Google is the world's most popular search engine with over 86% of the market share. Just behind that is YouTube, which coincidentally is also the property of Google. But, why does this matter to you?

According to experts, the number one Google search result accumulates as much as 33% of that search traffic. The next nine results fall off of a cliff by comparison, with the second bringing in 18%, the third at 11%, while traffic continues to fall to virtually nothing after the tenth rank.

As a business owner, this spells doom for your online marketing if you don't know how to get your rankings in gear fast. Fortunately, those who came before you cracked the secrets of helping your website perform better and rank higher, so that you, too, can learn how to improve your Google rankings without getting penalized.

How Does Google Determine Its Rankings?

It may not be exactly what you want to hear, but no one knows the exact formula for how Google ranks every website. If there were Google ranking hacks or tricks on how to rank higher on Google, everyone would already be doing exactly that.

What we do know is that Google uses an extremely sophisticated algorithm to filter through the overwhelming amount of data on the web and rank it accordingly. What's more, Google is making changes to improve that algorithm for their goals almost every single day of the year.

We can, however, approximate how to improve our rankings by considering Google’s mission statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and usable.” From this, we can begin to extrapolate Google’s intention to find and highlight the most reliable data that is accurate, verified, and easy to use.

For marketing experts, it becomes much easier to determine what we then can do to start improving the quality of a website in the eyes of the algorithm. In addition to this, resources exist that can help you stay up to date with every change Google pushes to the algorithm. Keeping up to date with what's happening can make the process of understanding and fixing issues with your website that much easier.

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What Can I Do to Improve My Google Ranking?

While our deductions may seem vague or out of reach, we are going to provide the ultimate guide for how to improve your Google rankings without getting penalized. With hard work, dedication, and a commitment to following these concepts, you can expect to see a steady, predictable rise in your website ranking over time.

1. You Need to Make Your Website Faster

Nobody has the time or patience for a website with poor load times. Pingdom states that the ideal website should take no longer than two seconds to load on any device. Any longer than this increases your bounce rate by as much as 32%. Even longer than that is a guarantee that no one is spending time learning about your brand whatsoever.

Fortunately, Google's PageSpeed Insights tool is a powerful method of determining your website's current health. This tool will score your website out of 100, with 90 to 100 being good, 50 to 89 requiring improvement, and anything less being poor. However, they won't leave you out to dry. In addition to the score, you'll receive comprehensive diagnostics and suggestions on how you can improve your page speeds.

It is worth your time to diagnose your webpage and address each item that fails the audit. Red items are critical errors that you must address immediately, while yellow errors may not be as imperative. Nevertheless, if you're pursuing the number one ranking, it is in your best interest to correct these issues or recruit a developer that is capable of optimizing your web pages for improved speed.

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Failure to improve your loading times provides a miserable browsing experience and fails to meet Google's goal of making important data easily accessible. It also provides a very poor first impression of your products or services by neglecting to optimize your user experience first.

2. Optimize Your Site for Better Mobile Performance

Your website will not perform well in 2021 or beyond if you provide your users with a less-than-satisfactory mobile browsing experience. This is because as much as 55% of all web traffic now comes from a mobile device. More people are on the go and operating remotely than ever, often using cellular devices, tablets, and mini-laptops that feature a unique browsing experience that's separate from your desktop one.

You also must consider that the traffic coming from these devices relies on slower, cellular data connections. While 5G transmissions are an improvement, most are still stuck using 4G, with both being vastly inferior to a LAN or even Wi-Fi connection. However, your audience will still play by the page speed rules described above regardless of what device they are using to browse.

Fortunately, Google also provides us with an easy-to-use tool to test our websites to help improve browsing for all. While this tool provides a fairly general audit, you can also input your domain into Google Search Console to get a more in-depth mobile accessibility report.

While many mainstream website builders like WordPress provide ready-to-go, mobile-optimized templates, there are several things you can easily do to improve your mobile experience.

First, be sure to follow our first tip by prioritizing your page loading speeds above all else. The type of content on the page will ultimately prove inconsequential if users bounce from the site before it has a chance to load. Correcting issues with your script, compressing image sizes, and maintaining a simple layout will both improve your speed and lend your website to a better mobile experience.

Also, look into whether or not your website builder allows for a customized version of your mobile site as opposed to the desktop experience. With this, you may be able to provide a more elaborate desktop experience, while choosing to keep things simple and clean for your mobile visitors. You can and should also increase font and button sizes on the mobile version for improved accessibility.

For those savvier with CSS and HTML, we also recommend setting media queries for your website. This essentially tells the browser to check what type of device is being used and loads a customized style sheet made specifically for that device. This will ensure that the website does not attempt to load any unwanted elements that will hinder the browsing experience.

Finally, avoid using Flash at all costs. It is generally regarded as outdated technology that does little more than add unnecessary load times to your website.

3. Track Your Penalties and Correct Them

There once was a time where individuals used strategies known as “Black-Hat SEO” to take advantage of Google’s algorithm and force websites to the top. However, it was only a matter of time before those strategies were crushed to improve the quality of search results for all.

For this reason (as well as many others) Google takes violation of their policies seriously and demands that every website meet its standards for quality before it can be ranked. There are two major types of penalties you may receive:

• Algorithmic Penalty – These occur as a result of algorithmic changes put into effect by Google. Your site may be fine one day, but incur an automatic penalty if it happens to violate anything reflected in a new algorithmic update. To fix these, you simply need to verify the penalty and perform the appropriate action to update your website.
• Manual Penalty – This is a penalty issued directly by Google personnel. This means an actual person was involved with the penalty as opposed to being triggered by the algorithm. In this event, you must not only fix the problem, but you must also file a Reconsideration Request with an explanation of what went wrong. If you can sufficiently explain the mistake, how it occurred, and the actions you took to correct it, Google will reverse the penalty.

To verify if you have a penalty, be sure to visit the Google Search Console regularly. If a Google employee issues a penalty, you will receive a notification here. Also, be sure to stay up-to-date with the algorithmic changes linked above to determine if you may have violated something described in a recent change. Search Engine Journal provides us with an extensive list of the possible penalties you might incur from Google.

