Timothy Carter

What is white label SEO reporting? How can you take advantage of white label SEO reports for your SEO agency? White labeling is a business strategy that allows you to take your own product and “rebrand” it as someone else’s. For example, say you are an SEO company with a suite of white label tools for managing clients’ search engine rankings. You can offer these same services under the name of another company (i.e., their brand) and charge more in the process! This article will discuss how to create white label SEO report for your clients. Let’s dive in! What is White-Label SEO Reporting? White-label SEO reporting is the process of offering SEO reporting services to your clients, done by a third-party platform of an external company. The SEO reporting platform needs to generate a report for the client in their desired format. This is usually done by taking all of your clients’ data and creating thematic visualizations (e.g., infographics) and analytical reports based on that information, like ROI [return on investment] analysis, social media marketing campaigns, or keyword research reports, etc. Companies that offer packages with white label SEO services are able to increase profits by scaling up what they’re already doing without adding overhead costs. This can be accomplished by outsourcing work from one company to another – externalizing part of the process so you don’t have to do it yourself. Outsourcing can also reduce labor expenses. What Do White-Label SEO Reporting Platforms Do? White-label SEO tools perform a variety of tasks, including: Gathering data on the client’s website and keywords; Creating PDF reports for each individual client in their preferred format (like an infographic); Providing recommendations to improve rankings. Platforms will often integrate (usually via API) with one another, allowing you to connect data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console (GSC), Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz and others in order to get the data that can be used for making decisions. What Should You Look for in a Private Label Platform? Some platforms offer to create reports for a variety of clients, some charge per client and can take care of the entire process. You’ll want to research how much your prospective platform will cost you on an individual level as well as what kind of benefits it offers (e.g., discounts for creating infographics). Also, be sure that its format is something that could work with what you’re looking for in terms of ROI analysis or keyword research. When Should You Use a White-Label Platform? White-label SEO reporting platforms are best used by companies that want to offer more services in a scalable way without taking on overhead costs or hiring additional staff. Some companies may find that it’s more cost-effective to hire an agency than use a white label platform. However, hiring a white-label marketing & SEO agency can be expensive when you just require SEO reporting services. If you already have your SEO services under control, choosing a white-label SEO reporting platform is an ideal choice. On the other hand, hiring a white-label SEO is beneficial if you would like to scale your entire SEO department. How to Choose the Best White-Label SEO Reporting Tool As you can see, it’s highly important to select the right white-label SEO reporting tool for your company. If you’re on the hunt for the best products, here are some steps you’ll need to take. Always Check Online Reviews: The most important thing to do when researching white-label SEO reporting platforms is checking for reviews. It’s best to look at a company’s profile on sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook because they provide the most accurate information about an individual business. You’ll want to take note of how the platform works overall (e.g., if it offers different tiers), whether or not their customer service team responds effectively in cases of emergency, and what kinds of clients are using them. This will give you insight into which features each company has that might suit your needs better than others as well as who would be best suited for that particular product/service combination based on their experience with customers similar to yours. Check to See if The Product is Offering a Free Trial: A lot of white-label SEO reporting platforms offer a free trial, which is an excellent way to see if the product suits your needs as well as how it works with other programs you may have in place. It’s important to do this because not all companies make return policies clear or allow for refunds. If they don’t mention anything about returns, watch out! It could mean that once you sign up and purchase their service, there’s no going back – even if you find out later down the line that it doesn’t work for what you’re looking for. Create a List of Expectations: If you’re not sure what features are necessary for your company, create a list of different expectations that will be important to meet. This way, the right option can come up much more easily when searching through various reporting platforms. For example: If you want to have monthly reports sent out automatically as opposed to weekly ones (and vice versa), make sure it’s on your list! That could mean all the difference in terms of ROI and keyword research if it’s something that affects how often clients need their data updated or changed based on keywords and campaigns. Always Compare Different Pricing Models: At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of different pricing models out there. Some SEO reporting platforms may offer an unlimited plan for their monthly fee (e.g., $100/month), while others might charge you more based on what features they have included in your package. Make sure to consider all options before deciding on one. Partner with a Private Label Marketing Agency: If you’re looking to partner with a white-label digital marketing agency, make sure they have experience not only in the plans and

