Know Agency Delivers Results With Keyword Selection

Jane Phelps, CEO of Know Agency, uses BrightEdge to help client refocus on high-query-volume keywords

What You Need To Know: Facebook Marketing

Since Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, Facebook business marketing has become one of the biggest digital channels in terms of new opportunities. The platform offers a variety of different paid and organic tools for brands to surface themselves to Facebook's sprawling user base. As with any other digital channel, there are certain things a marketing manager has to do to optimize for discoverability.

Let BrightEdge guide you through some of the essentials of Facebook marketing.

Table of Contents

Facebook Ads

What are Facebook ads?

Facebook ads appear in two main places on the Facebook page when a person signs in. Some ads show up directly in a user's news feed. These ads contains an image, a prominent feature of the brand’s name, a phrase or two of content and a link to your company's website.A guide to Facebook marketing for business - brightedge

The second type of ads appears on the right hand side of the news feed. These ads are a little simpler, with your content name, web address, a short description, and an image.

How can I use Facebook to promote my business?

  1. Create different ads for mobile versus desktop. Users on mobile often have different intentions and different browsing habits than they do on desktop. Understand what your customers want to see in each scenario and design the ad appropriately.
  2. Test constantly. The importance of testing to determine the best images, the best text and the best targets cannot be underestimated. Try a few different designs to see which ones receive the most attention and the best returns. Use that insight to guide the campaign.
  3. Target your customers carefully. It is common to target your Facebook audience based upon interests or certain demographics, such as local cities. But it is also possible to target people based upon certain behaviors. Specifically, Facebook allows you to target people based upon factors such as their purchase intent and their devices.
  4. Segment your audience. Make sure that for each different group you intend to target, you develop an ad that specifically meets their needs and interests.

How do I know if my Facebook campaign was successful?

To see how successful your Facebook campaign is, it is important to look beyond the basic click or impression. Here are a few metrics to watch:

  1. What did people do after seeing your ad? How many clicked through? How many visited your website? How many people liked or shared your content?
  2. How much did each conversion cost?
  3. What is your relevance score? This gives you information on how relevant Facebook sees your ad in relation to your audience. This number dictates how expensive your ads are, how often your ads are shown and the priority they are given.

Facebook ads can be a great way to engage with your audience on Facebook, improve brand reach and encourage people to enter your sales funnel. Start experimenting with your ads to see the value they can offer you.

What is the Facebook algorithm?

In January 2018 Facebook announced a major algorithm change. To try and combat a perceived rise in the amount of extraneous and irrelevant advertising in people's Facebook feeds, the company now evaluates ads on the standard of "meaningful interactions." In essence, Facebook ads should be optimized to promote conversation between the brand and potential customers, gauged through comment responses as well as Likes. Additionally, attempts to artificially boost engagement rate, like encouraging users to provide one-word responses, will no longer help to boost an ad and may even incur a penalty.

<< Back to top

Branding-Building on Facebook

How do you build brand awareness using Facebook business marketing?

Unfortunately, many businesses assume that Facebook social media marketing websites, particularly Facebook, are just opportunities to stand on a soap box and broadcast your brand message to the millions of people who use the platform. When that does not work, many of these businesses will just give up and declare that Facebook does not work for them.

The trouble is that this is not the role of Facebook. People are not on social media to listen to sales pitches, they are there to be social with their friends and the brands they like. Customers today value brands that take the time to get to know them on a personal level, rather than acting as an impersonal corporation.

Facebook can help you build your brand by acting as a platform to engage your followers, answer their questions and get to know their needs. By doing this, you build your brand and encourage brand loyalty.

How do I build a Facebook community?

  1. Invite people to follow you on Facebook. Advertise your page wherever you go, including your website, your newsletters and your emails.
  2. Encourage existing followers to engage with your content. When your followers like or share your existing content, the material will then appear on the newsfeeds of all of their connections, which then increases your exposure and encourages more people to like your page.
  3. Engage with your existing followers. Be attentive to the site and respond to their questions and comments promptly. Ask questions of them and participate-- but do not dominate-- conversations that pop-up on your page.

How do I use this community to build my brand?

