by Kyrill Poelmans | Jun 2, 2015
Textmetrics in the picture:
“Founded In Holland Summer Startup Awards 2015”
In the last few months, we’ve been very busy with improving our Textmetrics experience & network. We added readability scores, auto save, new export opportunities, a tool-tour and a lot more features. We’ve had contact with a lot of users and experts to decide which way to follow in the future.
And luckily, our hard work got noticed by multiple Dutch online platforms, like ‘Dutchcowboys‘, ‘Frankwatching‘ and Founded In Holland!
And now, as the crowning glory to our work, we have the chance to win our first award! Founded In Holland presents the “Summer Startup Awards 2015”!
We’re very proud to announce that we’ve been nominated out of hundreds of Dutch Startups that are included in this wall of fame for Dutch Startups!
That’s why we wanted to put you guys in the spotlight:
Thanks a lot for voting! We really appreciate your opinion and feedback!
But we’re not there yet, there are still 10 companies in the running for this award. And now that we’ve been nominated, we would love to win this award of course!
So that’s why we wanted to ask you one more favor, please vote for Textmetrics one more time, if we are your favorite Dutch Startup of 2015!
We’d love to fulfill your need for a long time from now and this would be the perfect way to celebrate our first few months!
Click on this banner to vote or go to awards.foundedinholland.com and help us win this award!
by Kyrill Poelmans | Apr 30, 2015
In the past, people saw link building as some kind of trick to raise their search engine ranks quickly. But this old style link building strategy is history now.
Nowadays, Google bots learned to see the difference between real incoming links, that people share because they want to link to a website with valuable content and links provided by old style link building.
Link building has changed and your own link building strategy should change too! That’s why we’re going to learn you how to build backlinks new style. Qualitative links are the next big thing, but how do you get good backlinks?
#1 Write valuable content to increase shareability
People share content that they like. It sounds quite easy, but it is the way it is. If you write crappy content, then you probably won’t get any backlinks unless you post them yourself.
Make sure your target audience rates your content as valuable for them and maybe even lots of other people.
If you produce valuable content and you promote it in the right ways, people will read your content and share it with their friends!
#2 Use cross promotion for quality backlinks
Back in the days when search engines were quite easy to manipulate, exchanging links was a popular way to build links very quickly.
But Google is a lot smarter now. They don’t care if you get inward links from a website if you have totally nothing in common. These links became completely useless in new style link building.
But there still is a different way to use this strategy. It only costs a bit more of an effort, this is what you can do:
Use cross promotion!
Cross promotion is a promotion technique in which two companies work together to promote their websites.
The main condition for this technique to work is that these companies must have something in common, like:
Textmetrics and a company that makes web designs or a supermarket and a butcher.
Google sees that the companies that backlink to each other have something in common and that’s why these links are seen as valuable.
#3 Register in qualitative directories for better results
In the past, building links in directories was something that you should definitely do, anywhere, anytime you could.
The more backlinks you had, the better. That’s was the motto of old style link building.
But things have changed. If your website gets linked to in too many bad rated directories, it can have a really bad influence on your search engine rank:
There is a chance that Google will give you a penalty.
That’s the reason why it’s really important that, if you decide to use directories for link building, you make sure to choose the right ones.
You have to be picky to decide which directories are valuable to register your backlinks to and which aren’t.
#4 Active attitude in discussions and forums
This next way to generate backlinks that actually will lead your target audience to your website might be the most valuable tip that we want to give you today:
Mix in online discussions about your companies specialties
You might think, what does this have to do with backlinks. Well, more than you think, but before we explain this link we must tell you something about the past of backlinks on forums and blogs.
In the past, a good way to generate some relevant backlinks was to post your links to popular blogs or discussions on forums. Marketers posted them on almost every opportunity that they saw.
But since a lot of blog owners blocked this way of creating backlinks, this technique isn’t that successful anymore.
But wait, then what to do next? Well:
No worries, there is still a very good way to promote your website through blogs and forums. The only thing that has changed is that you have to make a little bit more of an effort to create these backlinks.
Look for discussions or blogs that are relevant to your companies products, services or published content. React in a natural way and mix yourself into the discussion.
When the time is right you can post a link to your company, just the way so it totally fits in the discussion.
If you succeed to use this technique in an effective way, we can guarantee you that this gives you quite a lot traffic on your website!
#5 New style social media, best way to get new style backlinks
Back in the days that people started to use link building as a technique, social media sites weren’t that big as they are today.
For us, it looks like ages but Facebook and Twitter weren’t that popular 10 years ago.
That’s why this last step to get valuable backlinks has everything to do with this “new” way of communicating.
Google has also followed this development and that’s why social media links became way more important in search engine optimization and creating backlinks.
