For a new business, allocating a huge marketing budget is something that is not always feasible. At a time when new business owners cannot afford costly marketing methods, they can always take the help of some low-cost techniques to give their businesses a considerable marketing push. These techniques will help put their businesses on the map.

Today, the rise of digital marketing and social media has made it easier and affordable to market a business. If you are a new business owner mulling over some low-cost marketing techniques or strategies, we have got you covered. Check out these 20 low-cost marketing techniques that can help you:

1. Blog

The list of marketing techniques can't be complete without the mention of blogging. When you talk of online marketing, a business blog is an essential strategy. So, we recommend that you use it and make it work for you. In case you are unhappy with your current business blog, you can always follow some tips and make it better, such as:

1. Always sound successful
2. Write for your customers first and your company second
3. Concentrate on creating engaging blog content
4. Blog on relevant content
5. Remember to be consistent

2. Get More User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is another marketing technique you can consider for your business. It is any form of content such as videos, images, audio, and text that users have posted on online platforms like social media. Regarded as a marketing goldmine, UGC is practically free and provides great results.

To execute this marketing technique, you need to motivate your customers and fans to tell their own story, create content, and share it. This engaging, fresh content will definitely appeal to your target audience.

If the latest statistics are to be believed, millennials trust user-generated content 50% more than the original content produced by the brands. So, more UGC can help in marketing your business tremendously.

3. Claim A Hashtag

Think of a hashtag as a billboard of the internet. It is an interactive and searchable extension of your business that holds the potential to spread virally.

Today, hashtags are easily available on all the big social platforms. You can easily create one for your company and use it when you post.

4. Create Google My Business Account

When you create a Google My Business account, your business can appear in Google searches and individuals can easily find your business. Also, when you create the account, your business becomes visible on Google maps. The great thing about creating a Google My Business account is that you don't need to spend any money in the process.

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5. Upsell Your Existing Customers

So many of us see marketing as a means to reach new customers. But, it is important to know that some of the best marketing is aimed at your existing customers.

When you market back to your existing customers, you see how low-cost and relatively easy it is. So, we suggest that you upsell your existing customers if you are looking for a low-cost marketing technique.

6. Use Twitter

Twitter is an amazing marketing platform. It can help you create never-ending social buzz and a lot of brand exposure. Follow at least 10 influencers in your niche on Twitter, make sure you retweet their tweets, mention them in your comments, and follow their followers.

7. Carry Out A Contest

Running an online contest is yet another low-cost marketing technique that you can try. Giving away cash prizes or merchandise is a great way to enhance your brand image and gain some viral potential.

8. Market in Person

Try to market in person whenever you can. For instance, sometimes you meet great people in real life you may not come across on the internet. We suggest that you tell them about your business whenever the issue of work comes up during your conversation. Don't miss an opportunity to introduce your business to other people whenever you get to speak on the subject.

9. Comment on the Blogs in Your Niche

Commenting on the blogs in your niche is a great way to create a persistent brand image. The two easy steps you need to follow to use this marketing technique effectively are:

1. Search for the 5 best blogs in your niche
2. Read and comment on them regularly

You may be wondering how commenting on blogs helps market your brand. When you comment and people view your name and your associated brand, they begin to recognize you. Over time, they'll grow more curious about you and your business.

Tip: When you comment, keep a check on the quality of your comment because it shapes the perception of the person reading it.

10. Conduct A Free Webinar

Webinars help introduce your business to a wider audience. As per the latest statistics, one webinar could potentially generate over 1,000 leads.

If you plan on hosting a webinar, ensure that you brainstorm topics, plan them, and then promote them.

Tip: Try to go for a more appealing topic to attract interest.

11. Take the Brochure Route

Brochures may sound old school to you. But they are highly effective even today. This holds true particularly for small companies that are targeting a local community. A well-designed brochure is a fantastic marketing material that talks about how your business stands out and it doesn't cost a bomb.

12. Make Engaging Videos

Let's look at some video marketing statistics for 2021 first. 68% of consumers prefer viewing videos to learn about new services or products over infographics, presentations, ebooks, and articles.

Videos are marketing tools that are easy to consume and can help generate leads. To limit the costs, begin by creating basic videos that you can make on your own. You can then upgrade to more professional videos in the future when you have the budget for them.

13. Make A LinkedIn Group

LinkedIn is a social network of professionals that provides you with remarkable marketing opportunities. It also acts as a powerful resume builder, offering much more than just a place to display your resume. You can use it to publish content, connect with people, and create a marketing group of members in thousands. And the good thing is that all of this will cost you nothing!

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14. Provide Free Help To Others

Offering help and guidance is a great way to build a sense of community. For instance, think about offering memberships to customers who cannot afford your service, or giving away a product, or contributing an hour of your time.

15. Get Yourself A Business Award

So many industries host business awards in various categories. Work hard for your business, take part in a competition relevant to your industry, and aim to become the recipient of a business award. If you win the award, it will work as a badge of honor on your site that will help boost your credibility and increase sales.

16. Do Smart Email Marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with your existing customers and those who have signed up for your emails. Ensure you do smart email marketing and do not spam your customers with emails as it can diminish your sales. Use email marketing campaigns only when you have to share something important.

17. Create Content

Another way to market your business at a low cost is by publishing great content. The content can be in the form of listicles, infographics, know-how guides, and more. You must then find ways to distribute it effectively and get the wider public to consume it.

18. Join a Local Networking Group

When you join a local network group, you get a chance to connect with other businesses and let the local community know about your business. The latter is one of the best ways to build a customer base, especially when yours is a new business.

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19. Cross-Promote

An incredible marketing method that a lot of companies use is called cross-promotion. In cross-promotion, you partner with related businesses that help market your services and in return, you market their services. Pretty cool, right?

20. Consider Sending Text Messages

Ā People from all walks of life use text messages to communicate. Then why should brands be any different? The good thing about text messages is that they can be delivered to a lot of people instantaneously.

You can easily use text messages for different types of marketing. For instance, you can send discounts/coupons or inform your customers about the opening of a new store via text messages.

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Additionally, text messages are wonderful marketing tools as they help deliver more information to customers. For example, a text message from your business can include a map, video, or a link to your website (make sure your website is mobile-friendly).

Tip: Now that we are on the subject of a mobile-friendly website, you must know that having a mobile-friendly website is crucial for your business. We all know that building a mobile-friendly, professional, niche-based website can take several days. But, if you use DashClicks' agency website tool, you can make a mobile-friendly, custom branded agency website in just a few seconds.

Wrapping It Up

Remember, you can do marketing for your business without having to break the bank. The above-mentioned low-cost marketing techniques work really well, especially for small businesses. These ideas help promote your brand and take your business to new heights. Invest your time and effort in the implementation of these techniques and you are set!

