Knowing how to find actual search volume and which keywords can bring you traffic when uploading YouTube videos can be tricky.  You also need to think about which keywords will convert into revenue for you and what has the best potential for making money with ads.  Luckily this is easy, when you know how to find the data before you begin the optimization of the YouTube video.

By investing a little bit ahead of time, you can properly optimize everything from the opening image that causes the most engagement based on a desired reaction, to which keywords will show volume so you can make money off of ads, as well as how to determine which combinations can make your YouTube video go viral and which can generate interest to drive sales and subscribers.

It takes between 15 minutes and an hour to set up the test and you can spend as little or as much as you want to build relevance and enough of a result to build a strong enough focus group and have a solid dataset to verify that your test is accurate.  In some cases I’ve had a video start to take off during the test.  When this happens I can normally make my money back with ads showing on it.  That’s the nice part about having an “earned views” column in the adwords interface for YouTube ads.

So here’s how to do this.

[Read more…] about How to Optimize for Traffic, Views & Keywords on YouTube with Data

Heading to Pubcon? Here’s everything you need to get the most from the show in 4 easy steps.  If you have more tips for people new to the show, or just want to give some pointers, feel free to leave a comment below.

Whose who at Pubcon

Looking to contact someone about sponsoring an event or a tradeshow booth, or maybe you’re stuck and the badge printer and they don’t have you on file, here’s the right person to contact and who can help to resolve any issues before or during the show.

• Brett Tabke – @btabke – The person in charge and founder. Contact him for sponsorships, show ideas & deals.
• Joe Laratro – @jlaratro – Have an issue with a speaker or want to pitch a session or talk about fishing, he’s ready to help.
• Melissa Fach – @SEOAware – From social media marketing & SEO to animal print décor, she’s in charge of the messaging and community.
• Jeff Randall – @jeffrandall – Although he’s mostly behind the scenes, if your booth gets lost or logistics happen, he’s your guy.

How to Choose a Session

[Read more…] about How to Do Pubcon Like a Pro!

Internal links are one of the most underutilized aspects of SEO which are in your control and easy to implement.  But first we need a definition in case you haven’t heard the term before.

What is an Internal Link?

An internal link is a link off of specific keywords (or anchor text) from one page on your website to another.  Google and other search engines use them as a way to tell what the topic of the page you are linking to is and they also pass authority and help the page they link to too rank better.  Internal links are found in body copy, headers and menus, tags, breadcrumbs, footers, headers and anywhere else you link to a page on your own website from a page on your own website.

Because they can pass authority, they can help you to move up a couple of positions if used correctly, assuming you have pages with search engine trust.  However, because they’re keyword rich (this is different than keyword rich backlinks) they can also cause damage if you link the same or closely related phrases to multiple pages.  They also reduce in the amount of authority they can pass depending on how many internal links you have on the specific page.

Using Internal Links for Better Rankings

If you have pages that have numerous high quality and topically relevant backlinks like an infographic that got picked up by the media, a resource you created that has citations or a guide that solves a problem, this page should have authority.  Other times it is your homepage since many people will link there as they reference you.  These are your high value pages and where you want to begin evaluating your internal linking structure.

If your page has a guide to utilizing a blue widget to its full potential or an infographic about blue widgets, and you sell blue widgets, look for a natural mention of blue widgets and where linking to the page you would buy it on will benefit the reader, then link to that page off of the phrase “blue widgets”.  The authority from the guide will pass through the internal link, and unlike a backlink which you need to be cautious of if it is keyword rich, internal links are supposed to be keyword rich as they also guide a user to find more specific information or where to take an action on a specific topic.

But be careful!!!  If you stuff the keywords in or link to them when it will not benefit the end user, this could lead to a devaluation or over-optimization penalty.  If you’re mentioning chocolate as a decorative element on a cake and it is about bulk chocolate and molds, but you link to a box of mixed chocolates because that is the product you sell, you have not provided a better user experience and under a manual review by a Googler, this probably will not work in your favor.

