Before we begin, let's consider the following stats:

In a survey of companies using content marketing in their arsenal of digital marketing tools, 74% of companies said that content marketing helped increase their marketing leads, both in quantity and quality.ā  (Curata)

Content marketing provides almost six times higher conversion rates than other digital marketing methods.ā  (ABG Essentials)

Content marketing is highly effective, as we all know, but just how do you measure its ROI to convince your boss to ask for a budget increase or to generate a report for your client!

There is no formula to measure content success. However, there are a few things you can focus on to evaluate your content’s performance:

• Define the goals you want to achieve
• Set their KPIs
• Track those KPIs

Now, your digital marketing goals can realistically be achieved by content marketing, such as increasing traffic, establishing trust, generating leads, and boosting lead velocity rate (LVR).

You should set goals and track KPIs for each piece of content you produce, including the repurposed content. For example, if you created a podcast and a video using a blog post, you can measure ROI on all three content formats.

Now, switch to the ideal frequency.

Almost 37% of content marketers measure the success of their content every week, while 26% do it every day.

What Is Content Marketing ROI?

Content marketing ROI is a crucial metric that justifies the spending on content marketing efforts compared to the monetary gains.

In general, we can understand it with the help of the following formula.

How to Calculate the ROI?

It isn't easy to calculate the ROI on content marketing because the metrics marketers use can't be directly linked with monetary gains. For example, page views, social engagement, and Time-on-Page have no direct bearing on the sales and business profits, but they surely contribute toward that.

Further, they don't apply to every content marketing channel. For eg., a podcast doesn't have anything equivalent to pageviews.

However, you can establish a relationship between a metric and measurable results such as leads and sales using data. For instance, you can calculate the average page views it takes to generate a lead or close a sale.

Still, different people may have different perceptions about these metrics as far as their contribution to sales is concerned. For example, for some marketers, the number of email subscribers and ebook downloads can be more important than page views and Time-spent-on-page.

So, here is a simple technique to calculate the ROI of your content marketing efforts.

List all the monthly-spend on content marketing, such as:

1. External workforce cost (Agencies, experts, freelancers)
2. Regular headcount
3. Media spend
4. Spend on technology (software, tools, subscriptions)

Simultaneously, you should also consider the returns such as visitors and leads, and calculate their dollar value in sales and profit. You can quickly establish it with the help of metrics such as traffic and lead conversion rate, etc.

You also need information about the sale rate, overall profit, and average selling price.

Here is an illustration that explains how you can calculate your content marketing ROI.

Below, we tell you the 4-step process for measuring content success.

4-Step Process for Measuring Content Success

Before we dive into measuring content marketing ROI, you need to understand how marketers measure content success. When measuring content marketing ROI, it's essential to follow this 4-step process.

Step 1: Determine the Objectives of Your Content

Andrew Becks of 301 Digital Media says that the choice of metrics for tracking content performance should match your goal.

For example, direct sales and conversion should be the ideal metrics to track for an eCommerce business.

For a software tool or subscription-based service, tracking customer lifetime value (CLV) is more appropriate.

Choosing your yardstick to measure success is crucial irrespective of your industry or content type. According to Ollie Roddy, former Marketing and Business Development Manager of Catalyst Marketing, your content's success largely depends on the goal it's supposed to fulfill. If you are writing SEO articles, measuring your Google ranking for the targeted keyword is the perfect yardstick for performance measurement.

But, if you are writing content to answer questions and engage customers at different stages in the buyer's journey, you should measure conversion rates. So, tracking is directly related to the goals set by you.

Step 2: Set KPIs for Each of Your Goals

KPIs are the metrics marketers choose to measure their campaign performance. For example, bounce rate and Time-on-Page are the metrics that indicate the engagement level on your website.

Similarly, improved search engine rankings and a high number of inbound links are directly linked with organic traffic.

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Pro Tip: KPIs from social media engagement, user behavior, and SEO impact are all you need to measure your performance against any goal.

According to Brandon Andersen of Ceralytics, since ROI is directly linked with finance, your goals must be specific and measurable. If these aren't measurable, you can't assign a monetary value to them. Metrics such as likes, impressions, and shares are vague as they don't tell you much in regards to their monetary value.

For example, you can calculate an inbound lead's average value using this simple formula.

However, it's not always as simple as that. Businesses these days consider various other things apart from leads such as unique sessions and visit-to-signup as even more crucial KPIs for calculating content

ROI.

The most important KPIs to track are as follows:

• Leads
• Visit to Sign Up
• Sessions
• Unique sessions
• Bounce Rate
• Page Views

Jonathan Aufray, co-founder and CEO of Growth Hackers, lists the following three (non-monetary) metrics for tracking:

1. Traffic stats (volume and other vital stats such as demographics)
2. Leads generated (through email signups)
3. Sales

You can measure brand awareness through impressions and clicks. For conversions, determine which content piece specifically triggered sales.

Pro Tip: The best metrics to track ROI are the ones that are related to earning more money.

The metrics such as lead magnet downloads, unique visitors, and conversions are all relevant while measuring the return on your content investment. The idea is to include everything that leads to earning a paying customer.

Step 3: Measure Your KPIs

Restrict yourself to conversion rates, especially if you want to track sales. But there are various other ways you can measure revenue growth through content marketing. Organic rankings and brand awareness are also crucial to track for your campaigns.

Metrics also change with the platform you use. So, CPC has become a crucial metric for Google Ads, LinkedIn campaigns, and Facebook Ads.

As discussed above, to increase organic reach, you need to increase backlinks by posting quality content. But how do you know the quality content is infact working? You can do this by simply measuring your KPIs.

Marketers use Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and SEMrush for measuring campaign performance.

However, the most convenient option is to use a single dashboard rather than using several third-party tools. You can use DashClicks' automation dashboard to measure and track your content marketing performance.

Step 4: Measure Your Progress and Adapt as Needed

Most successful marketers conduct periodic reviews of their content marketing strategies. It ensures that your efforts are paying off. It also provides you an opportunity to learn, change, and adapt to achieve even better results.

For example, let's say you published two articles within a fortnight, and Google indicated incoming traffic growth. You'd think the former article is the one responsible for this traffic. But Google tells you another story. It says your latest article brought you so much traffic.

