11 Ways to Drive Growth with 10X Better Marketing Webinars

Need to grow your business fast? Have you considered webinars as part of your marketing strategy?

Marketing webinars are critical for doing lead generation and sales for B2B (business-to-business) or software at scale.

Of course, webinars are hardly new. Many companies do them and have been for years. But many businesses do webinars incredibly poorly. I’m sure you’ve experienced a terrible webinar first hand – and probably not too long ago.

Don’t let the same thing happen to your business! Webinars CAN be awesome. Here are 11 tips to help you get 10x more output from your webinars and generate tons of leads and sales.

1. Spend More Time on Topic Generation

Doing a webinar about a boring topic, or a topic that your target audience simply isn’t interested in, is a recipe for disaster. Why waste the time and effort promoting and presenting something that few people really want?

Here’s the key to success with webinars: You need to pick topics that have already proven themselves. For example, if you’ve produced an e-book that got tons of downloads, or a certain email subject line for one of your newsletters got huge open rates, that’s a huge flashing “DUH!” sign that people are interested in that topic.

Look to your data. Figure out your top 5% performers across all your channels and content. Pick one of those topics.

Or use keyword search tools and social tools like Buzzsumo to surface new topics that people in your industry are dying over. Keywords aren’t just for SEO! Keyword volume is an indication of how interested people are in a topic, so it makes sense to use popular keywords as topics in your marketing webinars.

2. Reduce the Frequency of Your Marketing Webinars

Some companies do hundreds of webinars per year. Seriously? Yes, seriously.

You really don’t need to do multiple webinars per week! That’s crazy.

You’re much better off doing one big spectacular webinar per month than doing four mediocre webinars. Focus on QUALITY, not quantity. 

At WordStream, we were able to increase registrations to 5,000+ when we did one big event in a month versus seeing signups of around 500 to 1,000 for smaller, less produced and promoted weekly webinars.

3. Go All In on Your Webinar Slides

Are you still using bullet points in your slides? Please. Just stop!

Your webinar slides need to be highly visual. Visual content is so incredibly powerful – it’s way more memorable and entertaining than text-heavy slides. Awesome visuals will keep your viewers engaged.

Take this deck as an example – 97 slides and not a bullet point to be found! Oh, and it just happened to be one of the top 20 SlideShares of 2015.

Not a visual person yourself? Hire a designer to help to make high-impact slide decks. Trust me, it’s worth the investment.

4. Go Nuts on Webinar Promotion

You have to do email blasts. That’s a no-brainer. But email isn’t enough to promote your marketing webinars.

You should also be hitting your target audience using:

• Remarketing
• Facebook Ads
• AdWords Customer Match
• Gmail Ads 

Use all of these advanced targeting methods to make sure your best audience sees that you’re doing an amazing, can’t miss webinar.

5. Turn on the Webcam

Most of the webinar platforms let you turn on your webcam. Do it! When people can’t be in the room with you, this is the next best thing.

Your presentation will be even more impactful when they see you presenting. Also, people will trust you more when they see your face, versus just hearing an anonymous voice.

6. Do A Poll Question With An Offer

Polls are a good way to learn about and engage with your attendees. But we’re talking about business growth here, so let’s take it a step further.

Attach an offer to one of your questions. For example, something like: “Do you want us to follow up with you about a free demo?”

Then, after the webinar, your sales team can follow up by saying, “Hi, I’m just following up on your request for a demo…”

7. Personalize Your Webinar Reminder Emails 

Your reminder email should come from the presenter.

For example: “Hi, this is Larry. So glad you signed up for this webinar. Looking forward to chatting with you tomorrow.”

This small thing can increase attendance rates from 20 to 33 percent. That’s huge!

8. Send Out the Webinar Recording Immediately 

As every entrepreneur knows, opportunities don’t last forever. If someone is slightly interested in your webinar today, chances are, two days from now they’ll be less interested – if they haven’t forgotten about it entirely!

People lose interest quickly, so send out your webinar recording quickly. Keep your leads engaged. Don’t let hot prospects go cold!

9. Follow Up With Non-Attendees 

People who don’t register but don’t end up attending your marketing webinar are still good leads. Actually, they may be even better leads, since it means they’re busy people and likely to need whatever it is you’re selling!

Webinar attendance versus non-attendance isn’t a discriminating factor in lead quality. So don’t make the critical mistake of assuming that people who didn’t attend aren’t interested in your product or service. 

10. Practice Your Webinar a Few Times

Not everyone is a naturally gifted speaker. In fact, while it may look like giving outstanding presentations is second nature to some speakers, what you never see is all the hours of research and practice that went into creating that presentation.

