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how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
the best old-school spam linking tool there is today
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how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
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how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
may Google puke with FCS networker
I know what you are thinking, this isn’t impossible.
Because the more content you have and the more links you have, the higher your rankings will be.
Although that is true, it doesn’t mean that content marketing and link building are the only ways to increase your rankings.
It doesn’t matter what update Google rolls out, I’ve found that there are a few hacks that consistently work to boost your rankings without creating more content or building more links.
So, are you ready to find out what they are?
Before I get into the exact “hacks” and tactics that can boost your rankings, I want to first help you change the way you think about SEO.
Do you think Google really cares about on-page SEO and link building?
Sure, it matters to some extent, but that’s not what Google cares about the most.
Google wants to rank websites that people love. If they ranked websites that you hated, then you would slowly stop using Google.
And if people stopped using Google, then there would be fewer people to click on their ads, which means they would make less money.
That’s why Google cares about what you think and they ideally want to rank the websites that you love.
Now let’s dive into some hacks that will make people love your site, which will boost your rankings.
And don’t worry… I am not going to give you some fluffy tactics, I have data to back up everything. 😉
Let me ask you this:
If 10,000 people performed a Google search for the term “SEO” and clicked on the number 2 listing instead of the number 1 listing, what would that tell Google?
It would tell them that the number 2 listing is more relevant and that Google should move that listing to the number 1 spot.
Rand Fishkin ran an experiment where he told all of his Twitter followers to perform a Google search for the term “best grilled steak” and to click on the first listing, hit the back button, and then click on the 4th listing.
Within 70 minutes the 4th listing jumped into the top spot.
And that page even started to rank at the top of page 1 for the term “grilled steak”.
The ranking eventually slipped back down because people didn’t really feel that the listing was that great compared to some of the other listings.
Instead, it only climbed because Rand has a loyal following and everyone helped trick Google to believe that it was more relevant (at least in the short term).
But this should give you a sense that Google cares what you think. So much so that they will adjust rankings in real time because they don’t want to show you pages that you feel are irrelevant (no matter how many backlinks the page has or how well its on-page code is optimized).
And Rand wasn’t the only person who tested out this theory. It’s been done a countless number of times and each time it produced similar results.
You want people to click on your listing more than the other ones out there. It’s that simple.
If you can generate more clicks (in a legitimate way) than the listings above you, eventually you’ll notice your rankings climb without having to write more content or build more links.
So, how do you get more clicks?
Well, you have to adjust your title tag and meta description tag to be more appealing.
Anytime you perform a Google search, you see a list of results. And each result has a title, URL, and description:
The link part is the title (also known as the title tag), then there is the URL (which is green in color), and lastly, there is the description (black text… that is also known as the meta description).
If you are running a WordPress blog, you can easily modify your title tag and meta description using the Yoast SEO plugin.
There are a few ways you can generate more clicks on your listing over the competition:
Improving your search listings isn’t rocket science. Where most people mess up is that they pick the wrong keywords or they are terrible at writing copy. Remember, humans are reading your title tag and meta description tag, so they need to be appealing.
If you are struggling writing appealing copy, read my ultimate guide to copywriting.
Now let’s go over the exact steps you need to take to get more clicks.
The first step is to use Google Search Console.
Log into Google Search Console, then click on “Search Traffic” and then click on “Search Analytics”:
You’ll see a page that looks something like this:
Scroll back up to the top and click on the “pages” radio button and “CTR” checkbox:
You’ll see a list of results sorted by your most popular URLs and their respective click-through-rate (also known as CTR):
Look for pages that have high traffic but a CTR of less than 5%.
Click on one of the listings with a CTR of less than 5% and then click on the “queries” radio button:
You’ll then want to look for the keywords with the highest amount of “clicks” and the lowest CTR.
Those are the keywords you want to focus on in your title tag and meta description.
Remember, your title tag is limited to roughly 60 characters, which means you won’t be able to fit more than 2 or 3 keywords.
So, you want to pick the keywords that typically have the most clicks. They should also have a low CTR because you selected pages with a CTR rate lower than 5%.
By adjusting your title tag and meta description to include the right keywords and by evoking curiosity, you’ll be able to increase your clicks. This will get you more search traffic in the short run and boost your rankings over time.