In the review stage, you will analyze why your recent article became so popular, while your old post struggled to turn any heads. It will provide you with some valuable insights that you can use in your future articles.

Conducting reviews regularly will also help you determine the tactics and trends that yield better results than others, and help you achieve your goals.

To improve your content marketing campaigns, DashClicks provides you with the following metrics:

1. Campaign Insights
2. Custom date-based reporting
3. Multiple integrations
4. Real-time reporting

Are You Ready to Start Driving ROI for Your Content Marketing Efforts?

While calculating content marketing ROI isn't an easy task, you can use the calculation methods described above and the 4-step process for measuring content success. You can also gather essential information to be used, such as visitors, leads, and sales, using the DashClicks dashboard.

While CRM and marketing automation may sound similar, there is a vast difference in how they work and the benefits you can drive through each.

The prime difference between the two is that they serve two entirely different purposes. While CRM is an essential tool that assists you in sales, marketing automation is mostly used for various marketing tasks and outreach.

Integrating them in your operations can have magical effects on your business. It will improve your customer experience as well as business capabilities.

So, let’s dive deeper into their usages and differences, and how you can use both in combination for the best results.

What Is A CRM?

CRM, or customer relationship management, is a tool many industries use to manage customer contact and relationship data. It’s focused on sales and the existing relationship a business enjoys with its customers.

For example, if a customer has a savings account, a personal loan, a credit card, and health insurance from a single bank, it would be their existing relationship with the bank.

So, a CRM is a tool that tracks and manages customer relationships throughout the entire sales funnel.

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What Are the Benefits of CRM Software?

The most significant advantage of using a CRM is that it increases your chances of converting prospects to loyal customers.

Here are some significant benefits a CRM offers:

1. Streamlines customer data, i.e., name, address, and phone number (NAP.) for easy tracking and organization. It enables everyone in your organization to access and use customer information for better customer support and lead generation.

2. CRM also saves your time by reducing the routine tasks that consume more time.

3. It also improves customer engagement by ensuring consistent, personalized, and targeted messaging.

4. You can use CRM to identify increased sales opportunities by tracking your customers’ buying patterns. You can use this information to get insights into themes and trends that can help you identify new sales opportunities.

5. CRM also enables centralized sales to progress tracking across your entire organization, which is vital to pushing the prospect down the funnel. It will also help you identify areas of improvement, bridge gaps, and assign leads to salespersons.

6. Have you ever seen highly personalized communications from brands you buy from? CRM helps you do that.

For example, a customer browses sports shoes on Amazon or any other eCommerce site and soon receives personalized emails or messages about offers and discounts on selected sports shoes. It’s possible because of a robust CRM that tracks everything. Today, even AI is being used along with CRM and other marketing tools to closely predict what a customer has on their mind.

How to Personalize Your Communications?

Many CRM platforms provide tools for personalizing your messaging to customers. It boosts lead conversion. An Infosys study reveals that 86% of consumers reported that personalization influences their buying decisions in a big way. There are many ways you can personalize your communications, such as:

• Adding customers’ names in your emails
• Target campaigns based on their buying behavior
• Sending emails based on where they are in their customer journey

Things You Can Achieve With a CRM Software

You can achieve the following with the help of a CRM software:

• Increased engagement
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Increased sales

You can easily drive sales through CRM by tracking the customers’ stages in their buying journeys.

What Is Marketing Automation?

Marketing doesn’t work in a straight line. There are various steps and aspects, and automation allows you to automate and streamline critical marketing tasks and workflows.

Automation covers everything from lead generation to segmentation and lead-nurturing. Marketing automation also facilitates account-based marketing and customer retention.

The primary purpose of marketing automation is to speed up processes and eliminate repetitive, manual, and time-consuming tasks.

Marketing automation is also used to create targeted marketing campaigns for individuals using targeted content. The result is a better customer experience.

How Does Marketing Automation Work?

With marketing automation, you can save time by automating vital marketing tasks. When you free up your resources and eliminate wasteful activities, you can utilize your time and money to implement other targeting strategies.

What Are the Benefits of Marketing Automation?

With marketing automation, you can achieve a high conversion rate, improve workflow, boost productivity, create custom content, and enable personalized buying journeys. The most significant advantage of marketing automation is that it helps you generate high-quality leads, faster.

How Do CRM and Marketing Automation Work Together?

We have discussed the benefits of both CRM and marketing automation. What if, we combine both? The combined strengths of the two can do wonders to your marketing campaigns. Marketing automation supplies detailed info to your CRM, so your entire team can get actionable insights about your prospects and existing customers.

It’s crucial to understand the difference between the two, so you can figure out why it’s best to integrate them.

Marketing automation facilitates lead generation and nurturing, while CRM is a sales tool and doesn’t serve your core funnel marketing needs. But, when you integrate the two, you can do the following:

• Build a relationship and engage your prospects. It also helps you push them down the funnel using targeted content before sending them as a hot lead to sales. This, in turn, minimizes the uncertainty and pressure on the sales team.
• Use detailed and closed-loop reporting aided by micro-analysis to see what’s working and what isn’t.
• Improve lead quality.
• Help sales reps understand the entire customer history and their behavior from when they come to your website as a visitor, until they become interested in your product.
• Send targeted messages to support and nurture leads.

Key takeaway: When we combine marketing automation with CRM, it becomes our biggest marketing & sales weapon. It ensures a consistent flow of leads and sales.

DashClicks’ white-label platform offers CRM and marketing automation through its apps, such as:

1. Deals App: It helps you manage leads and deals within your sales pipelines CRM software.
2. Projects: Our white-label project management app provides the easiest and most powerful way to manage your projects, teams, customers, etc.
3. Inbound: Helps you manage all your inbound leads across multiple third-party platforms. You can also share these leads with your sales team so they can follow up and convert them.
4. Contacts: DashClicks’ unique contact management CRM software helps you manage your contacts easily.

What’s more, you can access all these apps through a single dashboard! So, no need to open multiple tabs and repeat logins.

Why Do CRM and Marketing Automation Need Each Other?

CRM and marketing automation are the two most essential tools businesses use to grow in the digital ecosystem. Marketing automation can’t replace CRM, but it sure can help increase the efficiency of your sales department. It reduces the tedious and repetitive manual tasks such as emailing and calling the prospects.