Once you have an established Facebook community, you want to use this group to build your base and increase your conversions.

  1. Host contests where people receive coupons in exchange for telling stories about their experiences with your brand or posting pictures of themselves with your products. This encourages people to make another purchase while also spreading brand reach through the participants’ posts.
  2. Offer special codes and giveaways exclusively for your social media followers.
  3. Offer insider tips about getting the most out of products or services in your industry-- make your Facebook page a valuable resource for people.

Facebook can be a valuable resource, but it is not just a megaphone for blasting your message. Use the platform to build your brand and you will see what makes the Facebook social media marketing channel so popular.

<< Back to top

Leveraging Open Graph for Facebook Marketing

What is the Facebook Open Graph protocol used for?

Open Graph is a protocol that allows you more control over how your content appears on Facebook. It is a series of tags that dictate how your items will be displayed. When you do not use this protocol, automatic generators will determine how the content you share appears, which can decrease engagement.

Why should I use the Open Graph protocol?

Facebook is an excellent platform for building your brand. It allows you to build your reputation with your customers by maximizing the appearance of the postings you make. When you build a strong Facebook marketing page, you will be able to build a community among your followers. You will be able to engage with your prospects personally, helping them to see you as an individual, instead of just a corporation. When you answer their questions, they will also see you as a trustworthy authority.

Quality posts also encourage your followers to interact with your content and share it with their own connections, which can then increase your brand reach. The Open Graph protocol is an important part of taking advantage of these different opportunities. It maximizes the content you post that encourages the conversations on your pages, that invites people to ask you questions and that gets shared by your followers to attract more attention.

How do I create an Open Graph on Facebook?

Example of Open Graph for Facebook Marketing - brightedge

  1. Specify og:title. This is the tag for your title. You want to have title that is between 60 and 90 characters but not longer than 100. When a title goes beyond 100 characters, it will be automatically cut to 88. Your code will look something like: <meta property=”og:title” content=”An Engaging Title Here”/>
  2. Define og:url. This tag will dictate the canonical URL for your page. Your code will look like: <meta property=”og:url” content=”http://www.yourwonderfulsite.com”/>
  3. Fill in og:type. This describes the type of content you are sharing. For example, you can share web-based content, like articles; entertainment-oriented content, such as books or movies; people, such as politicians or actors.
    • To see the full list of available types you can visit this site. If you do not designate a type of content, ‘website’ is assumed by default. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:type” content=”website” />
  4. Write og:description. This controls how the link will be described for someone who sees it in their feed. It does not impact SEO, so keywords are not necessary, but you should focus on engaging copy. About 200 characters will be best. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:description” content=”An engaging, entertaining website description.” />
  5. Work with og:image. Without Open Graph tags, any image on your page can be selected when you share content-- including ad images. Your images can be up to 5MB. The resolution of 1200 pixels x 627 pixels often works best for attracting attention within Facebook’s limits. Images below 400 pixels look more like a thumbnail. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:image” content=”http://www.yourwonderfulsite.com/image-name.jpg” />

In addition to these tags, there is also other metadata that can be included. If you are interested in finding more tags to include with your content, you can read more here.

Facebook business marketing is a fantastic resource to help you engage with your potential customers and take the first steps towards building relationships. Using the Open Graph Protocol will enhance your ability to display your content to these followers, thus boosting your engagement and success.

Definition

Since Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, Facebook business marketing has become one of the biggest digital channels in terms of new opportunities. The platform offers a variety of different paid and organic tools for brands to surface themselves to Facebook's sprawling user base. As with any other digital channel, there are certain things a marketing manager has to do to optimize for discoverability.

Let BrightEdge guide you through some of the essentials of Facebook marketing.

Table of Contents

Facebook Ads

What are Facebook ads?

Facebook ads appear in two main places on the Facebook page when a person signs in. Some ads show up directly in a user's news feed. These ads contains an image, a prominent feature of the brand’s name, a phrase or two of content and a link to your company's website.A guide to Facebook marketing for business - brightedge

The second type of ads appears on the right hand side of the news feed. These ads are a little simpler, with your content name, web address, a short description, and an image.

How can I use Facebook to promote my business?