Here are 3 tests that worked well for me when I adjusted my title tag:
I noticed I was getting a lot of traffic for the term “marketing digital” from countries outside of North America on one of my posts.
So, I adjusted my title tag from saying “digital marketing” to “marketing digital” which took my CTR from 3.36% to 4.45%. It also increased my search traffic by 1,289 visitors a month.
With the key phrase “social media marketing,” I adjusted my title tag based on an idea I got from a magazine. My CTR went from 2.38% to 2.84%. In total, that increased my traffic by 932 visitors a month.
With my social media marketing title tag, I added the phrase “step-by-step guide.”
This lets people know it is a how-to related post and it is action oriented. I also added the word “social media” a few times within the meta description.
And with the query “Google AdWords,” I noticed that Google announced that they are switching their ad platform name from Google AdWords to Google Ads, so I did the opposite and focused more on the term “Google AdWords” because very few people knew about the name switch.
This helped drive an extra 1,355 visitors per month.
I’ve also had instances where the changes I’ve made had hurt my Google traffic.
So, whenever you adjust your title tag and meta description, mark that date down and look at the data within Google Search Console after 30 or so days to see if it hurt or helped.
If it hurt, revert it back and wait another 30 days. It can hurt your rankings if you continuously test. So when you have a losing variation, no matter what, wait 30 days as it will stabilize your rankings.
If the change helped boost your CTR and rankings, then you are off to a good start.
Now that you’ve optimized your click-through-rate, it’s time for you to optimize your user experience.
If you go back to the experiment Rand Fishkin ran above, you’ll notice he told people to click the “back” button.
You don’t want people going to your site and clicking the back button… it will hurt your rankings.
People tend to click the back button because they don’t like what they see. If you can optimize your website for the optimal user experience, people will be less likely to click the back button.
I do this through 2 simple steps.
The first is to use Qualaroo and survey people. By asking people (right when they are on your website) a simple question of “how can I improve this page,” you’ll get tons of ideas.
You can even use Qualaroo to find out why people are visiting your website, which again will help you understand the type of people visiting your site. This will allow you to tailor your experience to them.
I ran a Qualaroo survey on my main blog page. The biggest feedback I got from you was that it was hard to find the exact content you were looking for.
And I know why too. It’s because I have marketing related content on everything. From ecommerce to SEO to content marketing…
I decided to try something out where when you land on the blog page, you can select the type of content that piques your interest and then all of the content gets tailored to your needs.
I also ran a Crazy Egg test to ensure that you like the change I made. Based on the Crazy Egg heatmap below, you can see that it was successful.
The bounce rate on my blog page dropped by 21% as well. 🙂
I then looked at the Crazy Egg scrollmap to see which elements/areas of the page have the most attention. This helped me determine where I should place the content filtering option.
The Crazy Egg scrollmap of my blog page shows that the content filtering option generates 70% of the page’s attention.
Placing the filtering in a place where there is a lot of attention ensures that I am giving you what you need in a place that is easy to find.
After you optimize your user experience, you want to focus on building a brand.
I recommend that you look at the pages on your site with high bounce rates and consider running this process in order to improve the user experience. When selecting the pages, make sure you are also picking pages that have decent traffic.
If you build a brand like Facebook or Amazon or any of the popular site, you’ll rank higher.
Eric Schmidt, the ex-CEO of Google, once said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
I ran an experiment, which helped build up my brand and my search traffic skyrocketed (unintentionally).
My traffic went from 240,839 unique visitors per month in June 2016:
To 454,382 unique visitors per month by August 2016:
Once I realized the power of branding, I started a podcast called Marketing School, and I started to publish videos on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn multiple times per week.
This has led me to generate 40,412 brand queries per month:
I’m even getting 3,806 brand queries per month on YouTube alone:
But as you know, producing good content doesn’t guarantee that your brand will grow.
Even if you build tools like me and release them for free (like what I did with Ubersuggest), it still won’t guarantee success.
But the one thing I have learned that works is the rule of 7.
When someone hears your message 7 times or sees it 7 times, they are more likely to resonate, build a connection, and continually come back.
So how do you get people to come back to your site?
The simplest solution that I’ve found to work is a free tool called Subscribers.
