The specific causes and effects won’t be known for a few weeks, as is the case with most Google updates. What Google says and what happens in reality is often very different, so we’ll always just look at the data to make our real conclusions and suggestions.

Understanding Google’s Link Spam Update

The goal of Google’s link spam update isn’t to penalize online businesses for using guest posts. Instead, they’re trying to cut through the increasing levels of spam content.

It’s important to note that Google specifically says they will not penalize sites with this update, and instead they intend to “nullify” the impact of links that they deem spam.

In the end, it should improve quality for all.

Within the update post, Google specifically called out links that are designed to monetize a website like affiliate links.

This understandably got digital marketers nervous, but Google went on to explain that high-quality content and links aren’t part of the crackdown.

Google said that the monetization of websites is allowed in a lot of instances. For example, affiliate sites are creating quality content to inform and educate readers and in return, make a commission from any sales.

Not a big deal here, most affiliates don’t care whether the link is dofollow or not, they just care that they get paid from the click.

They also specifically call out guest posts in the article, but similarly they are looking for posts that are “commercial” or promotional in nature.

In marketing, we call this an advertorial – a post that is specifically designed to sell a product or service and is obviously promotional in that case.

However, Google, in reference to guest posts, “Google does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users, educate another site’s audience or bring awareness to your cause or company”

This Update Is Not Intended To Penalize

Unlike in the past algorithm updates involving links, likes the infamous Penguin update, this new update is not intended to immediately penalize the website. However, what it does is “nullify” the undue advantage that some sites enjoy by building low-quality backlinks.

It’s clear that Google is trying to draw a line in the sand to help weed out low-quality links. If you’re building mass links with no value that are overly promotional, you probably want to stop doing that.

But if you’re investing in white hat, manual outreach to grow your backlinks from quality sites, with informative content that is not overly promotional, then it seems as though that is not a part of what this update targets.

Don’t Drop Your Guest Post Strategy

This brings up the question of guest posting as a strategy, will this continue to produce results?

This update isn’t penalizing guest posts, it’s instead saying that Google will stop allowing low-quality, spammy links to help website’s SEO. Google wants to ensure that quality guest posts and links are what is driving SEO results.

Certain websites may experience a drop in ranking but if you are using HOTH Guest Post, our white hat, manual outreach link building service, you have nothing to worry about.

Google has also reminded readers of its best practices for links.

Guest Posts Continue To Drive Results

It’s natural that algorithm changes are going to spark confusion and speculation.

But we track the effectiveness of guest posts every single day and we’ve found some data about guest posts since the update.

So instead of theorizing what may happen, we want to show you what’s ACTUALLY happening in some of our campaigns since the update.

Here’s a client of ours who is in the plumbing industry.

They have been with us for quite a while, doing several high-quality link building and content creation campaigns. A few months ago we created a DA40+ guest post for them and within a month of the post going live their rankings for the keyword exploded.

The keyword they were trying to target was of medium difficulty, and the DA40 link not only helped them drive rankings but also continues to keep them there.

They are now ranking in the top 3 for their money keyword with no sign of slowing down.

Here’s a few more examples of sites that have had guest posts published very recently and have had success during this new Google Update rolling out:

Here is a news media website that used a DA30+ guest post to try and target a new keyword. While attacking it from other angles with content and foundational link building, they used their guest post to blast onto page 1 of Google.

Here’s a home improvement self-help site that used a DA40+ guest post to get to position #6. They climbed the SERPs slowly and steadily, directly through the time that the Google update was rolling out!

This last one is an e-commerce store for plumbing parts that saw a slow down in growth towards the end of June. By using a variety of different guest posts, they we’re able to grow and recover their rankings while the Google update was rolling out!

Our results match up exactly with what the update says: quality guest posting links work and will continue to be a powerful driver in your SEO.

Need Help Navigating the Update?

Google’s link spam update won’t be the first or last change coming from the search engine. The important thing is that you’re able to reevaluate your strategy and pivot for new growth.

Do you need help figuring out your next move?

The HOTH offers a premium Guest Post product that’s been proven effective with thousands of clients. Our team also has the expertise to sit down with you and find ways to optimize your current campaigns.

All you have to do is book a call with us for a one-on-one strategy session!

The post Google’s Link Spam Update: Everything You Need To Know appeared first on The HOTH.

Using a Press Release is a very popular way to get the story out to the media – but some say that press releases aren’t as effective anymore.

So what’s the deal?

The good news is Press Releases are alive and well… but only if you use them the right way.

In this article, we’re going to break down everything you need to know about Press Releases.

Let’s get started.

What Is A Press Release?

A press release is a short, official statement sent to the media for publicity.

Companies or PR pros draft a release to generate news coverage on issues, events, or products.

The very first press release was sent in 1906 to describe a train wreck that killed 50 people in Atlantic City. For the next 114 years, the press release has continued to be a staple of the media industry.

There’s been speculation in recent days that press releases are irrelevant because journalists now find news tips on social media.

In a way that’s true. More than 63% of social media users get their news from Facebook or Twitter, and approximately 25% of verified Twitter users are journalists. Social media is a great way to gather news.

On the other hand, 44% of journalists said they trust press releases the most when getting pitched.

So although press releases may be evolving, they still continue to be a trusted way for journalists to get stories.

The Benefits of a Press Release

Here are five ways you can benefit from incorporating them into your marketing plan:

1. Get Featured on High-Traffic Sites

When you use a press release distribution service, you can have your release distributed to hundreds, or even thousands of high-authority media sites.

Many of these outlets will publish your news item or upcoming event. This means you get publicity for your products or services, as well as a bunch of diverse links from authoritative news sites.

2. Demonstrate Social Proof

Being featured on a major news outlet is also an excellent way to demonstrate social proof on your website.

After being covered on networks like FOX, ABC, CBS, or NBC, our clients add news logos to their websites with a “featured on…” headline. Some even link the actual news article or embed the video.

Are you considering HOTH Press to benefit your clients? They’ll be impressed when you show them all of their new media coverage.

3. Improve Your SEO & Build Backlinks

Getting more backlinks is the key to ranking on the first page of Google, and distributing a quality press release is one way to get quality backlinks.

Here is a chart from Backlinko showing the importance of backlinks:

You can see here that, in general, the more quality backlinks you have, the better chances you have of ranking higher.

Now that doesn’t mean you just want to build thousands of backlinks – Instead, you want to focus on getting good links from quality domains, and distributing press releases can be a part of that strategy.

4. Develop Your Brand Awareness

Distributing a press release benefits your business, even if you don’t get a news story or backlink from your efforts.

Google is now indexing press releases and they appear in searches having to do with your products or services. Make sure your brand name is featured prominently throughout the copy.

5. Improve Your Online Reputation

Besides expanding brand awareness across the web, regularly distributing positive press releases with your brand in the title can help with your reputation management.

Google will index these press releases and they can often rank for your brand name. That means you can take up the entire first page with all sorts of positive news about your brand.