Many of these penalties are uncommon as they will only occur if you intentionally perform them. This can include intentional keyword stuffing, spamming either through cloaking or link-spamming, low-quality content that exists to simply fill a page or stuff keywords, manipulative outbound linking, or publishing content that violates Google policies (pornography, extreme violence, criminal activity, promoting falsified medical tips, etc.)

With that in mind, the most common type of penalty occurs as a result of backlinking. When someone links to your website from theirs, they are backlinking to you. If you link to their website, you are backlinking them. The penalty happens when one of these websites backlinks to you yet fails Google's quality audits.

If you're wondering why a poor-quality website would link to your website without permission, you're not alone. This generally would occur for one of two reasons. The other website owner is using your quality domain to improve the quality of their domain.

The other cause would involve you intentionally stuffing links to your domain on as many websites as possible to improve your quality score. This used to be a common black-hat SEO technique, but this does not work any longer and will result in serious, lasting penalties for your domain.

Unfortunately, there's no quick remedy for dealing with toxic backlinks. You will need to use Google's Webmaster Tools to download a complete list of linked websites and manually verify each website yourself. In addition to this, you will need to contact the owner of the domain directly to request that they remove the link to your website.

In some cases, the domain owner may be polite and cooperative. However, in most cases, you can expect them to ignore your request, or worse, attempt to hold the link for ransom. In either of these cases, be sure to keep a record of your initial email request, and proceed to disavow the entire domain. You will need to submit your request and evidence in a formal Google Disavow report within Google Webmaster Tools.

Do not just send a general email to Google. Get informed regarding Google's policies, document the penalty, keep a record of your attempts to remedy the situation, and file a formal request with all of these materials, and you can expect the issue to be resolved in several weeks.

4. Track Keyword Rankings for Both You and Your Competitors

Now that we've taken steps to optimize and improve our website from the backend, it's time to start looking into what we can do to improve our quality on-page. All web searches start with the act of a user typing in specific keywords. Google then attempts to take that query and yield the most valuable results possible.

Knowing this, we can also know that efforts to improve our own Google ranking involve making use of those keywords. It's essential to research to determine what keywords users are already using to find our website as well keywords we could be using that are immediately relevant to the industry. You can do this by taking advantage of popular SEO tools like Moz, Semrush, or Ahrefs.

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You'll be able to track your current position for each keyword, the search volume for that keyword overall, and the amount of traffic your website receives as a result of that keyword search. It's equally important to use the data to determine how your closest competitors rank for those same keywords.

Depending on how stiff the competition is for certain keywords or phrases, you may wish to adjust your strategy to pursue more viable options. For keywords that you are already ranking highly for, you will want to continue reinforcing the traffic gained from those as they've already proven reliable.

You can improve your keyword rankings by creating relevant, well-researched content centered around specific terms. For example, a landscaping company might try to rank for “lawn maintenance” by creating the article “10 Must-Know Tips for Better Lawn Maintenance.” A great way to look for topics is by looking for questions that auto-fill in Google searches as well in as the “People Also Ask…” section.

You can also naturally include the keyword on your site by placing it when appropriate in your metadata or alt tags for images. However, remember that “keyword stuffing” will result in a penalty. Be sure to use the keyword naturally and whenever appropriate.

Finally, coordinate with your other marketing efforts to promote your new posts and help them gain additional traffic. Google not only looks at the keyword usage but also views traffic and engagement with the content in question. The best strategy for improving this is by ensuring your content is of high quality, links to other authoritative sources, and answers the user's pressing questions concisely and clearly.

5. Link Building

Link building is an effective strategy for improving SEO, and therefore your Google rank. The idea is for you to get as many high-quality websites to link back to your domain as possible. By providing a consistent flow of valuable content and services, you make your website link-worthy without ever needing to ask for it. When starting, however, you'll need to make connections directly.

However, you must avoid the temptation to utilize older strategies such as submitting your domain to web directories or overusing links on other domains that may not be considered valuable. This is due to a major algorithmic change known as Penguin, which specifically targets and penalizes SEO specialists that abuse link-building strategies for superior rankings.

With that in mind, you can still implement a link-building strategy by forging connections with other reputable sites or blogs. Reach out to these individuals or teams, allow them to learn about your brand, products, or services, and allow your value to speak for itself. You can also bolster your value by continuing to present yourself as an authority with well-researched content that these website owners will want to share and reference in their content.

This can be one of the most difficult strategies to implement as you must earn high-quality links by providing something worthy of linking to in the first place. If you can build these relationships, it's undeniable that links from trusted websites will improve your Google rank. If you discover opportunities, reach out to the webmaster, remain professional in your pitch, and do your best to learn from the interaction if they decline your offer.

6. Rework Your Existing Articles

Continuing from the subject of link-building, consider revisiting the content that already exists on your website. You should always be looking for opportunities to revise or improve content related to your brand and ensure that it is always up-to-date. Likewise, your blog articles may now feature outdated information, or worse, lack any substantial data altogether.

When creating content for your site, consider the information you want to see and the content Google prioritizes and places in the number one ranking. This information is always extremely concise, generally easy to understand regardless of education, and is supported by personal or scholarly research. The content is rich with examples, actionable data that people can use immediately, and links to sources that you can trust and support the on-page material.

Look through your past content and look for opportunities to build up and support what you've already written. If you need to research the topic before featuring it, include the sources used whenever appropriate for the reader to see. If you are an expert yourself, ensure that your website features your licenses or qualifications in places that are easy for the user to view and verify.

Authoritative content speaks for itself and is the type of content that is most likely to be shared and linked. By providing Google with what it needs to answer user questions, you will rank higher for those keywords and improve the authority of your website overall.

7. Improve Your On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the art of optimizing your website and its content for search engines and web crawlers. You may be able to write excellent content with valuable information, but it will mean very little if Google is unable to determine what your website is all about.