It leverages browser notifications to get people to “subscribe” to your website. It’s better than email because it is browser-based, which means people don’t have to give you their name or email address.
And then every time you want to get people to come back to your website, you simply send them a notification.
Look at how I’ve gotten over 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times per person.
Based on the rule of 7, I only have 3 more times to go. 😉
The way I use Subscribers is that I send out a notification blast every time I release a blog post.
The push looks something like this:
And instantly I’m able to get people back to my site:
When you start using Subscribers you won’t see results right away. It takes time to build up your subscriber base, but it happens pretty fast.
Typically, you’ll generate a browser notification subscriber three times faster than an email subscriber.
If you only focus on things like on-page SEO, link building, or even blogging, you won’t dominate Google.
Why?
Because that is what everyone else focuses on. You have to do more if you want to beat the competition.
By doing what’s best for the user, you’ll have a better chance of beating everyone else.
Just look at me, I do what every other SEO does plus more. Sometimes this causes my traffic to dip in the short run, but in the long run, it generally climbs.
From creating compelling copy so people want to click on your listing, to optimizing your user experience, to building a brand… you have to go beyond the SEO basics.
SEO has become extremely competitive. 5 years ago, it was much easier to rank at the top of Google.
If you use the 3 hacks above, here’s how long it will typically take to notice results.
So which one of these hacks are you going to test out first?
how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
While we all want positive reviews, negative reviews aren’t as bad as you think. Here's why.
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Google’s John Mueller discussed why Google showed different results for the singular and plural versions of the same keyword phrase. Many SEOs recommend adding synonyms to content, including the plural and singular versions of the targeted search phrase. John Mueller explains why it may be better to choose singular or plural then focus on that. Question About Singular and Plural Keyword Phrases In a recent Google Hangout someone asked the following question: What are reasons for completely different positions for keywords in singular and plural? We have some examples where the plural ranks in top five and the singular isn’t
the best old-school spam linking tool there is today
Here are actionable tips on how search marketers can leverage AI today and prepare for the future.
how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
To survive, local businesses need to learn how to adapt to the modern way of marketing.
If you are seeing a plateau or decline in sales, it’s time for you to mix up your marketing strategy.
Even if your small business is profitable right now, you need to stay ahead of your competition to remain successful in the future.
Analyze the latest marketing trends. Recognize the consumer buying behavior. Learn how to get more money from your existing customers.
Unfortunately, only 33% of small businesses reach the 10-year mark. The rest fail.
I don’t want you to become the sad statistic. This was my inspiration for writing this guide.
If your company is new, you need to do everything possible to stay strong for years to come.
Local businesses that have been around for decades may be ready for a marketing facelift. Your strategies that worked 20 years ago probably won’t be as successful in 2018 and beyond.
I narrowed down the top 15 marketing tactics for local business owners. Use this guide as a reference for your future marketing campaigns.
How are new customers finding you?
If you’re old-school, you may be relying on word of mouth, radio promotions, print ads, and direct mailing. But last year, 97% of consumers searched the Internet for a local business.
Furthermore, positive online reviews make 73% of consumers trust local businesses.
That’s why you need to make sure your local business is listed on Google.
When people use the Internet to search for something, they start with Google.
Setting up your free Google listing makes it easy for consumers to find you when they search for terms related to your business.
Your listing will have all your information:
You’ll be able to add photos to give people a better understanding of the way you operate.
Customers will also be able to add photos. They’ll write reviews about your local business for other people to see, which will have a major impact on your successful.
You need to learn how to get your customers to recommend your brand to others.
Your star rating is the number one factor used by consumers to determine whether they’ll buy from your local business.
In fact, 94% of customers will use businesses with a 4-star rating.
As you’ve just seen, consumers use the Internet to find local businesses.
That means you need to understand the basic principles of SEO if you want to increase your chances of getting ranked as a top result.
Roughly 47% of clicks go to the top three positions of Google search results.
Blogging will help you tremendously with your SEO strategy. Just look at these numbers:
More website traffic, more followers, and more leads will ultimately translate to increased profits.
Publishing new blog posts means your website will be updated more frequently with fresh content, which will increase your chances of getting a higher search ranking.
Plus, your posts are a great place to add keywords prospective customers may be searching for when browsing online.
