The Five Acts of Storytelling

Storytelling and SEO Content Marketing 

By Vincent Sandford of SEO Synovation 24 December 2015

A well-written story routed in the theory of dramatic structure engages, captivates and entertains the reader.  This is the essence of modern day writing and content management theory. If you follow the teachings of Aristotle (Poetics), Horace’s three-part analysis (beginning, middle and catastrophe) and ending with Freytag Pyramid, you will create a piece of prose worth reading.  In the post, I will briefly outline Freytag’s pyramid that may help writing more compelling content for your website.

Graphical View of the 5 Acts of Freytag

Gustav Freytag was a German playwright and critic who in 1863 wrote the De Technik des Dramas, his conclusion of dramatic structure.  In his analysis, he says plays should not be longer than five acts:  (1) exposition to incite an event, (2) the rising action of the plot telling of  complications that culminate into a (3) climax which itself may result into a reversal of events of (4) falling actions leading to a (5) catastrophe and moments of last suspense.

Exposition

Exposition consists of early material providing the theme, establishing the setting, and introducing the major characters and sometimes early hints of the forthcoming conflicts.

Rising Action

Rising action is an increasing in tension or uncertainty developing out of the conflict the protagonist faces.

Climax

Traditionally viewed as the third act of the play, the climax is the moment of greatest tension, uncertainty or audience involvement. Crisis is a synonym for climax.

Reversal

In classical tragedy, the reversal is that moment in which the protagonist’s fortunes change irrecoverably for the worse. Frequently the very trait we admire in a tragic hero is the same trait that brings the hero’s downfall.  At some point after the reversal, the tragic hero realises or verbalises the tragic error.  This moment if tragic recognition is called the anagnonsis.  

Falling Action

During the falling action act, the earlier tragic force causes the failing fortunes of the hero.  This culminates in the final catastrophe and invokes emotions in the audience.

Catastrophe

The catastrophe often spirals outwards.  Not only does the hero suffer for an earlier choices, but that choice causes suffering to those the hero loves or wants to protect. After the suspense ends, the plot unwinds previous tension and helps provide closure.

Conclusion

Storytelling is the emotional content and will move your reader if you follow the above acts.  To get the story in front of the reader requires a technical element – SEO or search engine optimisation.  Storytelling and SEO are complimentary as together they appeal to humans and algorithms, which are both prerequisites to content marketing.

Finally, apply both the principles of dramatic structure as outlined by Freytag and the principles of SEO and you will create great webpages.

About the Author

Vincent Sandford works for SEO Synovation a web-marketing agency helping clients get the most from the internet.  He may be reached by email at seostnovation@kpnmail.nl or by viewing the website of SEO Synovation. For direct information you can call him on +31 6 428 73 480

Visit our blog. Click search engine optimisation tips.

6 Initiatives for 2016 in the SEO Sphere

Introduction

 This post looks at the initiatives that website owners and in-house SEO expert should be concerned to address. The post discusses authorship, mobile search, integrating social media to search engine optimisation (SEO), SEO for video marketing, and integrating all the company-marketing efforts into SEO.

The year 2016 is almost upon us. A new business year beckons with its financial goals, its entry into new markets with new products and the prospects of increased market share.  At the beginning of each year all owners, departments, from small to medium sized businesses specify their short and long term goals and list them.

Performing search engine optimisation (SEO) tasks  on a daily basis is routine for SEO experts but in-house departments should also look to the future and focus upon those aspects that generally take longer to benefit the clients (optimising pages for new websites, building trust, and social media campaigns)

I list standard but critical issues for 2016, which in the short term will give you a good start to 2016.

1.        Rel=Author Tag

Our economy lives on the fruits of recommendations. Persons influence our buying behaviour.  Influencers can be celebrities, bloggers, authors, or other industry leaders: we trust their judgement

An SEO approach to maximising the benefits of your content strategy is to differentiate content by how many other people are sharing that content or talking about that content.

An influencer has the ability to share a specific piece of content that gets more shares and gets talked about it by their followers.

For search engines, especially Google, influencers are a great solution to separate the wheat from the chaff. In 2013, Matt Cutts  said:

 "over time, as we start to learn more about who the high quality authors are, you could imagine that starting to affect rankings."

