Psychology and SEO – Its role and importance in 2020

In my career since 2004, I have read many books. My favourite is the “The Art of SEO” all editions. Directly or indirectly, all articles and books have some similarity i.e. they talk about role of human mind and behaviour in the list of SEO activities.

Recently, I also started reading “A textbook on General Phycology” to explore more on the topic of psychology and get an in-depth knowledge.

However, I would lay my emphasis on below 4 pointers that relates to the importance of SEO and Psychology in 2020:

1. Keyword Research and Searcher Psychology
2. Creation of content and human Psychology
3. Link Building and Psychology
4. Website architecture and audience behaviour

Keyword Research – Understanding the searcher psychology:

In 2020, we are in a world, where voice searches and AI have started gaining their share and importance. The record sales of Alexa and Google assistant proves the same.

Considering that, the short term phrases which were used by human has been replaced by long term queries.

Example: A person looking for a pizza shop in 2004 in Manhattan, New York – Would have simply typed on Google.com “Pizza Manhattan” whereas in 2020 the human mind with the growth of technology and AI would have searched or spoken to Siri “Best pizza restaurants near me with 5 star rating”.

This clearly shows how human psychology and searcher intent has evolved over the time with the growth of technology in terms of keyword interpretation and research.

What is the best strategy for keyword research in 2020?

We have one of the best tools like SEM Rush and Answer the Public for researching or spying on competitors.

However, if I have to talk about psychology and list one particular strategy that stands out for me then it will be using “Google Auto Complete” feature to get best maximum number of keywords based on searchers intent.

The process is simple: For example, if I have to search for possible search phrases that have been searched for my targeted term or niche i.e. “Plumbers in Manhattan”

1. I would simple type in Google search “Plumbers in Manhattan” as below:The screenshot showcases the auto complete listing of keywords:

   

   2. You can further elaborate by using “A-Z” combinations in front, middle and Back of the keywords to get a possible list of best keywords for the niche.

Crafting a story that is rich in keyword topics and covers your targeted audience sentiments:

In order, to make your website content stand out:

1. You need something that can touch the right sentiment of the audience. In our in-house experiments at KVR Web Tech, we are using Google AI and sentiment analysis tool. The tool help us to get good insights VS competitors content and thus improvise.2. You need perfect amalgamation of selecting the right keywords and topics.

Example: Business selling insurance to Sole traders in Australia.

In order, to have a perfect list of topics that should be covered in the content, simply again used “Google auto complete” feature and make a list. Review, what type of topics are being covered. See below snapshot:

It clearly shows that I have to incorporate topic about cost, cover, comparisons and talk about sole trader cleaners, contractor and consultants.

Again, you can run different set of combinations to get a list of topics.

3. Researching on top competitors – Yes, what is their winning formula. Try to get an idea of how the top 3 competitors on search are drafting their content and how you can be unique in your own story and idea.

Important tip: For uniqueness, Gather stats and conduct surveys on relevant forums, groups on FB which covers your targeted audience to get high level data and convert that into statistical data.

4. Trending Data – Incorporating the trends in your story will surely help to stand out and gain exposure. We use “Buzz Sumo” to find relevant trending stories, sort them out and make a list of what will entice a reaction among our targeted audience.

Understanding the psychology, developing relations and garnering links

In 2004, when I started my link building career, we use to send emails for outreach, have conversations and then after developing a bond exchange links.

It was a clear process that had emotions and one loved to follow the process and get success that could last long from SEO prospective.

However, in later stages link building was bombarded by commercialization and paid schemes, which resulted in link farms and slowly Google and reliable website owners changed their outlook towards the same.

So let’s talk about 2020, the things have changed so have the strategies. We are somehow getting back to where we had once started.

Influencer Outreaching is not that simple now days. If you want to outreach a strong influencer in your field, you need to study them, understand them and then win your race towards getting a brand mention for your website. Below are some point that can help:

• Follower Wonk, is a tool that you can use to get a list of top influencers.
• Study them by reviewing their social profiles. Create a list of their like and dislikes.
• Prepare an outreach pitch on an email that can get a reaction on the first go!
• Generate a conversation by using your pitch elements i.e. “list of likes” and make sure you stay away from the “dislike list”
• Provide a free giveaway if your business supports the model

Understanding the visitor behaviour and changing the website architecture:

I like Neil and had a great interview session with him. I believe he has contributed a lot towards our field of SEO. One of his contributions that I have been using since so many years is “Crazy Egg”. The tool we use to understand how the audience react to the various elements on our website.

The basic purpose is to:

• View and analyse, if we have the placed all the elements correctly i.e. Call to action, images content and videos
• View and analyse, A/B testing of which colour suits my audience in the best particular way.

Understanding your audience behaviour and improvising on the design is a must, if you have to win the race of getting quality conversion from your qualified organic traffic.

In a short summary, the above all topics can have their own articles. I have tried my level best to give you an overview and will keep posting more extensive information on the same.