Now that you know a lot of low-cost marketing techniques, you can start marketing your business today. We also want to ask - which of these marketing techniques are you absolutely going to try? Which of these techniques do you think are the most effective?

Content marketing is highly successful and is overgrowing across the globe. You must be familiar with various elements of content marketing and SEO. Some of its most overlooked features include article or page headings, especially H1 tags.

We frequently use them to help users understand the topic and optimize the article with keywords. Still, very few people know that creating H1 tags is the secret recipe for rankings and traffic.

Web admins know very little about the power of H1s and how you can use them to improve engagement, Click Through Rate, and time spent on the site. We talk a lot about H1s but never pay attention to enhancing rankings with the intelligent use of H1 tags.

Here you will learn the secret recipe of how to write H1s that appeal to search engines and users.

H1 heading carries a lot of significance for visitors. It is a strong indicator of whether a person is going to read a page or not. Apart from that, it also determines the relevancy of the search engines.

In HTML, headings tags are defined in the following hierarchy:

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We will create an H1 tag using this markup code in HTML

<h1> Are you ready to launch your own digital agency?</h1>

To know how it works, let's open a new web page, preferably a blog post.

The H1 tag on this page is "How to Create a Powerful Marketing Funnel Step-by-Step." Now, take a look at how it looks on "View Source."

Please pay attention to the highlighted H1 tags. The text - "How to Create a Powerful Marketing Funnel Step-by-Step" can easily be seen between the tags.

It looks pretty straightforward, but the H1 holds much more value than you can think of from an SEO and content marketing perspective.

What Can H1s Do For Your Website?

H1s are extremely good for search engines as with different variations; you may target different keywords. It will allow you to attract entirely different sets of audiences.

There are several instances when web admins experimented with H1s and noticed dramatic results. Neil Patel wanted to attract an entirely new audience for his blog. To achieve that, he decided to improve his site and that included updating an H1 on one of his blogs.

In less than a week, organic traffic multiplied by 85%, and its ranking improved from page three of search results to 8th position on page one.

And all of this happened just by changing the H1. Neil made no significant changes in an SEO strategy or investment in off-page promotion or link-building.

So, here is something every SEO professional must know:

Tip: H1s have always been a significant ranking factor, so optimize your H1 according to users and relevant keywords before anything else.

Are H1 Tags the Same Thing as Title Tags?

Not really.

H1s are the first headings or titles of a page or article, whereas HTML title tags are created for search engines. They tell the search engine what your page is all about and are independent of the H1s or header tags.

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So, a page's title can be completely different from H1s.

However, the SEO rule book says that the title tag should be a combination of your H1 tag and the title of your website.

Let's consider the following example:

The title of the article is "A-to-Z Guide to White Label Solutions for Marketing Agencies."

The title of the website is "White-Label Solutions for Digital Marketing Agencies."

Then your title tag should be something along these lines:

"White-Label Solutions for Digital Marketing Agencies ā An A-to-Z Guide"

Instead of separating both these parts by a dash (-), a pipe ("|") is also used frequently,

Here is the top SERP returned by Google for the keyword "iPhone 12 reviews."

Have a look at the titles separated by both a dash and a pipe:

Remember, most of the search results highlight the title tag and not the H1 tag. H1 tag is just for further info about the page's contents to enable a better user experience.

User Optimization of H1s

Contemporary SEO is more about user optimization. If users find that your website is easily navigated, Google will reward it with high rankings. Your website will get improved rankings if it’s content:

1. Answers users’ queries
2. Matches their search intent
3. Hooks them and keeps them coming for further information

You shouldn't rely on a few technical tweaks to immediately push your site up the SERP ladder. The focus should be user experience ā all else is secondary.

SEO is an art ā- and not math, and the ultimate objective of all this exercise is to offer a better user experience.

Tip: So, here as well, when you optimize your site and on-page elements such as H1 tags, etc., aim to provide what the searchers are looking for. If your H1 matches the user intent, you're likely to see an overnight jump in rankings.

How to Create the Perfect H1 Tag?

Here are five powerful tips for writing a perfect H1 tag that will boost SEO on your site and improve the user experience:

1. Use a Single H1

Technically, we can use multiple H1 tags per page, but it will create confusion and negatively impact the user experience. It will also dilute the value of an H1.

One major drawback of using multiple H1 tags is that these can easily confuse search engines regarding target keywords so that the page ranking may drop. It may also confuse users in terms of the content on the page.

So go with a single tag, even if it ends up becoming a long one.

If you have multiple subheaders or need more to explain the content, use the H2 tags for the purpose.

It won't confuse Google since Google loves multiple H2 tags and perceives such content as rich content.

2. Keep Your Tag within 20-70 Characters Range

Even though you can very well have a long tail H1 tag, try to restrict it within the range of 20 to 70 characters. There can be several reasons for that, but the user experience is a significant reason as a small header helps the user instantly understand the topic.

A longer tag may become even longer when a website's name is added to it. Imagine when a super long H1 tag appears in the SERPs. Would it look that user-friendly? In that case, Google won't even publish the entire tag. It will just shorten it and add ellipsis, i.e., "..."

When the complete information doesn't reach the users, they might skip the result. So keeping it within 20 to 70 characters will help you put it in front of the users, so they can easily understand that your website contains what they are looking for.

3. Make your H1 Stand Out

Aesthetics play an important role while creating your H1s. To ensure perfect styling, look at `the text in your WordPress draft. Ensure that the text stands out and there is plenty of white space before and after the tags, so the tags appeal to the eyes and look clutter-free.

Please take a look at it from your audience's viewpoint.

Examples:

Here is an excellent H1 tag:

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Now have a look at this example, where H1 doesn't stand out:

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4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

If you have already used a keyword in your H1, avoid stuffing it throughout the article, as Google considers it keyword stuffing. It was an old SEO practice when web admins stuffed keywords to rank high, but many major algorithm updates announced by Google after Panda aimed to penalize such sites. However, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't include keywords in your article. Optimizing your content with intent-based keywords is standard practice, but it should look natural and not forced. Google wants to make sure that nothing makes user experience suffer on a website.

5. Address User Intent

Last but not least, you should now move over user-experience to user-intent. If your H1 addresses the user intent (what they are looking for), there is no reason it won't help you to rank high on SERPs.

Your H1 should answer the customers' question or call it "intent," which can be slightly different from the actual query they might use in the search field.

Before we discuss it further, let's have a look at Google's mission statement.

Have a look at this example:

This query "backlinks" is a general keyword where the intent is not very well defined, so we can safely say that the searcher seeks reliable information on what backlinks are and how they are created. You can see that most of the results are informative articles around backlinks, and the H1 includes the query ā "What are backlinks?"

Now let's look at the search results using another keyword, "create backlinks free."