Content marketing automation helps you craft engaging content for different stages in the buyer’s journey. And it’s proven that care automation improves customer support. Together, they can help generate qualified sales leads for your fledgling business.

Case Study:

How SmartBear Software increased inbound leads by 200% using marketing automation and CRM together?

SmartBear Software is a B2B cloud software development company. The business owners decided to take advantage of technology and deploy marketing automation and CRM as an integrated process to boost their sales.

The plan was simple but effective. According to Keith Lincoln, VP Marketing, SmartBear, the management chose three objectives:

• Easily implemented
• Scalable
• Can integrate with the new CRM system

After finalizing the vendor, they called in a third-party engineer to implement the software. The consulting engineer introduced specific training programs for the in-house employees to speed up the learning curve. The modus operandi led to the automation solution functioning within a work week.

The initial days were challenging and full of implementation hassles and struggles. So, the engineer suggested that the teams go slow and keep their activities limited to running a few email campaigns. However, soon the systematically designed training sessions started yielding results, and the teams quickly learned how to implement lead-nurturing and handle a high volume of leads in different segments.

Soon, they also integrated automation with their webinar platform, adding to their outreach armor. The results proved the efficacy of combining CRM and marketing automation, and their efforts paid off. Lead volume skyrocketed to 200%. In the meantime, 80% of total leads generated came from an automated software trial download campaign. The leads generated through this trial download campaign generated 85% of SmartBear’s total revenue.

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Final Words

The absence of CRM and marketing automation software integration may lead to many missed opportunities for your business. A marketing automation system is used mainly to automate marketing tasks, such as sending personalized messages to prospects based on their various stages in the buyer's journey. It can be a total game-changer and open the doors to a plethora of new opportunities for you!

The nature of integration will depend on the business needs. So, you should have a system where you can combine the best features of both types of tools. Or else, you can outsource digital marketing services from an agency that integrates both the systems into their services. DashClicks offers a white-label platform for agencies of all kinds and sizes where you can use our CRM and various automation apps together.

Further Reading: Does Your Organization Really Need a Marketing Automation Platform?

Organic traffic is paramount for any business that hopes to survive online.

After spending months (or even years) learning how to improve your search engine ranking, you finally made it. Your brand is now on the first SERP page and may even be closing in on the top spot.

There's only one problem: high rankings are not leading to higher traffic.

This is, unfortunately, not an uncommon occurrence. The upside is that we understand the most frequent culprits and can show you how to fix low traffic.

Problem #1 - Your Content Does Not Match the User Intent

Many rookie teams make the mistake of simply selecting keywords based on search volume. This tactic fails to address the unique reasons a user may have for using a specific search term.

To better understand this, know that there are four primary types of keywords.

1. Informational Keywords

This clue is in the name for this keyword type: information.

The internet user that types an informational keyword into a search engine is looking for educational content. They want to see sites that answer questions of “why” or “how.”

Let’s pose an example and say that a user performs a search for “how to fix GPU error.” This person is looking for proven, actionable data that can better help them understand their problem. They may be likely to click on content from a tech website or some type of PC specialist.

The key here is that the user is looking for information so that they might solve their predicament. They are not looking for specific products or aiming to pull out their credit card.

2. Commercial Keywords

This is often the next logical step in the buyer's journey.

A user may utilize commercial keywords when they start to look for specific products, services, or brands that may be of help. Let's look at examples of this type based on the imaginary user from the above section.

The user found information that led them to believe their GPU issue cannot be fixed. Now, they must seek out someone or something that can help them replace their product. They then search for some of the following:

• NVIDIA vs AMD
• 3080 reviews
• NVIDIA products

While still looking for information, the user's buying journey is starting to get more brand-specific. They need to understand more about the topic at hand so that they feel equipped to make smart purchasing decisions.

3. Transactional Keywords

Transactional keywords are more closely related to the hard sell. The user is already set on spending the cash. They simply need to find the right web page to help them do this.

For more explicit examples, let’s once again return to our imaginary user. They’re now searching for terms like:

• Buy NVIDIA 3080
• GPU best deals
• GPU for sale

4. Navigational Keywords

Navigational keywords demonstrate a more direct intention. With this, the user is looking to head to a specific domain or webpage.

If we wanted to watch video content, we’d likely do so in one of two ways:

• Enter YouTube.com into the search bar in a browser
• Search “YouTube” within Google, then click on the top result

The latter is an example of a navigational keyword. There is little room to question intention as the user is being explicit in their search.

How Misunderstanding User Intent Leads to Low Traffic?

It is possible to rank your webpage for keywords that do not correctly line up with user intent.

The problem is that while you may achieve a 3rd place spot, users will still skip over the listing. If your content does not help the user with their needs, there's no reason to visit your website. Even if a user does blindly click on your result, they're going to bounce away when they realize the result isn't suited for them.

In other words, you wouldn't want to present transaction-focused content to someone who is looking for information. Conversely, someone looking to make a purchase now does not necessarily need more information to help them out.

How to Fix It?

Always be sure to carefully factor in user intent when selecting keywords for your organic rankings. Popular SEO tools will frequently identify intent for you, making this process that much easier.

As long as your content helps the user with their needs, you can expect your traffic and conversions to climb appropriately. This should remain among your top go-to tips for higher traffic.

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Problem #2 - No One is Using Your Top Keywords

Small businesses often do not have the money or manpower to compete with juggernauts in the rankings. Because of this, they require alternative keyword solutions.

One strategy brands use is to get hyper-specific with their content. Instead of aiming for keywords with high search volume, they shoot for terms with lower search volume, but a potentially higher conversion rate.

This strategy is often effective when there is a demand for your very specific niche.

However, getting too specific with your keyword choice can be a double-edged sword. If this is you, then you're likely ranking high for keywords that no one is using in their searches.

How to Fix it?

This one is easy to fix as you can monitor search volume with any SEO tool. Keywords can ebb and flow with use, but if a term is consistently yielding minimal searches, it's time to switch it up.

That doesn't mean you should abandon low-volume terms like long-tail keywords. Take a close look at your audience, particularly if you're in a small niche, and discern what they want to see.