If you want to deliver an amazing webinar that people will remember, it’s essential to take the time to practice your presentation. Schedule time to do a practice run in front of a colleague, friend, or family member. They can point out parts of your webinar that drag or are confusing, and they might help you catch mistakes in your deck!

Another tip: Record yourself giving the presentation and listen back to see what areas need work. You may discover bad speaking habits that you can easily fix. Here are some more tips for giving awesome marketing presentations and improving your speaking skills.

11. Make Your Webinar Interactive 

Solo webinars can be terrible. We live in a world of short attention spans. After 15-20 minutes, the mind starts to wander, no matter how skilled and knowledgeable the speaker is.

To avoid losing your audience, use an active moderator who can ask questions dynamically. Make it conversational – like a radio program, with back and forth and callers interjecting. This will make sure your audience stays engaged and entertained.

This post originally appeared on Inc. and is republished with permission.

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Three research-driven PPC tips for the automotive industry

If you’re an automaker or car dealer, 2016 should be a good year for sales.

Intensive research conducted by my data scientist colleagues at Bing Ads shows that digital media, especially search, will be the perfect place to capture the attention of prospective petrol-heads as they venture out on their car-buying journey.

What’s driving solid car sales?

Well, interest rates as well as fuel rates are low while the consumer index, according to an IBISWorld industry report, remains high. As a result – additional disposable income and improved credit scores – demand for cars is also likely to increase. In fact, auto sales are forecast to grow through 2020, with growth peaking in 2018.

So what can car manufacturers and dealers do to ensure they make the most of this opportune time?

Here are three solid tips, to help you accelerate towards some meaningful digital connections with potential auto-shoppers:

Look to the younger audience for hybrid, electric or diesel vehicles

If you’re a green car manufacturer, make sure you’re appealing to the millennials. “The Harris Poll” from Harris Interactive revealed that 57% of US millennials (18-37) would consider a traditional hybrid for their next lease or purchase. Compare that with just 43% of Baby Boomers willing to do the same.

There is one drawback – the higher price points is seen as a deterrent. Research from J.D. Power revealed that almost one in four buyers of gas-powered vehicles avoided the hybrid model due to cost.

Take action:

• Customize your creative to appeal to the younger generation, focusing on advances in technology and positive environmental impact.
• Add bid modifiers to your search campaigns based on age group, bidding up for the age ranges most likely to purchase a green vehicle.
• Alleviate cost concerns through your creative.
  • Use ad copy to highlight discounts and offers – six in 10 car shoppers are influenced by promotions according to a RadiumOne study.
  • On your landing pages, share additional financial incentives they may receive such as government subsidies or lifetime fuel savings.

Use the fact that brand loyalty is scarce to your advantage

According to a Facebook study, only two in five shoppers have an early brand preference – in fact very few shoppers are exposed to digital ads early in the purchase process. This means there is a ripe opportunity to build brand and model awareness.

Microsoft’s internal data shows that consumers considered an average of 9.8 makes and 11.4 models prior to making their purchase decision.

PPC can be vital in this process since most shoppers will conduct their research online before visiting a dealership, according to Accenture.

Take action:

• Bing’s Remarketing in paid search or Google’s RLSA ads are your friends here.
  • Bid on competitive terms
  • Consider bidding even on luxury vehicles to account for aspirational searches

Use ad copy that’s proven to work

Digital ads are the most influential type of ad during the car-shopping process – more so than TV or print according to a study of U.S. car shoppers by G/O Digital. Yet the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reports that only 36% of auto marketers in the U.S. use paid search advertising.

With a quarter of car buyers reporting via a study by Nationwide that they find shopping for a car to be as stressful as preparing taxes or buying a home, effective ad copy can make a big difference.

When we think of ad copy, don’t limit yourself just to words. Car-buying is a visual process, with four in 10 searches being for images of cars. Microsoft’s internal data shows that 45% of consumers viewed more than 36.7 car images on a search engine.

Mobile devices mustn’t be ignored either. According to research by SessionM, seven in 10 smartphone users use their mobile device when shopping for a vehicle.

Here’s how the usage breaks down:

Take action:

• Add image extensions to your ad to grab searcher attention and showcase latest or most popular models.

• Take advantage of new ad formats such as Google’s auto-specific ads or Bing Ads’ new video extensions for mobile devices (currently in beta).

