How to Find Blog Ideas Your Customers Will Actually Care About

Last Updated: February 8, 2018

You’re trying to get your website off the ground, and you’ve heard your traffic will improve if you fill your pages with lots of valuable content. But there’s the problem—you want to create interesting blog posts and page content for your audience, but you’re totally stumped on what to write about!
This is an all-too-familiar problem for many small business owners. Thankfully, in our years of practice, we’ve discovered some shortcuts that can make it easier to come up with webpage and blog ideas. Keep reading for our suggestions on how to come up with topic ideas for your website content!

Take Inspiration From Online Forums

Track down online communities related to your trade or niche. Social media groups and blog forums are a hotbed for passionate discussion about new trends, DIY tips, personal anecdotes, and more.
If you’re stuck for blog ideas, take a few minutes to read the online discussions on these forums. Mine the conversations for hot topics that attract a lot of engagement and discussion. You might also discover the same handful of questions popping up again and again. You can use these insights to provide people with the advice and answers they’re clearly searching for. These are the topics that are most likely to interest your target customers.

Discover New Keywords

In studying these online discussion boards, you may also start to notice some new phrases or keywords gaining popularity. This is invaluable information, because it will show you the kind of language regular folks use when they talk about things related to your industry.
With this knowledge, you’ll be able to mold your content so it captures search traffic for layman’s terms that you might not have been aware of, given your technical expertise in the field.

Use Tangential Topics, Too

When coming up with ideas for content, don’t be afraid to blur the lines between your niche and a niche adjacent to yours. Chances are, your target customers are interested in both, and you can easily relate these tangential topics back to your own business.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re a hardwood flooring specialist. It’s safe to assume a large subset of your target customers are planning a home remodel. Therefore, you may want to include blog posts about topics related to remodeling, such as DIY decorating tips, popular paint colors, and how to remodel on a budget.
In other words, go beyond your specific industry and think about related topics your target customers might also be interested in.

Consult an Automatic Generator

If you’ve exhausted all of the above strategies—or you’re simply short on time—try checking out an automatic topic generator like Answer the Public.
This tool works if you have a keyword in mind but you can’t quite figure out how to write about it. You simply type the word or phrase into the search box, and you’ll be presented with a large assortment of questions that people are asking related to that keyword. These questions are taken directly from search engine data.
For example, if you type “hardwood floor” into the Answer the Public’s search field, you’ll get a list of 111 frequently asked questions, including:

“Why wax a hardwood floor?”
“How to clean hardwood floor?”
“Which hardwood floor is best?”
“Can hardwood floor cleaner be used on laminate?”

As you can see, the questions come from all different angles, so there’s no shortage of topics you can cover for any given keyword. Just pick a question you find most intriguing, or one you know the most about, and write your answer. This should be a great starting point for your blog post or webpage.

When All Else Fails, PG Can Help!

Whether you feel like writing isn’t one of your strengths or you just don’t have enough time to create your own website content, we can help. Our talented writers and production specialists can produce compelling content for your website, blog, and social media accounts on your behalf. Then, we can even promote it online to increase your traffic and visibility.
If you’re interested in our writing services, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Do You Know What Siri and Voice Searches Mean for Your Website?

Last Updated: January 11, 2017

When we shared our online marketing predictions for 2017, we detailed how Google is doubling-down on catering to its users’ expectations and experiences. And as virtual personal assistants like Cortana and Siri become more prominent in users’ lives, Google is seeing a significant increase in voice searches.

What Do Voice Searches Have to Do With You?

