Search engines love sites that appear to be active in their niche. Sites that are updated frequently and have a strong presence in their industry will rank better than those that don’t. So how exactly do you do this? Below are some habits that will help Google and Bing see you’re active in your industry and help your site with its rankings.

1. Write an Blog Post

This is perhaps the hardest thing for any website owner to do. It’s not easy to sit down an write an article daily. However, content is king and frequently posting articles to your site will provide you with tremendous SEO benefits.

Create high quality and long articles. Quality content is more likely to get more shares and longer content is more likely to provide you with SEO benefits.

2. Update An Old Post

Content can get old and outdated. And in 2011, Google came out with a new algorithm which favors fresh content over old, out-dated content. The goal of this update is to provide users with up to date, fresh content.

You’ll also notice this quite often when your searching for a news story in Google. Below, I searched for the term “government” and the top article is the article which was most recently published on that topic.

3. Post a Link to an Article on Every Social Media Platform

For every new article that you publish to your website, share it on every social media platform you own. Share it on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Today, search engines are relying more on social activity as a ranking factor.

The more your content is promoted on social media, the better effect it’ll have on your rankings. In a case study by Search Metrics, we also see that social activity play a major effect as a ranking factor for SEO.

4. Interact on a forum in your industry

Forums and discussion boards are a great way to add niche relevance to your website. It also contributes to how search engines equate you to being an industry authority.

You might have the answer to a question in a past blog post on your website. Share your link and provide answers.

To find a forum in your niche, just search “niche” + forum in Google.

5. Interact on a blog in your industry

Just like forum post, blog comments also helps to add niche relevance to your site. Go out there and share your ideas and view points. Often times, websites allow you to blog comment with your link and name as the anchor text which is alright.

But it’s even better to write a few lines, or paragraphs (the longer the better) then add your link within the body of the blog comment.

To find a blog in your niche, just search “niche” + blog in Google.

Conclusion

It might be hard to follow each of these steps. However, to do all of this will probably only take about 2 hours out of your day. If you do this for two hours each and every day, I can guarantee that you’ll see ranking improvements within a few weeks.

The post 5 Habits To Help You Improve Your SEO Rankings appeared first on Thunder Rank.

And if you’ve talked to any digital marketing expert, you may have heard the phrase “Content is King.” And this is becoming more and more popular because of this information age we live in.

But what exactly does this phrase mean?

Truth is… If content is not apart of your online/digital marketing strategy, you’re doing it wrong. The information age has revolutionized marketing and I’ll share with you how.

1. Google is like the Cookie Monster
   

   Google, the most visited website on the internet, highly favors websites that have more content. Look at websites that rank for some of the most competitive search terms out there (personal injury lawyers, plumbers, financial loans, just to name a few) you’ll realize that all the websites located in the top search results have more content than websites ranking lower.

   This is also why blogs have also become more and more popular these days.

   Even if a website doesn’t necessarily have the highest quality content, it will rank over websites with the lack of content.

   So if you want to be able to get traffic from the world’s largest search engine, and most visited website, you’re going to need content on your website.

2. Content is Shareable

   You generally won’t see people sharing ads. And in many cases, that would be considered spamming. And no one likes spam.

   The greatest thing about content is that people will share it if they find it valuable.

   Valuable content will generally be helpful, entertaining, personal or controversial.

   When you have a valuable piece of content, you’ll find it quite easy to be shareable if you put it in front of the right people.

   And, guess what? Google loves shared content over non-shared content.

3. Increased Demand for Information

   About 10-15 years ago, if you had to find information on a topic, you’d have to go to the library, and search for various books pertaining to your topic. Then skim through the books to find the answer to your question.

   But today, we’re living in the information age. The easy access to information has changed all of that.

   According to Internet Live Statistics, there are about 3.5 billion searches per day in Google. Or 1.2 trillion searches per year.

   See the image below to see how this compares with stats from over a decade ago. So there are people looking for information out there, and if you create high quality information, there will be people out there willing to read and/or share your content with their followers.
   

4. Changed Buyer Behavior

   If you can vaguely remember life as it was a decade ago. If you made a large purchasing decision, how would you do it?

   Odds are that you would probably ask a friend, family member, or sales associate in the store for more information on the product to help you make a purchasing decision. But that process was much more involved.

   With the rise of information now being readily accessible at our finger tips, buyer behavior has changed. Today, people are more likely to do research online to find reviews  and ratings from consumers and editors.

   Consumers will search for services and products your business provides and to narrow down their options, they’ll choose a business based on buyer reviews and ratings. This is also why online reputation management is so important for businesses today.

Overview

So overall, you can see how the rise of the information age has revolutionized the the way we do marketing. People are searching for content more than ever these days but to really give yourself an edge over your competition, you need to be able to provide quality content for your market.

The post How the Information Age Affected Marketing appeared first on Thunder Rank.