Make It With Michael

By Saumya Raghav Q: What do Entrepreneur.com , Forbes.com , Backlinko.com and Jeffbullas.com have in common? A: All four of these sites rank high on Google SERPs and enjoy untapped authority. Now, here’s the big question. How do these sites consistently rank high on Google SERPs? Well, these sites do two things very well. Firstly, they focus on the Google ranking factors that have the biggest impact. Secondly, they put all of their resources into scaling these ranking factors. By now you’re probably thinking: Google uses more than 200 ranking signals to rank websites. So how do I find out which factors I should focus on to get a higher Google ranking? Well, you’re in luck because I’m going to tell you the top 10 most significant Google ranking factors that websites should focus on in 2017. 1. Page authority Page authority is one of the most critical Google ranking factors that every website owner who is hoping to rank highly on Google SERPs needs to be mindful of in 201

By Dara Fontein With over 700 million users , it’s not surprising that Instagram is a core part of most social media strategies. To keep the momentum going, brands have to make sure they’re not ruining it for their audience by making careless blunders or missing the mark. If you’re perplexed by the idea of filters, hashtags, captions, and followers—or are simply looking for ways to boost your presence—the following list of common Instagram mistakes can help your efforts reach their full potential. 9 Instagram mistakes social media managers should avoid 1. Buying followers Good businesses are working hard to build a robust Instagram presence, and buying your way to the top won’t do you any favors. As an experiment, Hootsuite created a dummy account and bought Instagram followers to find out what would happen. Our results suggested there are two main issues with this tactic: Zero engagement. While we had reached over 1,000 followers in only a day, our posted content didn’t rece

By Evan LePage Having your brand on social media is a no-brainer. With enough how-to and best practice documentation out there to exceed Gmail’s current inbox capacity, the vast majority of organizations know what they need to do to build an active and healthy social media presence. What isn’t so obvious, however, is what not to do. We asked our Twitter followers what they felt are the biggest social media no-nos that brands commit. This is what they told us. Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence with Hootsuite. Too much focus on self-promotion over engagement @hootsuite Those who have one-way communication with viewers. Never responding to concerns or comments, where negative or positive. — Austin Fisher (@Stuxain) May 15, 2017 Of all answers provided by our Twitter followers, this was the most common. People are frustrated by brands that treat social media as a firehose for one-way promotional mate

By Sharon Conwell It is a truth universally acknowledged that blogging can be extremely advantageous for your business. In fact, there are few reasons not to keep a business blog. A blog can drive traffic to your website by incorporating SEO-friendly keywords and skyrocket your search engine rankings. It also opens up a valuable channel of communication between you and your clients, builds trust, and generates new leads that translate into tangible business gains. Even better, a blog can help you establish yourself as an expert within your field, and share your knowledge and experience in an engaging manner. While creating content for a business blog undeniably requires considerable time and effort, there are a number of free or low-cost ways to optimize your site for search engines . Here are 10 effective and economical ways to become an SEO superhero. 1. Outsource the work Producing a blog isn’t a part time job – if you really want to optimize your website for search engines,

By Sarah Dawley Social media data on followers, likes, comments, and shares are often dismissed as “vanity” metrics—meaningless figures that one should avoid when trying to prove the value of social activity . At the same time, these metrics are the currency of social media. As the person responsible for your organization’s presence on social media, these metrics are critical indicators of whether your hard work is paying off. And therein lies the debate. To some, the number of likes on a post is meaningless. To others, it means everything. Are all social metrics “vanity” metrics by default? No. But how you use them makes all the difference. Let’s dig into why these metrics matter, and how to avoid using them in vain. Why these social metrics matter Without followers, you have no audience. And without a steady level of engagement, the algorithms of many social networks begin to work against you—making it harder for your social content to even reach that audience. These metrics qu