Here, the search query is "create backlinks free," but most of the results are about tools that can create free backlinks because that's the search intent.

Again, look at the result at the third position, which comes from www.fannit.com. They have intelligently combined the search query "free backlinks" with the intent-based query in the H1. That's what you can try in your H1s. The user wants to know the different ways to create free backlinks, so the article in the SERP suggests tools that you can use to create such links.

It also reduces the bounce rate.

Here is an essential insight into how Google engineers run a user-intent test on a website. According to them, if a searcher doesn't return to SERPs soon after clicking on a link, it's a positive indication that they are pleased with the result. Such websites have a low bounce rate.

On the contrary, if he comes back within seconds, it hints that Google sent them to a page that wasn't relevant to the search query. If it occurs frequently, it will increase the bounce rate. It happens when the user doesn't find what they are looking for. Google drops the rankings of such a website.

Tip: Align your H1 tag with your title, content, and targeted keyword. It's crucial for the retention of a visitor. If you claim something in your H1, your content should prove it.

FAQs:

1. What Is the Difference Between an H1 Tag and a Header Tag?

There is no difference. Both the terms “H1 tag” and “header tag” are used frequently because the H1 tag is nothing but the article’s title. Don’t confuse it with the HTML <head> section though. It’s a part of HTML <body>.

Title tag goes into the <head> section.

2. How to Manually Check if an H1 Tag Exists on a Web Page?

Right-click on the concerned web page and click on “View Source.” A tab will open with some raw HTML coding. Now do a Ctrl+F term search for “<H1.” Hit the enter button; it’ll take you to the first “H1” on the page. If you can’t find any tag, it means the H1 tag doesn’t exist on that page — create one immediately.

3. What Should Be the Position of the H1 Tag on the Page?

It should be on top of the page for SEO purposes because that is what Google expects from you. Please make note that Google considers it as the title of the page. And if you want any other text to be highlighted below, tag it as subheader text such as H2, H3, etc.

4. Does Your H1 Tag Have to Be Stylish?

For SEO purposes, no — but it needs to be stylish to appeal to human eyes. Usual style elements are color, size, font, and spacing. If your website suffers because of any of these elements, you need to reconsider adding that. Remember: the mobile-friendliness of a website is one of the chief concerns of Google.

5. Should the H1 Tag Match With the Title Tag?

No, it should not. For HTML, both these are two different elements. Even though they define the same article — the article title doesn’t appear on the web page. It’s meant for Google spiders. The H1 seems on the web page as Page Title, intended for both humans and Google bots.

What Are Common H1 Tag Errors Many SEOs Make, and How to Avoid That?

Below are the four most common mistakes SEO professionals make. Go through them and never commit such mistakes:

1. Creating Content Without an H1 Tag

H1 tag helps your visitors understand what your content is all about. So, it’s good for SEO and user experience. You must be paying a lot in terms of rankings if you don’t have an H1 tag.

2. Using Only a Single H1 Tag When You Need More

If you feel your content requires more than one H1s, go for that. It helps in SEO and user experience as a single piece of content may provide solutions to different sets of audiences.

3. Focusing Too Hard on Search Engines

Don’t focus too hard on search engines or changing algorithms. Pay attention to user experience, and everything else will fall in place. Make it simple, but adding relevant keywords and creating a few variations of your H1 would immensely help you if it improves user experience on the site.

4. Don’t Duplicate H1s

Avoid repeating your H1s from external websites and your own website. It’s not a good practice. H1s should be unique as the search engines would rank your web page accordingly. Duplicating H1s can confuse search engines.

Conclusion

Use the suggestions given in this article on how to improve your H1 tags for higher rankings and traffic. Revisit your website, identify the weak H1 tags and implement these tips to improve them. However, user experience is still the most crucial element for rankings and traffic. Make sure everything you do improves user experience and skip everything that harms it.

In order to keep their businesses operational and viable, business owners take the help of marketing. This is because it helps them raise brand awareness and attract customers. If you are a small business owner, getting the word out about your business can pose a challenge due to a lack of resources or less visibility. However, some strategies can help scale the marketing efforts of your small business. From building your website's SEO to email marketing, there are many marketing strategies that can help market your business and get you, new customers.

Irrespective of whether you have time restraints due to a small team, have a limited budget, or simply require some direction, small business marketing strategies and tips will always come in handy. Let's discuss them in detail:

Small Business Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies promote your business to a target audience, help brand your business, and help achieve sales goals. After you get listed on Google, here are some of the best marketing strategies for small businesses that you can follow:

1. Create A Website

A website is a channel you own. It is a place where you show who you are, what your offerings are, and how to contact you. If you have a professional-looking website up and running, it is the most significant asset for your small business.

We highly recommend creating a website to own your online presence. It works as a full-fledged salesperson for your business and we recommend that you create a site if you haven't already.

Note: Ensure you create an SEO-friendly website for your business. This is because it enhances the customer experience and helps generate organic traffic. As building an SEO-friendly, professional niche-based website can take days, we suggest that you use DashClicks' agency website tool. With this tool, you can make an SEO-friendly, custom branded agency website in a matter of seconds.

2. Invest in Ads

You may be aware that organic traffic takes time to build. So, as a small business, you can consider Google Ads or social media ads for short-term wins.

Google Ads are ideal if you are aware that your target audience is looking for your solution or product on the web. In case they aren't, you can think about investing in social media ads. It is true that people on social media have less buying intent, however, with the help of highly targeted ads and the required impressions, you will capture the interest of your audience.

3. Stay Active On Social Media

Social media platforms aren't just for connecting and socializing but also double up as fantastic business tools. They help businesses engage with potential customers and improve their search engine rankings.

Today, customers expect companies to be active on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. They also expect them to regularly post on social media.

4. Consider Blogging

Another small business marketing strategy you can consider is blogging. It is a great way to generate organic traffic. Even if you post a blog once every week, it will help educate your potential customers and build trust amongst them. Doing so will also increase your site's visibility. Ensure you add a CTA in your blogs for visitors to subscribe to them. Remember, blogging helps provide your potential customers with information even if they haven't yet made up their minds about buying from you.

5. Know The Power Of Your Existing Customers

As per a 1990 study by Bain & Company and HBR, acquiring a new customer is 5 times costlier than closing an existing one (on average). Keeping this in mind, don't stop marketing once your customers have purchased from you.

Think about this - your existing customers have purchased your product/service, which means they already like and trust you. So, identify your opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and repeat purchasing.

6. Offer A Free Consultation

If you have established yourself as an authority in your niche and offer a high-priced or expert service, you can think about offering a free consultation. Individuals want access to expertise when they are looking to buy professional services. Therefore, offering a consultation can be a step in the right direction. Providing a free consultation also helps you generate more leads and thus, proves to be beneficial for your business.