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Use that information to generate a list of ideas for possible search terms. Then, carefully consider the average search volume before devoting time and resources toward new types of content.

Problem #3 - Your Meta Content Fails to Engage

If you improve your search engine ranking, you merely earn the right to pitch your content. It's still up to you to convince users that your result is more worthwhile than the others.

Each search result features a variety of meta content. The most obvious of these is the meta description, which provides a brief preview of the on-page content.

Other examples include the page title, date of publishing, and schema markup elements. The number of features available to use hinges upon the type of content you are looking to present.

There's an easy way to identify if this is your problem. Perform a search for your ranked keyword and compare your result to the competitors. There's a high chance that the other meta descriptions are simply more compelling than what you have to offer at this time.

How to Fix It?

Let's break it down piece by piece:

1. Meta Description

A great meta description consists of about 155 characters. Google will abruptly cut off longer text, muddling your message to the user.

Think of your meta description as a teaser to whet the appetite. It should explain exactly what the user will find on a page without giving everything away up front. You can further entice users by placing a call to action at the end of your teaser. Make your content impossible to pass up.

Finally, try to use the keyword in the meta description. If Google finds a word that matches the user keyword, it will appear in bold. Don’t hesitate to use any tactics you can to draw more eyes to your result.

2. Title

The title is the headline of the search result. This is the primary linked text users will see below the URL.

Like meta descriptions, keep your title within the character limit (60 characters). Anything longer gets abbreviated with ellipses, once again, diluting your message. In rare cases, hitting this limit can be a challenge, so be sure to highlight the main point of the content in the title as best as you can.

Finally, take the opportunity to brand your content. End all titles with your company name, like this:

High Rankings & Low Traffic: How to Fix it | DashClicks

Whatever format you choose, be sure to keep it consistent across all of your web pages.

3. Date

Most content will receive a publishing date by default. We recommend that you remove this if possible.

The reason for this is that dating your content is not ideal for long-term results. Users want to see up-to-date content. The further away a user gets from the posting date, the less likely they are to click.

Skip the dates when possible to keep your content evergreen.

4. Schema Markup

Schema is a search engine language that helps Googlebot better understand your on-page content. When utilized effectively, you can present vital data to users on SERPS before they even get to click.

This language can provide users with product information, prices, phone numbers, dates, and much more. You should carefully select key points to highlight without making things appear too cluttered.

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You can learn more about Schema and where to start here.

Problem #4 – Losing Out to Featured Snippets

Google is always looking for new ways to get users high-quality information quickly. One strategy they use to do this is the featured snippet.

A featured snippet is an excerpt of text pulled from one of the top search results. The text effectively provides an answer to a question prompted by the keywords used in the search. Some SEO experts will refer to this as position 0.

Not only does position 0 grant first-look advertising, but it also takes up a considerable portion of the page. This is a significant issue for competitors even when you’ve secured a spot on page one.

Studies estimate that 67.6% of clicks all go to the top 5 results. For traditional search result listings, that is about the number you would expect to see in your viewport.

However, with the rise of new smart features like the featured snippet, People Also Ask, or the local 3-pack, SERP real estate is even more scarce. A competitor's featured snippet takes up significant space and effectively dominates the mindshare of your would-be visitors.

How to Fix It?

To make your search result more attractive, be sure to utilize all of the tips mentioned previously in this article.

However, there's only one way to tackle featured snippets directly - try to claim the snippet spot for yourself.

To do so, carefully analyze the competitor's content. This not only applies to the snippet itself, but the rest of the content found on that particular web page. It's virtually a guarantee that their content is well-written, concise, and structured to perfection in the eyes of search crawlers.

A primary goal is to answer the question featured in the snippet head-on. Utilize your unique expertise and insight to provide truthful, actionable information to the user. Avoid unnecessary fluff or examples.

You can further help Googlebot identify information for your snippet by utilizing effective headings and subheadings. Utilize the question being asked as the head itself, then promptly answer that question in the first few lines of the body.

Furthermore, users and Google alike are quite fond of listed content. If possible, keep data concise by utilizing bullet points or numbered lists.

There's no guarantee that you'll secure the featured snippet. However, attempting to do so will naturally guide you to create better content overall.

Utilize These Tips for Higher Traffic

Capitalizing on organic traffic is a neverending battle. Not only are thousands of competitors vying for the same keywords, but Google is also constantly changing its ranking algorithm.

However, you can depend on these elements to forever remain a constant when curating traffic-worthy content:

• Match your content to the user intent behind the keyword
• Avoid overusing hyper-specific terms with low search volume
• Always treat your meta description details with the utmost care
• Create and structure content that quickly satisfies users and search crawlers alike

Finally, the content on your site is never a one-and-done endeavor. Allowing a webpage to stagnate leaves your content feeling dated while competitors are on the move. Monitor your keywords and search volume, and update content as necessary to keep generating organic results.

Traditional web directories are a relic of the past.

No longer do you need to browse clunky, archaic lists of internet websites. We have an infinitely more sophisticated tool in Google.

Google, and other search engines, effectively replace the need for a directory. Users can and will find exactly what they need with the mere use of a keyword.

Yet, many marketers still plug web directories into a helpful SEO strategy.

This raises the question: Are web directories harmful or are they still considered an effective SEO technique?

We're going to help you get to the bottom of this conundrum.

What is a Web Directory?

A web directory is a virtual catalog of websites that are categorized by industry or location.

The traditional web directory is a product of an early internet age. If you're reading this, it's likely that you were not an active user of the world wide web during this period. If you're only accustomed to searching for a business through Google or Bing, then the time of directories is almost irrelevant to you.

Listing a business online was not a given as it is now. Only a select hundred or thousand essential brands could be found with a computer. The search engine did not exist, and users would comb through the listings to find a company.

Think of this as thumbing through the Yellow Pages, another relic of a time long past.

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Why These Web Directories No Longer Exist?

As the internet slowly became more accessible, these directories began to fill up.

Eventually, each category's number of entries would expand far beyond any usable threshold. Users do not have time to click on a broad industry and spend hours browsing anything that might be related to their query.

This outdated process would demand new solutions. The public needed a way to simply enter a query relevant to their needs. The internet could then provide only the results that best match that initial input.

