In a layman’s term, an SEO specialist is a digital marketer that is—-as the name suggests—-specializes in search engine optimization (SEO). An SEO specialist’s job desc consists of a wide range of SEO-related elements from auditing, analyzing, and reviewing a website to implementing various optimizations on and off the website.

The main objective of an SEO specialist is to improve the organic traffic generated to the website, which is achieved by improving the website’s ranking in the search engine results page (SERP), especially Google’s SERP.

SEO Specialist: Job Description

In recent years, however, the job desc of an SEO specialist has now evolved quite significantly from their predecessors. Now, due to how fast the internet is moving in real-time, the modern SEO specialist is required to have sufficient decision making and problem-solving capabilities, especially regarding content creation and prioritization.

With how the search engines and especially Google have significantly improved their algorithms to better understand the context and relevance of a website’s content, SEO today can’t be separated from content marketing. Content is not only king in the field of SEO, but content is everything.

“It is the job of the SEO specialist to make your website show up at the top of the search engine results.”

SEO.com

With that being said, an SEO specialist must be able to find the keywords that are going to be relevant and valuable for both the business and the business’s target audience, develop content (or work together with a content creator) that is optimized for this target keyword, and then optimize the website’s technical factors with three objectives:

• Ensuring Google’s bots (and the other search engines’) can properly crawl and index the site and recognize all the elements in the site
• Optimize the site’s content to deliver more relevance and value to the target audience
• Improve the site’s user experience factors to keep visitors for as long as possible

Due to the wide scope of responsibilities of an SEO specialist, they often also serve as a liaison between several departments (content marketers, website developers, social media managers, and so on).

Responsibilities of an SEO Specialist

Here are the important responsibilities of an SEO specialist:

• Audit, review and analyze the website for areas that can be optimized according to the latest search engine algorithms
• Identifying the target keywords that are going to give the most value to the business and at the same time manageable, competition-wise
• Planning the overall SEO strategy and preparing detailed strategy report(s)Compiling and communicating SEO plan and guidelines to the related teams
• Developing and executing link-building strategiesSupervising and/or executing content development and content promotion processes
• Executing competitive SEO analysis to analyze keywords and SEO techniques used by competitors
• Developing powerful call to actions (CTAs) to convert visitors
• Planning and running PPC campaigns to assist SEO performance
• Updating themselves on the last SEO strategies, search engine algorithm changes, and the latest trends surrounding SEO

Key Skills of an SEO Specialist

An SEO specialist requires a sufficient skillset including knowledge about the search engine, leadership, and marketing, among others, with the objective to optimize the website so that it can rank higher on the SERP.

Website analysis:

Knowing the factors that are going to affect the website’s performance in search engine rankings, and the ability to analyze a website according to these factors. This will include keyword optimizations, backlinks analysis, structure and layout, and the overall content quality. Also, this might involve revamping and even rebuilding a website from the ground up.

Keyword analysis:

Defining and researching target keywords and naturally including them into the content of a website while paying attention to the current SEO best practices.

Understanding of ranking factors:

Probably the most important task of an SEO specialist and SEO marketer is to maintain an updated understanding of the current search engine algorithms and ranking factors, and how they should optimize and adjust the website’s various elements to optimize for these ranking factors.

Content generation:

Developing high-quality and relevant content that can provide value to the target audience that is also optimized for the target keywords.

Client management:

If the SEO specialist is working in an agency, then they must maintain an up to date knowledge of the client’s objectives. The objective of the SEO campaign must align and assist the overall business strategy.

Decision making:

The ability to analyze existing problems, assess the available resources and find required resources, and develop solutions to achieve the SEO objective.

Possible Branches and Specializations of an SEO Specialist

Since the SEO specialist’s responsibilities are pretty wide, generally an SEO specialist might be positioned into a specific focus, such as:

SEO Content Developer:

Responsible for the production of unique and new content that fulfills the SEO best practice and required optimizations to ensure the desired SEO results. Many SEO specialists acquire this skill relatively early in their careers since it requires fewer technical requirements.

Link builder:

Responsible for finding opportunities to get new high-quality backlinks. Developing authentic and relevant backlinks to the website can be the most challenging process, but also the most important aspect of SEO. This might include processes like influencer outreach, finding guest posting opportunities, building relationships with other sites and press, and more.

Website analysis:

The research component is SEO now deserves its own specialist due to the increasing complexity and dynamism of the internet in general. Responsible to provide important insights for content developers and web developers, and to keep the SEO guidelines up to date.

Average Salary of an SEO Specialist

As of February 2020, the average annual salary of an SEO specialist in the U.S. is $53,352 a year.

During our research, the highest annual salaries we’ve found is $83,500 and the lowest is $23,000. The majority of SEO specialists in the US currently have a salary range between $42,000 ($25th percentile) to $64,000 (75th percentile).

Since the average variation for an SEO specialist salary is fairly modest (around $22,000), this suggests that there are fewer opportunities for advancement based on skills.

Advancements in pay are generally made available through increased years of experience and/or change of location.

What is an SEO Specialist?
Beau Buckley

Want to know how to rank page 1 on Google? Probably a rhetorical question but it’s what we strive for when it comes to our website, but before we get straight into it, let’s first learn a little bit about Google.

When it comes to the internet, Google is still king of the search engines and the holy grail when it comes to getting your website noticed. While Google is constantly tweaking its algorithms, making its results better and more reliable, we are left trying to keep up and ensure that our websites rank high.