That isn't to say that the bulk of your content is unimportant. Google will still identify valuable keywords used correctly throughout the article. However, organizing the content and wrapping it into the appropriate headings makes it that much easier for Google to be confident about what is on the page.

If you view this article you are reading as an example, notice that we identify it with a title tag, H1 header tags to group major topics, and H2 tags for concepts within that topic. H3 and H4 headers also exist to illustrate the flow of your content from most to least significant. Search engines and web crawlers can immediately identify those tags and understand the content on-page immediately.

Outside of the article itself, you should always have an SEO widget available depending on the website builder or text editor you are using. This widget will allow you to customize things such as title tag, meta description, and URL. You should always customize this information and follow these basic rules for the best results:

A. Title Tags

Title tags should always be somewhere between 50-60 characters. It should include the topic of the page, important keywords, and branding. An example of this might look like this:

In the title tag, we take the opportunity to brand our article as we do for every piece of content we publish. We use a separator to distinguish the branding from the title. Google can see the exact topic title, which also happens to include the keyword phrase “Google Ranking.” You may wish to include your entire topic title, but this is not always possible as it can go over the recommended character limit. When viewing your article in a search engine result, you want to see everything on one line and avoid any cut-offs or ellipses.

B. Meta Description

Meta descriptions are the short snippet you see below a search result. You should keep these around 120 to 150 characters and succinctly summarize the content. Be sure to use your primary keyword and include a call-to-action such as “Learn how your brand can become number one.” Be sure to use active voice, avoid misleading terms, and attempt to explain the value of your content in as few words as possible.

You can use this free tool courtesy of To the Web to get you started. There are also popular paid alternatives such as Yoast that can help you with all aspects of your on-page SEO.

C. URL

The URL of each page on your website is also important for improving your SEO. A URL should be succinct, contain a primary keyword, be free of stop words, and use hyphens to separate words. It’s also ideal to keep your URL structure uniform throughout your entire website.

Here’s an example of a solid URL structure:

www.dashclicks.com/blog/how-to-improve-google-rankings

This contains our domain, the category of the page (blog post), and a string that tells us exactly what the content contains. We omitted certain words to keep the URL succinct without losing the meaning of the topic. It also contains our primary keyword “Google rankings.” Be sure to follow this format for every new page you publish on your site.

D. Images and ALT Tags

High-quality images improve the quality of your website in several ways. Great images will support the written content by attracting the reader’s attention, serving as visual examples, and providing a necessary break from long stretches of text. Pages with images demonstrate a far greater retention rate than those without.

You can also improve your accessibility and SEO by ensuring that each image features an alt tag. This text is meant to describe what is being shown in the image if the user cannot see the image from their side. That alt description is also another opportunity to tell search engines and crawlers about the content on the page with a short, accurate description that features your primary keyword. Google strongly values the use of alt tags in all circumstances.

However, be certain that your images are properly compressed and do not negatively affect your load times as we discussed above.

E. Internal Linking

Linking one page back to other relevant pages on your website can also boost your SEO. It’s a highly effective practice to categorize your pages and posts, and also include subcategories whenever necessary. Not only does this make it easier for users to navigate your site, but it also makes it easier for search engines and web crawlers, too.

A page should include internal links back to the main category page as well as the home page. Most website owners easily achieve the latter by ensuring that the header contains a link back to the home page through the brand logo as well as the main navigation bar. You can set your header to always be visible on every page. This creates a nice sitemap and layout that’s easy to follow.

F. Include Attractive Call-to-Action

This last one focuses more on encouraging engagement, which will also help to boost your website’s value. Every single page of your website should contain some type of CTA. Your goal as a business is to generate leads and each page should be encouraging the user to engage with your brand in one way or another.

What you should do is avoid generalized CTA’s. Many website owners make the mistake of copy-pasting a basic “Learn More” button throughout every page of the website. However, this fails to take advantage of the unique content that’s presented throughout the website. Different users may click through to learn more about specific services and your CTA’s should reflect their journey in ultimately purchasing that service.

For example, if your page has a short form for the user to fill out in exchange for a free ebook, do not write something plain like “Sign Up” Instead, try “Sign Up Today for Your Exclusive, Free Guide!” The latter encourages a user that might be on the fence to take action now. It also accentuates the value by declaring that the ebook is an exclusive item for those who participate and it is also entirely free. While it won’t convince everyone, many users will take the plunge and give up a few personal details in exchange for a free reward.

A Call-to-Action serves as a reminder for the person on the page to do what you want them to do. If you want them to purchase your product, make sure you have plenty of CTA’s that provide them with the opportunity to do so. If you’re running a special offer or promotion, don’t hesitate to remind them of the available value. You might be benefitting from the sale, but you are also helping them to help themself by taking advantage of the deal.

Carefully crafted CTA’s are proven to help drive engagement throughout your site and give you the results you need. When more users engage, they spend more time on your website, which makes Google see your domain as valuable and worth recommending to new users.

G. Create a Sitemap

An XML Sitemap is a blueprint that you create to assist search engines and web crawlers with reading and indexing your website pages. It’s uncertain how big of an impact creating a sitemap has, but on your quest to rank one, you need to take advantage of every available tool.

A sitemap may become increasingly important as your website expands in length. A basic five-page website will likely be trivial for web crawlers to navigate, but a 100-page website may prove more complicated. It also becomes increasingly important to distinguish your most important pages from less consequential ones as your site expands.

A variety of tools exist to help you quickly build sitemaps such as Google XML Sitemaps and Yoast. Not only will it automatically create your sitemap, but it will also show you what pages on your website are valid and which may have issues worth addressing. Common issues can include duplicated content or URLs. Though it is more of an advanced issue, there may be situations in which you need to exclude a page from the sitemap entirely. Doing so will help web crawlers better understand your site and help you avoid penalties for duplicate or low-quality content.

Updating your sitemap regularly can also assist in improving your SEO faster. It can take weeks to see positive results from website changes be reflected in your SEO score. By updating your sitemap and crawling your site with Google Search Console, Google sees the updates to your site sooner. This can potentially help you reap your rewards and climb in the ranks faster than the competition.