You can also do this with your homepage. You can link down off of a few keyword rich terms or phrases to your main categories.  From those categories you can link horizontally through the content or down to a subcategory.  You can also link upwards from products to categories and categories to the home page.  It is part of your site’s architecture and can play a solid role in SEO.  But there’s one more thing to keep in mind so you don’t do more damage then you do good.

[Read more…] about Internal Links and How to Use Them for SEO to Rank & Recover

Page speed and site speed are very different even though they get lumped together.  They both impact conversions, UX and pageviews, and this summer page speed becomes a ranking signal while site speed is still a good practice.  Here are the differences between the two and how to begin working on both to help improve site performance, organic rankings and conversions.

(note, the links in this post are advertisements (affiliate links). If any of them aren’t, I’ll change them out once a program becomes available).

What is site speed?

Site speed is the speed at which your site loads as users go through it.  From the time the page renders to the click through and finally users converting in your shopping cart or lead form.  Site speed is about rendering, pre-rendering and seamlessly guiding people through the various important paths and funnels you define within your site.

You can begin optimizing site speed by working on:

• minifying and combining sitewide css and js
• deferring render blocking scrips
• Removing excessive scripts and pieces from those files
• Applying a good CDN
• Caching the site properly (I use this for wordpress sites) you can save 15% with code Adam15.
• Removing outdated scripts or code and http/s requests
• Deleting unused themes, scripts, code, databases and unpublished UGC
• Reducing the amount of http and https requests
• Properly naming and sizing site wide assets
• And anything else that impacts the main frame of the website

What is page speed?

Page speed refers to decreasing the load time of a specific page on your website or blog.  It is similar to site speed, but when looking at page speed you focus on specific on page attributes and optimize their performance.  This could be important for rankings because if the user is on a non-internet connected mobile device and the content is equal, if one page loads in 10 seconds and the other in 5, the 5 second load time is the better user experience and therefore should be given the priority and ranking.

How to make page speed faster:

• Lazy load images (although this makes them not as SEO friendly)
• Minify image sizes on the page
• Remove excessive images
• Delete any scripts, font families or anything being pulled that are not actually used on the page
• Check for plugins, referred products and widgets that aren’t being used (through UX tools) and remove those
• If possible, stop scripts or remove scripts from the rendering and loading process that aren’t important for the page
• Look to see if any old scripts, tracking pixels or anything else had been placed on the page and remove them
• Anything else that is unique to the specific page that causes it to load slower and that isn’t important to loading it

Now that we know what the differences are between the two and have a few starting points, it’s time to figure out where to begin implementing.

[Read more…] about The Difference Between Page Speed & Site Speed for SEO

To get a blog post, how to guide or webpage to rank in the search engines, you have to start with the formatting.  Backlinks and architecture can be important, but it is the formatting of the page that will really help to rank it.  Don’t get scared of some of the words below, there are plugins for the IT parts.

These posts are where affiliates can make money, bloggers can build a following and stores can drive sales.  The big brands will have red tape which gives you the advantage to make these changes and take the market share for your niche back.

How to Rank a Blog Post or How to Guide in the Search Engines:

• Skip the fluff
• Use lists and tables
• Make sure your H tags are set and researched
• Add in schema if it is appropriate
• Make the page as fast as possible (6 steps included here)
• Give the best possible experience

[Read more…] about How to Format a Post or Guide to Rank In the Search Engines

Ecommerce is a fierce business and everyone publishes the same ways to increase conversions. That’s why I want to share 5 different and unique ways to help drive more conversions for your store or website that you have the capabilities to implement, but probably aren’t.  These are things that are within your control and may help to grow your business without having to make drastic changes.

How to Increase Your Website Sales:

1. Comparison size charts (not what you’re thinking)
2. Product Q&A boxes with research (SEO tip inside)
3. Get rid of “we, we” syndrome
4. Mobile input fields
5. Fix speed issues

[Read more…] about 5 Tips You Don’t Know That Can Increase Ecommerce Conversions