Let’s face it, Google often returns hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of results, and if you aren’t on page 1 or at the very least page 2, nobody who does not know your URL will find you.

There are two primary ways of getting to the top of Google Rankings. Organically, via SEO (Search engine Optimisation), and PPC, whereby you pay a certain amount to ensure you appear at the top of the search results pages.

10 Tips On How To Rank Page 1 on Google

So you want to rank page one on Google? Well, there are a number of techniques, strategies as well as good old fashion grit that’s going to help you achieve those results.

Be aware! When it comes to organic ranking, It’s not easy and it will take time and dedication. But if you wish to skip the queue, go straight to tip 9.

Discover 9 tips that on How to rank page 1 on Google below.

1. Effective Keyword Research

Keywords are what web users type in to search for a particular product or service. By conducting accurate keyword research, you will come up with a list of terms that rank the highest and receive the largest volume of search requests.

There are a number of keyword tools that you can use, Google’s keyword planner is probably the best.

But there are other options out there like:

• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (Paid)
• Ubersuggest (Free)
• SEMrush (Paid)
• KWFinder (Paid)
• Keyword Tool (Free)

You can learn more about these keyword research tools over at themeisle

2. High-Quality Content

So you have your list of keywords or keyword phrases, now it’s time to write your copy. Unless you are a copywriter, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do this yourself. By making use of a specialist copywriter, your website will read better and ultimately perform better.

The secret now is to spread your keywords throughout the copy, without overdoing it. Google is no fool, and if you think that by repeating a popular keyword over and over again, that it will up your ranking, think again. Google has thought of everything and in fact, will penalize sites that do this.

Google Webmaster Guidelines state:

QUOTE: “Keyword Stuffing…. results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking.”

Keep your content well written, informative, and to the point, Google will do the rest. This is not a quick fix, and will not happen overnight, but if you have done the correct research and written good quality content, watch your website rise in the search rankings.

Need a copywriter?

Go to iwriter.com. iWriter is the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to have content written for your website. You’ll be able to post a project and 1000s of freelance writers from across the globe will have instant access to write your content.

Make sure to always select elite or elite plus writers if you want well structured, professional and grammatically correct articles.

Still, want to write your own content?

If you’re persistent in writing your own content, that’s fine as well. There are tools out there like Grammarly which can assist in your writing efforts.

Grammarly’s Chrome app automatically detects potential grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes in writing, following common linguistic prescription. The app is free to use but they also offer upgrades to take your writing to the next level.

I personally use a combination of both to assist me in my content creation.

3. Optimize Page Titles and Meta Tags For Keywords

This is where your primary keyword term comes in. Your primary term is the one that receives the highest volume of searches.

• Your title tag is the first line that appears on a search result in Google, it should contain your primary keyword and your company name.
• Your meta tag is a brief description of your company’s offerings and appears just under the title tag. Both are critical to your website’s searchability.

Learn more about optimizing your headers for keywords

4. Structured Internal Linking

Part of making your site more user-friendly and Google-friendly is placing internal links. These are links included in your copy that link to other pages on your site.

So, if you are on one page and talking about something that has its own page, then the user should be able to click on that word and go directly to that page.

It makes getting around easier and means your potential customers can get to where they want, quicker and easier.

5. Acquire High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are links on a website that point towards your site. When it comes to backlinks there are two types. No-Follow and Do-Follow.

Google only considers backlinks that are marked as Do-Follow in its ranking evaluation.

No-follow Backlinks tell web robots not to follow the link, and are found in most profiles, forums, social media sites, and blog comment section.

Do-Follow Backlinks passes the authority (link juice) from the referring website to the linked website. Crawlers count these links and their anchor texts.

When it comes to link building, the aim is to build natural links from authoritative websites but It’s easier said than done so here are some quick tips to help you with link building.

• Create highly informative & competitive content
• Make sure your content can be easily shared
• Leverage public relationships
• Create long-form guides
• Interview highly influential people in your space
• Contact sites that link to broken sites (ask to replace the link with yours)
• Write testimonials businesses and industry professionals
• Guest blogging on other sites
• Quality comments on quality blogs

Learn more about each of these backlink tips.

One of our best tips and it’s the most logical one, share your own content. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit. You can also run pay-per-click ads to your articles to drive traffic and increase the chances of others picking up your content, sharing it and potentially linking to it.

When I started piecing together high-quality and informative articles I was able to pick up some high-quality backlinks. I was even lucky enough to have top Digital Marketing Influencer Neil Patel link to one of the blog posts as you can see in the image below.

This one backlink is easily worth more than 100 low authority links and it saw my website’s Domain Authority and rankings shoot up because of it.

6. Analyze, Track and Tweak

You can’t assess your site’s effectiveness without analyzing your statistics. Google Analytics is an outstanding tool for doing this. It shows you not only how many people accessed your site, but how long they spent there, where they went and how they got there.

By keeping an eye on your stats you can track your site’s progression in the ranking, and tweak it accordingly by adding or removing keywords as you see fit.

If you don’t want to do this yourself, find a specialist digital marketing agency to do it for you, it will be well worth the investment.

7. Dynamic Content

Dynamic content or adaptive content relates to web content that changes based on the behavior, interests, and preferences of the user. Dynamic content on a website or e-mail is generated the moment a user requests a page.