  1. Create different ads for mobile versus desktop. Users on mobile often have different intentions and different browsing habits than they do on desktop. Understand what your customers want to see in each scenario and design the ad appropriately.
  2. Test constantly. The importance of testing to determine the best images, the best text and the best targets cannot be underestimated. Try a few different designs to see which ones receive the most attention and the best returns. Use that insight to guide the campaign.
  3. Target your customers carefully. It is common to target your Facebook audience based upon interests or certain demographics, such as local cities. But it is also possible to target people based upon certain behaviors. Specifically, Facebook allows you to target people based upon factors such as their purchase intent and their devices.
  4. Segment your audience. Make sure that for each different group you intend to target, you develop an ad that specifically meets their needs and interests.

How do I know if my Facebook campaign was successful?

To see how successful your Facebook campaign is, it is important to look beyond the basic click or impression. Here are a few metrics to watch:

  1. What did people do after seeing your ad? How many clicked through? How many visited your website? How many people liked or shared your content?
  2. How much did each conversion cost?
  3. What is your relevance score? This gives you information on how relevant Facebook sees your ad in relation to your audience. This number dictates how expensive your ads are, how often your ads are shown and the priority they are given.

Facebook ads can be a great way to engage with your audience on Facebook, improve brand reach and encourage people to enter your sales funnel. Start experimenting with your ads to see the value they can offer you.

What is the Facebook algorithm?

In January 2018 Facebook announced a major algorithm change. To try and combat a perceived rise in the amount of extraneous and irrelevant advertising in people's Facebook feeds, the company now evaluates ads on the standard of "meaningful interactions." In essence, Facebook ads should be optimized to promote conversation between the brand and potential customers, gauged through comment responses as well as Likes. Additionally, attempts to artificially boost engagement rate, like encouraging users to provide one-word responses, will no longer help to boost an ad and may even incur a penalty.

<< Back to top

Branding-Building on Facebook

How do you build brand awareness using Facebook business marketing?

Unfortunately, many businesses assume that Facebook social media marketing websites, particularly Facebook, are just opportunities to stand on a soap box and broadcast your brand message to the millions of people who use the platform. When that does not work, many of these businesses will just give up and declare that Facebook does not work for them.

The trouble is that this is not the role of Facebook. People are not on social media to listen to sales pitches, they are there to be social with their friends and the brands they like. Customers today value brands that take the time to get to know them on a personal level, rather than acting as an impersonal corporation.

Facebook can help you build your brand by acting as a platform to engage your followers, answer their questions and get to know their needs. By doing this, you build your brand and encourage brand loyalty.

How do I build a Facebook community?

  1. Invite people to follow you on Facebook. Advertise your page wherever you go, including your website, your newsletters and your emails.
  2. Encourage existing followers to engage with your content. When your followers like or share your existing content, the material will then appear on the newsfeeds of all of their connections, which then increases your exposure and encourages more people to like your page.
  3. Engage with your existing followers. Be attentive to the site and respond to their questions and comments promptly. Ask questions of them and participate-- but do not dominate-- conversations that pop-up on your page.

How do I use this community to build my brand?

Once you have an established Facebook community, you want to use this group to build your base and increase your conversions.

  1. Host contests where people receive coupons in exchange for telling stories about their experiences with your brand or posting pictures of themselves with your products. This encourages people to make another purchase while also spreading brand reach through the participants’ posts.
  2. Offer special codes and giveaways exclusively for your social media followers.
  3. Offer insider tips about getting the most out of products or services in your industry-- make your Facebook page a valuable resource for people.

Facebook can be a valuable resource, but it is not just a megaphone for blasting your message. Use the platform to build your brand and you will see what makes the Facebook social media marketing channel so popular.

<< Back to top

Leveraging Open Graph for Facebook Marketing

What is the Facebook Open Graph protocol used for?

Open Graph is a protocol that allows you more control over how your content appears on Facebook. It is a series of tags that dictate how your items will be displayed. When you do not use this protocol, automatic generators will determine how the content you share appears, which can decrease engagement.

Why should I use the Open Graph protocol?