It’s so important to stay on top of your reputation these days because most customers will Google you long before they start reading your website.

How Do You Write a Press Release?

Most press releases follow a specific formula, and the formatting for a press release is pretty strict.

When writing a press release, here are the main sections you’ll want to include:

• Engaging headline for the release
• A summary of the announcement
• Dateline in AP style
• The body of the press release
• A section near the end about your company
• Contact information

Your body of the press release is the most important part. It needs to be clear and get to the point fast.

Many journalists will look to see that it contains the 5W’s (Who, What, When Where, and Why).

In most cases, they’re scanning the release so you want to make it easy to find key information.

Most newspapers and magazines follow Associated Press (AP) style.

This means they’ll probably hit delete on your press release if it doesn’t. You can find the basics of AP style here.

Press Release Distrubtion

When you use a distribution service, your press release can often get picked up and published by hundreds of news sources.

For example, with our service, we guarantee that it will be published by 300+ sources, and these are often high authority sites as well.

Check out some previous press releases we sent out that earned links from some high Domain Authority news sites:

Manual Distrubiton

You may also want to manually distribute your press release to targeted sources.

Most journalists prefer getting press releases through email. You need to ensure that your news fits into the journalist’s beat or interests. About 43% of journalists said they declined a story because it wasn’t personalized for them.

As you can see in the chart below, nearly one-third of journalists write a story based on a press release more than ten times per year. The trick is hooking them on the topic.

If it doesn’t get picked up the first round, don’t worry. Follow-up with the journalist afterward. It’s all about building a relationship. Even if they weren’t interested in one specific release, you may have another that might be a better fit.

Use HOTH Press to Reach National Media

If you’d like some help writing and distributing quality press releases, you might be interested in our service HOTH Press.

We offer two affordable options: Distribution Only or Writing & Distribution.

If you have a winning press release, we can distribute it to our list of major news outlets.

Otherwise, we have a team of expert writers who can take your idea, craft a killer press release, and distribute it on your behalf.

We’ve had clients featured on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and more. It’s much easier for you to leverage our established relationships with these outlets than try to go at it alone.

And here’s the best part: We guarantee your article will get published in 300+ high authority sites around the country!

With HOTH Press, you have final approval over everything and the entire process can be completed quickly. This allows you to capitalize quickly on any emerging trends.

Check out HOTH Press here.

Conclusion

Using press releases continues to be a great way to get news out about your brand, improve your SEO, and more if you use the right strategy.

If you’d like some help writing or distributing your press releases, check out HOTH Press.

The post The Ultimate Guide To Press Release Distribution & SEO appeared first on The HOTH.

Our team couldn’t be more excited to start using this new tool. We already provide clients with tons of SEO-optimized content to boost their rankings, but now we can determine what content is trending and how visitors interact with it.

This will make it easier than ever to make a killer content strategy that drives sales.

Even though this tool is brand new, and will likely undergo revisions over the next few months, we wanted to share how it can help you and your website.

Keep reading below to learn about Search Console Insights.

What Can Search Console Insights Do For Me?

We know so many content creators who put a lot of effort into crafting the perfect blog, how-to guide, listicle, or case study for their website, yet tracking performance can be cumbersome.

Google recognized this issue and developed the new insights tool to combine data from the Search Console and Google Analytics to answer these questions:

1. What are your best-performing pieces of content, and which ones are trending?
2. How do people discover your content across the web?
3. What do people search for on Google before they visit your content?
4. Which article refers users to your website and content?

Being able to quickly answer these questions is a game-changer for online businesses. They can now determine what content is the most popular, how people discover their content, and which content results in the most conversions.

How Can I Start Accessing It?

Search Console Insights has been undergoing beta testing for the last year but was officially rolled out on June 15. By now most websites will have access to begin analyzing their content. This is how it looks:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the new user experience is convenient and efficient.

Content creators can use Search Console Insights if they don’t currently have Google Analytics, but Google recommends that you associate your Google Analytics property with the new tool to take advantage of the full experience.

The only hiccup you may experience is if you run Google Analytics 4. Search Console Insights currently supports Google Analytics Universal (UA), but they’re working on expanding it in the near future.

So now you’re probably wondering how to get it up and running? Here’s how to do it:

• Select “Search Console Insights” from the top of your Search Console Overview page
• Click here to access it directly
• Select “Search Console Insights” in the iOS Google App

Google also announced last month that it’s adding Android Google App support for Search Console Insights.

The Ultimate Content Gold Mine

Tools like this provide exciting new opportunities to expand your business. If you’re anything like us, your gears are already turning about how to get fresh content on your site.

Now you’ll be able to quickly and easily figure out what content sticks and produce more of it to drive visitors to purchase your products or services.

In case you didn’t know, HOTH Blogger is one of our most popular products. You get professionally written content that is SEO-optimized, and we can even post the blogs for you.

Clients with HOTH Blogger see their ranking keywords and website visits skyrocket. We also help develop their domain authority across the web. You can read client success stories on our case studies page.

Are you ready to ramp up your content strategy with Search Console Insights? We can help!

Start Growing Your Online Business

Posting quality content is imperative to improving your search rankings and being trusted by prospective customers.

Search Console Insights may help you identify what’s trending, but what if you don’t have a system in place to produce more content? The HOTH helps small businesses and start-ups beef up their content and stay competitive.

Simply book a call with us and discuss your goals. We can recommend an individualized strategy to start growing your online business.

The post Produce Killer Content With Google’s New Search Console Insights appeared first on The HOTH.

What does this mean for your site? Basically, if your site is desktop-only it will no longer be seen in search. This includes content like comments, data, images, videos, or anything else you want indexed.

Although the original switch was scheduled for September 2020, Google developers never expected a global pandemic to impact businesses. In some cases, the virus has delayed older websites moving to mobile.

They’ve now indicated that this huge switch will happen in March 2021.

John Mueller, Google Developer Advocate, said earlier this year that 70% of sites shown in search results have already shifted over. But, if you’re not one of these sites, you have some work to do.

What can you do to make sure this change won’t destroy your online presence? Keep reading below to learn how you can prepare.

What Happens in March 2021 Exactly?

The switch will happen rapidly but not overnight.

Mueller explained that there will be an increase in Googlebot crawling after switching to mobile-first. The change will take some time and he said it could take longer depending on the size of your domain.

“Afterwards, we’ll still occasionally crawl with the traditional desktop Googlebot, but most crawling for search will be done with our mobile smartphone user-agent,” he said.

This change is also concerning for mobile sites set up as a m-dot version.

After the update they’ll only be able to link m-dot sites to desktop, which could result in dropped content if you aren’t redirecting desktop users. It’s more likely to happen with sites using hreflang attributes.

In fact, Google developers are recommending that sites no longer use m-dot because of the confusion between search engines and users.