• Use words that work. Here are the top five ad combinations across devices:

• Don’t forget the Sitelink extensions. These are a fantastic and underused opportunity to simplify the car buying process. Microsoft data shows that Sitelink extensions can result in a 13% improvement in Click through Rate (CTR), with Enhanced Sitelinks having a 22% average higher CTR.

These data-driven tips PPC tips for the auto industry compiled by data scientists from Bing Ads are sure to help you on your road to an extra-profitable 2016. Digital media, especially search, is the perfect place to insert your brand right at the start of the car-buyer research phase.

By the smart use of visual cues, demographic targeting and by paying attention to what ad copy resonates best, you’ll be well on the way to an empty car lot by the end of the year!

Feeling inspired? Share your favorite tips and ideas in the comments below.

Purna Virji is Senior Bing Ads Client Development and Training Manager at Microsoft and a contributor to Search Engine Watch.

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Why fighting mobile click fraud is a waste of time

Fraud prevention is heating up in mobile. But trying to fight fraudulent clicks from mobile apps is a losing battle. Instead, try these three tips.

Every week, a new industry expert or solution enters the fray to solve the billion-dollar fraud market. That’s great. Collectively, we can only combat fraud if as many parts of the mobile marketing stack embrace the techniques and implementations available.

All the same, advertisers frequently want detection and reporting on fraudulent clicks.

We refuse.

Fighting clicks from mobile apps is not only foolish, but an utter waste of focus. Permanently out-fooling such fraud prevention filters is a trivial task for the average fraudster. At best, fraud detection for cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns would be a stopgap and an ersatz pacifier for concerned marketers. At worst, it’s counterproductive snake oil.

Here’s why.

The types of fraud occurring on websites only partially matches the types of fraud in apps. They work roughly the same: some software simulates the click and the conversion or install. However, on the web, this happens in a consistent environment where ad delivery is easily monitored inside the browser.

In fact, the whole journey from impression to conversion on the target website can be seen transparently and tracked with JavaScript and cookies. This allows you to check if a website is producing background clicks for cookie dropping. On the web, we have an array of tools for interacting deeper in the value chain.

In the app world, none of this works.

Cookies and JavaScript are extremely limited, if at all available. There are no insights into ad clicks beyond the pure HTTP requests and the data attached to them. Individual networks can perform spot checks, but the type of coverage required by effective fraud prevention cannot be achieved.

The reason HTTP requests and the data attached to them are completely unreliable is because they can easily be modified by fraudsters. A fraudster can make the HTTP request look like it comes from an iPhone when it’s actually from a connected toaster, or vice versa.

The only reason why fraudsters would hijack real devices on real networks is because they can’t fake the IP address. Server-to-server clicks even skirt that need.

Therefore, a background click from a device running a malicious app looks exactly the same as a legit click. Ever wonder why there are so many battery saver and flashlight apps?

An individual click will show up from a legit IP with real headers from actual devices, often with a legit device ID of a real user, making it even possible for one device to “click” for hundreds of other real devices. Individually, this click cannot be filtered out.

Clicks should still be placed under scrutiny in aggregate in order to prevent poaching of organic conversions via click spam. This approach, called “distribution modeling,” is a very promising approach to fix attribution rules and post-install datasets, but is not useful to detect and prevent false clicks and charges on CPC campaigns.

So what does that mean for your CPC campaigns?

Here are three pieces of advice, beyond the general recommendation not to run CPC on mobile:

1. Don’t keep CPC campaigns running forever

Turn off CPC campaigns as soon as they convert significantly lower than average, at sub-percentile click to install rates. Hundreds of people don’t decide to click your ad only to turn away at the sight of your app store page.

It’s much more likely that someone is faking a large amount of clicks, and those few conversions you are seeing are actually organic conversions that are being falsely claimed by the ad network.

2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

A very typical symptom of organic conversions being poached is that while the CPC certainly is expensive, the retention and downstream conversion rates look good.

This is again because the retention is being generated by organic users, that typically retain better than many paid users.

3. Place very high demands on the quality of incoming traffic

Write your quality demands into your IO precisely what platforms and countries you are targeting, if you are filtering anything like anonymous IPs, or any other measures you’re taking. Explicitly stating it in your IO places you in a much stronger position, should you ever need to return to your partners with bad news.

The oft-repeated adage is that mobile is very different from the desktop web. The techniques, methods and campaigns we can run on the desktop web don’t translate well to mobile. As a space, we have to progress from those ideas.

Paul Muller is the CTO and co-founder of adjust.

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9 Easy Ways to Improve Your Marketing Resume

I’m not going to mince words: Hiring kind of sucks.