There are a few ways to create backlinks through social media:
- Building a social community around your brand or company
The way to build a strong community is to make sure that you promote your content the right way.
Make sure that your content is shareable because the more shares and likes you get, the more Google rates your content as relevant and valuable.
- Use opinion leaders to speak for you
Another way to promote your links through social media is to find some opinion leaders to speak for you.
They are people that inspire other people to do what they do, and to use what they use, so of course they are the best persons to tell everyone how great your website/brand/product is!
So, how to build backlinks new style?
As you have seen in this article, the most important words to describe how to build new style backlinks are:
Relevant & valuable
Link building isn’t about just posting links anymore, it’s about looking for and finding the most relevant and valuable ways to promote your content, company and brand.
Don’t forget, this is the way to do it now, old style link building can kill your seo strategy! New style backlinks combined with a free trial of Textmetrics will make sure that you’ll rise in the search engines even faster than you could imagine.
And by following this guide, you should be able to rock the world of new style link building! Isn’t that awesome?
Liked this Textmetrics guide? Share on twitter now!
by Kyrill Poelmans | Apr 24, 2015
Our new Textmetrics article is inspired by a question of our own. Of course, like a lot of companies, we want to reach our audience by using social media. We would love to be able to communicate with them and to know what’s on their minds.
But how do you communicate with your audience if you don’t know when they will read their tweets, facebook feed, and other social media. In one sentence, our question was: “What’s the perfect time to post your content on social media?”
The answer to this question can be: “It depends on your audiences and their time”. But how do you find out what your perfect post-time is? Follow our checklist!
#1: Track your target audiences location to optimize your results
This might sound a bit like we are some kind of stalkers, but let us explain.
When we tried to find an answer to this question, the second question that came to our minds was:
“Where do our followers come from?”
You might think, why would you tell the second question first? Well, because that’s the question that a lot of people will forget when trying to figure out their best time to post on social media.
Here’s why this question is so important:
If you’re from the UK, but all of your twitter followers and clients come from Australia, then information about people in the UK isn’t that important for you.
Like always, the most important thing is to keep in mind who your consumers and target audience are. These are the people that you have to target!
Luckily for you and us, there are a lot of tools on the internet that help you to find out where your audience comes from. One of these tools that we would recommend is https://followerwonk.com/analyze for twitter. This tool shows you all the stats that you need, location, gender, active hours of your followers etc. We used our Textmetrics twitter account as an example.
In this image, you can see that most of our followers are from the US and Europe (The Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom).
That’s a good thing because that are the countries that we want to reach with our content. But that also means that we have to tweet at the ideal times in more than 3 different time zones to reach our whole target audience.
That brings us to the next question, what are these best times to tweet? (Of course you can do research like this for all the different social media that you use to communicate with your target audience)
#2: Combine with this social media infographic for the best results
After a little bit of research, we found out that there are a lot of infographics to be found about this topic. One more specific and reliable than the other, but the following one of Quicksprout is one of our personal favorites.
Use this information in combination with your location research, and you will succeed to reach more people in your target audience every day! The results will be measurable! Have a nice social day!
by Kyrill Poelmans | Apr 17, 2015
Basic tips & tricks
Of course, SEO copywriting is really important. But in the end, the main goal of your webcontent is probably to reach your target audience. To make sure they like, understand, share, feel your content. That’s why you should write for your target audience. Don’t just write what you like to write, but write what they want to read. That’s how you reach your future customers! But that may be easier said than done. That’s why we made a little list of the basic tips and tricks for target oriented writing!
Tip #1: Know yourself
It may sound a bit stupid, because of course you know your business. You know exactly what you do. But lots of businesses forget to tell why they do what they do. What their motivations are. And let this last thing be the most important thing.
People mostly don’t buy Coca Cola or Apple because they think the physical product is better than their opponents, they buy it because they like the motivation of the companies. ‘Think different’ (Apple): We’re not for everyone, just the ones that understand our status. ‘Make it happy’ (Coca Cola): We will help you to enjoy your life, Coca Cola makes everyone happy.
You have to keep your motivation in mind at all times. Don’t (let someone) write a word before they know your business from the inside and the outside. You will write the best content if you truly know yourself.
Tip #2: Know your target audience
The next tip is to know your target. A good way to make sure that you know your target, is to describe them by using a persona. Just make a little list of personal characteristics of someone in your target audience. It could be something like this:
John Sparks, 26 years old, lives in London but grew up in the countryside. He love to play soccer with his friends in the weekend but he also likes to grab a beer in his favorite Irish Pub in the neighborhood. He lives with his girlfriend in the middle of the city, but in the summer he likes to go on a holiday, back to his roots. John is a professional marketer.