Some common parts of the text that can be transformed into dynamic content are the user’s location, weather & temperature, system details (browser, device type), etc.

Google loves dynamic content. By that, we mean adding new content to your site, whether it’s new information, a news article, or a blog post. Websites are most effective when they keep people coming back because they know they will find new and useful information.

8. Don’t Buy Backlinks

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Poor quality, spammy links from link farms, PBN and gig sites like Fiverr will hurt your rankings rather than increase them.

Hey, we all want to rise the ranks the quickest way possible, and pretty much all SEO agencies (mine included) have at some point purchased backlinks.

Buying links might see you get quick results in the short term but in the long term, it can have a disastrous effect in your rankings and even have your website blacklisted.

If you want to know what buying spammy links looks like take a look at the picture below

Just take a look at the third gig. This person is selling 10 million verified SEO backlinks for only $7.64. Wow, sir, that’s an absolute bargain.

Seriously tho if you buy a gig like this you’re going to kill your website. The other gigs aren’t better options either.

If someone is selling hundreds, thousands or even millions of backlinks for just a few dollars. Run.

*The person name and image have been blurred for your safety.

With that being said, Google understands that companies and business pay for online press releases, article mentions, directory listings & manual blogger outreach on relevant high authority blogs all of which will result in backlinks.

These are more natural and won’t result in penalties and will slightly improve rankings as long as it’s natural, relevant and authentic but you can expect to pay a premium.

9. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

PPC (Pay per click) allows you to target a specific audience with a banner or text advert, which you only pay for when someone clicks on it. The amount you pay depends on the popularity of that term and is conducted via an online auction for specific terms.

You can spend as little or as much as you want, and you can set a daily, weekly or monthly limit to ensure you keep control of your ad spend.

10. Consistency

It goes without saying. If you wish to achieve results in anything you do in life you have to stick with it. If you quit at the first sign of failure then, of course, you’re not going to achieve any results.

Conclusion

So there you are, you can’t complain anymore about how to rank page 1 on Google. You now have a combination of organic and PPC methods that will he that will ensure that you drive enough relevant traffic to your web site, allowing you more opportunity to convert users into customers, maximize your search marketing ROI.

How To Rank Page 1 On Google Ethically
Beau Buckley

If you ignore video as a marketing tool, you are making a big mistake. In this age of mass media, it’s not easy to stand out, that’s why you need to use all the content tools at your disposal and put them together to make a hard-hitting and memorable marketing moment.

Here are some hard-hitting facts when it comes to video:

• More than 2 billion people use YouTube, watching an average of 5 billion hours of videos every day.
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and the third most visited site on the web.
• Almost 40% of the top videos viewed are adverts.
• Almost half the YouTube video views are on mobile devices.
• 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
• By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic.

Video combines words and vivid imagery with sound to create that moment. Whether it’s a 30-second advert, a fun viral clip, or an informational video, more than 50% of businesses are using video content marketing to great effect.

Video continues to be one of the most effective elements in a digital marketing strategy as we roll into 2020 and it’s not stopping any time soon.

Want to see more stats? Check out 55 staggering video marketing statistics of 2019

Why Video Marketing?

The good news is that any small business can also use this affordable marketing tool to just check out some of these mind-blowing stats when it comes to video marketing.

• Placing a video in an email can lead to a 200-300% increase in click-through rate
• Including a video on a landing page can increase conversion by more than 50%
• A recent survey suggests that users are 64% more likely to purchase an item after watching a video
• Real estate companies receive more than 4X the number of inquiries from ads that include video.

Video is more than just cute cates and babies

While many of you have probably spent hours watching funny cats, cute babies, and silly humans, videos have taken on a far more significant marketing role in recent years.

Businesses are discovering that combining entertainment and information has become the most effective way to convey a message.

Video Is Full-On- Audio-Visual Marketing

The beauty of video is that you can get your message across in full-blown color and audio, leaving a lasting sensory impression on your audience. Well-made videos can engage your audience, keep their attention and live in their memory for a lot longer than your average advert or billboard.

This is priceless in the age of short attention spans and information overload. They are also easy to share and consume.

Video Can Tell A Powerful Story

Video is all about getting your message across through creative storytelling. Music, images, animation, and words all come together to tell a compelling story. And life is all about memorable stories.

Video Can Be Personalized

Personalized messaging has become a highly-effective tool in digital marketing. People like seeing other people that they can relate to.

This does not mean actors but real people like you and me, telling real-life stories that we can all identify with and appreciate.

Video can help build brands

Video has proven itself as the most effective tool when it comes to building your brand. Whether you use creative animations, thoughtful content or fun, quirky messaging, viewers are far more likely to share and enjoy this type of content than they will static content.

Video Marketing, Is It Right For You?
Beau Buckley

Some might argue that due to the constant changes happening in the digital industry, and the frequent updates in search algorithms from search engines like Google, you are better off leaving it altogether. This is a mistake.

In an industry where constant change is inevitable and an adapt-or-die mindset is a must, you will often come across these scary (and obviously false) statements.

“Search engine marketing is over! It’s done… It’s not good enough anymore, move on to the next thing.”

That is why it’s so important that you stick with the right digital specialists that aren’t afraid to adapt or make adjustments when required.