8. Create and Optimize Your Directory Listing Profiles

Directory listings are not directly involved with your website, but they do have an impact on your domain’s value. Directory listings are websites that compile a list of businesses by the industry for your local area. Examples of these include Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and Yellow Pages.

Search engine crawlers are constantly cross-examining data about any given subject they find online. This means that any data related to your business must be consistent and accurate throughout the internet. The more sources that feature accurate data regarding your business, the more trust Google places in your domain.

With this in mind, it is in your best interest to sign up for every directory listing available to you and ensure that your business profile is up-to-date. This includes providing a primary business telephone, email, business hours, address, a business summary, a list of products and services, and images of your location. There are also tools available online that allow you to create one business profile and publish it across all directory listings available simultaneously.

Not only can directory listings provide a boost to your SEO and Google ranking, but it also provides additional discoverability for your brand. Many users often defer to listings to find businesses that cater to their interests without ever actually clicking on a website. Do yourself the favor of completing your listings to not only help your rankings but help a potential new audience discover you today.

9. Stay Engaged on Social Media Platforms

Social media may not provide a one-to-one benefit for your SEO and Google rankings, but its role in your marketing strategy should not be understated. Platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram serve to bolster brand awareness. Not only can you regularly distribute “micro-content” to your audience, but you can use your social media following to direct traffic to your website pages.

For example, you can coordinate your social media marketing with your content marketing efforts to promote your new article to an audience. Not only can users discover your article through a Google search, but new audiences are also now seeing that page promoted directly on their timeline. This can increase your flow of organic traffic, which, in turn, will improve your SEO and domain value.

In addition to this, a well-optimized social profile may also rank on Google for certain keywords relevant to your industry. Even if a user discovers your social profile first, your posting strategy will direct these new audience members to your website in the long run. Social profiles are also proven to do a better job of building a sense of trust between the consumer and the brand.

Research each social platform and determine which contain audiences that may be most receptive to your brand and industry. Ensure that your profile contains all of your relevant business information, not unlike a directory listing. Then, be sure to remain engaged with your audience by posting regularly, replying to user comments, concerns, and suggestions, and sharing your content with those who want to see it.

How to Improve Your Google Rankings Without Getting Penalized?

While we may never solve Google’s search algorithm, employing these practices will put you on the same playing field as your top-ranked competitors. We guarantee that if you follow these tips and suggestions correctly, you are guaranteed to improve your Google ranking.

However, it is important to note that no business ever saw a surge in rankings overnight. SEO is a long-term marketing strategy and a necessary one if you want your brand to gain awareness online. Improving your ranking requires a dedicated plan and relentless commitment toward improvement. You should never look at the work on your website as done but always look for opportunities to improve.

This also includes keeping an eye on your competitors to see what types of content garner attention for them. Study and observe what works and make an effort to create similar content that capitalizes on the unique benefits that only your brand can offer.

Finally, be sure to use the link we provided to keep up-to-date with the latest Google algorithm changes to ensure your website complies with Google’s expectations. With your newfound knowledge and strategy, you can avoid those pesky penalties and watch your Google rankings climb in a steady, predictable manner.

Scaling your startup is an essential step for every business. However, it's also the step that leads to the downfall of countless great business ventures due to poor planning, lack of knowledge, and the absence of a strong digital marketing strategy. Experts report that even in a normal year, eleven out of twelve startups fail.

The past eighteen months compounded this issue, stopping countless brands in their tracks and even causing the premature demise of long-standing staples in the community. It is hard enough for a startup to survive the initial scaling process, but is it possible to do so effectively even in a crisis event?

Below, we'll dive into ten of the best low-budget digital marketing tips to scale your startup in times of crisis.

1. Adjust the Way You Communicate with Your Audience

In times of crisis, consider how every individual is impacted, not just your bottom line. A greater percentage of your audience is likely to be struggling with employment issues or facing economic hardships. With that in mind, the last thing people want is to be inundated with advertisements that encourage them to spend more money on your startup business. However, going radio silent is not an option, either.

Instead, use this opportunity to adjust the way you approach your audience. Make the effort to speak about current events and remind your audience that you are there for them. This includes going out of your way to share frequent updates about how the crisis is impacting your business and its ability to interact with customers. This can include changes to business hours, changes to services, expected shipping delays, and any other information that can help the individual plan ahead.

A strong tip for any business owner, even who has just finished an MVP process, or marketer, in times of crisis or not, is to invest in the customer. Always remember that they are an individual with their own story and a problem that needs solving. Your brand offers a solution to that problem. Let them know that you will remain as reliable as always, and they will likely become more loyal to you than ever.

You can reflect these changes in communication by doubling down on your email marketing campaign efforts. You can use these to highly target specific users at various stages of the buyer's journey. Remember to adjust the way you communicate to different types of consumers to reflect the context of world events whenever possible or relevant. Remind your audience that while you may be a business, there are still people behind that business that cares.

2. SEO Remains As Vital As Always

No matter what is happening throughout the world, SEO (search engine optimization) is always going to be a primary strategy for bolstering your startup online.

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your brand's website to ensure that you receive the maximum amount of traffic possible. Search engines determine your SEO value through several factors including the quality of content on the site, loading speeds, image and video sizes, and overall user engagement.

SEO is also extremely cost-effective, making it an essential marketing strategy regardless of your current financial situation. However, in the context of a crisis, other businesses and startups may scale back key marketing efforts like their SEO. This is a mistake.

Working to the top of the ranks through strong SEO is an ongoing battle against competitors. Brands that make it to the top of search results only stay there through relentless strategic effort. Dialing back those efforts can cause anyone to fall down the ranks in a matter of days. With this in mind, sticking to your SEO efforts in the time of a crisis may yet yield the best results for your brand.

While other companies begin to slide due to poor budget management or poor strategy decisions, you can capitalize on their mistakes and help your startup begin to scale.

3. Double Down on Content Marketing

If you spend any time at all researching marketing strategies for your startup, you will undoubtedly see the phrase Content is king. The value of a strong content marketing strategy cannot be overstated.