You’ve probably seen someone use voice search on their smartphone. Maybe you’ve even used it yourself.
With voice searches, users speak in complete questions. For example, they’ll say out loud, “Hey Siri, what’s the best kind of floss to use?” instead of manually typing “best floss brands” into the search box. The assistant sends these questions to Google. Then, it’s up to Google to process the question and deliver relevant, informative answers at lightning speed. This is why Google continues to hone its algorithm so it can process natural language and find precisely what users are looking for.
To aid in discovering webpages that are relevant to users’ questions, Google has adapted a new system called Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). By using LSI, Google actually analyzes the content of individual webpages, assessing synonyms and context instead of just scanning them for identical keyword matches. This produces search results that satisfy a search query in a more specific, helpful way.
So, now that you have a basic understanding of how voice search has impacted Google’s nuts and bolts, we can get to what you really came here for: How will the voice search trend impact you?

Target Your Content

Because of the dominance of voice searches, your website needs to be chock full of valuable information that pertains to people’s pressing interests. This was always the case to a certain extent, but now it’s even more urgent.
If you want Google’s LSI system to capture your content and present it in the search results, your content needs to demonstrate crystal-clear relevance to the user’s query. A few well placed keywords aren’t enough anymore. This means there’s a strong chance you’ll need to rewrite—or, at the very least, expand—the content on your webpages. There’s really no way around it.
We suggest starting with a free tool like Answerthepublic.com. When you input a keyword relevant to your business, the tool will show you all the questions users are asking about it. For example, some of the popular questions related to the keyword “floss” are:

“How to floss back teeth with braces?”
“When to floss toddler’s teeth?”
“What does floss do?”
“Which is better, floss or mouthwash?”
“Who invented dental floss?”

The tool gives you hundreds of questions to choose from. To keep this example going, if you’re a dentist or orthodontist, you may want to consider writing a blog post about how to floss with braces or why floss is better than mouthwash. Or you may even want to have a whole page dedicated to flossing and answer some of the most popular questions there.
The point is, your efforts in promoting your business will go much further if these types of natural language questions influence the content on your site. This is the kind of content voice searches are targeting.

Use Keywords in Moderation

This is another rule that’s been around for a few years now. However, many business owners and some marketers still haven’t embraced it. Keyword stuffing is out.
A surefire way to make your content look like spam is to jam as many keywords as possible into it. Not only does this read terribly to humans, but it also lowers your Quality Score with Google. Search bots will recognize that your keyword-laden content isn’t bringing any informational value to the table.
Obviously, keywords are still important. However, keep your focus keyword density between 0.5% and 2.5%. Any more than that will read poorly and degrade your content’s value. Additionally, sprinkle in a variety of other relevant keywords, too, because Google’s LSI will now recognize them as synonyms in the context of your page. This means you can write naturally and still score big SEO points.

Above All, Make the Content Good

The goal of your online marketing efforts is to attract new customers. While it’s certainly important to rank well with search engines and their mystical algorithms, you ultimately want to gain the trust and interest of real people. So whatever you do, make sure you write your content in a clear, compelling way.
If you cringe at the idea of writing all your content yourself (What? You’re not a nerd like me?), you do have some loopholes available. Mainly, you can have someone else write your content for you! Many marketers and freelance writers offer ghost writing services.
A large number of business owners find ghost writing worth the small investment because it means:

They get high-quality content that appeals to both search engines and humans.
They save their energy for other projects.
They spend evenings with their families instead of on the computer.
They avoid bone-chilling flashbacks to high school essay assignments.

So whether you choose the DIY route or the ghost writing route, our advice is still the same: Create content your audience wants to read, write it naturally, and don’t overdo it with the keywords.
Good luck!
And just for fun, here’s a quote from Search Engine Land’s report on an April 2016 keynote address by Google’s director of conversational search:

Google’s goal is to emulate the Star Trek computer, which allowed users to have conversations with the computer while accessing all of the world’s information at the same time.

The future is here.

How to Create an Infographic Quickly and for Free

Last Updated: November 9, 2016

If you’re at all familiar with what it takes to increase your business’s visibility online, then you know two things:

Informative content matters.
High-quality images matter.

What if we told you there’s an easy way to make content and images work together for your benefit? Combining the value of an informational blog post and the instant appeal of a brightly colored image, we give you: the infographic.

What’s So Special About Infographics?