Preparing Your Site for Mobile First Indexing

We understand that the big question on your mind is how can you protect your website going into March 2021?

Pat yourself on the back if you’re one of those sites who already set up mobile capabilities, otherwise take a deep breath and get to work.

First, you’re able to check the status of your mobile-first indexing in the Google Search Console. Another way is to use the URL Inspection Tool. Either one can help you tell where you’re at in the process.

Here are some mobile-first indexing best practices directly from Google:

1. Use the same meta robots tags on mobile and desktop
2. Don’t lazy-load primary content upon user interaction
3. Don’t block URLs from crawling
4. Use the same content on your mobile and desktop site (especially clear headlines)
5. Have the same structured data (bread crumb, product, video object, etc.) on both versions of your site
6. Make sure your ads are also placing on mobile
7. Follow the best practices for images (high-quality images, supported formats, and alt-text)
8. Place videos in supported formats at easy-to-find spots on your site

There are many other suggestions, including how to check hreflang links, cutting fragment URLs, and verifying your robots.txt directives. The best thing you can do is read about it from the source.

Don’t Panic About Mobile-First Indexing

This announcement from Google seems scary for businesses running older websites without a mobile component, but there’s plenty of time to update and optimize websites before March 2021.

Follow some of the best practices we listed above when working on your site. You may consider hiring a professional web designer to help if you don’t have someone on staff to do it.

Are you in the middle of updating your site and need help with web copy? We can help you to write SEO-optimized, conversion-focused copy that represents your brand and builds trust with visitors.

We’ll ensure that the copy for both your desktop and mobile site is the best it can be. Reach out today to discuss your site and what can be done to prepare for the next Google update.

The post Google’s Mobile-First Index Is Coming—Is Your Site Ready? appeared first on The HOTH.

What if you could get there too, and actually enjoy the process?

The problem is that there are TONS of setbacks that will prevent you from getting there (believe me, we’ve had our fair share).

And no matter where you are now, eventually you will hit a wall.

There WILL be a time, or many times, when it feels like that wall is impossible to climb.

But there are a few secrets we learned that helped us soar right over it and get to where we wanted to go. I want to share those with you today.

Let me pull back the curtain for a moment and tell you our story.

Ready?

1. What To Do When Things Get Hard

We were lucky.

We got off the ground running with 0 funding. We started with smart principles of a lean startup mentality and learned along the way:

We tested ideas rapidly and cheaply before investing (Our first order came before we had a website, it was just a youtube video posted on a forum thread with a paypal link).

We had no office and worked from home (no office expenses).

We prioritized getting things done over perfection (We let the market tell us what they wanted and changed based on the feedback).

We focused on creating scalable system and we constantly tweaked and learned.

We wrote an article about it here – You can see what we were focusing on at the time.

The HOTH got up and going quickly, but growing wasn’t easy. (And if you’ve been in SEO for a while – you know it too!)

Soon after we started the HOTH in 2010, Google started releasing the biggest updates of all time with Panda and Penguin.

These constant updates sent the entire world of SEO into a frenzy every few months.

It was emotionally difficult to have a single outside entity have so much control over the perception of your business and your industry.

We survived through the updates with our hard work, but eventually we hit a wall – For about an entire year between 2013-2014 we plateaued.

Even though we had a successful business, it seemed like no matter what we did, we weren’t growing. Our sales kept bouncing up and down in an endless marathon of monotony.

And that was maybe the most dangerous situation to be in, stagnation.

You see, the plateau is The ENEMY.

It’s Groundhog’s Day every day. Waking up to more of the same until you can finally break the spell. And if you keep living the same every day – you’ll eventually go crazy.

What you want is GROWTH. Growth means life.

One snowy day in the 2013-2014 winter, that stagnation finally got to me. I remember it so clearly. I was working on my computer and then all of a sudden I couldn’t work any more. My fingers froze and it was hard to breathe. I remember going to lay on the couch and it felt like someone was pressing on my chest.

That anxiety ridden moment in my Chicago apartment is when I had a hard truth epiphany.

We weren’t where we wanted to be, and the situation was not the problem.

Our stagnation wasn’t because of the market, or the products, or anything else:

The problem was me.

This shock of stagnation created a series of events in my personal life which heavily influenced how I manage my day. In 2014, I moved out of the country to never see snow again and drastically shifted my mentality about how I saw the world and how it operates.

It was painful at first to admit how much I didn’t know. I had read so many books about startups, marketing, and could talk about it for days but in the real world, I couldn’t get over this hump.

Here’s what I learned: The reality is your business success is a reflection of your personal philosophy – conscious or unconscious.

There were lots of easy scapegoats for excuses: Google updates, the changing market, SEO being hard, not having a marketing budget, etc etc.

The easy way out is to think that our problems are situational – You can’t get what you want because of the situation that you’re in. But the reality is that the only thing that’s limiting your ability to create what you want is YOU.

You must take 100% responsibility for everything.

Even though it can be hard to admit your faults and explicitly examine your weaknesses, it’s essential for growth… and it’s empowering.

This quote from Jim Rohn sums it up perfectly:

After you understand your weaknesses, you focus on your strengths and creatively solve for all the weaknesses vs trying to mask them.

That takes true confidence – being able to be vulnerable and admit what you’re not good at. But when you can do that, you can grow by leaps and bounds.

Objective self-awareness is the hard-to-swallow antidote that will help you overcome your limitations.

By focusing on personal growth, you will create ideas about how you see the world, what you really want, and how to actually get there.

This is going to be very important because this understanding of how you see the world will heavily influence how your company will run. Pieces of you will permeate throughout the organization – good or bad.

If you are disorganized, your business will be disorganized.
If you have limiting beliefs, your business will be limited.
If you are lazy, your business will be lazy.

Conversely:

If you take responsibility for everything, you will find your solutions.
If you dream bigger, you can create the path.
If you focus on productivity, you can make it happen.

Realize the biggest limiting factor in getting to where you want to go is not your situation, it is YOU.  Take the responsibility, lose your ego, and find what you need to grow.  Through overcoming your pain will come your strength. This is the domino that will start the chain reaction that will be your success.

2. Create The Growth Vehicle: Use Your Personal Growth Experience To Develop The Culture

After the stagnation, we needed a massive change, and a massive goal.

At the time we were doing about $100k / month and we set a goal 5X the business to $500k a month.

That was a bit scary, since we hadn’t really officially set goals like that previously. Even more difficult was that I didn’t really know what it would take to get there.

We had to change a lot, but the most important thing that had to change was how WE operated.

Anything that works well and consistently is a system.

As an operations guy, I’m always looking to create systems. These can come in many forms – processes for creating products, marketing, services, training docs, SOPs, hiring protocols etc.

This is where most businesses go wrong and why some of the top business books of all time are essentially operations books that teach well-intentioned business owners to create systems.

But the MOST important and often overlooked system that needs created is your Culture system.