What we are describing is known as a search engine.

One of the first search engines to ever exist is known as Archie. You can still find a usable form of this here. Though other tools like JumpStation and Excite would exist, it wouldn't be until 1994 that Yahoo would appear - the first engine you likely recognize.

Many more players entered the scene including WebCrawler, Lycos, AskJeeves, and several others. The history of the search engine is hefty, but everything would change in 1998 when Google launched.

All of these companies would contribute to the search algorithms we rely on now.

The Case Against Web Directories

Based on what we know now in the future, phasing out web directories seems like an inevitable event. There would seemingly be no reason to utilize these archaic tools when you could get better results with less work almost instantly.

This is where the art of search engine optimization enters the scene.

These web directories still held value to businesses. It would still host and advertise your business along with your NAP details (name, address, and phone number).

As we know now, third-party mentions of your business on other domains can have positive impacts on your brand's domain authority. This is particularly true if the third-party domain links back to your site, otherwise known as a backlink.

Initially, this worked well for online brands. Unfortunately, it worked too well. It would invite black-hat SEOs to flood as many directories as possible with backlinks.

Many directories would attempt to negate this by charging for a listing. However, the cost of entry was so low that brands would still be happy to pay the fee in exchange for the benefits of improved search rankings.

This resulted in a massive influx of spam within these directories. The sites that were once useful, albeit a bit archaic, now were completely unreliable.

Because Google actively penalizes untrustworthy, unreliable links, these types of directories can now actively harm your SEO.

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How Web Directories Can Still Help SEO?

Before we get too carried away, we need to keep in mind why Google dislikes those outdated directories.

While Google constantly updates its search ranking algorithm, it will always rely on these core principles:

• The meaning of the content
• How relevant the content is regarding the search query
• Quality (trustworthiness, authority, reliability)
• Usability (how accessible the content is for all device types)
• Context factors (how content differs based on user location)

You can dive deeper into the specific guidelines here.

The problem with the older web directory model is that they no longer satisfy these conditions.

The content is no longer relevant, of quality, or usable due to the flood of unreliable data caused by black hatters. Just as with any low-quality domain, having a backlink on that site will likely earn you an SEO penalty.

Some marketers will make a sweeping statement telling you to avoid directories altogether for this reason. Even Gary Illyes of Google stated years ago that “directories are very often not the right way to build links.”

Very often does not mean always. He essentially goes on to tell us to be a bit more mindful in our approach. This is a good rule when it comes to SEO, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

We do still have modern directory sites that meet Google’s quality rating guidelines. Let’s take a look at the few platforms you may still want to consider depending on your business goals.

1. Google My Business

This one should be a no-brainer as it is the property of Google.

Google My Business allows you to create a free business profile complete with a map listing. Rather than listing all businesses in an old-school category format, Google generates relevant results based on your current location.

For example, if you search “brewery,” you’ll find a list of local businesses as your results. Specifically, the top of the page highlights the top 3 businesses based on a combination of quality, customer ratings, and profile optimization.

Achieving a spot in this local 3-pack is the dream for any SEO. It’s the ultimate form of free, organic exposure. Customers can find everything they need to know about a company. They can even call, email, or visit your site with just one click.

To make the most of this listing, you want to keep your GMB profile up to date as part of your regular SEO strategy.

In addition to completing the available profile fields, be sure to update your listing regularly. If there is a permanent or temporary change to business hours, let customers know. If you receive a negative review or complaint, take advantage of the opportunity to respond to your audience and let them know you're active.

You can start the process of building your GMB profile here.

2. Yelp, Bing Places, and Other Modern Business Listings

Many directories still see a variable amount of use that still may prove worthwhile.

Yelp, for example, saw 33 million unique views from users last year. This resulted in roughly 244 million cumulative reviews.

This speaks to the power that these types of web directories still have for brands and users. There are two major factors influencing this:

• The ease of finding relevant results based on location and interest
• Access to trustworthy user reviews

Point two is particularly relevant, as 90% of people look for customer reviews and testimonials before choosing to do business with someone. By listing your business where people search, you allow users to leave and read reviews as necessary. This can help drive additional business to your store provided that your ratings satisfy the user.

While these web directories may not be a core source of engagement or even boost your rankings by much, they still play an important factor. It's a low-cost way of gaining additional visibility through a trusted third-party source.

3. Social Media Listings

Some social media platforms allow for business profile creation and listings. Particularly, both Facebook and Instagram offer this feature.

Using the search bar at the top of the page, users can not only look for friends but can search for businesses in specific locations. Your company can be one of the results that appear provided you are in the proximity of their search location.

Social media listings provide the dual benefit of not just listing your brand, but allowing you to participate in the conversation. Facebook business pages are far more robust than a typical listing, allowing you to post, create groups, and communicate privately.

4. Industry-Specific Listings

Finally, specific company industries have their set listings to help users.

These are not dissimilar from traditional listings, but naturally, segment the audience by showing only the businesses relevant to their interests.

Thanks to the past couple of years, sites like UberEats and DoorDash have particularly benefited the restaurant industry. Not only can consumers instantly find companies nearby, but they can also make a purchase instantly without ever leaving the directory.

Other industry-specific directories include:

• Lawyers – https://lawyers.findlaw.com/
• Doctors – https://doctor.webmd.com/
• Veterinarians – http://www.findalocalvet.com/

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It's worth researching to determine if there is a trustworthy, active directory available for your industry. If the site appears outdated or unreliable, we recommend that you do not list your site there to avoid the risk of an SEO penalty.

Conclusion - Directories Can Help, but Context is Important

Directory listings alone will likely not move the needle much when it comes to your overall search rankings.

Googlebot is savvy, and we can always trust it to determine what is a worthwhile link and which is worthy of a penalty. Simply spamming your business profile on as many websites as possible is not only outdated but is harmful to your SEO and the user experience.

Instead, we now have modern takes on directories that better satisfy user needs. We can now list a business, optimize the profile, and trust the search engines to deliver results to the most relevant users.