Slow sites are punished by both users and search engines. Users bounce and search engines can reduce your rankings. To optimize your site for search engines and users, your website speed test needs to be wicked-fast. In this post, we’ll discuss the how and why for site speed , including ways/tools to fix and improve your website speed test for SEO. Let’s get at it! Let Us Help with Your Site Speed This plug is admittedly, shameless. If you’re looking to speed up your site, let us help! Our team of web developers (see dev.co) have experience optimizing sites for wicked-fast speeds. Here’s one example: We guarantee the following for all sites when it comes to site speed: 1. Guaranteed 90+ score on Google PageSpeed Insights website speed test for desktop (we typically get higher) 2. Guaranteed 75+ score on Google PageSpeed Insights website speed test for mobile (we typically get higher) 3. Less than 3sec load time on GTMetrix 4. No break in website functionality or design Here’s how we do it: Reduce redirects Minimize HTTP Requests Reduce server response time Defer JS Enable compression Enable browser caching, including edge caching for real browsers Minify Resources Optimize images Optimize CSS Delivery Optimize Fonts Eliminate render blocking resources Minify JS & CSS Prioritize above the fold content Keep your scripts below the Fold Lazy loading external scripts How Website Speed Can Impact SEO Rankings Google has indicated that site speed is now a Google Ranking Factor: We’re including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests. It’s becoming an increasing weight in the algo. So if you want to stay competitive online, a high website speed test is something you have to pay attention to. If you look into the nitty-gritty about the things that affect your site’s download and response time, you’ll realize that it’s basically all about creating a “clean” site. You want to have a site that’s not riddled with messy code and images that aren’t optimized. What can you do to ensure your site is performing fast enough? Here is a quick outline of some of the easier things you can do. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, then your rankings, your bounce rate and your conversion rates may be adversely affected. But should that be your main focus right now? While site speed is something you should pay attention to, it may not be the top priority at the moment. If you have poor content (or barely any content at all), if your site isn’t optimized in the first place, if it doesn’t have a well-organized navigation structure, if you have poor (or no) backlinks, or if you have an abundance of pages with duplicate content … then these issues probably take precedence. Bounce rate and performance will not be telling you the true story unless you start with a well-designed site that’s optimized. Free Tools to Measure Site Speed Site speed can actually be considered in a number of different ways, and all of them culminate in your overall speed and loading times. Document Complete-Based Page Load Time When you access a webpage, the information streams in gradually. You see words and images appear on the page at different times, and this is especially apparent on slow-loading websites. A webpage is considered loaded as “document complete” when it has loaded enough to allow a user to start clicking buttons or entering written text. It’s possible that not all of the content is fully loaded, but a user can begin to take action. Largest Contentful Paint or Full Render-Based Page Load Time On the other hand, it’s also possible to measure page load time based on when the entire page is fully loaded. This loading speed is always longer than a “document complete” loading speed, but the difference between the two values may be different for two different sites. First Contentful Paint or Time to First Byte Finally, it’s also possible to measure your overall site speed by looking at the “time to first byte” (TTFB) for first contentful paint metric, which is the amount of time it takes for a browser to download the first byte of information from an online source. Essentially, it measures whether or not there is any significant delay between the request for information and your web server’s response. Where page load time generally depend on your site settings and the type and amount of content you have on your page, TTFB measurements are usually indicative of your server settings. Below are some more sources to help you get your site speed optimized for Core Web Vitals (CWV): Google PageSpeed Browser Plugin  Google Search Console Moz Browser Toolbar Web Page Test Yslow (Yahoo’s Tool) Pingdom GTmetrix Many of these site speed tools also offer on-going performance monitoring to ensure nothing has dramatically changed in your site performance or performance metrics. What is Considered a Slow Website Loading Speed? Now that we know how site speed can be measured in different ways, we can come up with a ballpark for what are considered “good” or “bad” metrics. Like I mentioned earlier, Google doesn’t publish what types of site speeds it takes into consideration, or if there are any specific numbers it looks for, but we can make reasonable assumptions for target loading times based on other sites we’ve seen, and based on a recent analysis by Google. According to this analysis, the average “full render” page load time is roughly 7 seconds on desktop devices, with a median page load time of roughly 3 seconds. On mobile devices, the average page load time is more than 10 seconds, with an average of nearly 5. It’s difficult to compare individual sites against such broad metrics, especially with such a sharp rift between the median and mean values, but if your site loads slower than the average page, you can generally consider your site