WARNING: I know that last sentence might stop you in your tracks as pictures start racing to your mind when you hear about “culture”: hippy business books, corporate jargon, nonsense vernacular like “synergy” etc. Hear me out on this one, I’m going to show you some raw and vital tactics on how to drastically increase the numbers in your bank account.

We have a document called The HOTH Culture Doc. It defines our purpose and dictates how we, the people of The HOTH, operate by working together as a company.

It’s an evolving document that became vital especially after we started to struggle – and that’s exactly what it’s for:

The Culture Doc should allow us to solve any problem that we run into.

In reality it’s just a simple Google Doc that evolves over time. Every person that gets hired goes through it in their on-boarding and has access to it all the time.

The secret about The Culture Doc, while it’s masked as a company operations document, is that it’s really a personal development and growth philosophy. It gives purpose to waking up in the morning and shows how we should act during the day.

In this case, to get to that 500k, we had to redefine and follow our own Culture Doc. This was the practical application of the core beliefs that we have.

To create your own, you need to clarify YOUR PURPOSE, and use your ideas about how the world works (from your growth experiences) to create a set of principles that will guide your company.

As defined by our doc: Our #1 purpose is to help as many people as possible achieve success with SEO, and our number #2 purpose is to have a blast while doing it.

By really defining that, we knew what we had to up our game.

If we wanted to serve more people, we had to reach more people. We drastically scaled our marketing, we released new products to broaden our scope, we brought on some amazing talent to get us to the next level and we went to WORK.

The main reason we were able to make it through this period and hit that goal was because we lazer-focused on what our mission was and HOW we were going to get there. This all came from what we wrote in our culture doc.

The second step is to use your experiences, your personal revelations, your own ideas about how the world works to create your own Culture Doc. The Doc will give structure to dealing with and crushing the inevitable problems your company will face and become the operating manual for your growth vehicle.

3. Coming Full Circle: Find The Hidden Rockstars And Give Them The Opportunity Become Their Best Selves

In 2016, we hit the goal of $500k a month and then set out to do something even bigger in 2017:

Get to $1,000,000 in a single month.

Despite that number seeming unfathomable, a recurring theme had been pounded into my brain is that YOU create the future.

Your job is to DREAM UP what you want, then be a professional problem solver to get there.

Once your revenue gets high enough, you’ll have to bring on people to support that revenue. It will no longer, and can no longer, be you making all the decisions.

In the beginning of the company, it was our goal to create a lifestyle business, specifically so we did NOT have to go to an office.

We had previously been a “virtual” company with the majority of people working from home.

But as the company grew and we defined our mission, our path to get there also clarified – and that included expanding then team in an office environment.

Thanks in great part to George’s (our now COO) leadership, we were able to bring on a rockstar team of talented people and introduce them to the culture that we had defined.

Every single one of these employees got the HOTH Culture document in their onboarding.

In the beginning of 2017, we had everyone sign a huge banner pledge declaring our goal of $1MM in a month.

That buy-in that we got from everyone started working, and it came to the point that we were bursting at the seams with employees working from bean bags due to the shortage of desks.

Just a few months later, we moved into a brand new office with a million dollar view.

The train took off.

On top of the office, we hit the Inc 5000 list, the Tampa Bay Fast 50, and George won a spot on the Tampa Bay Business Journal Up and Comers Under 30 list.

The culture that we defined was alive. We knew our purpose. We clearly knew where we were going. And everyone was working HARD to get there.

The day that we hit a million dollars in a single month was September 30, 2017.

What’s strange is that even though it was a Saturday and the office was technically closed, we had a full house.

From the beginning of the day, 1 by 1, the whole crew started showing up, and by the time we crossed the finish line there was a PARTY.

Everyone was working together to make it happen. We hit the $1MM mark and the slack channel lit up with pictures of celebration, cheers, and people hanging out for the rest of the night.

In that moment, what was previously impossible became possible – and it was a blast.

But what was more interesting was the WAY it happened.

It was clear that the #1 reason we were able to get there was not what most businesses focus on. It wasn’t because we had some big investor, some marketing trick, or the latest startup app.

It was THE PEOPLE.

This was the culmination of the work of every single person on the team, together, working inside the culture that we created.

We have found some of the best people on the planet to run The HOTH. True rockstars.

When you think about hiring the best, you might think that an hiring an A player means getting someone that’s the best in your industry.

But the truth is that biggest rock stars, the true A players on our team are former Target employees, babysitters, bartenders, rock band members.

What we did differently is give these amazing people an environment to thrive through the culture – a place for growth, personally and professionally.

“The greatest gift you can give someone is the power to be successful. Giving people the opportunity to struggle rather than giving them the things they are struggling for will make them stronger.”  – Ray Dalio, Principles

By creating a growth culture, and taking the right people and putting them in the right environment, you’ll be blown away at what you can create together.

The growth culture permeates through the employees not just in the workplace, but also into our daily lives.

It’s not just a job. These are hours of your day, hours of your life. This is your growth vehicle.

It comes full circle – the culture is sustained because we get buy-in. The employees protect the culture because they see the value. The output of all that combined is the ability to create something bigger than you.

The last step is to give the right people the right environment to succeed within a contagious growth culture. Everyone has something in them and it’s up to you to create the culture vehicle. When this happens, it all comes full circle as each individual creates their own growth path.

That’s how you get a whole office full of employees to show up on a Saturday, crush down a million bucks in a month, and enjoy the shit out of it.

What a wild year. Thank you 2017!!

A post shared by The HOTH (@thehothseo) on Dec 22, 2017 at 11:50am PST

Clayton Johnson
CMO @ The HOTH

P.S. If you’d like to join our team of rockstars, check out our open positions here. We’re always hiring!

The post The surprising secret to creating a million dollar a month business that you love. appeared first on The HOTH.

Reputation, according to a World Economic Forum study, is directly responsible for more than 25% on average of a business’s market value.

In 2015, Apple hit the top end of this average when its corporate reputation contributed approximately 46%—or a whopping $320bn to Apple’s $700bn total market value.

These figures represent how reputation management has become a high-value business essential.

But how can other businesses manage their own reputations and steer their reputations into high-value status, especially businesses that don’t have the wherewithal of Apple’s mighty war chest?

We found a good alternative: Get awesome online reviews.

Google is shifting a TON of it’s resources to displaying reputation UP front and it’s becoming more and more important for rankings, traffic, AND sales.

In fact, having reviews on sales pages can increase conversions by 18%.

Reviews can help drive search rankings up too. Turns out, the more reviews a business has, the higher they show up on search results.

Reviews also have a considerable statistical effect on the decisions customers make. These days, 93% of U.S. consumers always check online reviews before purchasing.

In our case, using this simple strategy, our online reviews campaign got our business from 0 to 4.9 stars in just one month.

From almost nothing, we have since gained thosands of positive reviews spread across multiple websites.

We wanted to give you a system to replicate this success, so, from all the steps we took, we created a repeatable system that produced consistent results.