While a web directory is not a replacement for a quality backlink, it still helps local businesses in numerous ways. To get the most out of these directory sites, be sure to:

• Keep your listing optimized and up-to-date
• Make sure information is consistent across your website and all listings
• Ask customers to leave reviews (and publicly respond to negative ones)
• Post updated photos when relevant

Finally, be mindful of which listings you choose to use. If you're ever in doubt, think like Googlebot. Make your listing accessible to the most relevant audience, and avoid listing your brand in places that are untrustworthy or unrelated to your offerings.

There's a powerful marketing strategy you've yet to utilize effectively.

The best part of this technique is that it's absolutely free.

Using customer reviews in marketing is a powerful method of swaying an audience. While skeptics may hesitate to believe your words, they have little reason to disregard third-party opinions.

First, we will talk about how you can get customer reviews at no cost. Then, we'll show you the best ways to use that content for satisfying results.

How to Get Customer Reviews?

Obtaining honest reviews from customers is a simple task.

However, the exact process will vary depending on the method you intend to use to gather data. We recommend that every business take advantage of every review and testimonial channel that the internet offers.

Let's start with arguably the most important platform.

1. Google My Business

Every business is eligible to create a Google Business Profile.

A Google Business Profile allows business owners to control their online presence and any data about business operations.

Your profile will allow you to:

• Add business photos
• Establish NAP information (Name, Address, Phone Number)
• List your website
• List business hours
• Post status updates
• Collect and respond to customer reviews

Google's study purports that 60% of customers utilize a GMB profile found in search results to contact a business.

This is because a business with a complete GMB profile appears more legitimate than results without one. Additionally, the accessibility of information makes choosing one of these results, particularly from the local 3-pack, a no-brainer.

Furthermore, those featured brands show off their customer reviews with ease. These require a star rating, at a minimum, while also often featuring direct statements from the user.

Any brand can get customer reviews from its Google Business Profile. To create or claim one, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Google Business Profile Manager here.
2. Search for your business. Even if you’ve yet to use this tool, it’s possible that a profile already exists.
   If your business appears, look for the link that reads Claim this business. Click this. Then, skip to step 5.
   If your business does not appear click on Add your business to Google.
3. Enter your business name exactly as it’s registered. Then, select the most appropriate industry category.
4. Add the necessary information to complete your business profile.
5. You will now need to verify business ownership with Google.

In some scenarios, Google may choose to validate your business instantly. In all other cases, you will need to provide a verification code sent to your phone or email address.

Just like that, you now have your own GMB profile! Any time a user searches for your brand or uses related keywords, they can find your profile and leave a review.

To gather more customer reviews, you want your profile to show up in rankings. To achieve better rankings, be sure to optimize your profile frequently. Ensure that you fill out information for all categories and that it is consistent with other descriptions of your business online.

2. Get Your Brand on Social Media Platforms

Social media is an excellent way to get customer reviews. Although, the method will differ from the process described above.

The only social media platform that provides aggregated reviews like GMB is Facebook. There, like Google, you can create a separate page and profile for your business. This allows you to distinguish your profile from the business entity.

To create a Facebook business profile, you'll first need to create a personal profile. You can do so here.

Then, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your account. At the top of the page, click on Pages.
2. Click Create New Page.
3. Follow the step-by-step prompts to create and categorize your business page.

You can similarly use this page for your GMB profile. You can upload business photos, add business information, and post regular updates.

Customers will then be able to post reviews and comment on your updates freely.

Though other platforms may not allow for a similar experience, audience interaction remains invaluable. These next ideas apply to platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.

Users will still be able to search for businesses on these social media platforms. While they cannot find obvious star ratings or a dedicated review section, follower comments are still visible.

These comments effectively act as reviews and testimonials. You may also ask your followers directly to share their experiences, positive or negative, in any given thread.

3. Sign Up for Local Directory Listings

Though listings sites may not be as powerful as they once were, they still offer legitimate SEO value.

Examples of local directories are Yelp, Yellow Book, and Foursquare. These sites categorize local businesses by industry to help local customers make connections.

These platforms function similarly to Google My Business or Facebook. You'll need to create a new profile or claim an existing one for your business. You'll then need to verify yourself as the owner.

After claiming or creating the profile, proceed to optimize the page with up-to-date business details. Then, users can readily find your company and leave reviews about their experiences.

Keep in mind that certain industries also have niche platforms available to them. For example, restaurants can sign up for services like UberEats, which lists your full offerings along with qualified customer reviews.

Be sure to run a quick search and investigate which directories apply to your brand. These sites are generally free and offer potential benefits to your overall SEO strategy.

4. Business Rating Sites

Business rating sites are not unlike directory listings. However, these tend to be primarily focused on consumer education and holding businesses accountable.

Examples of the sites we're referring to would include the Better Business Bureau or Trustpilot.

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Because these organizations take business ratings seriously, maintaining high review scores there may prove valuable for your success. They carry trust with consumers simply due to their brand power alone.

You can create your profile for free on sites like the BBB. While you're at it, you can also apply to get your company accredited by the BBB itself.

5. eCommerce Reviews

This tip applies specifically to brands that sell products or services online.

If you sell your products through a third-party distributor like Amazon, Overstock, or eBay, a customer review feature is available by default. Those platform owners want customers to understand the quality and trustworthiness of their sellers upfront.

If you choose to build your eCommerce site through Shopify or Weebly, you should enable customer reviews for each listing. After all, as much as 90% of customers search for reviews first before buying. Listing reviews right next to the product not only helps you collect more of them but may help to drive sales overall.

6. Direct Customer Surveys

Our final tip may seem obvious, but it's often underutilized.

If your brand is looking for new reviews, ask for them.

Too often companies focus purely on the data collection aspect. However, talking with your customers or prospects about their experience is an excellent way to show that you care and are listening.

One strategy is to utilize email marketing to fetch reviews from existing customers. Not only will it benefit you, but it can be an effective way to re-engage customers and keep them thinking about your brand.

If you're having a tough time getting cooperation, consider presenting a limited-time offer. This could be exclusive discounts or vouchers they can obtain in exchange for leaving a customer review.

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Using Customer Reviews in Content Marketing

Now that you've amassed a healthy number of customer reviews, it's time to put them to use.