Once you’re able to establish a steady group of readers for your blog, they’ll visit your website on a regular basis. The more they visit your site, the greater the chances you’ll have of getting them to convert.
Local businesses need to remain active in their communities. Joining a local group is a great way to stay connected with residents and other business owners.
I suggest joining your local Chamber of Commerce. There will be a small annual fee, but it’s worth it.
Attending these meetings and events will expose your brand to other businesses.
Will your competitors be part of these groups? It’s possible. But that’s even more of a reason for you to be there.
Let’s say you own a local t-shirt company.
Another local business may be hosting an event in town and need custom shirts made. Rather than ordering the shirts online, they’ll be more inclined to use your services if you both belong to the same local group.
That’s the whole idea behind joining. The businesses look out for one another and always try to support local brands.
Being part of a local community also means you need to give back.
If you’re charitable, don’t be shy about your involvement. Consumers want to hear about how your local business supports charitable causes.
Research shows 91% of customers say they are willing to switch brands if it means supporting one associated with a charitable cause.
And 85% of consumers will have a more positive image of your local business if you support a charity they care about.
You can even ask your community and customers which charities you should support. Studies show 39% of people want to help decide on the charities a business supports by a voting system.
It’s a safe bet to associate with local charities.
This will definitely help you and your business become closer to your community.
You can approach this in many ways.
For starters, you can make an annual contribution to a charity.
You can also run special promotions with a certain percentage of sales on a particular day or week goes to a cause.
Giving back to your community doesn’t always mean donating to a charity.
For example, let’s say you own a local restaurant. You can provide food for a public high school graduation event. These types of parties run by the school are intended to keep students safe and sober on the night of their graduation.
Contests are a great way to get people excited about your local business.
The best way to run these contests is through online platforms. Leverage your social media profiles for this strategy.
Run contests that encourage user-generated content. For example, ask your followers to post pictures related to your business. Then pick a winner based on who gets the most likes on their photo.
The whole idea behind these contests is to grow your social media following.
If people see their friends and family posting about your local business on their social profiles, it will increase your exposure and increase the chances of them following you as well.
Now you’ll be able to post promotional content aimed at your new followers that converts them into customers.
In addition to your Google listing, your local business will also have profiles set up on other platforms, whether you signed up or not.
For example, you may have a Yelp profile because customers rated and reviewed your business.
It’s important that you make sure all your information such as your store hours, phone number, address, and website is accurate on these platforms.
More than 90% of consumers make a purchase after viewing a business on Yelp.
If a customer tries to contact you and the phone number is wrong, or if they show up to your store thinking you’re open and you’re actually closed, it’s going to hurt you.
It’s in your best interest to claim your business on Yelp so that you can control the information in your listing.
If you’re looking for a fast way to increase sales, you need to learn how to create a customer loyalty program.
The best part about this marketing tactic is you can make more money without having to acquire new customers. Your focus will be on getting your existing customers to spend more money.
The goal of your loyalty program should focus on two things:
By accomplishing these two things, you’ll be able to drive growth through sales.
More than 82% of consumers are more likely to shop at stores with customer loyalty programs.
Your loyalty program could be something as simple as a punch card. On the 10th visit, the customer gets a free reward or something like that.
Or you can set up a system that’s a little bit more in-depth. Reward your highest spending customers by implementing a loyalty program based on different spending tiers.
The best way to track this type of program is with a customer profile or mobile app, but we’ll discuss that in greater detail shortly.
Consumers are price-sensitive.
As a local business, you need to recognize this and adjust your pricing accordingly.
Some of you may be hesitant to offer discounts because you feel like it lowers the value of your brand. Plus, your current prices may not yield profits if you offer discounts.
If that’s the case, you should consider raising your base prices. Then offer discounts on those new prices.
Psychologically, this is more appealing to your customers. They want to feel they’re getting a deal.
If your local business has an ecommerce store, an active discount code will increase your chances of getting more sales.
Whether you’re selling online, in-store, or both, it’s important your business offers coupons and discounts to your customers.
We briefly discussed social media earlier when we talked about running contests to promote your local business.
You need to establish an active presence on as many social media platforms as possible.