Also, we made sure to only gather reviews from real customers on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and other trusted review sites.

Once set up, we implemented this process to boost one of our clients’ reputation.

The result? An impressive 4.8 star rating; up from a disappointing 3.5 in less than 2 months.

So if rapidly getting the same 5-star reviews that boost business reputation and increase conversions is something you’re interested in, then read on.

In this article, we’re going to share exactly how we:

• Rapidly collect positive reviews
• Prevent negative reviews
• Make more money by using reviews in marketing
• Save more time by automating the process

Let’s get to it!

I. How To Rapidly Collect Positive Reviews

There are lots of ways to get more reviews, let’s go over a few that we used.

What’s cool is that these strategies are mostly set-it-and-forget-it, meaning that once they are set up, we keep collecting reviews every single day on autopilot!

Here’s what we did:

A. Add widgets to your website

With an effectivity rate of 63%, websites are considered the most effective marketing channel. These are your visitors’ crucial first look at your brand. If they like what they see, you just might convert them into paying customers.

We take advantage of positive first impressions by adding widgets to the website that ask visitors for reviews right after they do either of the following: confirm their interest to join a newsletter, try a service, head straight to purchase, or go through with any other conversion goal.

Visitors who have already taken this step further in the funnel are more likely to leave positive reviews. After all, why would a visitor sign up for the blog, free trial, or buy from the site if they were anything less than impressed?

B. Create an email autoresponder to ask for reviews

Email is the second most effective marketing channel with an effectivity rate of 52%.

After a visitor leaves your website, an email is your second chance to remind them of your existence: whether to finally convince the undecided or to remind the already convinced of their good first impression.

So for every successful conversion, we program an email autoresponder that solicits customer reviews.

Again, a new signup is a warm lead that has expressed interest in what you have to offer. This person is more likely to leave a positive review.

C. Ask for reviews in every email signature

In 2018, business users are expected to send/receive 140 emails per DAY.

Take advantage of this volume by embedding a star rating survey in your company’s email signatures.

Think about how many emails your company sends per day – Each one is a chance to collect a new review!

II. How To Prevent Negative Reviews

More often than not, negative reviews come as a result of misunderstandings that, if not handled properly, can damage your company’s hard-earned reputation.

Once reviews start pouring in, how can you neutralize your chances of getting negative reviews?

Simple. Pre-qualify your reviewers so that, in the event of a negative review, you can check in with the customer privately to resolve the mistake that caused the bad review in the first place.

Take customers who give a 5-star rating straight to the social sharing page.

Meanwhile, customers who rate lower should be led to a different page where they can explain their bad experience. This will be directed to customer service and someone from the team can take over and rectify the situation in private.

III. How To Earn More By Using Reviews In Your Marketing

So you’ve managed your reviews religiously. It’s time to multiply the value of these glowing reviews by showcasing them to more people.

Here’s how:

A. Aggregate all reviews

Keep tabs on all the reviews about your company (even unsolicited ones) scattered across the web. Keep these in a database for tracking and further use.

B. Display reviews on sales pages close to pricing info

A glowing recommendation, strategically placed, can have the power to convince a second-guessing customer to finally click that purchase button.

Amazon uses this method, displaying reviews right on the same page where you purchase the product. Did we mention that having reviews on sales pages can increase conversions by 18%?

Take a cue and use this strategic placement as your final push to convert the hesitant.

C. Create a reviews page

Dedicate a whole page in your website just for online reviews. You can use SEO to optimize this page and get more viewers. It will also be much easier to promote if all your reviews are organized in a single page.

(You can also rank this page for “your company + reviews”!)

D. Share your reviews on social media

Social media is one of the most instant yet intimate, but non-irritating ways (note: no interruptive cold calls or text messages) to connect with customers.

Social is also a breeding ground for things that could go viral, so using this medium to promote positive stories about your business is a great way to build up your brand reputation.

Share actual screenshots or links to your reviews via your business socials. Do this constantly, use related hashtags, tag relevant influencers, and respond to customers on social media.

IV. Automate The Process

So now you know all the methods that we used to get positive reviews and ranking for our business and clients.

Following this plan can help bolster your business’s online reputation, but there’s a slight catch: it takes a lot of time and patience to implement manually.

Getting all this done would be a completely manual process and would take time to fully set up; it is also why it may take time to see any real results.

So we looked at ways to speed up and automate the process.

Instead of doing everything over and over again, we made:

• A faster, easier way to collect and push reviews to any website with just one line of code
• A widget that helps resolve negative reviews
• An autoresponder that can be immediately deployed to start collecting reviews
• A way to monitor and quickly respond to any reviews that came from other sources
• A widget that can market reviews on any website
• A way to automatically push reviews to social channels

We call this reputation management software, Hoth STARS.

This tool is our answer to boosting businesses’ online reputation and rankings without spending too much time and money.

With Hoth Stars, we:

• Boosted one of our clients’ ratings from 3.5 to 4.8 in only 2 months, and increased reviews from 0 to almost 100.

• Increased positive reviews from a measly 10 to more than 30. This led to a boost in rating from around 2 stars to more than 5 stars.

• Increased positive reviews for another client from only a little more than 10 to more than 40 positive reviews.

• Improved another client’s reputation from 0 stars to more than 4 stars and increased reviews from 0 to more than 80.

Conclusion

By implementing a reputation building system, you can rapidly increase your positive online reputation.

Click here to check out HOTH Stars.

The post How To Get Tons Of Google Reviews (And Rank Higher!) appeared first on The HOTH.

It took us 4 years to get to the first 10k users.

It took us less than 10 months to get to 20k.

Here’s what you need to know to do the same in your business.

Disclaimer

Before we get started, I just want to point out that we are NOT a venture-backed startup. We don’t have the luxury of resting on a huge pile of cash to wildly spend.

This is not us, unfortunately.

The HOTH started in 2010 as a bootstrapped startup literally running our “backend” off of a spreadsheet and using our own laptops in my friend’s apartment.

This growth came from within for us, and it can come from within for you too.

Secondly, while we were searching for answers, I remember reading what seemed like hundreds of posts about “How we acquired 10 million customers without spending a dime or lifting a finger!” or “How we 103X our revenue in 2 days by changing 1 thing”

The articles were pretty outrageous, but they didn’t actually help me understand what to do. In fact, I think I felt discouraged because it all seemed so easy for everyone else.

What I wanted to see is what actually happened behind the scenes, and I’ll tell you what:

For every “massive success” blog post there are 30000 “oh shit” failures that they don’t tell you about.

Alex from Groove (awesome support software by the way), agrees:

There is a lot of failure you don’t see.

For example, in our own journey to 20k users, we’ve had our fair share of failures:

• Had our Facebook ad account banned
• Had our Adwords account banned
• Spent months developing and making proposals for a product that not a single person bought
• Launched campaigns to a 200k person list where the lander didn’t work
• Spent tons of money on new traffic sources that didn’t convert
• Wasted time re-doing things we thought were already done

In the end, none of these failures mattered.