You can promote your free consultation on social media and your website.

Tip: Offer a 30-60 minute consultation and focus on providing value to your potential customers.

7. Become a Speaker at Events

Another good marketing strategy is speaking at events. When you start out as a speaker for events, deliver insightful talks at smaller events first. You can then slowly work your way into grabbing opportunities that allow you to speak at bigger events.

You can start out by becoming a speaker at these types of events:

• Specific interest groups (for example – sewing, hiking, etc.)
• Major companies and their employees
• Schools
• Upcoming events which you can check in magazines and newspapers
• Business networking groups

8. Offer a Free Webinar

Offering a free webinar is a great medium to allow potential customers to sign up for an online course that you'll host. Such courses are typically between 30-60 minutes. In these courses, you can provide tips and answer questions about a topic your business is experienced enough to talk about.

If you decide to provide a webinar, you get the chance to boost your credibility in your industry. You also get to unlock sales opportunities.

9. Display Reviews on Your Site

Apart from social media, don't forget to display reviews on your site. The reason behind displaying reviews is simple - When customers are thinking about purchasing something, they don't turn their attention to ads, they turn to other customers. This may not come as a shock because showing reviews can raise conversion by more than 360%

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10. Offer An Exceptional Customer Experience

Ensure you provide an amazing customer experience. Remember, happy customers can recommend your business to their family and friends. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from family and friends compared to other advertising types.

To improve your customer experience, make sure you go through customer feedback and work on the areas that require improvement. When you focus on providing a great customer experience, you get more online reviews, which builds trust and ultimately drives more sales.

11. Text Your Customers

There is a high chance that your customers may ignore promotional material in their inboxes. But that is not the case with text messages on their phones. As per the statistics, text messages have a 98% open rate. Therefore, from getting a review to advertising a sale, text messaging service for small business can prove to be helpful. Just ensure you write a strong CTA in your text message to motivate the customers to take action (for example: Leave us a review on Google).

12. Establish a Brand

Your business is required to have a clear brand identity for your audience and customers to know what your business is, what it does, and what it stands for. Once you decide your company's identity, match it with a suitable name, colors, logo, and imagery that conveys your brand to your target audience.

Once your business has your own logo, ensure you display it on everything - business cards, advertising, website, and email signatures.

13. Email Potential Customers and Customers

There are many benefits of using email as a marketing strategy. It can be automated, is easy to do, doesn't cost that much, offers instantaneous communication, and can reach many potential customers.

It is important that your business emails relevant, valuable, and interesting content to your audience. This is because you don't want your email to just remain unread in their inboxes.

14. Join Local Business Groups

Another great marketing strategy is joining the local business groups. Doing so offers the opportunity to meet up with like-minded business owners. You can look for meetups and niche-specific groups in your area. These groups are great places to share your ideas and listen to other's opinions about them. It also helps recognize fresh opportunities and even find fresh talent. Lastly, these groups can also lead to profitable partnerships and joint ventures.

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Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

When you invest in marketing, you grow your business and your brand. To position your company for success in 2021, let's discuss some marketing tips for small businesses that can prove helpful to you:

15. Create A Buyer Persona

When you think about a customer looking for your service or product, how do you imagine them? What are their pain points? What job do they do? Creating a buyer persona that describes your ideal customer and tells a story about them can assist you in optimizing your website for them.

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When you create a buyer persona, you are in a better position to know what kinds of things your target customers could be searching for online. These terms can then be used on your website.

16. Increase Your Google Ranking With SEO

The technique that helps your site rank higher in SERPs is defined as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO makes your site more visible to those searching for solutions that your business can offer via search engines such as Bing, Yahoo!, and Google.

An SEO strategy consists of certain things, including buyer persona research, on-page SEO research, and keyword research. With the help of these three areas, you get to know how your target audience is searching on the web. These areas also make your business get noticed by the right people online.

17. Research Keyword Opportunities

In the previous sections, we talked about creating buyer personas. Use these personas to find the right keywords for your business. Then, what you can do is open a tool called KW Finder to search for related keywords for your audience.

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You can also go through our Definitive Guide on Keyword Research for SEO to know how to find keyword ideas.

18. Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices

We all do a lot of Google searches on mobile devices, that, too, almost every single day. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the importance of having a website that is optimized for mobile devices. Your website, when opened on a smartphone, should look clean and allow for easy navigation. Remember, you can lose potential customers if they decide to leave your site because it wasn't optimized for their mobile phones.

19. Use Social Media For Customer Service

After you join different social media platforms, make it a point to answer customer questions when they ask them via direct messages or comments. You want to let your audience know that you are responsive as well as credible.

Note: A lot of companies today are using Twitter for customer service.

20. Encourage Happy Customers To Share Their Experiences

When a delighted customer talks about how amazing your business is on review websites or social media platforms, it shows that your service or product is a great investment. Social media in particular is where word of mouth really works and influences a person's purchasing decision. For example, if an individual sees their friend raving about your company on Facebook, they are more likely to purchase from your business.

If your customers say that they loved your product, encourage them to share about their experience on Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

21. Reply to Customer Reviews

So many business owners do not reply to reviews. But, this is a mistake they must stop making. Responding to reviews is highly beneficial for your business. One of the most significant benefits you get from doing this is customer loyalty. When you reply with a simple message such as “Thank you so much, we hope we can see you again soon,” you leave a great impression in your customer's minds and encourage them to return to you.

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22. Give Co-Marketing A Try

Look for a local business in your area that you do not directly compete with but provides a service or product to a similar target audience. If you find one, think about working with the business on a co-branded campaign to promote each other through email, on social media, or in your blog. Doing so will give the local business a lot of promotion and let their fanbase know about your business.

23. Try Influencer Marketing

Look for a person in your area who is an expert in your field and has a strong social media following. If you can contact the person, check if they can share their experience of your service or product on social media. If the person agrees, their follower base will know about your offering and may trust it because an expert recommends it.

24. Advertise on Social Media

Most of the big social media platforms provide advertising options. With these options, you can target your posts to a particular audience. Small businesses have been advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for years. You can think of advertising on Instagram as well.

25. Offer Coupons on Landing Pages or in Newsletters

A great way to engage your customers and make them happy is to place a coupon in your marketing emails. When your customers purchase a service or product from you by availing of a discount, they may be more likely to pay the full price the next time.

Tip: You can provide a code for a free trial to your prospects.

26. Tell a Unique Brand Story

Telling a unique brand story is like conveying your own life story - one that has feelings, emotions, and teaches something. Your brand should have a different, one-of-its-kind story that draws your audience towards your business and makes them want to know more about it.

“Content” is a means to let people focus on your business. Some content creation tips for your brand's story are:

1. Know what your audience desires and what their content preferences are.
2. Produce content that educates and entertains.