Facebook is an excellent platform for building your brand. It allows you to build your reputation with your customers by maximizing the appearance of the postings you make. When you build a strong Facebook marketing page, you will be able to build a community among your followers. You will be able to engage with your prospects personally, helping them to see you as an individual, instead of just a corporation. When you answer their questions, they will also see you as a trustworthy authority.

Quality posts also encourage your followers to interact with your content and share it with their own connections, which can then increase your brand reach. The Open Graph protocol is an important part of taking advantage of these different opportunities. It maximizes the content you post that encourages the conversations on your pages, that invites people to ask you questions and that gets shared by your followers to attract more attention.

How do I create an Open Graph on Facebook?

Example of Open Graph for Facebook Marketing - brightedge

  1. Specify og:title. This is the tag for your title. You want to have title that is between 60 and 90 characters but not longer than 100. When a title goes beyond 100 characters, it will be automatically cut to 88. Your code will look something like: <meta property=”og:title” content=”An Engaging Title Here”/>
  2. Define og:url. This tag will dictate the canonical URL for your page. Your code will look like: <meta property=”og:url” content=”http://www.yourwonderfulsite.com”/>
  3. Fill in og:type. This describes the type of content you are sharing. For example, you can share web-based content, like articles; entertainment-oriented content, such as books or movies; people, such as politicians or actors.
    • To see the full list of available types you can visit this site. If you do not designate a type of content, ‘website’ is assumed by default. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:type” content=”website” />
  4. Write og:description. This controls how the link will be described for someone who sees it in their feed. It does not impact SEO, so keywords are not necessary, but you should focus on engaging copy. About 200 characters will be best. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:description” content=”An engaging, entertaining website description.” />
  5. Work with og:image. Without Open Graph tags, any image on your page can be selected when you share content-- including ad images. Your images can be up to 5MB. The resolution of 1200 pixels x 627 pixels often works best for attracting attention within Facebook’s limits. Images below 400 pixels look more like a thumbnail. This code will look like: <meta property=”og:image” content=”http://www.yourwonderfulsite.com/image-name.jpg” />

In addition to these tags, there is also other metadata that can be included. If you are interested in finding more tags to include with your content, you can read more here.

Facebook business marketing is a fantastic resource to help you engage with your potential customers and take the first steps towards building relationships. Using the Open Graph Protocol will enhance your ability to display your content to these followers, thus boosting your engagement and success.

14 ways to get smarter with your content and SEO

English, British
News Item Title
14 ways to get smarter with your content and SEO
News Item Author Name
Jim Yu
News Item Published Date
News Item Summary

Contributor Jim Yu uses the SMART framework to prescribe a formula for SEO and content marketing success.

Yosemite Tourism Bureau Sees 54% Increase in Organic Traffic

Tourism bureau experiences increase in organic after site migration with BrightEdge and Noble Studios

235%
of partner referral goal met
400%
of signup goal met

Non-Profit Yosemite Tourism Bureau Sees 54% Increase in Organic Traffic After Site Migration

Tourist bureau experiences gains increase in organic after site migration with BrightEdge and Noble

BACKGROUND

Noble Studios began its engagement with the Yosemite/Maripossa County Tourism Bureau in 2016 as the Destination Marketing Organization was merging its two sites: Yosemiteexperience.com and Yosemite.com. The goal was to consolidate traffic under a single domain while driving more traffic to the region -- including Yosemite National Park -- in a traditionally slower season.

THE PROBLEM

With a strong desire to increase visits to its business stakeholders, particularly during slower seasons, Yosemite Mariposa County brought Noble Studios on to help establish KPIs and a strategy for improving organic traffic performance.

The primary goal was to increase traffic to its partners -- both digitally and in person. The DMO's secondary goals included increasing organic traffic, newsletter signups, and enticing potential visitors to download a Yosemite Mariposa County vacation planner.

By tapping into BrightEdge's SEO platform and Data Cube, Noble quickly identified keywords competitors were ranking for that Yosemite.com was not. Noble also began grouping these keywords into four distinct categories for better targeting: dining, lodging, things to do, and general partner referrals.