By the time we fail at something, we are already speeding on to 3 other new things and now I EASILY forget our failures.

Failure is your friend. Failure just means you’re TRYING. You’re learning. Keep going.

(By the way, we solved all those problems too – got our FB ad account back, got our Adwords account back, changed our product offering, fixed our landers, etc)

Now that that’s through, let’s get into how you can double your business this year:

1. The Big Mindset Shift

In Grant Cardone’s book, The 10X Rule, he says that you need to set your goals 10X higher than you think, and you need to put in 10X the effort to achieve those.

At first, it may seem pretty daunting, but when you start doing that you’ll see that it won’t be harder to grow, and in some cases it becomes way easier.

The reason it seems like “work” at first is because you haven’t achieved the extraordinary level of success that turns work into passion. Once you start to see the success, you will be addicted.

Everybody has the exact same 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week. Richard Branson has the same amount of time in the day as you.

You’re going to spend those hours one way or another. The only difference between what makes you really successful and what keeps the status quo are the actions you take during the day.

When you understand what you really want, and what it’s going to take to get there, it becomes clear what actions you should be taking during the day (and what you shouldn’t!).

Set goals that would make a massive difference, then ruthlessly cut out the things that do not matter and focus on the actions that will get you closer to where you want to be.

2. Understand Your Business Math

You want your business to grow?

Don’t treat growth like the lottery, trying random things and hoping something works.

Get your numbers down. Without knowing your numbers, you have no real business.

This is put very well by Justin Brooke from IM Scalable.

He’s damn right.

A million dollars in ad spend may sound “expensive,” but the only thing that matters is ROI.

If you gave me a source that for every $1 we put in we consistently got $2 out, we would put in as much money as we could possibly get our hands on.

You don’t have to be confused by CPC, CTR, CPM, CTC, VTC etc. Those numbers can help down the line, but at the end of the day, it boils down to the following:

1. How Much It Costs To Get A Targeted Lead

Find out where a big pool of your audience lives / hangs out. We started with Facebook Ads because everyone is on Facebook.

Here’s how it works:

We run an ad that says something along the lines of “Get this free download of the best SEO Tools.”

We target people that like SEO stuff, like SEO software, SEO news publications, SEO conferences etc.

HOTH Facebook Ad Example

When they click on the ad they go to a lander that asks them to put in their email.

Here, we offer them value in exchange for their permission to market to them (permission marketing).

HOTH Landing Page Example

When they put in their email, their email goes onto our email list and they get the PDF download.

With Facebook’s tools (conversion pixel), we can tell how much it costs for us to get an email address. (Usually between $2-$4 or so).

Facebook ad tracking

2. Figure Out How Much That Lead Is Worth Over Time.

Once the leads are on our email list, we deliver massive value (and build our authority at the same time) by answering all the questions people have about SEO.

During the course of helping them with our value based articles, we also weave in promotions for our products.

For instance, here’s a good example of how we sell HOTH Guest Post:

We basically show people how to get white hat links (our process) and then at the end, we let them know that we can just take care of the whole process for them.

During this process, we use tracking software like Improvely to see how much that lead on average is worth over a 1, 3, 6, 12-month timeline.

Use improvely to track conversions

Usually, we make all our money back from the ad spend within the first month or 2, then from that point forward, it’s pure profit.

3. Scale That Source

Once you know how much your lead costs, and how much they bring in on your timeline, then you can scale your ad spend.

You don’t have to start with a billion dollars. You can start with a relatively small amount.

We saw the results and it was obvious that this was profitable for us. So we doubled the ad spend and measured again. We just kept repeating the process over and over.

Once you have something that works consistently, POUR ON THE GASOLINE.

Make that fire IGNITE and you will see MASSIVE growth in your business.

3. Put Your Marketing On Autopilot

The days of old school marketing are dying. Cold calling should be a thing of the past. What is “in” is HELPING your customers and attracting them to you.

We try to attract everyone to our email list so that we can deliver the most value.

We write this blog that has popups everywhere so we can get people on our email list.

HOTH Popup

We run Facebook ads so we can get people on our email list. We run Adwords so we can get people on our email list. We do everything to get people on the email list.

Once people are on the list, it automatically delivers everyone value and sells each one of our products – on autopilot – building our trust, authority, and sales, every day.

We have a 23 email sequence that every customer gets and they love it. I had multiple people come up to me when we were at Pubcon and SMX and tell me that they really enjoy the emails we send.

HOTH Email Autoresponder

This all results in a marketing system that consistently produces growth. We don’t rely on random tactics or hoping and praying for a post to go viral.

We have a Marketing System that can scale at will.

When we set our sales goals, I can see predictably more or less what we’re going to need to hit those goals.

4. Create The Value Ladder

It’s going to be difficult to really get your max ROI from your lead generation if you only have 1 solution to sell to them.

People have vastly different problems and budgets, even in the same niche.

Just a few years ago, the highest priced product you could buy from us was $250. Then we added a $475 bigger version and someone bought it.

Then we came out with a new product, and we made a package that was worth $875, someone bought it.

Then we made our newest and best solution yet which is a killer combination of a bunch of our products plus extras – The most valuable thing we’ve ever created – It costs $4,000. People bought that too.

For every $4k product we sell to one person, we have to sell more than 60 of the $60 product.

Let that sink in for a minute.

If you have more things you can help your customers with, more products, more offers you can create – DO IT. There is someone out there looking for the solution. We still haven’t found the limit.

5. Test Your Limits

If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. – Mario Andretti

Once you have your head wrapped around what you want to accomplish, test your limits.

Treat everything as it is urgent. You HAVE to get it done. You have to implement NOW.

In the past, we had a schedule of releasing a product every year or two.

In the last 6 months we have more than doubled our product lineup. Everything is running smooth.

We don’t stop with just new products, or pouring the fire on paid traffic, we’re 10Xing everything and aggressively testing what works and what doesn’t.

We did 3 huge conferences last year to connect with our customers face-to-face.

We had the biggest booth you can get.

Yes, That’s Ric Flair.

We have thousands of HOTH Swag Packs going out to show our appreciation for our customers (and stand out from everyone else).

What could be inside?

You probably can too, and it will make all the difference in the world.

6. Your People Are Everything

I’m a huge believer in systems. We built the HOTH on systems. It’s what allows us (and every other successful business) to deliver quality products to their customers and scale at a rapid pace. You have to have systems in your business for everything.

With that said, at the heart of those systems is great people. We are so fortunate to have the amazing team we have.

We have amazing guidance from the partners Marc & David (they push us to do the uncomfortable).

We have amazing account managers (Greg & Joe) that care about our customers and are on the phones, even after hours, taking care of the needs of our customers.

We have amazing production and support staff (George, Will, Betsy), keeping our products quality and top notch, looking into any kind of issue or question that may arise, quickly resolving it and improving our process.