The next step is to write your article or content for this John Sparks. By using this technique you make sure that you will see your target audience as people that you can communicate with, not just as customers. An important aspect to consider is the education level of your audience and making sure that you write your content at the right reading level – not too complex, not too easy.
Tip #3: Speak the same language
If you write your content for John, then you have to make sure that John wants to read your content. You reach John in a different way than you reach Janet, a fifty year old lady from France. But to reach them the best way you can, you should think about a few things.
Are you talking to professionals? Then you can talk with more technical terms as when you talk with amateurs. Does your audience read your content for fun, or to learn something? That are some of the many questions that you could ask yourself. Every target audience speaks their own language and it’s your job to be the interpreter of your business.
Tip #4: Think like your audience
The next step is to think like your audience, not like a business that tries to sell your product. People like John are looking for a lot more than just a product. They’re looking for a solution or an experience, and that’s something that you should provide. You should focus on what your audience is looking for, and not on what your company is trying to sell.
Tip #5: Know where to lead or find your audience
Sometimes it’s just important to be visible for your audience. When you rule an organization like the government or something like that, then it’s just important that they know where to find what they are looking for.
But a lot of companies have to find their target audience themselves. Than you have to find out where to find your audience. You have to find out on what social media or forums they are. If you know where to find them, then you will be a lot closer to knowing how to reach them.
With the tips that we gave you today, you must be able to become quite a good targeted writer. Do you have some tips of your own, about how to write for your target or about anything else? Feel free to leave them through the support form! If you want to know how to reach your target audience in the search engines, you should check out the free trial of Textmetrics. In this tool you’ll be able to find numerous tips to technically optimize your texts for your target audience.
Create your free Textmetrics account below and start optimizing your web content!
by Kyrill Poelmans | Apr 13, 2015
Today it’s time to clear things up about the large amount SEO myths. After our new SEO myth buster special, nothing will be the same anymore. If you just Google for a moment (yes, you can try if you want) and search for SEO tips and tricks, you will find thousands of pages full of tips. But if you look closer at these tips and tricks, you will see that there are a few tips that are inconsistent with each other. We’re here to solve these inconsistencies once and for all!
SEO myth #1: Keywords are death
One of the first things you will see if you google for SEO tips, is the word: KEYWORD! But the first inconsistency will come with this word. Some of the SEO experts say that it’s really important to make sure that you focus your content on keywords that are related to your website. But at the same time, some of the experts say that the keywords are death. This sounds like it’s now useless to use keywords, because Google will look right through this intention to raise in their rankings. But that’s our first SEO myth that we want to clear up.
Keywords are not death! The fact is, keywords are just as important as they always were. But there are also a lot of new techniques that Google uses to collect the best websites for a search word. That’s why it’s smart to take all these new techniques with you if your writing content but you surely must think about your keywords! It’s also smart to use some synonyms of your keyword and some related words because Google now scans for more than just your targeted keywords. If you want to make sure that you use just enough keywords in your content, you should use the free trail of Textmetrics to check the technical optimization of your texts.
SEO myth #2: Longer articles are better!
This is another myth that we need to clear up. Longer articles aren’t always better. You don’t have to write long articles unless you really need that much space to explain your subject. Our tip is always: Think of your audience. If you think they want to have more information about the subject, write more. If you think just a simple article is enough, then write less.
For the search engines doesn’t make any difference in the rankings. As long as your story is unique and compelling, you don’t have anything to worry about!
SEO myth #3: ALT-tags and descriptions are very important in SEO
This myth is quite a big one. ALT-tags and descriptions should be very effective in SEO ranking. Well, they aren’t. Yes, we think it’s important to use clear descriptions and ALT-tags with your visual content, but it has no (measurable) effects on your search engine ranking. They might appear in the google image search, but that’s all of the SEO effects that you will get by using an ALT-tag or description.
SEO myth #4: Penalties for duplicate content
A lot of people think that if you duplicate your content, Google will give you a penalty for it. Well, that’s not the full truth. Yes, if you try to manipulate the search engine results by duplicating your content over and over again, with the goal to mislead Google, then you have the chance that they will punish you. But if you just rewrite some articles or duplicate some earlier written content on your website, then you have nothing to worry about!
SEO myth #5: Once you’re at the top, you will stay there
Some people seem to think that linkbuilding and SEO is a once in a lifetime thing. You need to get some links, make your pages optimized, and BOOM, you will be the SEO king. That’s a big myth, even if you are at the top of the search engines, think about the fact that you’ve kicked someone off the top by climbing there. That could also happen to you. That’s why you have to optimize your content, again and again. Never stop working on your SEO ranking, it can always become stronger!
We hope that we have helped you by busting these SEO myths, don’t get fooled again! Now go on and optimize your content with our Textmetrics, because you heard so, keywords are not death! 😉
