should always be aware of potential problems that harm your website’s SEO, as this is often one of the best ways to build your site through organic traffic, so that in the future you don’t have to rely on expensive advertising or marketing tactics.

    Sometimes, a dead link can bring up a 404 page. If you see a 404 page it means that the URL you are looking for cannot be found. To prepare for potential 404s, (and sometimes they happen, even on the best kept site) some sites will create an attractive looking 404 page that might redirect a customer to another page, or offer them a free download.

    Nora

    You can also track how many times your 404 page has been clicked which may be a cause for concern. You can easily see 404s if you have the Redirection plugin installed on your WordPress website. From the Redirection dashboard, you can easily setup a redirect for defunct links.

    HOW CAN I FIND BROKEN LINKS?

    Hollie

    There are many different ways to find broken links on your site, and sometimes you may want to use more than one in order to thoroughly check your site. Having used all of these, I’ve noticed that some links are found by some services, but not in others.

    Here’s a rundown of the different options detailed in this SOP for fixing broken links:

    WordPress and Chrome Plugins to Fix Broken Links

    Nora

    Using a plugin will allow you to find broken links and instantly fix them within the WordPress dashboard and is therefore one of the most convenient ways to fix broken links.

    For all those Google Chrome extension fans out there (like me!), there are now several extensions out there that can scan individual pages, find broken links and provide you with a short summary of problems. The one included in this SOP even highlights the page with traffic light colours (red for warning for example) and allows you to export the results as a .csv file.

    This method is great if you want to check a few pages of a website, but not really feasible for checking a whole site with hundreds of pages and links.

    External Broken Link Checking Sites

    Hollie

    Using an external link checking site will provide you with URLs that you then have to fix manually. There is a space within the SOP where you or your freelancer can fill out the broken links and add the correct URLs to replace them with. If you’re using Google Webmaster Tools, you can also download the problem links in a .csv file.

    Once you’ve checked your site to find broken links, there are several different options you can take to fix them, regardless of whether you use a WordPress plugin or use a link checking website. If the page no longer exists, you may want to remove the link completely, or link to another page.

    Nora

    Once you’ve downloaded this SOP from the top of the page, and decided on the method of fixing links, you can begin checking your site regularly. Set a reminder for yourself or your freelancer to check the site routinely. I personally check all of my sites at least once a week using one or more of the options above.

    Read More
    Leave a comment
  • SEO

    • Add Google Analytics to WordPress

    Posted on
    Hollie

    This SOP will help you or a freelancer add Google Analytics to a WordPress hosted site. One of the most important reasons to do this is in order to measure your website traffic and other useful statistics. Although at first, the data you see in Google Analytics may seem small and insignificant, you can track even the smallest of increases in traffic and the source, which may well help you strategize for the future.

    Nora

    What’s nice about Google Analytics is that it’s free and all you need to get started is a Gmail account. Setting up Google Analytics on your site should be done sooner rather than later as you’ll have more data to look at in the long run (which is a good thing!). Google Analytics can’t look back in time, so adding Google Analytics to your site should be one of the first things you consider doing.

    Hollie

    Even on its most basic level, it’s extremely useful, and kind of cool, to see increases in visitors to your site and to see which posts and pages are the most successful. Adding Google Analytics to your website is also essential to set goals, both short and long term, for your site and company, whether it be measuring monthly traffic or assessing which social media platform has been the most successful.

    Nora

    The data that Google Analytics is tracking can also help you make changes to your website and to your marketing strategy. You can see realtime details, such as who is on your site and where they are in the world, which may help you market your products and content to a specific set of customers. It’s really amazing to see how your users behave on your site, especially once you learn more about Google Analytics and all its features, including the Behaviour flow, which shows how visitors move from one page to the next on your site.

    Hollie

    One of my favourite sections of Google Analytics is the ‘Acquisition’ dashboard, which shows you where all users are coming from. So for example, you can tell whether they found your site organically through a search engine, from your social media accounts or were referred from another website. You will be able to see from your social media referrals how successful your social media campaigns are or which platform you should focus your efforts on. Your outreach campaigns can also be measured by viewing the links in the referral section.

    Nora

    Don’t forget to set up some goals that can track how your customers are using your site. Google Analytics now has templates that really make setting goals easier. The templates set up goals for revenue, acquisition, inquiry and engagement. If none of these templates fit a goal you want to measure, you can still create a ‘custom’ goal.

    Hollie

    Although Google Analytics has A LOT of advanced features, you can get to grips with them over time. There are plenty of blogs that teach about the great ways you can use Google Analytics, as well as online courses on Lynda and Udemy.

    Nora

    Setting up a Google Analytics account is free and although integrating your Google Analytics account with your WordPress site is not too time consuming, there is code involved and so you may want to have someone with coding experience carry out this task for you. 

    If you return to the top of the page, and enter your email address, we’ll instantly send you the SOP for this task. Our SOPs are specifically designed to walk you through a task step by step.

    But if you choose to take the stress out of completing this task, it’s also easy and convenient to fill in the details and pass it onto a freelancer.

    Read More
    Leave a comment