What is link building for SEO? In this ultimate beginner’s guide to building links, you will learn everything you need to get started, including the best link building strategies and tactics that are needed to create a well-rounded backlink plan for sustainable SEO growth for your website. Chapter 1: A Link Building Overview Link building is a term referring to the practice of establishing links (hyperlinks) that point to your site. It’s that simple. But, why would you invest time and money in link building? It’s All About Promotion Link building is a promotional strategy that helps people find your site—and in a number of different ways, as we’ll see. Building backlinks is most commonly known as a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. That’s because it helps you increase your domain authority (DA). A higher DA means higher rankings. Higher rankings mean more traffic… and you already know why it’s a good thing to have more traffic. That said, link building is also a good strategy for generating traffic via other channels. Notably, if you build a strong link with a good publisher, you can generate a stream of separate referral traffic to your site! Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to determine web page trustworthiness and rankings. That’s a lot to juggle as a webmaster. Link building is only one factor among many. Chapter 2: The Purpose & Benefits of Link Building for SEO At this point, you may not be convinced that link building is worth all that effort. But link building is about far more than just increasing your search engine rankings. Take a look at some of the ways link building can support your brand. Brand & Content Visibility By publishing your work on outside sources, you can gain access to wider spreads of more diverse readers, increasing the reach of your material. Also, your brand name will reach more online users. Reputation by Affiliation In the early stages of your SEO campaign, you’ll be working with relatively low-level, niche sources, but as you build up, you’ll start getting positions on high-authority, noteworthy publishers. I’m talking about major household names like Forbes and Huffington Post. You can use these affiliations to promote the notoriety of your own brand. Referral Traffic One of the biggest benefits of resource page backlinks is the generation of referral traffic, which refers to any readers who click on your links and get to your site. Your website is where your actual conversions take place, so the more people you have coming to your site, the more direct revenue you’re going to receive. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Link building, as a strategy, first emerged as a means of increasing your rankings and visibility in search engines Higher rankings means more traffic from search engines, which means more opportunities for conversion. Ongoing Traffic & Return on Investment Another major advantage of link building is its power to generate ongoing SEO ROI. When you build links, they’re almost always permanent. This gives your linkgraph the power to generate compounding returns, multiplying your return on investment (ROI) the longer you pursue the strategy. This means you’ll see less of a return early on, but after a few months of consistent commitment, you’ll start seeing better and better returns. The Purpose of Links Hyperlinks are designed as a navigational tool. If you click a hyperlink, you’ll be automatically taken to another website—the website whose URL is housed in that link. The main function of a link is to make navigation easier for users of the web, and to create the architecture between web pages responsible for the web’s “web”-like connections. This is fundamentally important, because there are only three ways to reach a page. You can either click a bookmark, type in a URL, or click a link. Therefore, if you haven’t yet discovered a page, a link is the only way to discover it. But there’s another purpose for links, now that Google and other search engines exist. In the eyes of Google, a link is a vote of confidence. It’s a sign that this website inherently trusts the linking page. On a small scale, that’s not a big deal. But on a large scale, you can use this principle to analyze the trustworthiness of millions of pages. Chapter 3: Link Building Strategy Considerations You have the basic idea of how links benefit your website, but how exactly do you go about building the links in the first place? The phrase “link building” was actually coined in reference to an archaic strategy of stuffing links everywhere you could online, but modern link acquisition takes place in two main theaters, or approaches: link attraction and manual link building/outreach. Link Attraction Link attraction, often referred to as link earning, is exactly what it sounds like. In this strategy, you’ll be developing pieces of content for your link building opportunities that you’ll publish directly on your own website. The goal is to entice people to link to them based on their innate quality or “linkability.” This is advantageous because it circumvents the possibility of a Penguin-based penalty (more on that in the next section); all the links you generate in this method will be completely natural. The downside is that it’s difficult to control. You’ll be relying on social syndication and users’ natural tendencies to cite sources they’ve found valuable, which doesn’t always pay off the way you think it will. Think about the strange articles and pieces of content you sometimes see in the trending sections of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok). In short, sexy content attracts the best links in both quality and quantity. Manual Link Building Manual link requisition sounds like it would be closer to the original practices of link building, which often involved spam-based tactics. However, modern manual link building is more sophisticated, and revolves around producing off-site content via performing backlink outreach to other sites (often for guest blogging) in your niche. Essentially, you’ll be producing material that