Customer reviews serve as a persuasive marketing tool. These reviews can offer and help with:

• Social proof that your products or services are quality
• Relatable stories to help customers identify use cases
• Attracting new followers
• Generating new, compelling content
• Opportunities to show you care (particularly when responding to negative reviews)

Customer reviews can offer these benefits by simply existing on any of the aforementioned platforms. However, you can leverage them for even greater effect when leveraging the following strategies.

1. Feature Customer Reviews on Your Website

Your website is like a dynamic business card.

It's the core way that new and existing customers learn about who you are, what you offer, and how you can help them. Website content serves to educate, while also calling your audience to take action toward a purchase.

Customer reviews can help with that act of persuasion.

Consumers are savvier than ever. They're well aware that every brand is going to speak to their believed strengths and how they're better than the competitor. While that's all well and good, letting your customers do that work is more effective.

It's up to you how you choose to present reviews throughout your site. You can choose to have a dedicated section for them. However, we recommend interspersing them throughout the content to drive home key selling points.

For example, if a paragraph is speaking about a specific service, it features a related review. That testimonial serves as the exclamation point and can push prospects to take the next step.

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2. Leverage Customer Reviews in Paid Campaigns

This functions effectively the same as using them on your main website.

However, you’ll want to dial in on reviews that primarily speak to the campaign offer or promotion. These then offer the same powerful social proof as to the ones on your business profiles.

Once you have the review in hand, the creative possibilities are endless. You can utilize the review within the ad itself or disperse them throughout the landing page.

Specifically, try to create video content out of your reviews. If you can, ask clients to shoot a quick view of their experience. Almost everyone carries a smartphone with recording capabilities, and a basic video is all you need. In many cases, a “budget” video may appear more authentic and trustworthy than something that’s produced.

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3. Utilize User-Generated Content

User-generated content is any text, pictures, or videos created by your audience rather than your team.

Thanks to platforms like social media, the everyday individual has more of a voice. They might use that voice to express loyalty or passion for the brands they love. If you're doing your job well, you may find yourself receiving UGC periodically.

You can also incentivize your audience to create UGC.

For example, some brands may choose to promote giveaways. The giveaway itself promotes attention and brings in new leads simply because you're giving back to the community with free goods.

However, rather than just asking for names and numbers, task your followers with content creation.

You can start with something as simple as asking for real customer stories. These are like reviews, but give your followers a greater opportunity to elaborate about themselves and how your company impacted their lives.

Alternatively, you can prompt followers with a creative prompt. A great example of this is Coca-Cola's #ShareaCoke campaign. They added names to all of their bottles and asked users to show themselves sharing a coke with someone in their lives. This resulted in a massive influx of user photos posing with the drink.

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Even though those photos don't have text, the photo tells the entire story. That's the power your brand can have with UGC.

4. Use Customer Feedback to Guide Future Content

This final tip focuses less on presenting reviews to others. Instead, you'll be reading the testimonial for feedback. This applies to both positive and negative reviews.

Look carefully at what your audience is saying. Identifying negative patterns is particularly important as it indicates a problem worth addressing.

Let's look at our own company, DashClicks, for inspiration. While most of our clients fully understand the tools we offer, others may need more direction.

Rather than ignoring and alienating potential customers, we created a video series showing off various use cases for each software. Not only does this allow us to get ahead of potential concerns, but it also helps us create legitimately worthwhile content for our audience.

Look to your reviews and customer experiences for similar inspiration. Then, plan out new and compelling content that speaks directly to what your audience needs.

Get Customer Reviews to Work for You

Customer reviews are a requirement for businesses to survive.

In a world where the internet gives access to so many options, audiences need proof that your brand is worth the cash. Few things are more persuasive than the opinion of an outside party.

Remember, customer reviews offer:

• Social proof that your brand offers quality
• Insight into how others use your products or services
• Emotional connection from hearing audience stories
• A final push to convince prospects to become buyers

You can leverage these benefits in several ways. Primarily, you want to always seek out ways to disperse relevant reviews into your existing content. Let it serve as the punctuation on any selling points.

If you need more customer reviews, make sure that your brand is listed on the available listing sites online. That also includes social media platforms, business review sites, and more. Finally, ask for specific stories from your customers when possible.

As your brand grows, you'll find that more customer reviews will appear organically. Be sure to stay on top of these reviews, respond to your audience, and become a business that puts the customer experience first.

Keywords are the bedrock of a quality SEO strategy.

They influence everything from site structure to the type of content you create. Keywords are what our customers use to find us online.

That means your competitors are also performing their keyword research strategies against you.

Let's discuss competitor keyword research, what it means for your SEO, and how you can use competitor keyword analysis to your benefit.

What is a Competitor Keyword Analysis?

Before we answer this question, let's first define a competitor keyword.

A competitor keyword is any term or phrase that a company in your industry uses to vie for improved SERP rankings. They use these keywords to plan their webpage content, paid ads, blog articles, and more.

This is no different than what you should be doing for your brand's website.

A competitor keyword analysis is a process of actively researching the keywords a competitor is targeting. You can use that knowledge to investigate how the brand is using those keywords.

If a competitor outranks your brand, you can investigate their keyword research to discern what makes their content superior to Google.

Conversely, you can identify weaknesses in their keyword strategy and exploit them to improve your rankings. If your team can create more engaging, high-quality content, you may be able to leapfrog them in SERPs.

Effectively, a competitor keyword analysis is like a road map. Take a look at your surroundings, determine what gets results and what doesn't, and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

How to Perform Competitor Keyword Research?

Competitor keyword research is a straightforward process. However, there are a few steps you'll need to take before you can get down to the finer details.

Step 1 - Identify Your Top Competitors

The first step is to determine which competitors in your industry are in direct competition with you online.

Your top competitors will demonstrate these characteristics:

• They offer products or services that are similar to yours
• They target a similar audience
• They’re close in ranking for the same or similar keywords
• You can reasonably compete with an effective strategy and budget

Your closest competitors will also vary based on how large of an area you serve.

If you are a local brand, you'll want to focus on businesses in your industry within the same county and surrounding areas. You can perform a quick Google search to bring up the nearest companies. Bear in mind that the brands ranking well online may differ from the ones you may be directly aware of or interact with in person.

For example, if you're a brewery, you could search breweries near meā  or brewery zip code.ā  Google will pull up a list of the nearest competitors. Specifically, you'll be interested in the local 3-pack that appears at the top of the SERP.