Infographics are images that contain short, simple, easy-to-digest pieces of information. They help you provide valuable information to your audience while typically requiring less than a minute’s worth of reading. Grabbing attention and then delivering useful, actionable information? No wonder infographics are the perfect images for businesses to share on social media!
Luckily, infographics are relatively easy to create. You can take advantage of online tools that offer free templates so you don’t have to build them from scratch. This is particularly helpful for business owners without much spare time or many design skills.
In fact, to show you how easy it is for beginners, we had one of our writers create an infographic for this blog post. Keep reading to discover how she did it and how to create an infographic of your own.

How to Create an Infographic

1. Choose a Topic.

The subject of your infographic should be something you’re knowledgeable about, something relevant to your business, and, most importantly, something your audience wants to learn about. Ultimately, it must add value to their lives before they’ll want to share it with others.
Topics can be anything related to your business that will provide your audience with information they can actually use. They’re often tutorials, explanations, and presentations of data. Some examples:

How to change your furnace’s air filters
10 things to know about tax deductions
What to expect during your first Swedish massage
5 most popular car accessories
3 reasons to floss your teeth every day

The possibilities are endless.

2. Keep It Brief.

Remember, since this is a visual representation, all your text should be short, sweet, and to the point. Organize your ideas ahead of time into bullet points and short sentences so you can get all your ideas across succinctly.

3. Use a Striking Layout.

Eye-catching design is what makes your infographic stand out. The idea of designing one from scratch may seem daunting if you’ve never done it before, but don’t worry: There are plenty of free templates online that you can take advantage of.
For our infographic, we used Piktochart, a company that offers an assortment of free (as well as paid) template options. This platform was super helpful because it allowed easy customization. Changing background colors, writing our own text, and swapping out graphics were all simple to do. The thorough tutorial at the beginning certainly helped, too.
Another option available to you is to download free templates from companies like Hubspot. While they don’t have a whole program to assist you in creating your infographic, they give you a variety of templates you can use with Microsoft PowerPoint and customize on your own.

4. Share the Finished Product.

Now that you’ve created an attractive infographic you’re proud of, it’s time to share it with your followers. Upload it to a page on your website, then share it with a link in your social media post. (Including the link may encourage especially interested parties to click over to your site.)
Now that you know how to create an infographic easily and affordably, you’ll be an infographic-creating machine in no time. Good luck!
Here’s our finished product, made possible by Piktochart.

Why Do Rewarding SEO Campaigns Demand Your Patience?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Wouldn’t SEO campaigns be so much easier if you could just flip a switch and watch them go? Alas, the Internet simply doesn’t work that way.
Launching an online marketing campaign takes a lot of time. To ensure extended success, Prospect Genius—and many standup companies like us—must run through an exhaustive, time-consuming process when setting up any new campaign.
If you’ve been asking yourself why your Core campaign took so long to get off the ground, then this blog post is for you. Here, you’ll get a thorough explanation of all the work Prospect Genius typically does when launching a Core campaign. You’ll also find out why this process is worth the wait.
Let’s jump in!

How We Create a Campaign

As soon as a new client accepts our terms of service, we pull the lever and get the ball rolling on your campaign. Each step leads to another, and they must be completed in the right order. We cannot skip ahead. Remember the game Mouse Trap? It’s kind of like that.
Here’s what the process looks like from beginning to end. By the time you get to the bottom of this list, you’ll understand how much work goes into getting a campaign off the ground:

Basic background check. Before beginning any work, we investigate what kind of information and listings are already out there for your company. This will inform us on how to proceed.
Address check. We need to ensure you can receive mail at the address you gave us. This is how Google verifies your business’s location. If you can’t receive mail there, we must figure out a legitimate workaround before we can continue.
Call forwarding setup. We order your call forwarding number, a.k.a. your CallTrax™ number, which allows us to track your incoming leads for you. Once we receive this number from our provider, we set up call forwarding and add it to our system.
Photo collection. We gather photos of your business found during our background check or submitted by you. We save these photos in a collection so we can use them when we build your LeadTrax™ site. If you don’t have any photos, we will find relevant stock photos for you.
Review collection. We search the Internet for reviews of your business. We record and save all of the positive reviews so we can display them on your LeadTrax site.
Google Maps setup. We find out whether you have an existing Google Maps listing. If you do, then we try to gain access to it by having you name us manager or by submitting a claim to Google.