We have an amazing development team (Sergey, Ed, Alex) that help us create new products, push updates, and improve our systems to make the experience better every day for customers.

We have amazing managers that help us with all of our projects (Sarah, Adan, Randy) to keep the train running smooth.

We have an amazing 500+ person distributed team that helps us produce all of the products, from writing content to production and more. We like to think of this group as our HOTH ARMY.

I’m so thankful that we have this team. It is a testament to what good people can do for your company.

Building your team full of quality A+ players will skyrocket you into success.

Conclusion

These are the very simple ideas that helped us add millions of dollars to our revenue.

All you need are these very simple ideas. Once you understand that, you have the power inside of you to figure out the rest.

If your business is NOT growing, all you need to do is change your mind in one instant. You are not stagnant. You are capable of change. I know your new year’s resolution said you wanted to make more money this year.

This is it.

If this post helped you or inspired you, please share the love!

What other lessons have you learned in your business? We would love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Cheers
Clayton Johnson
@claytonjohnson
COO @ The HOTH

The post We doubled our business last year. Here’s how to do the same. appeared first on The HOTH.

With just a little time and effort, you can start cashing in on the customers in your area who are ready to purchase right now.

Did you know that a whopping 46% of all searches on Google are local?

Yep, you read that right. Nearly half of ALL Google searches revolve around local businesses.

In other words, if you don’t already have local SEO setup for the multiple locations of your business, you are missing out on massive traffic and sales.

But… what if I told you that with a few simple changes to your website, you could be easily and organically attracting more targeted traffic to your store?

Wouldn’t it be nice if your local store was the one showing up for that person who is ready to buy?

Whether it’s a client’s business or yours, this step-by-step guide will show you how to dominate local search for a multiple-location business.

Let’s get started!

What is Multiple-Location SEO?

If you have multiple locations or service multiple areas, you can set your website up in a certain way to maximize your search traffic and user experience.

You’ll want to follow this strategy if any of the following apply:

• You have multiple physical stores or locations
• You serve multiple areas (even if you don’t have a physical store)
• You are a directory that aggregates local businesses

Whether you have 2 locations or 2000, it’s crucial to present Google and the other search engines with the right information.

Doing so allows the search engines to distinguish between the different locations, and present the right one to people who search for it.

Are you ready to learn how to do SEO for a multiple-location business?

Let’s get into it!

1. Build Out Pages For Each Location

One of the biggest problems we see is simply not building out separate pages for each location.

Often websites will try to rank their homepage for multiple locations or put all locations on a single page.

These are not optimal because each page of your website should be about 1 thing. And when you build out dedicated pages, you have way more chances to rank!

You might be thinking, “Isn’t this really necessary? I’m probably going to have lots of pages that say almost the same thing!”

The answer is a resounding YES. You need location-specific pages. Do a search in Google for the term you want to rank for and you’re almost guaranteed to see location-specific pages ranking.

In the above example, you can see that each of these pages that are ranking are specifically about auto repair in 1 location.

The easy way to fix this is to simply build out pages for each location that you serve.

Creating a logical URL structure

By creating a logical site structure with your URLs, your site will be very organized, easy to navigate for users, and easy to understand for search engines. Plus, you can maximize your chances of ranking!

An example of one way to do this for a business with many locations across multiple states could be:

yourbiz.com/locations/ for a list of all the locations

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/ for a list of all the locations in a particular state

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/ for a list of locations in a city

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/location-name1/ for store #1

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/location-name2/ for store #2 in the same city

Be sure to make the URL geo-specific whenever it makes sense.

If store #1 is located in a strip mall called Grand Plaza Mall, or at the intersection of 5th St. and Elm St. then the URL could be:

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/Grand-Plaza-Mall

Alternatively, you could make it a page for the service that you offer

yourbiz.com/locations/state/city/widget-repair

Whatever way you decide to structure your URL’s, keep their organization tidy by sticking to one system that makes sense.

You want to make sure that your individual pages can be indexed by Google and other search engines.

2. Optimize Each Location Page For SEO

After you’ve created the pages, you need to optimize them so Google understands what each page is about.

You’ll first want to include your keywords in the title tag and meta description.

This is the piece of code on every page that suggests what Google should display in the search results.

Tip: If you’re using WordPress for your website, you can use a simple plugin like Yoast to modify your title tags.

In the example above, you can see the title tag includes both the description of the service as well as the location.

The meta description also includes the location and the service and entices the user to click on the result.

3. Optimize the Content for Each Location

After you’ve created the pages and optimized the title tags & descriptions, you’ll want to add localized content to the page!

Many location pages make a big mistake by not adding much content, so make sure you add everything that a user would want to know.

What content should you add to these pages?

Here are some ideas to consider:

• Service Descriptions: Describe the services that you offer. If you offer a variety of different services, consider creating a new page for each.
• Common Questions: Add commonly asked questions and answers about your services.
• Photos: Add photos of the location or your work in the area. .
• Reviews: Reviews are crucial to capturing customers with a strong intent to make a purchase. Searches for “[your brand] [city] reviews” are sure to occur. These people are seriously considering your business, they just want to hear what other customers have to say about it.
• Directions: Add instructions for getting to your business from each cardinal direction (starting with the highway exit). Embed a map with your location pinned as well.

If you’d like some help building out your content, be sure to check out our copywriting product, HOTH Web Copy.

4. Create A Google My Business Profile for Each Location

Google My Business is Google’s service for helping control how your business appears on Google & Maps.

By claiming and optimizing your profiles for each location, you can take control of your presence!

We put together a huge guide on everything you need to know about Google My Business here.

The good thing is if you have multiple locations, it’s easy to keep everything organized. You can use the same account to manage all the locations.

If you have more than a few locations, you can even use the bulk upload spreadsheet and import them into GMB simultaneously using the import tool.

Triple-check your work before uploading. It’s easier if you get it loaded in right the first time!

5. Build Local Business Listings For Each Location

Getting listed in local directories for each location is an important part of getting maximum visibility with SEO.

You’ll want to make sure you’re listed on all the popular sites for your niche, and that your information is accurate.

The combination of your name, address, and phone number is referred to as a NAP, or NAP citation.

When Google sees the presence of your NAP combination on multiple websites, that is a positive signal for SEO.

On the flip side, Google often pulls inaccurate or outdated NAP’s from aggregator sites, resulting in what they see as a discrepancy between their information about your business and what’s on your website.

You’re better off keeping Google happy by managing your citations. Citation inconsistencies are the top issue affecting local SEO.

Our Ultimate Guide to Local SEO has an in-depth section on building NAP citations that you’ll want to check out for a full tutorial.

6. Get Reviews for Each Location

Did you know that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a friend or acquaintance, and 49% of consumers look for at least a four-star rating before choosing a business?

Reviews are now featured prominently in many search results, especially search results that trigger map pack listings.