Search Engine Marketing is, and will forever be, very much alive. The methods may change but the core remains the same.  Search Engine Marketing is an extremely effective way of marketing, with many benefits for your business, but before I get to that, let’s do a quick recap.

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

Search Marketing is the umbrella term for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC (Pay Per Click Ads). Search Engine Marketing is the process of getting relevant users to a website and increasing website visibility through both paid and unpaid (organic) efforts.

It is a non-intrusive way to market to potential customers.

Learn more about Search Engine Marketing >>

What is Search Engine Optimisation

SEO or search engine optimization is a process, most often implemented by web specialists, that aims to improve the ranking of a website or page on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This type of result is referred to as organic.

The aim of SEO is to ensure that your website appears when a user searches for words or phrases that are relevant to your product or service.

Although SEO is “free” and you don’t have to pay for advertising, it is a complex and in-depth process that should preferably be done by a professional to ensure you get the most out of your search marketing campaign.

Learn more about SEO >>

What is Per-Click-Click Advertising

PPC, or Pay per click ads, is exactly what it sounds like. When a user searches for something online that matches the service or product you are offering, your ad will show up in the paid search results section of the search engine.

This is usually above and on the right of the organic search results in Google and Bing. Users will also encounter carefully timed ads when watching YouTube or similar video sites, reading blog posts, or just browsing the web.

“If you want instant targeted traffic to your website or offer, pay-per-click advertising gives you that exact ability.”

These ads are based on their search history and preferences. The user then has the choice to click through to your website if they find the ad appealing. Generally, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad, putting you in total control of your online advertising budget.

5 Most Common Myths About SEM

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a critical element to the growth of any digital business. However, there are some assumptions that even seasoned SEM specialists make far too often.

Let’s break down these myths, shall we?

1. Search Marketing only works for large companies.

This is, unfortunately, a common misconception among smaller businesses. Search Marketing can be utilized by any company no matter the size or budget.

There is always something you can do to improve your visibility in search engines and reach more people. The effectiveness of your search marketing efforts will depend on your planning, willingness to adapt and strategy that you implement.

2. You can get to the first page of Google within a few days

If a company promises you this, be careful. Search marketing is based on research, data collection and refining that process until you have a perfect, well-oiled marketing machine.

3. I do SEO so I don’t need to do PPC

Many businesses think that they can trade off one channel for the other but consider the following when making your choice. SEO and PPC are more effective when done together.

You get different types of people online with different types of search habits. PPC is instant and gets results quicker. When implementing an SEO strategy set aside a budget for PPC so you can get instant traffic from the keywords you’re trying to rank for organically as well other relevant keywords related to your products and services.

“Google Paid Search Ads are one of the most valuable tools for any business.”

Be aware, the moment you stop your ads; your visibility will stop too. It’s a short term solution that is very effective when you want to promote a new product or during the low season, but it can also be a long term solution as well when your ads are profitable.

SEO takes a few months to take effect and it is a medium to long term solution, but having both strategies working together will increase your traffic opportunities.

4. Spending More Money Means Better Results

Unfortunately, this is not the case. If you’re blindly just throwing money at something to see works without any strategic thought you are most definitely going to waste a tonne of money. Don’t get me wrong, we all love to scale budgets, but not until you have a controlled winner.

“Whether it’s your PPC ads or your SEO, you need to be seeing an ROI on your initial spend before looking to scale your budgets.”

If you don’t scale with past data, future goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) in mind, you could be flushing your money down the toilet. It’s crucial to learn from how your ads and SEO strategies have performed in the past and from the successes and failures of your biggest competitors to allocate your additional spend most effectively.

5. You Shouldn’t Waste Money on Your Own Branded Keywords

This is nonsense. Bidding on branded terms helps maximize your above-the-fold real estate. Also, showing up twice in search results (once organically and once in ad form) gives your searcher more opportunity to click on your links (and less space for a competitor’s ad)

7 Benefits of Search Marketing

Discover the top 7 benefits of Search Engine Marketing – SEM and how this online marketing strategy can help you build a strong presence on Google search, enabling you to fully reach your business goals and objectives.

So, let’s discuss some benefits of SEM, shall we?

1. SEM Generates Results

According to a recent survey by Shop.org and Forrester Research, 85% of retailers said that search marketing (PPC and Organic) was their most effective customer acquisition strategy.

2. Incredibly Large Target Market

More and more people are enjoying access to the internet thanks to more affordable smartphones entering the market. This means your business has an abundance of potential customers who are already searching for your products and services.

3. SEM is Measurable

Search marketing can be measured and help you gain more insight into your target audience’s spending and search habits.

4. It’s Cost-Effective

It’s cost-effective. Search marketing is still more affordable than most traditional marketing methods.

5. SEM Can Help Establish Trust

It helps to build better trust among consumers. With search marketing, you get a chance to be a part of the conversation with your communities and target audience. You get the opportunity to become one with the crowd.

6. People Are Making More of an Education Decision

Customers have become smarter. People make buying decisions based on word of mouth, social media recommendations among friends and by doing extensive online research. An increasing number of users compare prices and offers before they buy.

Search Engine Marketing is about solving the problems.

If your audience is searching online to gain more information about a particular service, product, company, health remedy, etc, etc this is a huge opportunity. Put the right information in front of the right people and you will increase your overall ROI dramatically.