27. Create Video Content

It may not come as a surprise to know that people remember 95% of a message from a video. We all know that video content is quicker and much easier to understand. Today, people prefer video lessons as it gives a clear picture regarding what a person wishes to explain. So, another great marketing tip for small businesses is producing more video content for their audiences.

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28. Create Beautiful Assets

When you have beautiful assets, your business stands out. Once you figure out your content marketing calendar, you should start creating your assets.

As a first step, start with content. Make it a point to write original and professional content. Then, you can create email campaigns and social media posts. Also, focus on updating your website, creating video content, and contemplating the potential landing pages to create.

All in all, make it a point to be proactive about creating beautiful assets.

29. Leverage Your Community

When marketing your brand, it is best to aim small before you decide to expand your outreach. At this point, the entire world doesn't need to know about what your business has to offer. Start by reaching out to the people around you. Get the word out about your business by telling your family, the local community, and your friends. Check if they support your business. Once you create a customer base within your community, you can consider expanding your outreach and promoting your business.

30. Update and Improve

Stand out from your competition and be honest, genuine, and bold. As a small business owner, you must constantly look for ways to improve and update your offerings. Look at adding value and don't be afraid to try something unique.

Conclusion

Bottom line, these marketing strategies, and tips will definitely help in the growth of your small business in the year 2021 and beyond. Some of these ideas may take time to show results, while others may provide immediate effects. But it is important to note that all of these ideas will help take your business to new heights.

Now that you are armed with so many ideas, you have started your journey of marketing your small business much more effectively. So, which of these strategies and tips are you going to use first? Which ones are your absolute favorite?

If you take a look at the current digital marketing landscape, YouTube ads are amongst the most underutilized ad formats. This is because producing compelling, high-quality video content can seem like a challenge, especially to small-business owners.

However, once you know how to use YouTube ads, they can really help in the growth of your business.

As per the latest statistics, YouTube has more than 2 billion active users. Also, more than one-fourth of the world's population uses this popular social media platform in a month. So, the power of YouTube ads is something that should not be overlooked.

Now, you may wonder how you can use YouTube ads to increase sales or improve brand awareness? How to advertise your business on YouTube? Don't worry, as we have got you covered. Refer to our guide on how to use YouTube ads for business growth:

Types of YouTube Ads

First, let's take a look at the different types of YouTube ads. You may be aware of YouTube ad types if you have been fine-tuning your YouTube marketing strategy. But if not, don't worry! We will walk you through the main types of YouTube ads. Here's a closer look:

1. Skippable In-Stream Video Ads

Skippable in-stream video ads play before or during a video (pre-roll or mid-roll). One of their notable features is that the viewer has the option to skip them after the first 5 seconds. If the viewer decides to keep watching past the first 5 seconds, only then the advertiser has to pay. Your ad needs to be at least 12 seconds and a maximum of 6 minutes in length (we recommend somewhere under 3 minutes).

It is important to know that you only have to pay when a viewer watches the first 30 seconds, or the entire ad, or if they interact with your video ad by clicking (whatever takes place first).

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Note: The skippable in-stream ad is a variation of the TrueView ad. YouTube uses the term TrueView for the payment type where you only pay money for an ad impression when a viewer chooses to watch it.

2. Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads

If the statistics are to be believed, 76% of people say that they automatically skip ads. Keeping this in mind, some advertisers decide to run mid-roll and pre-roll ads that can't be skipped. This is when they use Non-Skippable in-stream video ads.

Use these ads if you want to increase brand awareness significantly, and you are sure that your creative approach is strong enough to grab eyeballs for a complete 15 seconds.

Bumper Ads

These ads are a subspecies of non-skippable in-stream ads. The difference between bumper ads and traditional non-skippable in-stream ads is the duration. Bumper ads are expected to be less than 6 seconds. These ads show up as pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll, and are well-suited for outreach and awareness campaigns. A bumper ad provides you with many ways to portray your brand in just a few seconds.

Given the smaller time duration of a bumper ad, try to show something memorable to the viewer in this ad.

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3. Discovery Ads

A discovery ad includes a thumbnail and three lines of text. When an interested person clicks on it, they are directed to your YouTube channel or video page. This ad type actually comes up alongside the organic search results. If your video appears more relevant as compared to organic results, people can decide to watch it instead.

Note: Discovery ad is another type of TrueView video ad because individuals must actively choose to watch this ad.

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How to Choose a YouTube Ad Type For Your Business?

Now that you know the different types of YouTube ads, it is time to know which type of YouTube ads is right for your business. Let's begin:

1. Non-Skippable Ads for Brand Awareness

Brand awareness means maximizing your brand's visibility. It paves the way for effective lead generation. Non-skippable ads work best to raise awareness for your business. These types of ads can appear post-roll, mid-roll, or pre-roll.

2. Bumper Ads for Message Reinforcement

Use bumper ads if you already have established an audience through digital media and want to announce something or get a message out to your audience.

Remember, in the case of bumper ads, you don't really want to educate your target audience or do much in terms of storytelling. You just need to hype a new service or product. For instance, the launch of a new phone of your brand.

3. Skippable In-Stream Ads for Lead Generation

You should use skippable in-stream ads for lead generation. Let's discuss an example to know why you should do so. A company called Monday.com uses skippable in-stream ads for the purpose of lead generation. Check out the image below:

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On the left, you can see the length of the ad. On the right, you can view the 5-second countdown to when the user can skip this ad. Meanwhile, the company's sign-up CTA is displayed in a companion banner (at the top-right). It is also shown in a video overlay (at the bottom-left). Even if a viewer clicks on skip, the companion banner will still stay there.

4. Video Discovery Ads For Brand Consideration

As we mentioned before, discovery ads come up alongside organic search results. For instance, you can see this ad at the top of the YouTube search results of a viewer.

When a viewer clicks on your discovery ad, they will be sent to your YouTube channel to watch the video ad. This helps you provide the viewers a closer look at your brand. Thus, video discovery ads work as an excellent brand consideration tool.

Tip: Before creating a YouTube ad, analyze your competitors' content and see how you can stand out in the industry. In the end, produce an ad that aligns with your marketing efforts, values, and brand image.

Optimizing Your YouTube Channel

As it is crucial to create an excellent first impression, it’s important to optimize your YouTube channel. Add business name, company logo, contact information, your official website’s link, and social media links. In the “About” section, write a brief description of your business your services, products, special offers, and other significant details.

How To Create A YouTube Ad For Your Business?

Once you understand the different types of YouTube ads, you would want to know how to create your first YouTube ad. Here is a step-by-step tutorial for it:

1. Upload Video

Log into the YouTube account for your brand and select the camcorder icon on the top-right corner. Then, select “Upload Video.” After this, you will be directed to the upload window. Upload your video here. Ensure you fill in details such as the description, title, and tag information.