You can think of content marketing as the soft sell whereas a paid advertising campaign would be a hard sell. Content marketing is there to provide your audience with valuable content that keeps them engaged. This content can and should be educational, entertaining, and provide value to their everyday life. Content marketing can include articles, blog posts, video clips, podcasts, and much more.

Content can provide you with an advantage as you can naturally tailor your content to reflect real-world events and experiences. If you look at the COVID-19 epidemic as an example, you will notice that every proactive business made the effort to create content that was relevant to our rapidly changing environment. However, rather than just including the crisis for the sake of using the keyword, you should look for an opportunity to make your startup's services or products relevant to the problems people may be facing during the crisis.

A strong content calendar also feeds directly into tip number two and will continue to bolster your SEO efforts. As you continue to provide free content of value to your audience, your audience will continue to support your brand and help drive you to the top of search rankings.

4. Stay Strong on Social Media, Too

While portions of your audience may be dealing with a major crisis in their way, their online activity is certainly not impacted. Being stuck at home is significantly driving up the number of hours we spend visiting websites from laptops and desktop computers. For social media, experts suggest that we are spending as much as two additional hours per day on social media.

Social media is now a vital part of any solid digital marketing strategy. Facebook already stands as one of the most widely used paid advertising platforms online, while other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube continue to grow. It is inherently a conversational platform and provides a great opportunity for your brand to provide instantaneous communication and build real relationships.

As technology improves, consumers are becoming savvier regarding marketing strategies every day. Rather than desperately advertising your startup to survive, make the concerted effort to prove your brand to be unique, trustworthy, and loyal. In a crisis when times are tough for everyone, consumers are eagerly looking for those who have their best interests in mind. The sales will come naturally to your startup if you provide something real to your consumers first.

5. Take Advantage of PPC Platforms

This tip may sound counterintuitive for a startup during a crisis where the budget is tight, but consider that marketing budgets are tight for everyone.

PPC campaigns generally work through a bidding system. You and your direct competitors place bids on specific keywords, and the highest bidder wins that advertising spot at the top of keywords. During times where other businesses may scale back their budget, there may be an opportunity for you to capitalize and secure premium advertising for a lower cost than you normally would.

Additionally, platforms like Google and Facebook feature built-in smart technology that automatically tracks and gathers all the valuable data you need for your campaigns. You can set your budget for the month to ensure that you never overspend. As you gather data, you can further tailor your campaigns to hyper-target customers that are ready to engage, while also looking for potential new audiences with the actionable data you gather.

This tip may not be the solution for every startup, but it is worthwhile to research and determine if the potential ROI is worthwhile. Attempting to make others' disadvantages your key to scaling your startup today.

6. Begin Looking for New Audiences

If you're considering scaling your startup, then you should already feel completely secure in your products and services and the audience consuming them. If you experience any hesitation regarding this fact, then you are running the risk of scaling your business prematurely. However, for those that are ready, it may be time to start branching out and expanding your business's reach.

Continuing from the previous point regarding paid ads, your past campaigns should feature a treasure trove of valuable information and statistics regarding your current consumer base. You can take advantage of that data and use your ad accounts to apply that data to new users. These are called lookalike audiences and these new users will feature characteristics that they have in common with those who already buy your products.

Combining these tools with the fact that more consumers are spending more time online during a time of crisis, you have a great opportunity to connect with more prospects. Additionally, when you're confident in the heart and soul of your brand, you can begin to explore how your startup can help individuals outside of your usual scope. A key part of this is learning to adapt to new digital channels that new potential customers spend their time on.

Remember the basics - stay authentic to your brand, spend more time listening to your audience and learning about their needs, and let them tell you how your brand might be able to improve their lives.

7. Reassess Your Marketing Metrics

While many of our tips encourage you to be bold during a time of crisis, you still need to remain sensible and constantly analyze all of the metrics that you receive from your marketing efforts. If a campaign is not working out, look at the data, analyze what works and what doesn't, and scrub out anything that's not getting you the profitable results you need.

You're not left to guesswork, either. Social media and paid ad platforms offer A/B testing tools, which allow you to push different versions of a single ad to your audience. Your campaign will gather data in real-time and allow you to determine what aspects of your marketing and which do not.

Your audience itself is the best form of feedback possible. With the conversational nature of social platforms, you should remain engaged and allow your audience to tell you what works and what doesn't. Digital marketing is a constant, never-ending analytical process and a rapidly changing landscape. If you find yourself standing still, you've already missed the boat for the next opportunity.

8. Adjust Your Offerings if Applicable

While countless businesses failed during the recent crisis, others were able to adapt and thrive despite the circumstances. Adaptability is one of the most powerful characteristics a startup needs to survive. However, this trait will not just help you during this initial scaling process but will benefit you throughout the lifespan of your business.

A strong example of this comes with the foodservice industry. Countless restaurants and dining facilities were able to mobilize and enact a plan to offer safe and effective take-out solutions for the community. They analyzed the situation, saw that many consumers were restricted to their homes and missing the outside world, and provided a simple solution that benefitted both parties.

In an office or school setting, teams were able to rapidly adjust with the help of technology. Employers and employees were able to function just as effectively through online communication. They could then extend their services to customers who were interested in continuing service with the company through the web.

Even if you did not originally envision your startup functioning a certain way, take a deep look at the crisis and see if your brand can offer new solutions for customers despite the circumstances. If you are unable to adapt to challenging circumstances, there will always be a competitor that is happy to step up and help your customers out instead.

9. Educate Yourself and Secure Emergency Funding

In times of crisis, your government may have a variety of solutions available to help your startup survive. It is in the best interest of the community for businesses to survive and for economic activity to continue. Therefore, as a business owner, you must educate yourself regarding solutions that may be available to you including emergency funding, tax breaks, or emergency suspensions of fees you may otherwise be responsible for.

For example, the Small Business Administration features a variety of programs that can assist with payroll, debt relief, emergency funding and grants, and much more. Accepting help where you need it is not accepting failure, but being a smart business owner that protects the best interests of yourself and your employees.