7. Appear On Competitors’ Related Keywords

As a best practice for SEM, it is recommended to create search ads that are triggered to appear on your competitors’ related keywords. This will secure your exposure on those keywords and ultimately the chance to convert clients from competitors to you.

Conclusion

Considering all the above, it is clear that search marketing is a growing, evolving industry that constantly requires you to adapt to ensure you get the most out of your marketing efforts.

With the number of internet users increasing every day and becoming more web-savvy, ignoring the internet and not saddling up for the digital battlefield can become a costly mistake. No one wants to be left in the digital dust.

5 SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Myths Debunked
Beau Buckley

The debate whether Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a more effective tool for online marketing has been raging since the industry’s inception. If you are involved in marketing, you are probably confused as to where your budget dollars should be going.

You are likely hearing two different stories, offering contradictory information. It does not make it any easier to make a decision, does it? If you do not know where to invest, then this post is for you. I am going to give you my opinion on the subject based on years of experience and let you in on some industry secrets.

What is PPC?

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is an advertising model that gets the right ad to the right person at the right time. PPC uses different search engines and platforms to market your offerings to a specific audience – from Google Search Ads to Facebook Ads to YouTube TrueView ads, the possibilities are endless.

It’s a way of using different search engines and platforms to market your products or services to a specific audience, but the advertiser only pays a fee when one of their ads is clicked on.

Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than earning those visits organically. This approach delivers targeted traffic to your site and means you don’t pay a cent until someone visits your website.

Competition for visibility in the search results is fierce. A comprehensive, well-executed PPC advertising strategy can accelerate the results you’re aiming for, enhancing your online visibility to your target market, bringing you more quality leads, more conversions and improving your ROI.

What is SEO?

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation  – is a method of increasing your visibility in search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Many refer to SEO as a way to increase your organic rankings. SEO, however, is much more than that. It helps drive targeted traffic to your website, which, in turn, generates leads or sales for your business.

SEO involves many techniques such as keyword research, website audit and offsite promotion, just to name a few. Have you ever heard of Google Penguin or Panda? These are Google algorithm updates are aimed to reward websites that provide relevant and reputable content for users. Your SEO efforts will have to reflect those updates to ensure future success online.

Learn more about SEO

Using SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO takes time. It can take months for you to start showing in Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The long wait is well worth it because a successful SEO campaign can yield a lower cost per conversion than a PPC campaign can.

Did you know Google has made over 500 algorithm changes in a year? Although these changes might require some action on your part, in general, once you form an SEO strategy, you have to stick to it.

Once you have formed an SEO strategy, you have to stick to it. Yes, you might need to be agile with link marketing or even content marketing; however, if you noticed a sudden drop in rankings, a knee-jerk reaction could potentially disadvantage you later.

Instead, give it a few months, and then re-evaluate your strategy. Once you measure the success of your campaign, you can then modify it for better results.

Using PPC ( Pay-Per-Click)

PPC does not have the long-term benefits of SEO. What it can bring, however, is quick results, which is a great way to boost traffic and leads/sales in the short term.

The most popular PPC platform is Google Ads ( Formally known as AdWords). It has many features, such as text and banner ads, along with advanced targeting options. You can track all clicks and measure which keywords and ad copy drives you the most customers. Depending on the niche, the amount you pay per click is based on an auction, where you bid against your competitors for that keyword.

One of the biggest advantages of PPC is your ability to estimate the amount of traffic you are likely to receive, based on your daily budget.

If you are thinking of going down the PPC route, I generally recommend a budget of $50-$100 per day, but this can vary depending on your niche.

Who takes the cake?

There is no clear winner. Your reasons for using either of the two online marketing strategies will depend entirely on what your business needs. Generally, PPC is for short-term results and SEO for long-term results. However, when I am asked which one they should use, I usually recommend both. They work really well together, creating the perfect synergy.

Still can’t decide? Check out our article PPC vs SEO: The Pro’s and Con’s to discover some of the negatives and positives of these two digital marketing strategies.

SEO vs PPC: The Debate Continues
Beau Buckley

Finding the right fonts for your website, Apps, printed or online projects without having to pay for them can be difficult, especially when you are desperately trying to meet a deadline. There are plenty of sites to download free fonts but that involves a lot of research in deciding which one is the best taking away precious time.

With so many web font websites out there, it can be quite stressful choosing which site will fulfill your needs and with many of the sites poorly designed with no categories, it can also be quite confusing and difficult to wade through the fonts they have on offer.

So, we compiled a list of the Top 5 websites where you can download Free Fonts for your convenience.

Top 5 Websites to Download Free Fonts

If you need to save some time and cash, here’s a list of the best websites to download free fonts. These websites provide easy navigation and you will find plenty of high-quality fonts for personal and commercial use.

1. Google Fonts

Google has one of the largest collections of web-ready fonts offering more than 900 different font families in more than 135 languages.

Our goal is to make that process simple, by offering an intuitive and robust collection of open source designer web fonts.

Google

Designers and developers can also create their own highly customized collections by filtering families, weights, and scripts, plus test color themes, and review sample copy. Google Fonts makes product and web pages run faster by safely caching fonts without compromising users’ privacy or security

Go to Google Fonts >>

2. FontBundles

FontBundles helps designers save a few dollars by curating font bundles and offer the highest quality premium fonts with savings off up to 96% as well as free fonts from independent designers

Fontbundles offer a Free Font every week and allow artists to register and list their fonts for sale and include them in font bundles and deals.