Sure, you might be on Facebook. But that’s not enough. Last year, more than half of small businesses increased their social media investment for platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
If you have a local B2B company, you also need to prioritize networks such as LinkedIn.
Just 43% of small businesses share content and engage with their followers on a daily basis. That number should be much higher.
I know what you’re thinking. Running a small business is tough.
You’re already putting in long days, and you just don’t have enough time to focus on your social media strategy.
Don’t get overwhelmed. Check out my favorite time-saving social media marketing tools to help you automate the process.
To take your social media marketing strategy to the next level, you should consider working with local influencers.
These are people in the community who have a large social following.
You can pay them to promote your local business on their distribution channels to increase your reach.
The best part about this strategy is it’s relatively inexpensive. Each post will likely only cost you a couple hundred bucks at most, and you can even pay them less if you offer them some free stuff as well.
Influencers have extremely high engagement rates with their followers, and their audiences trust their recommendations.
Implementing a customer referral program is one of my favorite ways to acquire new customers without doing any work.
The idea behind this strategy is to get your current customers to do all the heavy lifting.
It’s a strategy that focuses on both customer retention and customer acquisition, which are the top two most significant retail drivers.
For your referral program to be successful, you need to offer an incentive to both parties.
Reward your existing customers for each referral. This gives them the motivation to get out there and refer your local business to as many people as possible.
As for the new customer, they’ll need some type of incentive as well to get them in the door.
If they’re satisfied with their purchase, they’ll start referring new customers as well.
This can turn into a highly profitable cycle for your business. That’s because 86% of consumers say their close friends influence their decisions to make a purchase.
Simply put, referrals work.
Don’t underestimate email marketing.
While it may not be the newest or sexiest marketing tactic, it’s one of the most effective strategies out there.
According to research, 81% of small business owners say email marketing drives customer acquisition. And 80% of them say they were successful in using email marketing to retain customers.
This strategy is extremely profitable. For every $1 spent on email marketing, your local business can expect to see a $44 return.
In fact, 77% of your email ROI will come from campaigns that are targeted, segmented, and triggered.
But your email strategy won’t be effective if you don’t have subscribers.
Focus your efforts on getting more customers to join your list, and the rest will take care of itself if you stay on top of your campaigns.
It doesn’t matter what type of business you have or what industry you’re in, I can promise you your customers are using mobile devices.
If you have the funds available, you need to consider launching a mobile app for your local business.
That’s because the majority of mobile time is spent using apps.
Studies indicate 63% of consumers prefer an app compared to a mobile site because it’s more convenient.
And 57% of users like apps because they are faster than mobile sites.
You may not think an app is necessary for your local business right now, but it will be in the future. Even if you’re not ready to start this process today, you need to plan to do it soon.
Once your app launches, it will help you personalize the customer experience.
You can use your app to facilitate your customer loyalty programs and customer referral programs, which I talked about earlier.
If you already have a live app or you’re in the process of building one, refer to my guide on how to improve the profitability of your small business mobile app.
Google Alerts will help you monitor what’s being said about your business online.
Reports will be emailed to you anytime your local business or other keywords are published on the Internet.
This will help you stay on top of the latest news, whether it’s positive or negative.
For example, let’s say some blogger writes an unfavorable post about your brand online.
You’ll be able to see it and act accordingly right away as opposed to finding out about the post weeks later.
Or, on the flip side, if a local news publication writes a positive article about your business, you can share that content on your website and your social media channels.
Your local business needs to provide excellent customer service:
How does good customer service help your business?
Well, as I previously discussed, prospective customers will use a number of different tools and platforms to research your business.
They’ll read reviews online, check social media, and take advice from their friends and family.
If you’re able to provide high-quality customer service, it will be evident in the way you’re perceived online. As a result, your current customers will keep coming back, and you’ll get new customers walking through your doors as well.
As a local business, you can’t afford to fall behind your competition.
Take a look at your current marketing campaigns, and ask yourself whether they’re generating the results you’re looking for.
It might be time to switch up your marketing strategy.
If you’re looking for new ways to promote your local business, use this guide as a reference.
I’m not expecting you to implement all these strategies overnight. But go through the list, and prioritize some of these tactics based on the needs of your business.
What types of marketing strategies are you using to promote your local business?