Source: Marketers Mindset Webinars

10. Be Dependable to Those Who Need You

While other businesses make the mistake of reacting poorly to a crisis, it's that lack of stability and reliability that contributes greatly to failure. Remember that even the most loyal audience does not give you their business out of charity, but out of an expected level of quality and dependence on the product or service you provide.

With that in mind, it's essential to maintain a level head, analyze the crisis, and find ways to adapt your strategies to your new circumstances. Your audience, and also your team, is already experiencing rapid change and anxiety as a result of these new experiences. That provides your brand with the opportunity to solidify itself as a dependable rock for the community.

Continue to provide valuable content and regular updates to those who interact with you online. Stay involved in the conversation on social media and be sure to remain totally aware of how your audience receives your communications. Finally, offer meaningful solutions to new problems your audience may be facing whenever possible as a result of this new crisis. Being reliable and valuable no matter what will single-handedly give you a huge advantage over competitors who cannot adapt.

As a business owner, you know that digital marketing is no longer optional in 2021. However, you can only continue your ongoing success by choosing the form of marketing that's going to get you the best return on your investment.

In this article, we will give you the inside knowledge you need to become an expert when it comes to content marketing vs paid ads. You will also learn how the two work effectively together to make a good business like yours stand out among the best.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a mostly free method of advertising your business online. The focus of content marketing is to educate and/or entertain your audience as opposed to being an explicit promotion of your brand.

This form of marketing includes anything that attracts and retains an audience including blog posts, well-researched articles, video content, social media posts, and more. You and your team can produce all of this content, and the advent of technology has made it easier than ever for anyone to produce quality content marketing.

Not only is content marketing accessible, but it is also effectively mandatory. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 91% of B2B survey respondents use some form of content marketing to drive profits.

Sources: Content Marketing Institute

The Pros and Cons of Content Marketing

The Pros

Perhaps the most attractive benefit of content marketing is its cost-effectiveness. When compared to paid advertising and other digital strategies, content marketing is a minuscule investment. It can be virtually free if you choose to create content yourself as opposed to hiring a content marketing expert.

Content marketing also comes from organic searches. Users are Google searching questions every day to become more informed about a product, service, or industry before spending their hard-earned dollars. Answering those questions is an excellent step into content marketing and attracts a better quality of lead than you would get through expensive paid advertisements.

By suggesting valuable content to your audience naturally, you get to look like the hero that provides something meaningful without asking for anything in return. The knowledge gained through your content marketing also builds your reputation and helps you stand out as an authority in your field. Over time, that organic traffic will accumulate and you will have users coming to you without needing to pay them for their time.

The Cons

The largest downside of content marketing is that it simply takes time. Creating a few videos or posting a few articles will do little in the short term to help your business turn a profit. If you are a business that lacks an online presence and needs new customers now, you'll need to look to other solutions like paid advertising to get your foot in the door. While still a very much worthwhile investment, content marketing is for the long term.

The additional con is that while anyone can create content freely, there's more to it than putting words on a page or talking into a microphone. Not only does your content need to provide legitimate value, but it also needs to work together with your overall marketing strategies including your SEO, which determines your overall search rankings online.

Fortunately, this con is mostly alleviated by the availability of knowledgeable writers that provide affordable services freelance or through digital marketing agencies.

What is Paid Advertising?

Paid advertising is a marketing strategy that involves bidding for keywords or phrases to secure premium advertising at the top of search engine results. Paid advertising is also commonly referred to as PPC or pay-per-click. You pay every time a user clicks on or engages with your paid advertisement.

Paid advertising is a commonly used, and often necessary, marketing strategy employed on websites such as Google, Bing, Facebook, and YouTube. You can differentiate paid ads versus organic results by looking for the Ad tag next to top results with true, organic results appearing below.

According to a survey conducted by Statista, brands spent 110 billion dollars on paid search in 2020, with that value expected to rise in 2021 and 2022. Paying to cut to the front of the line will always remain a valuable strategy as commercial activity transitions more and more to the digital landscape.

Sources: Statista

The Pros and Cons of Paid Advertising

The Pros

The number one pro that comes from using paid advertising is guaranteed visibility. For the right price, your brand will be the first thing users see any time they type a keyword or question into the world's most popular search engines. Seeing your brand at number one will always be valuable, and will be necessary for brands that otherwise have no foundation built online yet.

While the cost varies greatly depending upon the industry, each of these platforms offers incredible technology that can automatically adjust campaigns and regulate your budget so that you never overspend or waste time pursuing dead ends. That same technology also allows for precise targeting of individuals from varying demographics as well as those at varying stages of the buyer journey.

Paid advertising effectively offers dependable, predictable results and is one of the best ways to start building your brand online. This gets you the results you need upfront, while you cultivate long-term strategies to improve your organic rankings over time.

The Cons

The largest drawback of paid advertising is the budget required to compete with other businesses bidding for the same advertising spots. However, this is more of a warning than a guarantee, as some industries are far less competition for keywords, making PPC ads more affordable. With that said, when you stop paying, you lose your spot immediately.

Paid advertising may also prove more difficult as consumers are catching on to our marketing strategies. The truth is, we all dislike advertisements. They are everywhere we look - television, emails, online videos, search results, website browsing, and so on. Seeing the word Ad stamped next to your brand may be off-putting and make you appear less authentic or trustworthy. Additionally, more and more consumers are using ad blockers to remove your paid ad campaign from the equation altogether.

Should I Use Content Marketing or Paid Advertising?

Based upon the pros and cons of each, you can see that content marketing and paid to advertise actually complement the other's weaknesses effectively. Digital marketing experts will consistently recommend the use of both to help build your brand online and earn you results both in the short term, while you build of a stronger foundation for lasting results.

For example, Business A has no experience in digital marketing and needs to see a return on its investment immediately. They began a PPC ad campaign on Google to start getting customers into your digital storefront. In the meantime, they also begin publishing informative articles, engaging videos, and other forms of content that keep the audience engaged after the paid advertisements get them inside.