2. Mobile Search

Mobile marketing is already increasingly important and that trend will continue in 2016. Already, roughly more than half of searches come from mobile devices. Adjusting websites to mobile responsiveness is imperative. This means local searches will be reaching their full potential both in SEO and in PPC. An aspect that owners or in-house SEO expert should not ignore.

3. Social Search Integration

In 2015 social media features in Google Plus +, Facebook increase the exposure of your websites to potential customers.  In 2016, this will increase which leads in house SEO experts to focus on improving their Google Plus +, Facebook and LinkedIn pages to grab as many prospects as possible.
4. Video Marketing and SEO

Creating videos to promote products, to engage in fun activities and interact with a brand audience is good business.  Video marketing your company, your product or service is good for the social sharing options and website rankings. In 2016, more marketers should leverage video content on their websites.

 

5. Integrate news releases to online content, to your SEO and Social Media efforts.

News releases on reputable websites are good for obtaining links and increasing website ranking. However in-house SEO experts need to integrate content into relevant silos by topics that seamlessly flow that one channel to another.  A sound and strong process must exist throughout all department.  For one-person organisations, this is easier to accomplish.

6. Focus on Google+

Google Plus + is owned by Google so naturally some knowledge of social behaviour derives from this. There was a steady growth of Google Plus + usage in 2015. Google Plus + has the potential to cater to niche audiences with its hangout feature, social likes and behaviour data

Conclusion

SEO is simply another channel to acquire customers. As in-house SEO professionals, it's essential for you to not just work with other marketing teams but also learn new skills like PPC, usability, or social media, and adopt new tactics like retargeting.

About the Author

Francesca Marchetti works ar SEO Synovation in the Italian office.  SEO Synovation helps organisations drive traffic to websites at the lowest possible cost with the highest rewards using SEO tactics, online and internet marketing techniques. 

Francsca Marchettii works at the Italian ofice and speaks English.

Francesca may be contacted at seosynovation@kpnmail.nl or by calling +31 6 428 73 480.  To request a free website analysis click on I WANT A WEBSITE ANALYSIS

Website Analysis

Introduction

When website owners want to get their website on the first pages of a search engine result pages, usually Google, they should consider four areas of performance, namely:

A.      Technical features

B.      On Page Optimisation features

C.      Link Building requirements

D.    Social Media Signals.

Website owners should construct a value proposition first before performing a website analysis.  This post deals with these topics in a superficial way but for a depth review, you can view an expansive and detailed explanation on Website Analysison SEO Synovation’s website. A key feature of any website analysis is choosing the correct keywords or keyword phrases used in your website page.

A.  Technical Features

i. Crawling

For a website to appear on the first pages of a search engine from a user inserting a keyword or keyword phrases, it must be crawled by the search engines without any errors that might hinder the search engine returning your page to the user.

Website owners can check the status of their site at Google Webmaster tools.  Google details all crawl errors.  It is important search engine crawl all pages of your website.  You can make sure all pages are indexed by preparing an XML sitemap and submitting it to Google using Webmaster tools. Website owners or their web masters can also prepare a robots.txt file to help Google crawl program (Google Bot).

The most important search optimisation factors

ii. Navigation

a. Semantic Themes

The way users navigate through your website is very important.  Websites need theme arrangements, that is, grouping pages into vertical and horizontal themes all connected and linked to each other by links on each page.

b. Links (Technical)

In network theory, link analysis is a data-analysis technique used to evaluate relationships (connections) between nodes.  Relationships, identified among various types of nodes (objects), include organizations, people and transactions.

The best practices for link building strategies changes all the time. Most SEO and Link Building blogs are constantly reviewing the topic and altering their strategies to match current user desires. But one aspect has never changed; content is king.

iii. The New Perspective in Link Building is now Link Earning.

 Website owners should do this?