Go to Fontbundles >>

3. Font Squirrel

Font Squirrel is another reliable source for downloading free fonts of high quality. Most of the fonts featured in Font Squirrel also comes with commercial licenses.

Font Squirrel is easily one of the best websites for free and commercial use fonts in terms of quantity, quality, and ease of usage.

Go to Font Squirrel >>

4. Abstract Fonts

Abstract Font is a site that includes a curated collection of high-quality fonts. Most of the fonts available in the collection are free to use with both your personal and commercial projects.

With more than 13,870 fonts in its website in more than 80 categories, Abstract Fonts has one of the cleanest interfaces you will come across with making navigating the website an absolute breeze.

Go to Abstract Fonts >>

5. DaFont

Founded in 2012, Font storage provides a huge variety of fonts absolutely free.

5 Free Websites to Download Free Fonts
Beau Buckley

8 Actionable Tips To Achieve SEO Results in 2020
Beau Buckley

SEO—Search Engine Optimization— is a very important marketing activity to improve your site’s exposure and to attract more organic traffic and with the aid of WordPress, you have countless plugins, and themes designed to help your SEO strategies.

The use of meta tags and descriptions can be hard to get around for some, however, WordPress elegantly eases the process with plugins that teach you as you go and show you ways to improve.

On the other hand, WordPress is the most popular website building platform, powering more than 35% of all websites in the world.

Why WordPress is better for SEO?

WordPress ensures that all content is easily indexed by Googles’ bot. This is done setting up categories and tags. This lets you sort your content neatly. Using SEO friendly URLs and HTML tags.

You can get the most out of your keywords by using them in the titles and subtitles which are seen as more important by a search engine.

WordPress works really well with Google for a great SEO ranking. I can also embed YouTube videos, Google Maps, and other content easily and without any coding ability.

Users from all over the world build WordPress sites, from small business owners, who want to expand their businesses online to authorities in different niches to big companies like  Vogue, Sony Music, Mercedes-Benz International to name a few use WordPress to inform, educate and get their message out onto the internet.

Check out the 40 most notable companies using WordPress.

Not only is WordPress great for a generic website it’s incredibly flexible allowing you to build e-commerce stores, video sites, e-learning platforms, social media sites, and the list goes on and on.

WordPress SEO: Pros of WordPress CMS?

How does WordPress fare compared to other website building platforms when it comes to SEO?

Below, we will discuss the key advantages and disadvantages when it comes to WordPress and using the platform as your overall SEO strategy.

1. Cost-Efficiency

Probably the biggest reason for choosing WordPress over other CMSs and website builders is the fact that it is 100% free.

Yes, we’ll need to purchase a domain name, subscribe to a separate hosting service and probably purchase premium plugins, among other costs, but even then, we can flexibly adjust how much we are willing to spend on the site.

With this cost-efficiency, we have more wiggle rooms for trial and errors, and we can free up our budget on other solutions and tools that can help our SEO campaign (for example, investing in a premium keyword research tool).

2. Versatility

One of the key advantages of using WordPress over website-building platforms like Wix is flexibility.

As an open-source platform, you get absolute freedom in using WordPress to customize your site according to your needs, and in this case, according to SEO best practices.

If you possess the required programming and design skills, you can create any kind of site with WordPress CMS.

SEO-wise, customizability is very important so we can optimize every single element in our site individually, according to what’s demanded by current ranking factors and SEO guidelines.

3. SEO Plugins

Still related to customizability, the key advantage of using WordPress is the fact that there are over 50,000 plugins for WordPress users, many of them are specifically designed for SEO purposes.

Some are 100% free, while some others are really expensive. Many of these plugins have allowed web designers to have an easier time implementing various SEO activities that are otherwise very time-consuming and/or difficult.

One SEO plugin that will make On-Page optimization a breeze is Yoast SEO.

Since 2008 Yoast SEO has helped millions of websites worldwide to rank higher in search engines

Also, with page load speed now being an indirect SEO ranking factor, various plugins like browser caching and image compression plugins can also help SEO performance.

Discover 15 plugins to help with your WordPress site SEO

4. Choice of Mobile Optimized Themes

There are tens of thousands of different themes available for WordPress (both free and paid), some offer really useful features for SEO like analytics, reporting, and even automatic optimizations.

Also, with mobile-friendliness being one of the most important ranking factors, there is a wide range of mobile-responsive templates to choose from with various price ranges.

5. Optimize Images For SEO

Images make your content look more interesting and improve the readability since it breaks up the flow of the text. The above affects your SEO indirectly because they improve the user experience. The images, though, should be quality ones and relevant to your articles.

If you want to get the maximum exposure, you need to optimize your images for SEO.

6. Site Speed

Site speed is not a ranking factor but if the loading time of a site is high, your users will get frustrated and it will be bad news for your bounce rate. Also, if your site is very slow, it may get banned from Google.

For those who already use WordPress, site speed should not be a problem. There are many fast loading themes to meet every need. You also can find plugins that were actually created to improve site speed.

7. Knowledge Resource and Support

WordPress, being the most popular website building platform on the planet, has a massive community-based support forum where you can get help and ask any questions about everything related to WordPress, including how we should implement SEO on our WordPress site.

This way, we can learn from other people that have similar interests or might have faced similar challenges and issues we are currently facing.

WordPress SEO: Cons of WordPress CMS?