Over time, that content library begins to speak for itself, and search engines begin to trust Business A's website more, allowing them to rank higher organically. Brand reputation improves, consumer loyalty and trust improves, and your paid advertising budget goes down as you no longer need to pay for higher rankings.

Finally, consider that your paid ad campaigns also require great content to be effective. No matter what you pay, a user will ignore an ad that's bland, boring, or uninspired. Content marketing strategies work effectively in paid advertising campaigns by empowering your audience with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

When considering the question of content marketing vs paid advertising, the answer is clear - use both whenever possible. Take advantage of the powerful PPC tools the industry has to offer to get immediate results, and cultivate a library of engaging content that builds your reputation, earns consumer trust, and ensures that your ROI remains consistent well into the future.

“If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business.” – Lee Kuan Yew, Former Prime Minister of Singapore

Are you thinking seriously about implementing social media in your marketing strategy?

Social media has emerged as one of the most potent marketing channels for businesses of all sizes in the past decade. It offers organizations a way to reach millions of potential customers easily.

But social media management is no easy task. For some, outsourcing can be the best option, and it will be inevitable in the future. However, businesses are still reluctant to outsource as they believe it involves a lot of risks.

When you allow someone to use your social handles, they become your brand voice and the face of your company. Whatever they say or do will be considered as bona fide communication from your company. A minor lapse or a casual attitude may damage your brand. That’s the reason people don’t allow someone else to handle their social media accounts.

If you have adequate time and a skilled workforce, it is best to manage the social media of your brand yourself. It will save money and a lot of hassle. However, that is not always possible.

Why Do You Need to Outsource Social Media Marketing?

Below are some reasons where outsourcing can be the best option:

1. Professional Know-How

A social media specialist is trained to reach the desired audience using the best-targeted ad strategies. They will also provide expert help and suggestions to create your social strategy. Moreover, they can utilize social media to improve your business reach.

Furthermore, if you hire the services of a white label social media agency, you get access to experienced professionals who are well-versed with marketing and public relations. You also get the benefit of working with a team of professionals who can collaborate to produce the best results.

2. Platform-Specific Knowledge

Different platforms have different focuses and user bases. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have different audiences, and a social media expert knows which platform/s will be the most effective to use for your business. Using the wrong platform means wasting your precious time and money only to see no concrete results.

Consistent brand messaging on the right platforms will always yield positive results.

3. Get Access to the Best Tools

Tools provide you with better insights into your clients' target audience to produce better results. You also need the best social media tools for content creation, designing, publishing, and measuring content performance. It's also applicable to measuring the performance of your social media posts and analyzing what works best for you.

However, buying subscriptions to these tools can be very expensive, especially for startups. It doesn't make sense to invest in these costly tools if you're not planning to launch a separate social media department as an agency or business.

When you outsource from a reputed white label Facebook Ads service to run your social media campaigns, you get the advantage of the best-paid tools. Your white-label online marketing teams must have access to significant premium tools needed to beat the competition. These tools will provide you the necessary insights into your social media campaigns so that you can tweak them accordingly.

If you are an agency and want to avail of white label social media services from DashClicks, you get access to a CRM Dashboard. It will help you manage tasks easily and also come in handy for your clients.

It will create a truly transformational experience for your clients, where you can access everything related to your client's campaign through one simple login.

It will automatically onboard and add clients to your white-labeled dashboard in seconds. It will also allow clients to access their intuitive reporting dashboards from a straightforward login, all under your brand. You can effortlessly build trust through our thoughtfully crafted dashboards that create trust when working with clients.

Apart from that, there are many other reasons why you need professional social media services.

1. They help you craft appealing content that comes with the right hashtags and promotional techniques.
2. They will help you figure out your content and advertising strategy better since they are more familiar with the social media landscape than you and have a better understanding of various social platforms.
3. They give you an external perspective on marketing and strategy and thus allow you to view it with fresh eyes.
4. You must have heard the slogan “The Citi Never Sleeps,” which is Citibank’s tagline. Likewise, social media also doesn’t sleep. It’s active 24*7. Your white-label outsourcing partner provides you round-the-clock coverage since they keep an eye on all the social platforms and what’s happening and trending out there. Therefore, you can invest your time and focus on your core business.

How to Outsource Social Media Management?

So, Are you ready to outsource your social media marketing operations?

We have just discovered the multiple benefits of outsourcing social media. It's the most feasible option for various businesses and agencies unless you plan to build your own social media department and invest heavily in hiring professionals and buying expensive tools. Social media outsourcing for small businesses is a growing trend simply because it's an economical and stress-free way to pick the low-hanging fruits of social media.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind while outsourcing social media services:

1. Outsource for Content Strategy an Account Setup Only

If you can manage your social media properties yourself, you can outsource these services for the short term, especially when you are in the account setup stage. Your outsourcing partner would take out the hassle by setting up your social media accounts and advising you on content strategy.

It is a viable option for many businesses with digital marketing teams to create content, promote, and publish. All they need is a roadmap, a blueprint for success, and strategy tips. They will also develop a social media calendar for you to boost engagement and create brand awareness.

Tip: Since it takes lots of expertise and time to handle social media properties, you can only consider the above option if you have a strict branding code and don't want someone else to represent you on social media.

2. Choose a Reputed Social Media Consultant or White Label Partner

There are various options for hiring social media services for your business. You can choose to work with freelancers or hire an agency. These days, most agencies that need social media services hire white label services to manage their social media marketing. These guys manage the services round the clock on behalf of those businesses with the help of tools and dedicated people for publishing content, running ads, and providing customer services.

Before you choose someone to act as your face on social media, make sure they are reliable and trustworthy.

How to Check the Trustworthiness of Third-Party Service Providers?

Researching online about the service provider is the best way to make sure that they are trustworthy. Sites like LinkedIn can provide some basic information about their services. Google reviews are also a good indicator of someone's reputation. The website's testimonial section is also an excellent place to know what their customers say about their services.