You want search engines to reward your website for its unique content by listing it on their first page of search results. But it can take a very long time to rank and sometimes it may feel like your link building isn’t working. Understanding these intricacies of SEO is the secret to ensuring that your digital marketing efforts are worthwhile and will pay off in the long-term. SEO link building is an area that still remains relevant. Today, link building is to deliberately seek out and follow up on potential opportunities to get your website and content in front of an extended audience. These links are an ambassador for your website content and take it ahead for success. To succeed, you need a website that is worth linking to, which comes down to developing compelling content. No webmaster would want to link your website unless it offers real value to their visitors. Link building is a targeted marketing tactic that disseminates your content far and wide, and it certainly isn’t dead. Links are still considered a vote of confidence, and gaining their customer or audience’s trust is a skill that any successful and thriving business wants to master. What Exactly Is Link Building And Why Does It Matter? Link building is the process of getting other websites to hyperlink to your website. Their visitors hopefully click on those links to navigate their way to your site. It is essentially a method of generating links from several different websites that direct their traffic to your site. The quality of these backlinks (i.e., if they are originating from a high-quality website) also helps search engines ascertain the value and authority your site offers. There are various techniques and strategies to build links. While they differ in difficulty, all digital marketers tend that link building is can quite challenging. But they do it anyway because these backlinks show Google that you have produced unique content that provides value to the readers and that other websites are also benefitting from. Since it’s the search engine’s job to ensure that its users get timely, relevant, and actionable content, it understands that your site is worth showing in the top search results on the first page. And isn’t that the ultimate goal of good SEO? It is hard for businesses to earn organic search rankings from their digital platforms. If you want your audience to find your site quickly, you require organic search traffic. And what better to find these visitors than by getting backlinks from other quality sites in your niche? However, getting authoritative and quality backlinks is easier said than done. Basics of Link Building The key is not to get many links because Google will penalize your website for trying to pay your way through link building. It can tell if your backlinks originate at a sub-par, dubious website that thousands of other pages are linked to. So, it’d be better to focus on the quality of those links and build a superior link profile one outreach email at a time. You’ll have to reach out to credible sources and reliable websites in your industry, write for them, do interviews, or find other ways to provide value to their visitors. And in return, they’ll let you leave a link or two and might ask for some backlinks. You see how time-consuming and challenging link building can be when done, right? At present, Google evaluates every link individually to determine its worth in terms of search rankings. So you’ll have to go about it very carefully. But before you get started, make sure you thoroughly understand these basics of link building: Anchor Text Anchor text is any clickable text in a hyperlink. It should be clear and precise, so anyone clicking it knows where it’ll take them. In the case of search engines, anchor text offers context and relevance of the content or item that has been linked. Context For context, it is vital to know and understand that merely anchor text can’t determine your link’s value. You need to gauge the text that surrounds your link. Also, you need to question yourself if your link aligns with your content naturally. Your link should also add value and have contextual relevance to the content of your website. Source Like authority, your link’s source is part of Google’s assessment criteria. Make sure that the source of your hyperlink increases or provides value to your website visitors. For instance, if you have a website for home improvement, fast food website links will not be relevant and helpful. Variety Variety adds significantly improves and enhances your overall link-building efforts. Google evaluates your several links’ multiplicity and gauges them to identify if they are from the same or different domains. As a general rule of the thumb in link building, the more diverse domains you obtain, the better it is. Therefore, it is imperative for you to collect various links from different domains to help you with your link building. Numerous white hat link-building tactics help your website secure its place in organic search results. High-quality content essentially enables you to generate multiple links and references. Positive mentions are indispensable for businesses that sell products/services. Why Is Link Building Not Dead? In September, Google declared changes in how they evaluate and crawl links. They added two new attributes and evolved how they treat the “nofollow” attribute. Link builders are required to attribute all paid links as either “sponsored” or “nofollow” to avoid penalties. So is link building actually dead? You see, link building isn’t dead, but many marketers mistakenly think so because it has changed. There isn’t room to use quick tactics like posting to web directories, SEO article directories, blog post submissions, PR submissions, social bookmarking, and link baiting. All marketers used these techniques in the past because of the simple fact that they worked. But now, as Google changes its algorithm, it’s essential to tweak your strategies right alongside it. But is link building still valuable? Here are