THE RESULTS

Noble's plan involved a combination of new content creation to capture net-new demand along with the optimization of existing content that was already ranked on the second or third page of Google and was of high quality. BrightEdge's in-depth keyword tracking tool ensured Noble's plan went off without a hitch. At the start of 2017, many of Yosemite's high-priority keywords weren't even ranked in Google. Today, 91% of those keywords rank on either page 1 or 2 of Google's SERPs with 73% of them on page 1.

In June 2017 Yosemite.com saw a 25% spike in organic traffic, then a 54% jump in July. For new users there was a 41% increase in July. By the end of summer, Yosemite.com reached 235% of its annual partner referral goal, 127% of its annual organic traffic goal, and roughly 400% of its annual email signup and vacation planner download goals.

 

Our partnership with Noble Studios and BrightEdge has allowed us to quickly uncover opportunities to dramatically increase organic traffic to Yosemite.com!


- Terry Selk, CEO/Executive Director, Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau

 

Yosemite Mariposa Tourism share of voice storybuilder chart

As Noble began to see substantial ranking improvements and traffic gains with its content optimization, it turned to BrightEdge’s StoryBuilder tool to visualize results for the client. By providing this executive-level snapshot, Noble was able to quickly show the client a direct correlation between the SEO strategy being implemented, the boost in traffic, and increased visits to the DMO’s stakeholders.

Yosemite Mariposa Tourism total ranked keywords view
Request a demo of the BrightEdge platform today!

 

The Filipino Channel Doubles Users With BrightEdge

Shan Serran, digital marketing manager for TFC, drives 10-20% year-on-year gains with BrightEdge

Molecular Devices Increases Page 1 Keywords by Over 40%

Eric Olson, digital marketing manager for Molecular Devices, uses Content Recommendations and defines website strategy with BrightEdge CS team

Maximizing Your Site Migration with BrightEdge Content Optimizer

mkirchhoff
mkirchhoff
M Posted 8 years 6 months ago
t 9 min read

A site migration is the moving of a site from one domain or url structure to a new one. This migration might be a simple shift in domain name, or it could involve factors such as a new CMS or a complete restructuring of the website. Although a site migration is required in particular situations, it can be a perilous time. Mistakes can result in drops in rank and loss of traffic. This in turn can cause revenue losses as well as reduced brand reach and share of voice. Our research at BrightEdge has shown that an estimated 51 percent of a site’s traffic arrives from organic search-- so your position on the SERPs for important keywords will directly impact how your site succeeds overall. Consider also that 93 percent of online activities begin with search, and it is clear why brands need to take considered steps during a site migration.

Organic is key to attract and convert customers, so maximize the role of the site migration

Site migrations can be an important and necessary part of growing brands for a variety of reasons, such as merging one brand with another or changing the name of a company. When completed correctly, it can actually enormously benefit companies. Those interested in maximizing their opportunities throughout this process should pay particularly close attention to the BrightEdge product offering and how, especially BrightEdge Content Optimizer, can help ensure a productive and efficient site migration. Content Optimizer integrates with Adobe Experience Manager and helps makes the process of preparing site migration content for SEO straightforward and easy to follow.

At Best Western we really use content optimizer with our individual property websites.  Each of these websites features an About Us section and a Latest News section. It’s really these sections in which we use learnings and the scoring models of content optimizer to ensure that we’re delivering very effective content. - Felipe Carreras, Best Western

Considerations to keep in mind during a successful site migration

Brands that are interested in doing a site migration need to keep a few key aspects in mind throughout the process to minimize the potential errors while also ensuring that they harness the potential benefits of the move.

Check the redirects

You should verify that your new page and your old page are connected through 301 redirects. These redirects are designed for permanent moves. They let the search engines know which site is the one you want ranked and they help you preserve most of your rank and ‘link juice’. Ideally, your pages should be connected in a 1:1 ratio. You do not want to have multiple pages from your old site linking to a single page on the new one.

Verify your pages’ keywords and website optimization

Optimize new pages for the same keywords and concepts as the old pages. Failure to do so can result in a loss of traffic and therefore revenue and reach. The BrightEdge Keyword Reporting and Page Reporting capabilities can help you identify keywords and success rates of the various pages. This will provide guidance as you begin to build the pages of your new site as well as giving critical benchmarks for ranking performance before and after the site migration.