Just like with anything in life, it all can’t be perfect. Even though WordPress has so many advantages it also comes with a few disadvantages but despite this, it should not deter you from using the CMS because it’s hands down the best out there.

1. Skill/Knowledge Requirement

Although WordPress is still fairly easy to use compared to, say, creating a website from scratch, it is definitely not the easiest website builders to work with today. Visual builders like Wix, for example, is much easier to use with their drag-and-drop approach.

So, WordPress’s customizability and versatility are also a double-edged sword, as you will need at least basic coding and design knowledge to use WordPress. Optimizing the different elements of the website according to SEO best practices might require extensive skills and knowledge.

2. Website Security

Site security signals like using an SSL certificate and HTTPS are now considered as ranking factors.

However, these won’t come by default when you are building a site on WordPress. You will need to install all the additional plugins, make sure your site’s coding is optimized and secure, and choose a secure hosting service, among other factors.

It is definitely possible to have a 100% secure WordPress site, but again, it might involve a steep learning curve.

3. Hosting Cost and Choice

As we have briefly mentioned above, you will need to purchase a separate hosting service when using WordPress as your CMS platform.

Choosing the right hosting service is very important in relation to SEO since it will affect your site’s security and speed, both are important ranking factors.

Nowadays, there are many hosting services offering very affordable packages (below $5/month), but as your site grows bigger and received more traffic, you might need to upgrade your hosting plan or even change a hosting service (and site migration can be very time-consuming).

Conclusion

While WordPress is not a perfect platform by any means and not the easiest to use, it is, in our opinion, the most versatile CMS and website building platform to optimize your site for SEO.

While there are some disadvantages comparing to other platforms, most of them are manageable and fairly cost-efficient to tackle.

WordPress SEO: The Pro’s and Con’s
Beau Buckley

When it comes to designing for mobile and while many are standard UX considerations there are other important mobile-specific design aspects you need to take into account. Are you going to integrate your mobile offering with your current offering? Will you use responsive design, mobile-friendly design or mobile-first design?

Back in 2010 at the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that moving forward, web designers should put mobile-first. If you’re going to design for mobile, you need to know that you are designing for small screens, one-handed use and a specific group of users.

This rise of smartphones means the way people access the internet has also evolved away from just desktops and laptops.  In 2018 alone 52.2% of all global web traffic was via mobile phones.

What is Mobile-Friendly Design?

The term refers to a website that allows a user the usability to do just about everything on a mobile device as they would on a desktop, with minimal effects on site loading time and functionality. For example, while the desktop version of a website might have large hero images on the home page, the mobile version will likely scale down the size of these photos, or remove them altogether.

Similarly, while a desktop version of a website might display photos horizontally across the page, the mobile version may display these photos vertically.

What is Responsive Design?

When a website is built with responsive design features, the goal is to provide an optimal viewing experience for all users, no matter what type of device they are using. This means when you visit a website on a desktop, the exact same website you visit on mobile will become responsive.

Think of it like the website automatically turning into a mobile application without downloading the application.

What is Mobile-First Design?

Designing for mobile first takes the age-old habit of designing for the biggest possible screen first, and designing for the smallest possible screen first. The method of designing for mobile-first is based on the idea that the optimal viewing experience should be on a mobile device vs. a desktop device.

16 Rules For Perfect Mobile Design

If you’re going to design for mobile, you need to know that you are designing for small screens, one-handed use and a specific group of users.

In this article, we will go through some general principles that will designers such as yourself to get started with Mobile Design.

1. Reach area — thumb reach

Thumb Zone: how easy it is for our thumbs to tap areas on a phone’s screen.

source: UX Collective

2. Platform Guidelines

Use the right design system iOS android have a different user base. Also never carry UI elements from e platform to another.

source: UX Collective

3. Think device first

Be aware of the “unsafe areas” (notch, camera punch-hole, etc.

source: UX Collective

4. Font Type & Size

Different fonts can evoke different emotions and provide easy readability at the same time.

source: UX Collective

5. Call to Action (Buttons)

Design finger-friendly buttons. Mistaken taps often happen because of small touch controls. Create controls that measure at least 10–12 mm (40px) so they can be accurately tapped with a finger.

source: UX Collective

6. Long-Scroll Problem

Keep screens as short as possible, using cards with a tap to expand features or by breaking tasks into screens.

source: UX Collective

7. Tab Bars

Tab bars are part of every app, design clear and clean tab bars also name all tabs whenever possible for better user experience.

source: UX Collective

8. Gestures

Tap or swipe mobile gestures? It’s really important to choose wisely because using the wrong type of gesture can lead to a broken UX.

source: UX Collective

9. Readability

Mobile devices have small screens as compared to desktops, fitting in a lot of information in a small mobile UI can be challenging.

source: UX Collective

10. Accessibility

Design for everyone, consider multiple holds. These are three common types of holding a mobile, design the main actions within these areas.

source: UX Collective

11. Spacing

A small screen doesn’t mean small text, or less space, don’t let text or other elements overlap. Improve legibility by increasing line height or element spacing.

source: UX Collective

12. Padding

New technologies are being presented every day, as a designer you need to stay up to date, for example, Curved displays increased padding my some pixels to avoid unwanted touches.

source: UX Collective

13. Make it Responsive

When you think about mobile screens think of designing for the smallest screen, then make it responsive to larger screens.

source: UX Collective

14. Navigation

Try to use standard sequences for your navigation menu, like the iOS tab bar or Android nav drawer, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Users are familiar with these common patterns, so your app will be more intuitive to them.

source: UX Collective

15. Visual Weight

Visual Weight in UI comes from a combination of a lot of elements, colors, text size, spacing, etc. What catches your eye?

source: UX Collective

16. Usability testing

Usability testing defines how good your design is. Testings offer a fresh perspective on things that might have escaped your attention, sometimes even a possible redesign.