Depending on how you classify SEO, there’s really only one primary goal: attain higher ranks in search results. Yes, all the tangential brand and customer benefits from content marketing and other peripheral strategies are nice bonuses, but in strict terms, ranking is the bottom line. Accordingly, it’s no surprise that most modern tactics evolved to take advantage of what we know as “ranking signals,” which are actions or constructs that send a message to Google’s evaluative algorithms that your site is an authority worth ranking. Get more ranking position signals, move up in rank. It’s that simple. The complexity comes from the various Google ranking factors that not all ranking Or social signals are fully understood (since Google Or search engines doesn’t publish its complete Google’s ranking algorithm) and from the Google Ranking factors Or direct ranking factors that there are actually different types of ranking Or social signals. Today, I want to address a critical difference you may not have known about: direct ranking signals versus indirect ranking signal. Direct Ranking Signals If you’ve spent any significant time in the SEO community, these are probably ranking signals you know about. They come in all shapes and sizes, but are all ultimately the product of an action or improvement that makes your site perceptibly more authoritative. For example, a new backlink pointing to your website is a ranking signal; depending on the strength of the source, it could pass a little or a lot of authority to your site. Similarly, but to a much lesser extent, the loading speed of your web pages can serve as a ranking signal: (Image Source: Google) Ranking signals also come into play when it comes to relevance. For example, if you create a page that targets a keyword phrase like “garden salsa,” it could help you rank higher for queries containing the phrase “garden salsa.” For the most part, direct ranking signals are adequately published, and because the majority of them can be executed intentionally as part of an SEO strategy, there isn’t much mystery surrounding them, other than the Google ranking factors that there are a lot and they change somewhat frequently: (Image Source: Search Metrics) Indirect Ranking Signals What, then, counts as an indirect ranking signal? Like their direct counterparts, these are constructs or actions that can influence your rank—but they don’t do so directly. In Google Ranking factors, they have no direct bearing or influence in Google’s algorithm at all. Yet at the same time, they can increase your ranks in strong and sometimes unexpected ways. For example, let’s say you’ve written a fantastic article about how to buy a perfect pair of shoes. It doesn’t get much traction at first, but one day, a major influencer in the fashion industry happens upon it and shares it with her audience of 100,000 followers. This action has no direct influence on your ranking whatsoever (contrary to popular belief). However, imagine a few possible results of this action. A handful of users may read your article and internal links to it on their own blogs, establishing “direct” ranking signals as a result of an innocuous event. Others may specifically search for your brand in combination with shoe-related keywords, strengthening the correlation between your brand name and shoe-related words. Many of those 100,000 followers may share your article even further, multiplying these positive effects across other demographics and audience segments. This is an “indirect” ranking signal, and there are many examples of how these can come to pass. Social shares, interviews, referrals, brand mention’s, and even in-person discussions can all constitute indirect ranking signals. Is It Worth Pursuing Indirect Signals? This leads to an interesting question: if indirect ranking signals don’t pass authority, are they worth incorporating into an SEO strategy? Our example above is a pretty optimistic scenario, and arguably one worth pursuing. Having your article shared with 100,000 people, for most brands, is an incredible opportunity. However, there’s no guarantee that it will lead to measurable benefits; what if the share falls flat? What if lots of people read it, but few people take any course of action that search result in a direct ranking signal? The answer is pretty simple. Yes, indirect ranking signals are less concrete and less predictable than their direct counterparts, but if you look at averages, they’re definitely worth pursuing. If 10 indirect ranking influencers, each with a similar profile of 100,000 followers share your article, all it takes is one to hit home to generate tons of new direct ranking signals for your domain authority. Therefore, it’s a good idea to pursue indirect ranking signals, as long as you’re also incorporating direct signals into your strategy. Indirect Ranking Signals Adoption There’s some good news if you’re interested in incorporating more indirect signals into your strategy—you probably don’t have to change much. If you write content that people want to read, you’ll naturally earn more shares and generate more discussion. If you get active on social media, you’ll naturally earn more brand mentions and generate more attention for your work. If you want to dig into semantics and get technical, than indirect ranking signals should not be a part of SEO. But they’re a natural part of many peripheral strategies that are closely related to SEO, including content marketing, guest posting, relationship building, social marketing, and even in-person professional networking. Any positive PR for your brand, at any level, could contribute to attaining a direct ranking signal, so work to unify your strategies under a common vision for ranking growth.  