We wrote a huge post on how to get more reviews here.

Additionally, if you want some help with this, you might be interested in our review management software HOTH Stars.

Conclusion

By following this strategy for multi-location SEO, you’ll be able to rank for more terms and get more customers!

Creating unique content for each location and service page can be time-consuming, but it’s worth it if you’re serious about investing in your SEO. If you’d like to speed up the process, check out our done-for-you copywriting service, HOTH Web Copy.

We offer digital marketing solutions for different industries. Read about how we’ve helped law firms, dental offices, contractors, and more.

Do you have any questions about doing local SEO for multiple locations? Have a story or strategy to share? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Local SEO For Multiple Location Businesses (And Franchises) appeared first on The HOTH.

For webmasters and SEOs, this year’s “May the Fourth Be With You” felt more like “Order 66” Day.

Google updates are nothing new. They happen several times a year so Google can search results.

Last year, we wrote about the June 2019 Core Update and how the “Diversity Update” was a welcome change for everyone. It prevented the same domain from appearing multiple times at the top of search results.

As you can see, not all core updates spell certain disaster, so let’s all take a deep breath!

So what happened in this most recent May 2020 Core update?

Let’s get into it:

What Is A Core Update?

Google has been releasing core updates for the last few years.

According to Google’s official blog:

What Happened With The May 2020 Core Updates?

On May 4, 2020 Google announced it was rolling out a broad core algorithm update called the “May 2020 Core Update”.

Large Serp Volatility

Early observations of this new update show that it produced higher SERP volatility than others.

According to RankRanger, the impact of this update is greater than the one in January.

Certain Niches Had Higher Volatility

The other point worth mentioning from RankRanger is how this update is affecting multiple niches across the board.

Ranking volatility so far has been sharpest in

• Travel
• Real estate
• Health
• Pets & animals
• People & society

The average volatility in both travel and retail, for example, increased from 1.9 at the end of April to 9.3 on May 6.

Without more from Google, it’s unclear if this volatility in travel and retail was the result of changing the algorithm or the effect of worldwide quarantine orders. These industries were already expected to be hit hardest.

There Were Some Winners

SEMRush tracked some winners of the Google May 2020 Core Update.

News Websites gained the most positions this month, followed by Business & Industrial and Online Communities.

Shakeups Are Happening In Local

What Should You Do If You Were Hit

It’s important to note that, according to Google, that these updates aren’t designed to penalize anyone, and there may not be a lot to do to “fix it.”

How can this be possible that there is nothing to fix?

There are a few scenarios in which getting less traffic isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the most obvious is that of “search intent.”

For instance, you may have been ranking and getting traffic for phrases that didn’t match what the user was actually searching for. You’d be getting the traffic, but visitors would bounce off your site.

In this case, it’s all about getting the right traffic, not the most traffic.

What’s Google’s Advice for the Core Update?

Google is notoriously non-descriptive about their updates. They’re directing all Twitter questions back to an August 2019 blog post, “What webmasters should know about Google’s core updates.”

Google continues to stress the importance of having the best content possible on your website. Quality is the most important measure.

Here are some questions (from Google) to ask about your content:

1. Is my content original and substantial?
2. Does my content provide insightful analysis beyond the expected?
3. Would my content be referenced by authoritative websites?
4. Is my content well-researched and trustworthy?
5. Is my content clear, well-produced, and free of errors?
6. Does my content provide value and is it for the genuine interest of my readers?

You can also ask unbiased friends or colleagues to audit your website’s content and brush up on Google’s E-A-T standards (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

What Should I Do If I Saw A Ranking Drop?

First of all, don’t panic!

Google updates usually roll out for multiple weeks, in which we see lots of volatility. Keep an eye on it but wait until the rollout is complete before making any drastic changes.

In fact, in Moz’s recent post, they talk about how early data and assumptions get changed dramatically as the updates roll out – there is just too much fluctuation to draw conculsions.

The second thing is that with these core updates over the last few years, each of them often seems to be a reversal of the last.

The winners of one update become the losers of the next and vice versa.

With that said, check out our guide to diagnosing and repairing rankings drops..

Worried About Google’s Update? The HOTH Is Here to Help!

Google’s May 2020 Core Update sounds scary for businesses already struggling to pay the bills. But, following their content guidelines is a good start for holding onto your positions.

If your ranking and traffic has dropped substantially since May 4, you will need to shift your content and SEO strategies to stay competitive. That’s where we can help!

Our digital marketing experts can work with you to craft a new game plan to get back on top.

Contact us now to schedule a free consultation.

If you found that your site has been affected by the update, fill out our survey below and let us know what changed:

The post Google’s May 2020 Core Update: What You Need To Know appeared first on The HOTH.

There are several programs being rolled out to help small businesses – including individuals who are self-employed or even contractors.

Listed below are three government assistance programs that will help your small business weather the storm. 

Get a $10,000 Business Grant Within Three Days

If you are any business that qualifies, including if you are self-employed or contractor – you should look at this.

The SBA has unveiled Emergency Economic Injury Grants to provide $10,000 loan advances to small businesses in need. 

Any small business affected should apply as soon as possible. The $10,000 advance is a grant, meaning it doesn’t have to be paid back.

The application is extremely short (as of writing it’s 3 pages) and asks for a checking and routing number at the end.

Click here to apply.

Here is a video on how to fill out this simple application:

If you have clients of your own, make sure to tell them about this program so they can also apply.

Larger Forgivable Loans For Payroll Available With The Paycheck Protection Program

If you are an agency or a business with employees, this may be for you.

The PPP “is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.”

Businesses with fewer than 500 employees (including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and self-employed persons) can qualify for SBA loans to make payroll. 

Here’s the best part: If you keep your employees on your payroll for eight weeks, the SBA will forgive your entire loan.

According to the SBA website:

Learn more about the Paycheck Protection Program.

Expansion of SBA’s Disaster Loan Program

We mentioned the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program in a previous blog post, “Coronavirus Resources For Businesses,” but the difference between this one and the PPP is that EIDL is being solely funded and processed by the SBA. 

EIDL is currently available for businesses with fewer than 500 employees to borrow up to $2 million with a low-interest rate of 3.75%. 

A potential issue with borrowing from the SBA is that it may take between 60-90 days to get your money. As a government agency, they have many regulations and processes to follow. 

In order to get relief to businesses faster, the SBA also developed the Emergency Economic Injury Grants (EEIG) program. 

Learn more here.

Take Advantage of Assistance Programs

Now is the time to obtain assistance for your small business. Be aware there may be processing delays as the government sorts out new programs.

Things are moving fast right now and no one is quite certain when the quarantine orders will be lifted. 

Congress could pass another stimulus bill or some rules could be revised, so make sure you’re carefully documenting all of the assistance funds you receive and use. 

The post How To Get $10k From The Government For Your Agency Or Business (Plus Other Resources From The CARES Act) appeared first on The HOTH.