So, before you deliver a project to the development team remember to handle testing.

Tools you can use:

• UserTesting.com
• tobiipro.com
• bitbar.com
• Enrollapp.com
• userbrain.net

Also, don’t be afraid to have you, colleagues, potential users, friends or family to test it across multiple devices. Their input will be extremely valuable and will go along way in helping you achieve the best design that’s going to provide the very best experience.

Always remember the Golden Rule of design.

“Users Come First”

* We are not affiliated with any of the companies we listed above.

16 Rules For Achieving the Perfect Mobile Design
Beau Buckley

SEO, as a digital marketing channel has increased in popularity over the past few years, and as a result, there are now so many different SEO agencies and full-fledged digital marketing agencies available at your service. While more options are—in most cases—, a good thing, choosing the right SEO agency or company for your business can pose its own issues, turning it into a challenging process.

The Ever-Changing SEO Landscape

SEO is one of the fastest moving marketing fields, mainly to how fast Google updated its search ranking algorithm and changed the SERPs. In 2018 alone, there are more than 3000 Google algorithm changes.

On the other hand, SEO is by nature, a long term game. We should expect to invest 6 to 18 months in SEO—meaning, working with the same SEO agency for that long— before we can see any significant results.

With that being said, having the right SEO agency as a partner that can stay up to date with all the current changes and trends, while at the same time maintain a good long-term approach is necessary.

The days of easy, get-rich-quick SEO strategies are, admittedly, over—if someone tells you it’s not, most likely it’s a fraud—. Black hat, and even grey-hat SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, getting hundreds of backlinks via Private Blog Networks (PBN), paying for backlinks, and other similar practices, simply no longer work.

These obsolete SEO practices not only won’t get you the desired SEO results (ranking on the first page of Google SERP, or even ranking on the #1 spot) but can get your site penalized permanently by Google: that is, permanently banned from the search results.

6 Tips in Choosing The Right SEO Agency

As we can see, choosing the right SEO company as your long-term partner is very important in ensuring the success of your SEO campaign. Here are some of the important factors to consider when choosing between different SEO companies.

Keep in mind, however, that this is not an all exhaustive list, but you can think of them as your solid foundations in making an informed decision:

1.Know Their Strategy

Truth is, there’s no secret’ SEO method, holy-grail tactic, and any other cheat strategy in SEO, not in 2020. The only secret in SEO is consistency in the quality and quantity of your content, your site’s technical optimizations, and off-site link building, period.

So, if you are working with a valid SEO agency, they shouldn’t have any issue in discussing their actual SEO strategy. Different companies might have unique takes on their link building tactics, but even then it must revolve around content quality and consistency.

Also, a good SEO company will provide a realistic, long-term expectation of the potential results. In choosing an SEO company, in most cases, modesty is preferred, and flashy tactics are often a major red flag.

2. Don’t Focus on Vanity Metrics

SERP ranking, even ranking #1 on Google search results, is not the end goal of SEO. Instead, it’s just a means to an end to other objectives like organic traffic, lead generation, or conversion. You should especially focus on organic traffic since, without website traffic, you can’t achieve anything from your site.

3. Look For A Holistic SEO Approach

A good SEO Agency will perform a thorough SEO audit and the SEO plan should address everything from content planning to website architecture to various technical aspects (page load speed, mobile responsiveness, etc.)

4. Check Their Past Projects

SEO is, fortunately, a very transparent field. Simply check their past clients’ websites and check the site’s performance: keyword rankings, organic monthly traffic, website’s technical performance, links profile, etc. Nowadays, we can easily check all of these metrics via various analytics tools.

5. Clarity on What You’ll Get

Before you start the partnership, be clear on what exactly you’ll get: will content creation be handled in-house or by the SEO agency? How much of technical optimizations will you get? and so on. If possible, put it all in writing.

6. Evaluation Process

As mentioned, SEO is a long-term process, so it’s important to establish an evaluation system in place to monitor the ongoing progress and make the necessary adjustments if necessary. Decide together on when you should receive progress reports (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.), and decide on KPIs and metrics to monitor.

Conclusion

Choosing the right SEO agency, specialist, or a full-fledged digital marketing agency to execute your SEO campaign begins with asking the right questions. Transparency and communication will be the keys to achieving SEO success.

The SEO specialist should also provide a clear direction on how to grow your organic traffic and overall online presence and will be transparent in justifying the ROI of your SEO campaign.

Other SEO Resources

• Understanding Search Engine Ranking Algorithm
• What is Search Engine Optimisation?
• What is On-Page SEO?
• What is Off-page SEO?
• How To Use Keywords Effectively
• Top 15 WordPress SEO Plugins
• Top 30 SEO Tools
• Top 10 Australian Business Directories for Link Building
• 55 High DA sites for Link Building

6 Quick Tips for Choosing the Right SEO Agency
Beau Buckley