• Create great, useful and unique content that helps users solve their problems.
• Distribute that content widely on the web in appropriate, relevant and natural websites.  
•  Promote that content in social networks
• Text links work better than links on images.  Search engines read text links better than image links.

iv. URL

Creating URL that is the address of the website, with meaningful words help search engines to locate the page.  It is important to insert keywords in the URL.

  v. Domain Strength

The age of the domain is an important signal to Google.  Longevity indicates trust, persistent and appeal to users.

vi. Mobile Responsiveness

Google ranks a website for its mobile responsiveness very highly. Google ranks font size, font type, tap links and readable content in its algorithms.

B.  On Page Optimisation Features

On page optimisation factors consist of keywords, appropriate to the content of the pagetit, unique page titles of the correct length of less than 55 characters, unique description of the page of the correct length of less than 155 characters. Keyword stuffing that is overburdening the page with the same keyword repeatedly incurs penalties from Google. So do not do it.  Relevant, readable, pertinent and interesting content will encourage a great user experience – something that Google also encourages – and will benefit your ranking.  Other on page SEO factors are:

1.       Unique page titles with keyword

2.       Unique page descriptions with keyword

3.       Keywords in the body of the content

4.       Sufficient keyword count on page (min 400 words)

5.       Keywords in H1, H2, H3, H4 H5 and H6 Header tags

6.       Keywords in Bold letter type (only a few)

7.       Keywords in Italic letter type (only a few)

8.       Keywords in anchor text

9.       Keywords in image Alt Text tags

10.   Keywords in incoming links (hyperlinks)

C.  Link Building Requirements

In network theory, link analysis is a data-analysis technique used to evaluate relationships (connections) between nodes.  Relationships, identified among various types of nodes (objects), include organizations, people and transactions.

The best practices for link building strategies changes all the time. Most SEO and Link Building blogs are constantly reviewing the topic and altering their strategies to match current user desires. But one aspect has never changed; content is king.

i. The New Perspective in Link Building is now Link Earning.

1. Create great, useful and unique content that helps users solve their problems
2. Distribute that content widely on the web in appropriate, relevant and natural websites.
3. Promote that content in social networks

ii. Broken Links

Broken links on a page are bad for search engines and bad for users.  Search engines will detect an poorly prepared page that will not attract users. A page with too many broken links, poor grammar and uninteresting content will discourage users from exploring more websites pages.

iii. Number of Links on the Page

Too many links on the page creates an overwhelming users experience.  More than 100 links will appear too many and penalise your website. The most important factor to consider is relevancy to your topic.  If the page from the incoming link is relevant to your page than there is greater value to the users experience. The link will have more value and rank higher. You can use special software to import and analysis links from any source. You can grab backlinks from another backlink checker tool, or from your Google Webmasters account. 

Here is a list of factors you should collate, evaluate and monitor on a regular basis:

·         No follow and do follow links distribution

·         Site wide links and link networks

·         Domain IPs and countries

·         Domain Age

·         Google PageRank

·         Moz's Page/Domain Authority

·         Traffic stats by Alexa and Compete

·         Social signals count (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+)

Website owners or web masters should get a variety of links from differing websites, differing countries, differing domain strengths and differing domain ages.  Variety is the key with link building.

D.    Social Media Signals.

Social signals have both a direct and indirect impact on organic search rankings. Google ranks Facebook and Twitter social media content.  Direct impact comes from:

·         Number of people that like your brand on Facebook

·         Number of Facebook shares

·         Number of Twitter followers

·         Number of tweets mentioning your brand name or including a link to your website

·         Number of people that “have you in their circles” (Google+)

Indirect impact comes from:

·         Increased inbound links and citations due to improved online visibility/brand awareness

·         Increased positive reviews (in Google Local , Directories, etc.) due to happier customers

·         Decreased bounce rate, higher time on site, and more repeat visitors to your website.

Google is evolving the social media signals.  An aspect that troubles Googles is the authority of the shares, twits and comments made by users.

About the author

Francesca Marchetti works ar SEO Synovation in the Italian office.

 SEO Synovation helps organisations drive traffic to websites at the lowest possible cost with the highest rewards using SEO tactics, online and internet marketing techniques.  

Francesca may be contacted at seosynovation@kpnmail.nl or by calling +31 6 428 73 480.  To request a free website analysis click on I WANT A WEBSITE ANALYSIS

Keyword Analysis in your Website Check

Impact of Google Algorithm Updates on your website.