Confession of a lovely partner

It’s true! Men is know by the company he keeps… same is the case here. Today, I’m going to write a confession post of a partner who understood how gradually couples start to shout and yell at each other. And why you are taken for granted over a certain period of marriage.

Especially during this phase of lockdown the vent outs have increased further. There is confinement, work stress, distressed news updates and anxious thoughts about future.

But when I look back at our table talks with friends I see that it had become usual sight that couples sit and complain/pass subtle insults about each other in front of friends though it is casual but it is socially accepted now. Jokes are cracked and now this whole scenario of husband and wife tiffs have become a content of regular mainstream jokes.

It’s just okay if one yells at other and other is poking for one task or other. But have you (couples) ever paused and thought… do you like it? Do you loose your cool when being provoked/poked or this thought never came to you that why we loose our cool most of the times.

I sat down overnight to rewind my marriage of over a decade and brought few points that were worth addressing. Every moment was noted and analysed. Yes, we have changed or you can say evolved but I think it’ll be a worth read for you.

Ours was a Love marriage full of love and respect. Love still persist but over period of time respect is drying drip by drip. What happens is that when we have been together one of the partners automatically becomes a listener Oh! that never happens, I correct it here, one partner closes door to react whatever noise or fault-findings are done by other partner. So, when one is not overreacting to other comments it creates a pattern where one becomes a fault-finder and other ignores what is being said. Gradually, it becomes a vicious cycle where ones mind blocks whatever is being said by other, this blockage brings repetition of words by other partner as she never got any assertive reaction. So, many words are put in repetition to explain what had just happened … where if the other partner explains or answer nicely the situation there will be very less repetition of blame game. Here, I give you an example, husband for the geyser on after taking a bath and it happens everyday, wife points out he does not react… Then she keeps putting so many words to explain the importance of switching off appliances when not in use, and all the stories of past ignorance also build up and brought forward. Whereas, solution can be when wife points out about the geyser left on, husband can simply reply oh! will take care in future! End of conversation.

And, one point which I mentioned in beginning of this article about you are known by the company you keep; as well proves itself true, when one partner is mostly shouting for every small or big issue – over period of some years it seeps into the behavioural of other partner as well and similar loud reactions are received. Which comes as a jolt.

Another reason that I strongly feel is that we become friends and say out whatever comes in mouth – which needs a big check! This can only be checked by highly respecting the partner. It is very important. The reason for most couple-fights is nothing but lack of respect over period of time! And they just start to live in this disrespecting environment.

Quickly repair broken Crocs Flip flop during Lockdown (DIY)

During this distressing phase of lockdown it is difficult to measure a problem as big or small. We know there are truly many big problems in the world but for us who are at home during lockdown broken slipper (flip flop) became a major concern since many days.

Then I found that many of my family and friends were sailing on the same boat. For them and other people frustrated with broken chappal/slipper/flipflop this is going to be pretty helpful.

 

Steps and Process of DIY – fixing broken Flip Flop

1. Take a carry bag cut the handles as shown in the video. We’re going to use the bag handles as the toe thongs of the strap. These handles are water proof so for me this was the best available option at home apart from thread/cloth piece.

 

2. Quickly cut the toe thong smooth to leave the Y-strap looking like V-strap. Remove the knob under the sole. It was difficult to do this in Crocs so I simply used my pair of scissors to do so.

3. Next I half folded the handle and ran it through the V-shaped strap to make it Y-shaped again and pushed the bag handle inside the toe thong knob hole.

 

4. Finally, I tied a thick and strong knot underneath the sole. Cut-off the extra material. And you have a survival slipper/flipflop ready.

Takeaway, If you can remove whole Y-shaped strap then simply take bigger piece of material measure it across the toe thong hole and the holes near the heel. Simply like a ribbon pass through toe knob hole, bring them upwards and tie underneath both holes at the back separately to make perfect Y-shaped strap.

 

5 steps to effective local marketing for small business owners in 2020

Are you having a local business and struggling to get an online presence?

The below 5 pointers are the key to success. It will really help you to layout a plan and then strategize your local marketing efforts on the path to success.

• Management of Local Listing and Local Directories
• Local Search Engine Optimization
• Creation of Landing Pages tailored towards your audience
• Online reputation management
• Paid ads and Social Media Presence

Now let us dig deeper to get more insights on the above points.

Steps to manage your local citations and business directories for local marketing:

1. The foremost step is to set up your Google My Business account. The set up and verification process is easy. You will need a valid address, phone number and a registered business name. To validate the same, Google will send a postcard which will contain a 5 digit code. You will receive the same on your provided registered address.
   
   
2. Once the Google My Business account is active, you need to know the meaning of the term NAP. Name, Address and Place (Location address). The NAP has to be consistent wherever you register your business in the 3^rd step.
   
   
3. Research now starts, search for local business directories or citations in your area. Make sure, you are registered with high authority and reputed websites.

Example – For US owners Yelp has been the most effective business directory and similarly for India Just Dial has been performing very well.

You can also be specific to your niche. For example, for home improvement owners and interior designers website like houzz has been doing really good.

How to find directories in your local area?
You can use the below search parameters on the search engine to find directories, I am going to use an example of an Electrician looking for directories in New York.