2. Create Campaign

Select ‘New Campaign” after you sign in to your Google Ads account. You will see an option to select a campaign goal. For now, you can select “create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.”

Next, you will have to choose a campaign type (either “Display” or “Video” which you can choose according to your objectives). For our purposes, we will concentrate on the “Video” option.

Next, you will have to choose a campaign subtype. Choose the option you find the most appropriate and then select “Continue.”

3. Configure Campaign

After you create your campaign, you need to configure it in the right way. Begin by giving your campaign a name. Then, confirm things such as your bid strategy, campaign duration, and ad budget. Also confirm your locations, languages, and networks.

You will also find content exclusions in this section. This determines where your YouTube ad will be shown. Make the necessary selections here. Also, you can exclude some types of content and labels here if you want to.

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4. Target Your Audience

At the time of targeting your audience, begin by defining information such as gender, age, household income, and parental status.

Use topics, placements, and keywords to narrow down your targeting even further.

5. Finalize Your YouTube Ad

Now, set your maximum bid. Find your video in the “Create your video ad” section and select the right video ad format. Once you have done this, fill in the sections called “Final URL” and “Display URL.” You can also include your headline and call-to-action here.

Next, you can upload your own companion banner or auto-generate one. Once ready, select “Create Campaign,” and you are done!

Measuring The Success Of Your YouTube Ad

When you decide to assess your YouTube ad results, you get to know the weaknesses and strengths of your YouTube ad campaign.

A thing you should know is that YouTube ads automatically track a lot of metrics for you. You get access to engaged views data, watch time, etc. When you are new to Youtube ads, this information can seem overwhelming. So, we recommend you concentrate on the view rate for skippable ads. This serves as your true engagement rate because it determines how well you can turn your ad viewers into prospects who are interested.

For non-skippable ads, you can use CTR (click-through rate) to check if your ad connected successfully with your target audience. In case you have a low CTR, there can be either of these two possibilities:

1. The ad isn’t connecting with your target audience.
2. The ad is being shown to the wrong audience.

Bottom line

If you want to use YouTube ads to grow your business, it is important to put your message across in one short video. Focus on creating an interactive video with valuable content. In the end, make sure that your ad answers the needs of your potential customers. Otherwise, there is an extremely high chance that the viewers will ignore it.

Bottom line, Youtube ads can prove to be a great marketing strategy and provide you optimal results for your business. We hope this guide helps you in successful YouTube marketing

It is time for you to create your perfect YouTube ad.

Now go on!

When you talk of paid ads, business owners and marketers track metrics such as quality score, cost per click (CPC), and click-through rate (CTR). However, these metrics do not tell you everything.

If you have a high PPC conversion rate but do not have strong overall revenue, the problem may not be with your ad. It could be that your customers have decided to leave your business.

A metric that can help you in this regard is the PPC churn rate. Your PPC churn rate is defined as the total number of people who convert through paid ads but decided to end the relationship after buying or subscribing to your service or product.

Your PPC churn rate looks particularly at the customers who get converted from paid ads from platforms like Google ads.

Why Should You Check PPC Churn Rate?

Most PPC metrics depict how well your ads persuade people to purchase. For instance, conversion rates show how often individuals actually buy from your paid ads.

But, these metrics do not tell you a lot of things, such as:

1. Are customers unhappy with your products or service?
2. Does your ad focus on features your customers care about the most?
3. How well does your onboarding process works?

Some of the things your PPC churn rate can tell you are:

• If your customer service isn’t good
• If you have a confusing documentation
• How well your onboarding process works
• Whether the expectations of customers match your service or product
• Whether your competitors provide a feature that you do not

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All in all, you should care about the PPC churn rate because it can tell you a lot about your business. If you are not paying attention to why customers are leaving and in what numbers, you could simply be wasting away valuable ad spend on customers who won't stay with you.

How to Calculate Your PPC Churn Rate?

To calculate your PPC churn rate, here are the two things you should know:

1. The number of customers who signed up from your PPC ads.
2. The number of customers from paid ads you lost by the month’s end.

The formula to use for calculating churn rate is:

For instance, let the number of customers of your business who converted from PPC ads at the start of the month be 100. Suppose your business lost 32 of those customers. Now, your PPC churn rate will be:

(32/100) x100 = 32%

Strategies To Help You Lower Your PPC Churn Rate

If you calculate your PPC churn rate and get disappointing churn rate results, you must know different ways in which you can improve them.

Let's discuss them one by one:

Identifying Why Your PPC Churn Rate Is Higher

If you get a high PPC churn rate, then the first step that you need to take is to identify the reason for its higher value. This can pose quite a challenge as there is not an easy answer for this.

Begin by looking at things such as:

• Do you give documentation?
• Do you have outdated software?
• Are there any problems with your product’s quality?
• Do you have a customer service strategy?
• Does your competitor offer a better solution or feature?
• How is your onboarding process?

To find the cause, you can also perform UX testing and competitive analysis. Customer reviews can also point out where your customers seem to struggle.

If you can find what is causing a high churn rate, you can definitely take steps to lower it. But, if the cause still is not clear, there are some other strategies you can follow.

How To Lower PPC Churn Rate With the Help Of Customer Loyalty?

One of the best ways to decrease the churn rate is to ensure your customers are satisfied and happy. Some ways to improve customer loyalty are:

1. Provide Loyalty Rewards

Try to foster a bond between your business and your customers by rewarding long-time customers. For instance, you can offer high-value customers a dedicated customer support line, early access to new features, and more.

2. Create a Community

Creating a community can provide you with multiple advantages. One of the most significant benefits you get when you build a community is that it serves as a medium to interact with your customers. Creating a community also helps drive user-generated content, which is useful in your marketing efforts.

Create a place on platforms such as Slack, Reddit, and Facebook where your customers are able to create new friendships, get some valuable tips, and get a chance to interact with your team.

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3. Focus on Customer Service

Poor customer service is one of the top reasons customers leave. Ensure that your customers don't have to read laboriously through lengthy, terrible documentation to know how to use your service or tool. Make a video documentation or craft an easy-to-use FAQ. Also, think about using a chatbot to deliver timely customer service.

4. Make it Easy For Your Customers

Always offer a convenient experience to your customers. They should be able to make a purchase easily, get the required information, and conveniently navigate your website. Doing so improves your customer loyalty as they can quickly get what they need.

5. Attach A Cancellation Survey When People Choose To Cancel

Cancellation surveys are the same as employee exit interviews in a company. In an exit interview, you are asked why you are leaving the company and what steps the company can take to improve. This way, the company gets honest feedback about things such as management decisions and work culture.