And that’s just the initial setup! Now, your campaign moves on to the writing and assembly stage.

Keyword research. We do research to discover the most appropriate keywords for your site. This enables us to formulate the best approach for on-page SEO.
Fresh content creation. We write all of the copy for your LeadTrax site from scratch. No content is duplicated for new clients. You get totally unique content for your site.
Error proofing. Writing content from scratch means it has to be meticulously combed over for mistakes. We double- and triple-check your content to certify its accuracy.
Site building. Once your content has been crafted and carefully edited, we design and build your site based on our templates. Our templates leave plenty of room for customization, though, so it’s never a one-size-fits-all scenario.
Quality control. Before we launch your site, we check it one more time to make sure it looks great and represents your business accurately and positively.
Resource setup. After your LeadTrax site has been launched, we create Bing and Google accounts so we can set up Webmaster tools and resources for your campaign.
Social media setup. We also create social media pages for your business on Facebook, Twitter, About.me, and Foursquare.

This covers the first several weeks of your campaign. Then we move on to the trickiest part:

Online promotion. Over the next 60 days, we create and/or claim a series of online listings using the most up-to-date information about your business. However, this process is performed in multiple stages, spread out over weeks. (Find out why below.) The efficiency of this process is partially dictated by your cooperation in claiming and verifying listings.

Once this phase is complete, you’ve reached the end of what we call your “ramp-up period.” It usually takes about 90 days, or three months, to get here.

Why Does It Have to Be Done This Way?

We aren’t the only ones who take our time establishing a campaign. Any reputable Internet marketer knows a campaign can’t be launched overnight. Building the foundation for a long-lasting presence takes weeks and weeks and weeks of meticulous, strategic work.
Why do we thoroughly examine your company’s web presence before we even begin? Because we need to correct any past missteps and start your campaign on a solid footing. Otherwise, the actions of your campaign may contradict existing information and inadvertently work against you.
Why do we write all of your site content from scratch? Because we understand that your business is unique, and your content should represent you. Plus, copying content from other campaigns is a surefire way to get penalized by Google. Duplicate content is a huge no-no any way you look at it.
Why do we perform your online promotion in multiple stages? Because creating or updating all of your listings at once will lead Google to mark them as spam. We strategically spread out the creation of your listings week by week so your growing presence appears more organic. This nurtures your site’s rankings without risking penalties from Google.
In other words, we take our time because that’s the only way to do online advertising right.

How Come Other Companies Get It Done Faster?

It’s true—some companies can get your campaign up and running in a week. And after reading all about our setup process, you have to ask yourself, How is that possible?
There’s no simple answer to this, but it boils down to the fact that it’s easier to take shortcuts. Many Internet marketing companies sacrifice long-term presence for quick results. They set up your campaign as fast as they can, and then they forget about it.
But here’s the thing: You only get a super-fast turnaround when your web history hasn’t been thoroughly examined, when your content has been copied and pasted, when your business is promoted like spam, when your campaign is just another carbon copy.
So if an online advertising company is promising you unbelievable success within mere weeks, it’s because they’re cutting corners. Don’t take the bait.

Prospect Genius

How to Find Blog Ideas Your Customers Will Actually Care About

Take Inspiration From Online Forums

Discover New Keywords

Use Tangential Topics, Too

Consult an Automatic Generator

When All Else Fails, PG Can Help!

Do You Know What Siri and Voice Searches Mean for Your Website?

What Do Voice Searches Have to Do With You?

Target Your Content

Use Keywords in Moderation

Above All, Make the Content Good

Contact Us

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