This post draws on the content of an earlier post by SEO Synovation on Algorithms but updated for 2016.  It starts with examining the requirments of the Hummingbird algorithm changes and suggests ways of imrpoving the keyword analysis in your content to focus upon a better user experience - a  goal close to Google's heart.

Algorithms affect all of the above features of SEO. If any feature offends thens expect your website to be blocked.

The consequence of updates is that offending websites loose ranking.

Hummingbird Update was launched in September 2013.  Its most recent update of August 2014 focused upon thematic keyword phrases and a higher emphasis on the intent of the search term.  This update had a major impact of search engine optimisation (SEO) and keyword analysis in general.

The Impact of Google Hummingbird Update on Content

Hummingbird Update was launched in September 2013. The updates primary responsibility was illustrated by Matt Cutts a Google Engineer as:

“Hummingbird will take a search engine query either in the form of a short or long tailed keyword phrase and try to decipher the context or intent of the phrase rather than chase the specific keywords  of the phrase.  Google goal is to match the search engine results to users queries that actually answer the keyword phrase”.

What must be done to Websites to meet Hummingbird Goals

 Broadly speaking SEO concerns three main areas: the technical part of the website, the formation of the content on a website page, and the quality of the content itself.  Follow these steps:

i. Technical Site Features – Create an internal link structure and architecture that facilitates the customer moving through your site. Fast page loading, optimised images and sitemaps all contribute to the end-user experience.

ii. On-Page Elements - Basic on-page elements still play a huge role in SEO ranking. Title tags, page URLs, ALT image tags and appropriate H1 tags are taking on new levels of importance.

iii. Content - Make sure your content is never duplicated, always high quality and is relevant and useful to your audience.

Keywords

I suggest you use specific short tailed (2 word keyword phrase) and long tailed (3 or more word keyword phrase) on you webpage.  I have used an example of a reat estate company selling homes in Italy. You should create a structure that resembles this:

Using Google Keyword Create Silos of Keuwords

• ·     ROOT Keyword phrase– a 1 or 2 keyword that creates awareness
• ·     INTERST Keyword Phrase – a 2 -3 keyword that indicates INTEREST
• ·     LEARN Keyword Phrase – 2 or 3  keyword phrase that creates LEARNING
• ·     SHOP Keyword Phrase – 3 or 4 keyword that indicates a willing to buy.
• ·     BUY Keyword Phrase – 3 or 4 keyword that indicates a willing to buy.

The Commercial Intent of Keyword Phrases - Categorisation

Buy Now Keyword Phrases Use

·         Buy

·         Coupon

·         Discount

·         Deal

·         Shipping

Informational Keywords Use

·         How To

·         Best Way To

·         Ways To

·         I need To

Product Keywords Use

·         Review

·         Best

·         Top Ten

·         Specific Brand Product Name

·         Cheap and Affordable

Tyre Kicker Phrases

·         Free

·         Download

·         ………… For Free

·         Get Info………….

TIP - Use Adwords Keyword Planner

The suggested bid price of any keyword suggested by Google Keyword Planner can be used as an indication of the commercial intent of the keyword phrase.  The higher the bid price the more valuable the keyword is to Google suggesting high conversions to profits..  Use these keywords to optimise your webpage for organic search.

Types of Keywords - Categorisation

Your Root Keyword is the central keyword that should appear in the meta title and the description of the webpage. Synonym Keywords are words that mean the same as the root keyword (e.g. lion & feline cat), correlating keywords are words often used to connect to the root keyword (lion and king of the jungle), and co-occurring keywords are words associated with the root keyword (lion & predator).

Use all keywords, Root, Synonyms, Correlating and co-occurring in 

• meta tags, 
• headings H1 – H6
• In the body of the webpage content, bold some of them and use some of them as anchor text.  KEEP ALL PAGES UNIQUE.

TIP

Keep track of these keywords relating to the ROOT in a spreadsheet for each webpage.  Specify what the keywords are and where they are used.

It’s imperative to interact with your social media audience of appropriate channels. Quality content must be distributed to make connections, sharing and new customers.  Blanket social media advertising rarely work.  Its best to target audiences that are interested in your product.