Cancellation surveys are created with the same purpose. Knowing why customers aren't sticking around gives you a chance to improve and prevents you from losing future customers.

When a person goes to cancel, attach a cancellation survey with just a handful of questions. For instance, when the person chooses cancel, a question box can appear and ask the person the reasons for leaving.

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Tip: Ensure that the cancellation survey is easy to complete and offers multiple-choice questions. Refrain from giving too many choices as the person can feel overwhelmed and click away. Provide choices such as too expensive and no longer require the service. Also, create an other option along with an answer box for customers who wish to write detailed feedback.

6. Create a Smooth Onboarding Process

Paid ads may persuade a customer to convert, but your onboarding process can decide how the customer feels about your business. Make sure your onboarding process is smooth. If individuals are confused regarding how to set up or use your service, you have a problem. If customers can't fathom how to use certain features, your service or product may not provide them any value.

Some ways in which you can improve the process of onboarding are:

• Make the entire process easy for your customers: Make your documents in a way that your customers easily understand. Also, do not forget to label them.
• Ask your customer’s preferred contact method:  Ask their preferred contact method. Some customers prefer the phone while others may prefer email. Also, as your customers may live in different time zones, ensure you know when to contact them.
• Provide tips: Make it a point to let your customers know how to make the most of your product or tool. For this, you can create an automated email campaign that offers tips and tutorials.
• Only ask for information you require: Some information is essential to ask, like a customer’s email address and language preference. But, think before asking for some other information from them such as a physical address, company name, etc. Doing so is important because you don’t want to annoy your customers.
• Don’t Rush It: You may want to explain how amazing your service or tool is right away. But, introducing too many features at the same time can overwhelm your customers. Instead, you can use spaced-out emails and triggered popup boxes to talk about the features over time. Begin by engaging your customers and then tell them about the extra features when they are at a stage where they want to learn more.

Tip: Make it a point to check your process of onboarding once every few months. This way, you can modify the things that aren’t working successfully.

7. Make It Easy For Them to Contact You

Making customer service a priority helps in reducing your PPC churn rate. Customers are more willing to cancel if they struggle to reach your customer support.

Begin by replying quickly to posts and messages on paid ads. For instance, you ran a paid ad on Facebook for one of your products. Now, ensure that you respond to the requests and questions from customers in the comments.

When you respond, customers get the information they require. They also start to trust you more.

Some more tips that you can follow are:

• Ensure that your contact information is clearly shown on your website and important landing pages.
• In your PPC ad, provide the phone number or email address of your customer service.
• Put in place a chatbot to give answers to questions that are frequently asked.

If customers know they can rely on you to help them and they can easily contact you, there is a low chance they will cancel your service or product.

Wrapping It Up

If your churn rate is high, start by figuring out why. Remember, your customers may want to leave for a number of reasons. Next, try to remain focused on customer loyalty. This means you need to create a smooth onboarding process and make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. Finally, ask the leaving customers the reason they don't want to stick around anymore.

Note: If you need help with managing your client's PPC Campaigns, DashClicks' White Label Dashboard can help you. If you are an agency that wants a personal white label dashboard for PPC clients and is looking to manage things using automation, you can check out DashClicks' White Label PPC. Sign up for the platform today. It's completely free!

Every business owner dreams of seeing their website on top of search engine result pages. Still, sometimes small mistakes may result in harsh penalties that can turn your otherwise successful website into a barren landscape.

Backlinks have been a strong signal of a website's authority and trustworthiness since the dawn of the World Wide Web, and they are always held as a prominent ranking signal by Google and other search engines.

However, sometimes, people try to trick search engines by adding spammy links that don't add value. Link penalty can also spell doom for your online business. There are many examples where websites went from boom to doom within a few days because of a Google penalty.

If your website is a crucial part of your business, you must regularly monitor your link profile to avoid unforeseen penalties due to toxic links. If a penalty has accidentally hit you, there is no need to panic, as Google must already work on it.

However, you can manually remove many such toxic links using Google's Disavow Tool. It will save your website from losing its ranking or traffic.

Link building is considered crucial for SEO and content marketing. Marketing teams celebrate every time they achieve a milestone regarding the number of links added to their websites. These backlinks act as online billboards for your business. The more links you have, the better it is for your website because Google takes it as a sign of trustworthiness and value you offer. Along with quantity, link quality is also crucial for search engine rankings.

There are certain types of links that the search engines really dislike and they need to be removed as soon as possible. As a standard rule, you should invalidate links that look spammy or unnatural because these are the links Google doesn't perceive as a sign of trustworthiness.

The Occasions When You Should Invalidate a Link

You should quickly invalidate a link that looks potentially damaging for your site’s SEO using Google’s Disavow Tool. If you don’t do that, the algorithm can punish your website by removing it from the search results or dropping your rankings. There can be many types of bad links, such as:

1. Links coming from the pages created with the sole purpose of collecting links (link farms)
2. Links from spam sites
3. Links inserted in spam comments (especially blog comments)
4. Links that come from countries other than your target market

Such links should be removed as soon as possible, according to Google. Good backlinks are proof that your website offers quality content and is trusted by many. Good links boost your domain authority and page authority.

Toxic backlinks can negatively impact your site's SEO, but you need to avoid invalidating every such link pointing to your site. Some of these links can be great for branding.

Google also warns its users on its Disavow Tool's welcome screen that they should use this tool selectively, and with great caution. Indiscriminately invalidating the links can damage your website's prospects.

Use this tool only when you are 100% sure that you have identified potentially toxic links that may hurt your website.

If you are still confused about whether to remove a link or not, read on. Google doesn't tell you to invalidate all the wrong links. So, is it necessary to invalidate a link when Google's new algorithm is already working on the link penalties? Google launched Google Disavow Tool at a time when it had introduced its Penguin algorithm update.

Here is a helpful illustration from Moz:

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It was an intelligent algorithm update that was aimed at ignoring spam links, but it couldn't do it perfectly. Certain websites are still being penalized because of bad backlinks, which suggests that none of the algorithm updates are perfect. It seems that Google employees impose penalties after a manual review of backlinks. So, Google Disavow Tool is still relevant as it allows you to invalidate specific links.

What to Do Before You Invalidate a Link?

It's important to know that invalidating a link is not always the right solution. It may seriously damage your SEO. It is your way of telling Google that the link is a serious threat to your website and that it must be removed. So, you have no option but to invalidate the link.

Before declaring a link invalid, the logical step would be to contact the source website and request them to remove the link. In most cases, you can easily find the site owner's contact details on the site itself. You can check the footer and sidebar if it is not available in the Contact Us section.

It would be best to write an email or call on their phone number and politely ask them to remove the particular link. A professional approach, polite demeanor, and clarity of purpose will help you achieve your objectives.