Brands that earn the 3-pack ranking demonstrate exceptional SEO. This is the result of many factors including NAP optimization, user reviews, and effective keyword selections. You can also check out high-ranking results just below that just miss the cut for these positions.

National or eCommerce competitor analysis is similar with the exception that there is no local 3-pack. You'll want to search for online retailers that deal with the same or similar products as your business.

Bear in mind that the size and scope of the brand are important when determining competition. Your small online startup is not going to have the resources necessary to dethrone a corporate juggernaut like Amazon.

Focus on brands like you that manage to obtain and withhold the top organic rankings. It's their strategies that you'll want to investigate if you want to improve.

Step 2 - Investigate Competitor Websites with SEO Tools

With your top competitors identified, you should have a list of domains in hand.

There are myriad free and paid SEO tools to assist with competitor keyword research.

1. Semrush

Semrush is an amazing keyword research tool that allows you to research by specific terms or via domain.

You can take one of your competitor domains, enter into the organic research field, and instantly generate a list of keywords found on their site.

Alternatively, you can enter your domain. Then, underneath Domain Analytics, choose Competitors. This will generate a list of keyword rankings for your site and compare them to other domains that are just above or below you in SERPs.

Semrush allows you to see a variety of insightful metrics including:

• Position rankings
• Average search volume
• Keyword difficulty
• Cost-per-click
• Traffic percentage by domain
• How many times a domain appears as a result for a keyword

Semrush also offers a variety of filters that allow you to customize your search by specific geographic locations.

It starts at $119/95/month with the ability to track up to 500 unique keywords. However, they do offer a free trial so that you can determine if this platform is right for your business.

2. WordStream

WordStream is a platform that puts a greater emphasis on PPC marketing.

However, they do offer a free keyword tool with many of the same features and benefits as Semrush.

The research process is similar. You can enter any keyword or URL into the search tool and instantly find a list of relevant search terms.

It offers some of the same key metrics including search volume and CPC. It also has a competition metric, showing how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword. This is comparable to Semrush's keyword difficulty.

Step 3 - Compile Your Research

After you research your listed competitor domains, you need to organize your findings.

Compile all of the discovered keywords and their associated metrics into a format that's easy for your team to follow. Your SEO tool of choice will likely offer the ability to take all of your collected data and export it into a user-friendly Excel file. You can then import data from Excel into various analytics tools to further manipulate and analyze the information for deeper insights.

Semrush offers its Keyword Gap tool for this express purpose. After entering the root domains of the competitors you wish to track, simply export the data into a file format of your choosing.

Likewise, you can download any WordStream reports as a CSV file, which can be easily uploaded into Microsoft Excel. If you're working on a paid ads campaign, know that these files can also interact with Google Ads to assist with planning.

Step 4 - Analyze the Competitor Keyword Data

Now that we've isolated the data, we can begin to conduct a proper assessment of our top competitors.

For starters, it's a smart idea to eliminate keywords with a high difficulty from contention. However, do not delete the data. While it's unwise to burn resources on keywords that won't generate the best ROI, you might be better positioned to target them at a later date.

Keywords that feature a high difficulty are in strong contention by several parties. Those brands have likely been pursuing those keywords for some time, making it virtually impossible for you to make any headway at this time.

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With those terms eliminated, you should now have a much shorter list comparably.

Next, begin the process of reviewing keywords used by specific competitors. Some of these may be terms that your team is already trying to use for rankings. There may also be additional terms that are not present in your SEO strategy.

Think carefully about which missing terms are most applicable to your brand. If the keyword seems to describe something tangentially, but not directly related to your business, you can eliminate it from contention.

This should leave you with a list of the following:

• Keywords used by both your brand and competitors
• Keywords you’re not currently using, but present real opportunities for better rankings

Step 5 - Check Out Competitor Keyword Usage in Action

The final step in this process is to investigate how your competitors utilize the keyword for rankings.

This applies to both types of keywords we narrowed down in the previous step. Particularly, you'll want to focus on competitors that currently outrank you for terms you have in common.

You can do this by navigating to the URL that is ranking for the keyword in question.

Consider what the competitor is doing with the content. Many factors can contribute to superior content rankings including:

• The subject matter
• The quality of the content
• Content layout (headlines, sub-headers, clean organization)
• Internal linking and anchoring
• Keyword frequency
• Secondary and tertiary keyword usage

Also, look for other success indicators such as likes or shares. If a page or a particular piece of content is gaining large engagement numbers, you'll want to take note. Let the consumer tell you what content they want to see.

Of course, additional off-page factors may contribute to superior rankings and domain authority for a competitor. Among these are backlinks, meaning that other sources share the competitor's content with their audience.

Keywords by themselves simply tell you where to aim. However, by taking the time to better understand why a domain ranks higher for a keyword, you can gain real insight as to how you can adjust your strategy.

Also, do not simply attempt to copy or imitate the competitor directly. Focus on the aspects of your brand that help it stand out. Then, use that unique perspective to add flavor to content that only you can provide.

Finally, don't ignore or rule out competitors that you're currently beating. Rankings can change overnight with how frequently Google's algorithm changes. Stay up-to-date with their keyword and content strategies, and always assume that you could fall back in rankings at any time.

Conclusion - Should You Use Competitor Keywords?

A competitor keyword analysis is critical for any successful SEO strategy.

To improve your ROI, you need to make gains in your organic traffic and rankings. You cannot achieve this without proper keyword selection. Capitalizing on the right search terms will help you connect with the right users and help you outshine competitors in the same industry.

Whether or not you should use a competitor keyword depends upon key factors.

• Does the keyword directly pertain to my business?
• How difficult is it to rank for this keyword?
• Can I use my unique value proposition to outrank my competitor for this keyword?

If the keyword satisfies one or more of these conditions, you may want it to consider for use either now or down the line.

Finally, high keyword rankings among competitors will tell you a lot about their marketing strategies. Pay close attention to the type of content they create, how they present it, what makes it strong, and when it presents a weakness.

Then, use all of this information to guide your content creation process. Consider how you can differentiate your brand from the competition, and add that unique spin to your keyword-focused content.