However, do not rely on testimonials alone as often businesses are selective about testimonials and post only positive ones. Checking with your industry peers and colleagues for referrals is also a good idea to find a trustworthy service.

3. Work Closely When You Hire Them Full-Time

Initially, you will have to work closely and spend more time with your outsourcing partner to educate them and ensure that they're doing it right. First, let them understand your branding. It will also help them to represent your business the way you want. Your consultant must be fully aware of the do's and don'ts while managing your social media properties.

4. Keep Up With Your Consultant's Work

Regardless of your consultant's experience, reputation, and efficiency, it might take up to a few months to understand your business culture, speed, audience, and social media requirements. Check the posts created by them; maybe they aren't in sync with your brand statement. There may be some factual errors in the content they've posted. For example, you might not be providing a particular service that they mentioned in their posts. Or, they might not follow your brand color palette in the graphics.

Therefore, it becomes crucial that you keep yourself updated on your consultant's work. You can't afford to rely on them blindly, especially when your core business needs and branding are at stake.

They can be experts in their domain, i.e., social media, but they may not have the insights into your business as your in-house employees have. Monitoring will immensely help you identify how they are contributing to your business. Regular feedback on their work will also help them to understand your business needs and improve their services.

The Do's and Don'ts of Social Media Management

The social media landscape is dynamic, exciting, and full of adventure and fun. So, even the experts need to be cautious and mind the dos and don'ts of social media while achieving their marketing objectives. It can be tricky both ways, i.e., managing your social media in-house or outsourcing it to a third party.

Social media is a marketing and sales goldmine, but you can tap its infinite potential only if you're doing it correctly.

The do's and don'ts mentioned below will help you understand how to proceed while managing your social media marketing in-house. It will also help you be mindful of what you should keep track of while outsourcing your social media services. It will help you to achieve the best results.

Common Mistakes in Social Media Management (The Don'ts)

Here are a few common mistakes businesses make while handling their social media properties.

1. Posting Without a Plan

"Post when you get time."

This attitude can be dangerous when it comes to social media. There is a clear line of distinction between personal and business properties on social media. Consistency is a key element of social media marketing.

People don't post when it's not a priority for them. However, it does not apply to the marketing of your business, as it should always be your top priority. Regular social media posting is good for engagement, customer loyalty, and brand recall. Brand Recall is the ratio of people who can recollect your brand when prompted.

2. Assigning It to a Novice

“The novice’s zeal doesn’t last long.” A French Proverb

Most businesses have a casual attitude towards social media marketing. Managers assign it to anybody who knows a bit about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They ask their employees to quickly run through a few online tutorials and then run the campaigns themselves. While training your employees is a good idea, you shouldn't sacrifice something vital to your business.

If someone in your team is a bit inexperienced, ask them to work under expert supervision for some time before you allow them to handle your social media accounts. Just because somebody has an account on Instagram doesn't mean that they can run Instagram campaigns. The worst we can expect from management is to make someone in charge of the entire social media marketing if they don't know the ins and outs.

3. Posting About Me, Me and Me

"Social media creates communities, not markets." Don Schultz, marketing pioneer

Whoever thinks that social media is a place to sell has a big misconception about its very nature. It's primarily meant for networking and sharing information, thoughts, feelings, updates, and slices of your life. It's mostly about entertainment and information.

There are many brands that only talk about their own products and occasional discounts on them. You'll hardly see any engagement on their pages except if they are super famous brands.

Instead, you can use social media to generate interest in your brand and curiosity around your products.

For example, Nike never posts about their shoes. Instead, they post about sports activities, sports events, health and fitness, and sports celebrities.

The key is to understand that social media is all about engagement, and you should target different groups based on their interests and hobbies.

What You Should Do in Social Media Marketing (The DO’s)

Even though you can’t directly sell on social media, you can achieve many of your marketing objectives through social media platforms. All you need is to have a solid plan for it.

Here are a few things you should do on social platforms while marketing for your brand.

1. Develop a Unique Brand Impression

“Identity is a cause; a brand is an effect, and the strength of the former influences the strength of the latter.” – Larry Ackerman, an expert on organizational and personal identity and author of “Identity, is Destiny” and “The Identity Code.”

It’s all about identity. Social media gives you an opportunity to create your unique identity so people can identify you quickly. You will be hailed as a social media hero if you are able to develop a strong brand voice on social media through your unique approach.

Address people’s pain points, publish motivational stories, entertain and inspire people to do beautiful things, and your followers will admire you for that. The idea is to stand out from the crowd and touch their hearts through excellent posts and interactive approaches.

2. Keep Your Brand Current

You want to fully exploit the power and reach of social media, right?

To keep your audiences engaged, follow social media trends and create posts around those trends. Following the latest trends allows you to expand your audience and add new followers faster than any other technique.

When you follow trends, people share what you post, giving you even more reach. You can exploit the tremendous reach of social media only if you are able to build communities by creating content around current trends and events.

3. Focus On a Broader Audience

“You fail to see the endless sky when you have tunnel vision.” Subham Dwivedi

If you restrict yourself from talking about your products on your social properties, it won’t be easy to attract new customers. So occasionally, you should also post about things that relate to your products and customers. If your customers are young and active, talk about healthy lifestyles, diet, meditation, fitness, and workout regimes.

You can also talk about recreational activities, career advice, and employment opportunities. Additionally, you can mention your products along with the guidelines on how you can use them to achieve better results. This way, your customers will have your products in mind too.

Conclusion

Many people don't include social media marketing in their sales strategy. They consider it an additional activity for building the brand but something that has very little to do with boosting sales. However, it's far from the truth.

Social media has tremendous power to boost sales, build brands and create loyal communities. However, unless you know how to manage your presence on social media networks, you will not achieve anything concrete for your brand. The reason being, social media is not only time-consuming but also requires professional skills.

Outsourcing social media management will make your life easier and allow you to focus more on your core activities, especially business development and strategy. The social media experts at a white-label fulfillment service will boost your brand and build communities. It is the only way to scale and achieve steady growth in your fan base and sales leads.

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.

Image Souce

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.