Here is a sample email:

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Alternatively, you can contact them on social media or leave a comment on their blog post. You can also search for the website owner's name on Google and LinkedIn and reach them at a given contact address.

If the webmaster is still untraceable, you may invalidate the link using Google's Disavow Tool.

How to Detect Toxic Links?

For an ambitious business owner, content creation and website promotion is an ongoing phenomenon. As a result, they build numerous backlinks every dayā some of these links are engineered or earned by them, but many are entirely unwanted and uncalled for.

Differentiating toxic links from standard links can be tricky. Before you decide to use Google's tool for disavowing harmful links, you should first try to determine whether a link is good or bad using Neil Patel's backlink tool.

Here are some ways to check the quality of a link to determine whether the backlink is beneficial or harmful for your website.

1. Is the Link Coming From a Page That Is Black-listed or Banned?

Run Link Detox to audit the link, or use the new Link Simulator to find out. If these tools detect it as a banned page, disavow the link.

2. Is the Link Coming From a Dangerous Page?

If a site is flagged for possible malware, malicious activity, or a virus in it, disavow it instantly. If it got black-listed after being the victim of such an attack, it should inform Google. When Google detects such virus or malware in a website, it notifies the site owner via Google Search Console. From your backlink profile, you can use link Detox to detect such domains.

3. Is the Link Coming From a Page of a Weak Domain?

Use a backlink profiler report. You can use the metric LRT Power*Trust metric to find out weak links. A Power Trust value of 0 and a Power Trust domain value of less than 5 indicates a weak link. The tool offers you a reliable and easy way to measure the trustworthiness and power of any link.

4. Is the Link Coming From a Domain That is Penalized?

If you have a backlink coming from a site that has been penalized by Google, there is no way but to disavow it. The same is the case with a domain that is not indexed by Google and a page that doesn't rank for its own title in the first 30 pages of SERPs.

Finding Toxic Links Using Neil Patel's Backlink Checker and SEMrush

Here is an easy and quick walkthrough of how to use Neil Patel's backlink checker:

Step 1: Go to the backlinks page and enter your URL

Step 2: Get a detailed backlink report for your website

The report offers you a list of web pages pointing links to your website.

But, this list contains both good and bad links, and you need to filter the wrong links from it.

You can also use SEMrush's backlink audit tool to check for toxic links. The software uses 30 "Toxic Factors" to detect such links.

You can quickly invalidate the links from the SEMrush interface, but the best practice is to do it manually, so everything goes fine.

Make a list of all the toxic links gathered from SEMrush and other tools. From SEMrush, you can export it by following these steps:

A. Click on the "Toxic" tab and select all the toxic links

B. You can export the list as a *.csv file that contains terrible links

Combine this list with the lists extracted through other tools mentioned above.

Now, this final vital master list contains all the toxic links that you can invalidate. Save them separately. You can use this doc on Google's Disavow Tool later.

Double Check the Links You Want to Invalidate

Here is an important tip: Don't be in a hurry to invalidate a bad link using Google's Disavow Tool. In case your website has only a few wrong links, audit each link before taking any action.

The idea is not to blindly follow the tools while detecting harmful links. Once you understand the underlying reason for a penalty, you'll get better insights into what type of links can cause trouble in the future.

However, it doesn't work when you have numerous toxic links. In that case, just cast a glance on them to find and filter "harmless" links.

Having antivirus software installed will also help, as you can avoid clicking on a link that looks malicious. It will keep your website safe.

Here are a few examples of the backlinks that you should invalidate without a second thought.

If you have a travel website, and your backlinks come from scrap metal sites, casino sites, porn sites, or blockchain sites, it can be a recipe for disaster. Something that doesn't fit your industry won't benefit you in any way ā be it targeting the audience, attracting quality traffic, or building trust.

You can bring these sites in front of your firing squad, i.e., Google's Disavow Tool.

The truth is Google hates irrelevance, and it can hurt your brand. It's better to disavow such links.

The same applies to weird links, TLD (Top-Level Domains) links such as .top, .xyz, and .loan, .google, .localhost, .oracle and .mitsubishi, etc.

An example of a rare TLD: https://www.clix.capital/

This site is a one-stop lending firm, and if it points to a website with a non-financial niche, it makes no sense.

However, there can be a few exceptions too. If a website that doesn't belong to your niche publishes a listicle that points links to the best sites in a specific domain, it's an example of good press and not a toxic link. Country-specific TLDs such as .ru and .cn are also not signs of a good reputation, though they are not always bad.

It would help if you always disavowed Links from spam sites. Most sites with .xyz TLDs are spam sites. You can set up a spam filter in Google Analytics to identify spam sites.

You should include all spam sites in the master list mentioned above that should be a text file with a .txt extension.

It's time now to move to Google Disavow Tool.

How to Use Google's Disavow Tool to Invalidate Links?

Using Google's Disavow Tool is not rocket science; however, preparing for the process may be tricky.

First, you will see this warning sign:

We have discussed above that you should disavow a link if you are 100% confident that that particular link is harming your website. Otherwise, the entire exercise may further damage your site's rankings and traffic.

Google Search Console will first ask you to select the site you want to use to disavow toxic links.

Then there comes the following warning to make sure that you are fully aware of what you are doing.

Click on the tab Choose File and select the .txt file that contains the master list of toxic backlinks.

Click on the Submit button, and Google will take care of the rest. It might take a few days to get the links invalidated.

How to Submit a Disavow File to Google?

We have already described the complete procedure above, but here is the summary of all the steps to simplify things.

Create a master list of links to disavow, which should be in a text file (.txt) format. Make sure only one URL is listed per line. The maximum data in a file shouldn't exceed 2MB. You can split your file if you have more than 2MB of data. You can upload your list directly on the tool.

Conclusion

You should be very careful while disavowing links. If you end up invalidating some good links instead of the toxic ones, you'll seriously damage your SEO. So, make sure that you do due diligence while identifying the poisonous links.

It's, therefore, crucial to familiarize yourselves with this process. Once you know the game, you can easily clean your link profile.

Invalidating toxic links leads to many immediate benefits, such as boosting rankings so that users can find you easily and quickly. With improved SEO, you'll likely experience more traffic and time on site. But here is a word of caution: don't invalidate the links in a hurry relying totally on tools. It's always better to manually identify and invalidate the toxic links. You never know which of the links is sending you traffic and adding value to your site.

Invalidating links should always be the last option. With all these considerations in mind, the idea of disavowing the links can be intimidating. Still, once you get familiar with the process and see the benefits when you do it right, it becomes a lot easier.

Still, if you need an expert to do it for you or your agency, so your clients don't complain about the loss of traffic, etc., hire the white label SEO services from DashClicks. We have experienced SEO experts on board who will make life easier for you.