Uncover which pages rank for which keywords to prepare for a site migration - brightedge

Ensure that you know the statistics of your old site and your expectations of the new one

Before you begin any site migration, you should know exactly what your brand hopes to accomplish during the move. This will help you establish the importance of the process and where your focus will lie.

You also want to know the statistics of your old site, such as the traffic to make sure that your new domain and servers can handle what you expect the new site will bring. You do not want to go through a site migration more than absolutely necessary, so verify that your new site can handle your expected growth and development.

Use the opportunity to build optimization efforts

When you migrate a website, you open up the code, re-create the content, and rewrite features such as HTML titles, meta descriptions, and alt text. Take the opportunity to boost your website optimization efforts. Neglecting to take care of content optimization promptly, before the site goes live, can have a serious impact on the overall rankings and power of the site.

Google’s crawl rate for your website is based on the content velocity, among other factors. Therefore, having to make adjustments after the site has gone live is detrimental to your content’s ranking positions in the SERPS and to achieving your business goals. Preparing for high rankings from its initial launch will prevent companies from missing valuable days, or even weeks, after the transfer when the site is not SEO optimized. Instead of trying to recover rankings after the launch, the site will start as strong as possible.

Completing optimization as a separate step will also waste additional valuable time. Members of the IT and marketing teams would have to go back through the site to make sure everything is optimized, forcing them to redo many of their past processes. Completing the website optimization steps during the site migration avoids wasting this time and ensures that the site ranks as highly as possible from the moment it goes live.

Using BrightEdge Content Optimizer to maximize your site migration

Working with BrightEdge Content Optimizer will allow your brand to build a site that is ready for the competitive digital ecosystem. Your material will send the right signals to the search engines and readers to demonstrate its value, helping you to attract a greater audience and a larger portion of the share of voice within your industry.

A huge benefit BrightEdge Content Optimizer brings to the SEO team is scalability. By providing SEO governance, and then embedding step-by-step instructions into the workflow, the tool allows those responsible for migrating existing or creating new content to progress easily.

Additionally, Content Optimizer was developed to simplify and streamline the content creation workflow process. To accomplish that task, a number of BrightEdge’s core technologies, such as keyword research, keyword management, and competitive analysis technologies have been incorporated directly into the Content Optimizer widget. This allows content teams to create data-driven content without ever leaving the CMS.

Step 1: Map the keywords for which your existing site already ranks

BrightEdge Content Optimizer empowers site owners to prepare each of their pages to rank on the SERPs by walking them through the process step-by-step. To maximize the potential that the website optimization guidelines provide, brands must first input a list of primary keywords for which they want their site to rank.

Brands should begin the site migration by determining the primary keywords that attract attention to their current site. This list, called the “Managed Keyword List,” is a repository of up to 100,000 keyword targets that the business has deems high value. The Managed Keyword List supports all languages and characters, providing localization optimization opportunities for those businesses with geo-located content.

The Managed Keyword List in the Content Optimizer will guide the content team to properly build the pages of the new site. Within this first step to optimizing content, creators begin by selecting one primary keyword for each new page.

Remember that as you build a new site, it is considered ideal to have a 1:1 correlation with the old site. Thus, create pages that line up with your old domain architecture and select the same primary keyword for both.

Step 2: Use BrightEdge Content Optimizer and Data Cube to find secondary keywords

In addition to identifying the primary keyword for each page, you also want to add secondary keywords to show the depth and relevance of your material. This helps to build a topical theme for the content, which provides improved natural linguistics in your content and expands the ranking power simultaneously. Including secondary keywords, particularly those that are semantically related, helps to demonstrate to search engines and users that your material has the answers that the users seek.

Without semantically-related keywords, your material may appear thin and thus will not attract the attention you want to see. A site migration, since you are rewriting your content, is the perfect opportunity to make sure that your content has the depth and keywords needed to help it stand out in the search results.

BrightEdge Content Optimizer and Data Cube functions within the platform make it easy to find secondary keywords. Content Optimizer will suggest related keywords based upon the keywords included in the list for the site. If you have other ideas in mind, you can also search using the Data Cube function to gauge value.