You’ve started your blog and you’ve got your blogging strategy in place, but are you doing everything you need to do for SEO? SEO doesn’t just “happen.” Yes, it’s true that having a content marketing strategy in place already puts you in a better position to gain rank for keywords relevant to your industry, as long as you stay consistent with your posting strategy. However, you can’t just write “any” type of content and throw it onto the web haphazardly. There’s an important series of steps and considerations you’ll need to take if you want to ensure your blogging strategy is doing everything it can for your SEO campaign. The purpose of this guide is to look at all of these “optimization elements” on a per-post level, guiding you in crafting perfectly a SEO optimized blog post every time you’re ready to publish a new article. SEO Benefits of Blogging An active blog has many benefits, including: Helps your website get indexed more frequently, resulting in better organic search visibility and traffic. Improves conversion rate because your users see that the website is active (and, therefore, so is the business). Also helps to establish authority and expertise in the niche, building brand loyalty and further increasing conversion rate. Provides discussion content for social media streams, and helps generate social signals when readers decide to share articles via Twitter or Facebook. Social signals improve your organic search rankings. Allows you to rank for more keywords relevant to your niche. Every new blog post is like adding another raffle ticket to a hat, giving you more opportunities to rank for user queries that are looking for your services. Helps generate inbound links from other publishers looking for relevant articles to cite, which improves your rankings, generates brand awareness, and drives inbound leads. Improves click-through rate in search engine results pages when paired with Google Authorship markup, resulting in more website traffic.  Elements of a Blog SEO Strategy First, let me take a step back and explain that SEO is a complicated, multifaceted strategy that unfolds over a number of different channels and tactics. Search Engine Land recently tried to condense this broad spectrum of factors to a single infographic: (Image Source: Search Engine Land) Ultimately, your onsite optimization, your onsite content, your offsite content, and your peripheral strategies (like link building and local SEO) will all factor into how you rank for keyword phrases relevant to your brand. That means your content is only responsible for a fraction of your overall results—a significant fraction, but a fraction nonetheless. Similarly, there are overall strategic factors that will come into play in your content strategy that aren’t covered here, such as where you publish your content, how you set up your blog, how you syndicate your posts, and so on. This guide will tell you how to optimize your individual posts to maximize their success—but that alone is only one part of your overall SEO strategy. With that in mind, let’s start what it means to have fully SEO optimized blog posts across your site. Basic Strategy Before I start looking at the individual content and technical factors that make an individual piece optimized, we need to know what we’re optimizing for, specifically. A handful of optimization factors are standard best practices you can apply to any post exactly the same way, but the majority of them are dependent on your specific targets. Accordingly, you’ll need to outline what it is you’re trying to achieve before you start trying to achieve it. Choose the right keywords. Your first job is to target the right keywords. Now, keyword strategy has changed significantly in the past several years, so don’t jump into this with an old-school SEO approach. Your goal here isn’t to choose a specific keyword target, stuff that keyword into your articles (without keyword stuffing) with reckless abandon, and stop at nothing until you rank for that keyword. Instead, thanks to Hummingbird and semantic search, you’ll need to take your keyword targets with a grain of salt. Hummingbird interprets the intention behind a user query, rather than looking for an exact match keyword, so you can’t rely on one-to-one matches and repetition to earn you a keyword rank. Instead, you’ll use keyword research to identify areas of high search volume and low competition that present valuable ranking opportunities. Then, you’ll integrate those keywords (along with synonyms and related terms) into your articles—which I’ll cover in more detail later. Google’s Keyword Planner is great for this. (Image Source: Shout Me Loud) Choose the right topic. Because semantic search makes long-tail keyword phrases and user interests more important than individual keyword mapping, you’ll also have to take a step back and consider what topics you want to write. Take a look at your competitors, industry publications, and your newsfeeds overall. What are people talking about? What aren’t people talking about that they should be? Are there any topics that seem especially popular and ripe for coverage? Are there any alternative angles you can take or new data you can present? The main question in the back of your mind should be, “what would I want to search for if I was in their position?” The best topic ideas tend to be ones that are original (so there’s low competition), valuable/practical (so it appeals to a wide audience), and topical (so there’s lots of people searching for it, or something similar). Write for your audience. Finally, remember that you shouldn’t write primarily for search engines. As much as it’s valuable to find keywords and topics with a high potential return and frame your posts in a way that maximizes their visibility in search engines, your users still need to be your first priority—or you’ll turn them off of your brand and all your efforts will be for naught. When you’re shaping your lists of keywords and topics to explore, keep this in mind, and be sure to make changes as appropriate. During the course of writing,