First, if I’m hiring for a marketing role, that usually means someone on my team is moving on, and that’s bittersweet. It’s great to see people I’ve worked with grow and try new things, but it’s also sad to see them go. Second, and worse, hiring takes up a ton of time. It can be so hard to find the right person!

The struggle is real

In my time at WordStream, I’ve reviewed HUNDREDS of marketing resumes, some better than others. Some a LOT better than others.

If you want to get hired for a marketing job, you need to make sure your resume immediately stands out, because the hiring manager is busy and frustrated and doesn’t have time to grant everyone a phone screen.

Here are nine simple ways to improve your marketing resume and increase your chances of getting an interview.

1. Add stats & figures

When reviewing marketing resumes, hiring managers want to see hard evidence of strong performance. So take a look back at the work you did in your last or current role and make sure you quantify your successes.

Math: Anyone can do it!

Examples of stats you might include:

• Growth in site traffic thanks to your work on SEO or social media campaigns
• Growth in email subscribers or increases in email open rates
• Conversion rate improvements through landing page optimization or other tests
• Reduction in cost per action or cost per acquisition

The same way that numbers improve CTR in ad headlines, they stand out from all the verbiage on a resume and show that you’re results-driven.

2. Use a striking resume template

Chances are, at any given moment, your hiring manager’s eyes are glazing over with the boredom of reviewing dozens of resumes in a row that all look the same. Especially if your experience isn’t absolutely stellar or perfectly aligned with the role, you can get your resume noticed by using a striking resume format.

Some design elements that can help you stand out from the other marketing resumes include:

• Use of color – Don’t go crazy; the main text of the resume should be black. But in the marketing world, a little color (keep it refined!) is better than strict black and white throughout. (I wouldn’t say this is true if you’re applying for a technical job or something in law or medicine.) Below is an example of a resume that makes good subtle use of color.

• Use of fonts – Different fonts for headings and body text improve readability and the overall look of your resume. But again, don’t choose anything too “creative.” Check out Canva’s guide to the best and worst fonts for resumes.

• A two-column design – This can help you put a little more information on the page without things looking too cluttered, and it’s often easier to read (this is why print magazines use columns).

Depending on the role, attractive resume formatting could just be a nice-to-have or it could be critical. If you’re applying for a job in design, your resume is effectively part of your portfolio, so don’t take shortcuts. Make it count.

If you don’t know where to start, you can find free marketing resume templates on the web; try these ones from HubSpot or LiveCareer.

3. Sharpen up your skills section

Most resumes include a section that lists your skillsets, but I’ve seen plenty of marketing resumes where it was a total waste of space. Mastery of Microsoft Office is pretty much a bare-minimum skill for any marketing job, so think bigger.

Most importantly, make sure the skills you list are relevant to the marketing job you’re applying for. A good third of the resumes I get don’t even use the words in the job title anywhere on the resume! This is a terrible idea, because it makes it look like you’re just carpet-bombing people with your resume and didn’t bother to read the job description. Plus, some companies use screening software, meaning if your resume doesn’t include certain keywords, a real person won’t ever even look at it.

In particular, hiring managers are going to be looking for three things:

• Proficiency in specific channels/techniques – List any broad or channel-specific marketing skills you have, such as PPC, content marketing, lead nurturing, public speaking, video editing, web design, mobile marketing, data visualization, etc. Again, make sure you include the skills required in the job description (if the job title is “SEO Manager,” your resume should include skills relevant to SEO, like link building and keyword research). But include your other marketing skills too; you never know what additional skills the company might consider to be a bonus.
• Proficiency in specific tools/software platforms – List all the tools/software that you use to accomplish the above techniques (SEO tools, PPC platforms and third-party software, email marketing platforms, video or design tools, etc.). Make sure you check the job description to see if they’re looking for a candidate who has experience with any specific platforms or tools, such as AdWords or Photoshop.
• Proficiency in coding languages and operating systems – List any programming languages you know (even good old-fashioned HTML) plus operating systems and content management systems. (For example, the WordStream site runs on Drupal, which isn’t super-common, so I always notice when it pops up on a resume and consider it a plus.)

It’s also worth mentioning certifications and relevant awards (i.e. marketing industry awards).

Try not to be too vague or general in this section. Pretty much everyone believes they have “the ability to multitask”; putting that on your resume is like saying you’re a good driver.

4. Add links to your work

This is key! You can claim anything you want on a resume, but your claims are going to go way farther if you’re able to back them up.