Step 3: Make sure your pages are fully optimized

Content Optimizer will make it easy for you to check how optimized you are for various pages. Content Optimizer provides an intuitive step-by-step instruction format to help guide content teams and SEOs on how to improve each on-page element. Specific instructions and detailed information is provided directly within the workflow, streamlining the content creation process.  

The platform also tracks your website optimization progress through gamification and point accumulation, so you can help keep your team members focused on their tasks and quickly check progress.

As you build your new pages with your site migration, you will already be working with page titles, descriptions, URLs, and related elements. Using this BrightEdge function, you can be confident that you are not overlooking any aspect before you launch your website.

Step 4: Compare your pages’ elements to your competitors

It is important to remember in SEO that not only are you working to boost the rankings of your own site, but you are also fighting to overcome your competitors. You can only rank higher by forcing other brands to drop in rank. The competitive insights offered by the Content Optimizer are therefore invaluable. Using this BrightEdge product, you will be able to see how competitors have optimized their sites for the same keywords.

For example, as you develop your own page title, you can look at the page titles utilizing the same keywords on the sites of your main competitors. This will help you maximize your appearance. You can use the competitors panel to see URLs, other SEO elements, and relevant social data for your primary topics for others in your industry. This can help guide your strategy and can offer insights into competitor weaknesses that you can exploit to raise the ranking of your own content.

During a site migration, it is also important to remember the value of comparing your old site to your new site. You want to make sure your new site is ranking for the same terms as your old one. Thus, you can even add your old site as a competitor. As you optimize the new site, you can compare your optimization on your old site to make sure that you are improving your SEO efforts on the new page.

Step 5: Build internal links between related pages

BrightEdge Content Optimizer will also offer you insight into pages you create that might be related to other pages on your domain. For example, if you are running an ecommerce site and you are building a page for a red women’s puffer jacket and optimizing it for ‘women’s puffer jacket’, then the system will suggest that this page might be related to another page on your site- the page you built for green women’s puffer jackets. Creating these types of internal links can help build your authority on your topic.

It will also make it easier for you to encourage people to remain engaged with your content. If they are interested in puffer jackets, for example, they can move from page to page exploring different colors and options. Your brand will provide a positive user experience and do a better job of building the consumer-brand relationship. Creating these links for existing content can sometimes feel tedious, so building them during a site migration is the optimal opportunity to ensure that the site is fully optimized.

Step 6: Monitor progress to see how well pages performing

The moment when a site goes live can be a nerve-wracking one, but fortunately, BrightEdge Content Optimizer has built-in metrics to help ensure that the entire process goes smoothly. You can monitor the success of the pages that you have optimized through this process to ensure that your post-migration SEO is ready to compete in the SERPs. You can see how well your pages rank, attract traffic, and drive revenue while comparing those numbers to your original site. This will give you confidence that the site migration has gone smoothly while also alerting you to any potential problems to fix as quickly as possible.

[L]everaging the BrightEdge platform as well as Adobe experience manager we were able to create over 16,000 pages of unique content.  2,056 individual property websites with well over 16,000 pages of content. We rolled this out in three months again with just a team of five individuals.  We really couldn’t have done that without the scalable nature and the seamless integration between content optimizer and the Adobe experience manager platforms. - Felipe, Best Western

A site migration can be a stressful time for any brand and website owner. While there are often huge opportunities to improve your website experience and traffic, a site migration is as much about risk mitigation as it is about opportunities. Mistakes loom, threatening to be the downfall of a successful website, while the group must move forward to receive the benefits of the move. Rather than becoming paralyzed with the anxiety of something going wrong, site owners should instead have platforms and instruments in place to help them make the transition as smoothly as possible. The BrightEdge platform, can play an enormous role in maintaining strong SEO during the process.

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Living Spaces Uses BrightEdge for Site Migration

Svetlana Li, SEO manager, leverages the BrightEdge platform to execute a successful site migration

Svetlana Li, SEO manager at Living Spaces, leverages the BrightEdge platform to execute a successful site migration

,