By Ramon Berrios By now you’re probably well aware that Instagress, an easy-to-use and affordable website that allowed would-be Instagram influencers to use bots to rack up followers, has folded. Instagress didn’t make fake accounts, but it created bots that automatically commented on and liked other people’s Instagram photos, artificially increasing engagement and making accounts appear more popular. In a tweet , Instagress said the ‘sad’ decision to shut down its web service was due to a ‘request’ from Instagram. It’s no secret that Instagram dislikes the use of automation and bots , but regulating botting on platforms has always been difficult, due to the bot-like behavior of most people. Think about it: we like, comment and click on the same things in a very predictable fashion. Plus, most people want a high volume of Instagram followers, and to get that to be less of a priority, you’d have to change Instagram into a platform that isn’t based on popularity and likes. And nobod

By WEBSTAGRAM Tips 5 and 6 from post “10 tips to write engaging #facebookposts ” #MakeItWithMike back with more #visualcontent We all know engagement on the platform has gone down. But it also remains true that 75 percent of the world is still actively on there too. Learn more about me @makeitwithmike here: http://bit.ly/2o0ZVRb #marketing #marketing101 #marketingprofessional #newbiemarketer #startups #socialmediamarketing #marketing #socialmedia #business #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #digitalmarketing #socialmediatips #branding #instadaily #entrepreneurship #instagramtips #socialmediajunkie #entrepreneurs #homebasedbusiness #facebookrepost #networking #startup #startups #seo #facebookpost The post makeitwithmike appeared first on Make It With Michael .

By WEBSTAGRAM Part 3 Last part of my extraordinary weekend with my family. Thanks to everyone that helped to make it special! @makeitwithmike #socialmediamarketing #marketing #socialmedia #business #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #digitalmarketing #socialmediatips #branding #google #twitter #instadaily #entrepreneurship #motivational #instagramtips #socialmediajunkie #entrepreneurs #homebasedbusiness #facebookrepost #networking #startup #startups #seo #facebook #facebookpost The post makeitwithmike appeared first on Make It With Michael .

By Jeff Bullas In 1972 the first app went live. It wasn’t designed for mobile and it was meant only for geeks and programmers. That invention was designed and built by Ray Tomlinson. Today that messaging app is used by 4.3 billion people and 269 billion messages are sent every 24 hours. You may have already guessed what that app is. Email was the first addictive digital technology that had us checking in to our computers and then decades later our mobile phones. One of the key reasons for why it is so addictive is “operant conditioning”. It is based upon the scientific principle of variable rewards, discovered by B. F. Skinner (an early exponent of the school of behaviourism) in the 1930’s when performing experiments with rats. The secret? Not rewarding all actions but only randomly. Most of our emails are boring business emails and occasionally we find an enticing email that keeps us coming back for more. That’s variable reward. That’s one way Facebook creates addiction.

By Sian Lenegan Generally speaking, digital marketers are pretty skilled ball-jugglers. We constantly balance competing deadlines, extract value out of less-than-ideal budgets, and generate instant search engine visibility under pressure. We have a few tricks up our sleeve for doing that, including online ad networks such as Google AdWords , Facebook Advertising and LinkedIn Ads . AdWords has been at the top of its game for the past 15 years for good reason – it offers a chance to be on Page 1 of Google in 15 minutes or less, and you only pay for actual eyeballs. Great deal, right? In fact, using display ads, paid search or paid social as a way to generate instant results for brands or organizations is increasingly popular. Don’t believe me? Wrap your head around these figures: In its Q4 2016 fiscal year results, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported a whopping 17% increase in advertising revenue compared with the same period the year before. When Facebook published its

By Catherine Park Outsourcing is the not-so-secret weapon many successful entrepreneurs and companies use to decrease their costs, by allotting a portion of their work to a third party. When done properly, outsourcing can lower your bottom line as well as raise your productivity . Outsourcing can be done domestically or by contracting an offshore solution provider (often known as offshoring). If you’ve always wanted to know more about outsourcing but haven’t really got a handle on how it can help you, read on to learn how you can exploit this growth hack . Why should I outsource? Outsourcing provides many different advantages, and can be especially beneficial for small businesses. Apart from saving costs, outsourcing gives you more options and time. What should I outsource? Before implementing outsourcing into your business plan, you should first examine your core activities and key focus. Think about the essential functions of your business – the ones that don’t affect core