About the Author

 SEO Synovation helps organisations drive traffic to websites at the lowest possible cost with the highest rewards using SEO tactics, online and internet marketing techniques.  

Francesca may be contacted at seosynovation@kpnmail.nl or by calling +31 6 428 73 480.  To request a free link analysis click on I WANT A LINK ANALYSIS

Visit the website of SEO Synovation for a free online reputation ORM check http://www.seosynovation.com/free-orm-analysis.php.  To request a free check click I WANT A FREE ORM CHECK. 

Visit the blog of SEO Synovation for learning.

Five Ways To Earn Links

Why Your Website Still Needs Links

Introduction

 In this post Francesca Marchetti of SEO Synovation  explains hwy your website needs links and shows you how to get quality links. 

Link Building is part if SEO

In 2014 a discussion arose among Google and SEO experts are to the validity of links or back links ranking as a search engine optimisation (SEO) factor. On the one hand Google where saying that links in 2014 did not count for ranking primarly due to misuse by some webmasters.  On the other hand, surveys by MOZ and by Search Metrics, both in 2015, have conclusively proved that back links do count as ranking factors. Despite the many SEO factors that affect page rank, data from these studies show clear correlation between the number of quality backlinks to a page and the page rank. The best advice is to EARN back links. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly

Not every back link is good, and some can actively hurt your page rank. Good incoming links pointing to your site from high-quality sites with real editors and related and relevant content add value to your website.

Building and Earning Backlinks

With all this in mind, we're going to look at 5 ways you can build valuable backlinks that will not hurt you in the future.

Conduct surveys. Survey your customer or contant list to ask industry rrelated questions, and publish a valuable report. If you ask the questions everyone wants answers to, industry writers will link to your report. The same is true of valuable, evergreen content

• Produce data-driven reports. Data is the most valuable commodity on the web. Marketing, demographics, web visits, social shares, you name it, people are going to be interested in what's going on behind the scenes. Data reveals trends and validates the findings of others in your industry.
• Claim directory listings. Find the business directory listing sites where your business is (or can be) listed on the web and take ownership of the listing. Keep the listing current and monitor reviews and comments. Don't forget to check global travel sites like TripAdvisor.
• Guest post. Guest posting is still a valuable practice, and while you can't be salesy (in any way) on someone else's site, you can demonstrate your expertise to a new audience by offering valuable information, insight, and advice. Most sites allow you to include a link to your website or profile in your byline.
• Get friendly with influencers. Bloggers and vloggers are, by nature, social creatures. Start by building a network of targeted followers. One app that makes it easy is Socedo, which uses the conversational and bio keywords of your audience to find valuable leads automatically. Join industry-related hashtag chats, groups, and conversations. Don't ask for anything, at least until you have built solid relationships.
• 
  

The takeaway here is to connect with influential bloggers. Fish where there is fish and go where they hang. Visit their blogs and make thoughtful comments. Share what they publish.

SEO Is a Fast-Moving Target But Rewarding

TIP.  Google makes upwards of 400 minor changes to its search algorithms every year, and rolls out big changes on a pretty regular basis. An experienced SEO Agency can help you stay on top of current ranking signals, monitor your link profile and velocity, check the value of anchor text, and generally keep you out of trouble.

The most important thing to remember is that quality always wins in the long run. Gaming the system worked like gangbusters for a while. Spamtastic websites dominated the search results, and it wasn't pretty. With each tweak of the search, Google rooted out the shady practices and returned higher quality results.

About the Author

Francesca Marchetti works at SEO Synovation in the Italian office.

 SEO Synovation helps organisations drive traffic to websites at the lowest possible cost with the highest rewards using SEO tactics, online and internet marketing techniques.  

Francesca may be contacted at seosynovation@kpnmail.nl or by calling +31 6 428 73 480.  To request a free link analysis click on I WANT A LINK ANALYSIS

Visit the website of SEO Synovation for a free online reputation ORM check http://www.seosynovation.com/free-orm-analysis.php.  To request a free check click I WANT A FREE ORM CHECK. 

Visit the blog of SEO Synovation for learning.