For Industry specific directories use below operators:

• “Industry” directory – Example “Electrician” directory
• “Industry” inurl:directory: – Example “Electrician” inurl:directory
• “Industry” intitle:directory – Example “Electrician” intitle:directory
• “Industry” inurl:links – Example “Electrician” inurl:links
• intitle:industry inurl:directory – intitle:electrician inurl:directory
• related:industry inurl:directory – related:electrician inurl:directory

For Location specific directories use below operators:

• “City” intitle:directory – Example “new York” intitle:directory
• “City” inurl:directory – Example “New York” inurl:directory
• “City industry” intitle:directory – Example “New York” intitle:directory
• “City directory” intitle:industry – Example “New York directory” intitle:electrician

Other important links are below, which may be of help as they are listing some Top directories:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/web-directories-list/287799/#close

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10322/the-ultimate-list-50-local-business-directories.aspx

https://www.brightlocal.com/resources/top-local-citations-by-business-category/

Note: The 2 points here is to understand that relevancy to your business and location is a necessity with usage of same NAP that you have used in your GMB account in 1^st step.

1. Now once you are listed in the business directories, it is time to manage all listings. There are 2 ways of doing the same.

Considering the budget involved you can use tools like bright local and yext to manage the listing in different countries. These tools run automatic scans on all listings and will provide you deep insights on errors and rectification under a single dashboard. However, there is a cost involved as they offer different packages.

Another way, is too do it manually i.e. maintain a list in an excel file and give it a review once a month. 

How to use local SEO to boost your local marketing efforts?

Search engine optimization of your local business is a must, if you want to excel in your business and stay in front of your competitors.

We are going to divide this into three topics:

Creation of Landing Pages tailored towards your audience:

You have got traffic, your marketing strategy to get qualified traffic is working well.
However, a website landing page which does not solve its purpose of conversion of qualified traffic, will result in a dead end and a waste of investment in terms of both time and money.

So, It is very important that the website landing pages should talk to customer in their language.

Below are some of the pointers that you can keep in mind while creating a landing page for your local business:

1. Make your content localized to the best possible extent i.e. use images that speak to local customers, add content and location based keywords that your audience can easily relate to and make sure you describe your marketing pitch clearly.
2. Make use of local reviews, accreditations to gain trust of the user. Remember, Trust is an important factor of conversion. You can embed reviews from GMB and other profiles.
3. Appropriate use of CTA (Call to Action) buttons for conversion. Track your forms, phone number and email using Google Analytic. Set up Goals, monitor conversion path and then improvise on the landing page elements.
4. Videos speak larger than words, make use of videos in order to gain attention of your local audience. It can be a customer review or a marketing pitch video by the owner or his team itself.
5. Make sure the page loading speed and the mobile user experience is good.

Online Reputation Management – Handling reviews and Brand Reputation for local marketing

Customer service does not only cater to getting positive reviews but also replying to the negative feedback of your customer.

Remember, all accounts and business profiles including GMB are open to reviews that can be posted from your customers.

The below points will help you to streamline your business goals and acquire a positive word of mouth for your brand:

1. Make sure you check all the portals, social media websites and business profiles where your business is listed and reply to all negative and positive reviews., this authenticates that you are a responsible business owner.
2. Encourage your customers to post reviews to your social media and GMB account. More positive reviews will help you outrank your competitors in terms of brand awareness and expertise.
3. If you are running a local store, shop or restaurant then incentivize your local employees to ask for reviews in store.

Using Google Paid Ads and Social Media for Conversions and Brand Awareness in local marketing:

Paid ads is a tool which can not only help you in getting instant conversions but also in making enhancements in your business strategies as per your buyer reactions.

If you have a budget and I would surely suggest you to initiate with a trail to understand the local market and business demands.

Based on your goals, you can use Google Ads for Local Businesses to target Google search. It is an easy to use tool, where you can set your daily and monthly budget and will be charged only if someone clicks on your ads. The interface allows you to track conversion and even give you the entire data and suggestions for conversions.

In some part of countries, especially US “Google Guarantee Ads” are really helping local businesses to stand out. You can read about more information here. 

Another parallel strategy that you can club with Google ads for brand awareness is posting on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, whatever suits your business needs and interests. Below are some important points that you can incorporate in your social media strategy:

• Have a Facebook Business page, Instagram account that have all required business information.
• Post regularly on the selected mediums – Have a post schedule and set up a calendar. You can experiment for time and days based on audience reaction.
• Boost your website content, reviews on these channels. Yes, you can use a little paid budget to grow your targeted reach. Facebook and all other channels has a sophisticated ad manager that can help you to circulate your brand voice to your selected niche of audience.

Note: Other than this, there are other channels that can be good from lead prospective. For example Yelp in US, Justdial in India and Houzz for home improvement businesses all are open for paid ads and can get you some good lead prospects.

Conclusion:

The above insights will surely be of great use if it is targeted correctly. You need to be innovative and have a fast approach in order to succeed in this ever evolving competitive world.