Consider adding links to:

• Your LinkedIn profile (just polish it up first and get a decent amount of connections)
• An online portfolio (if you’re applying for a design, development, or writing job, say)
• Your personal blog or your company’s blog if you’re involved in it
• Your social media profiles, such as Twitter, Google+, or Instagram, but ONLY if they’re professional and relevant to the position
• Contributed articles you’ve written or other evidence of thought leadership

When I’m looking to hire a writer or content marketer, I really appreciate when candidates make it easy for me to see recent samples of their work.

5. Keep the education section simple

List any degrees you have, where you got them and when. Don’t bother including any of the below:

• Your grade point average
• Any clubs or societies or fraternities/sororities you belonged to
• Minor academic awards (e.g. Dean’s list)
• The fact that you studied abroad
• Your coursework  

Seriously, just leave all this out. It looks amateurish – unless there is literally nothing else to put on your resume because you’ve never had a job. (The rules are a little different if you’re trying to land an internship.)

The fact is, 95% of hiring managers don’t care about the details of your academic background, because getting A’s in college doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about how the person will perform in a real work environment, and classwork doesn’t really translate into experience. So don’t waste space; include more details and data from your previous jobs instead.

6. Add a summary sentence at the top

My colleague Meg Lister told me, “I LOVE when people add a sentence to the top of their resume to describe who they are or why they want the job. It’s a nice way to personalize an application without a cover letter.”

You should have a cover letter (see #9, below) but if the application doesn’t allow for it, definitely make use of this tip. Add a sentence at the top, right under your contact information, that summarizes who you are and what you’re looking for in your next career move.

An example of a good summary sentence is “Self-motivated SEO with six years’ experience, strong analytical skills, and a belief in the power of holistic marketing campaigns.” (This is good because it differentiates you from other candidates, like a value prop for your resume.)

Here’s an example of a bad summary sentence: “I am seeking a full-time position as a content marketing specialist.” (This is bad because it all it does is state the obvious – duh, that’s the job you’re applying for – and shows no personality.)

7. Keep it to a single page

Unless you’re applying for a very senior position, like a VP role where they’re looking for 10+ years of experience, pare down the information on your resume so it fits on one page. Otherwise you’re sucking up too much of the hiring manager’s time.

If you’re struggling to cut down your marketing resume, here are some ideas:

• Try a two-column design as mentioned above, like this:

• Only include your last three to four jobs, not your entire job history, especially if earlier roles didn’t give you relevant experience (I don’t need to know about the summer you were a waitress).
• Condense the summary of each role to three bullet points max.
• Reduce the font size (but no smaller than 10 pt).

8. List a few hobbies

If you have room and it doesn’t push you over the first page, show the hiring manager a bit of your personality by including a brief list of two to three hobbies. It reminds the hiring manager that you’re an actual human.

We’ve hired at people at WordStream whose hobbies include birdwatching, figure skating, kendo, bartending, reviewing food trucks, mountain climbing, marathons … (I mean different people, not one person all at the same time).

Our beloved Erin at her OTHER job

If the hiring manager thinks they will like you as a person, that might give you the edge.

9. Write a cover letter

Your resume isn’t ever going to tell the whole story, so always supplement the resume with a cover letter, and always tailor it to the job you’re applying for.

Cover Letter Do’s:

• Do mention why you’re interested in THIS ROLE in particular.
• Do highlight the two or three elements of your work or life experience that are most relevant to this role and speak best to your ability to do the job well.
• Do show your personality. That means you need to write the cover letter yourself; don’t copy and paste from a template you find on the internet.

Cover Letter Don’ts:

• Don’t use fancy-sounding words you would never say, like “synchronicity” and “myriad” (ugh).
• Don’t go on and on and on (we’re busy, remember?). Two to three short paragraphs tops.
• Don’t be phony. Don’t pretend to be “passionate” about things you’re not passionate about.
• Don’t say you’re just trying to get your foot in the door, trying to build experience for your future career, etc. The hiring manager wants to find someone who is excited about this role, not someone who just needs a job.

Is Your Marketing Resume Already Slammin’?

Check out our open jobs! WordStream is hiring.

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The Start-to-Finish Guide to Optimizing Your WordPress Blog Posts [Plus a Checklist]

Posted by sergeystefoglo

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. There’s a good chance you’ll need to optimize or work on a website that uses WordPress, if you haven’t already! Whether you’re a business owner, designer, developer, PPC expert, SEO consultant, or writer — getting familiar with WordPress is a smart move.

When I started out in SEO, I worked with local businesses that hired smaller firms to design or develop their sites. Naturally, most people gravitated towards WordPress as their CMS of choice: it was easy to customize, even easier to maintain, simple to use, and did the job well.

It wasn’t until I started working with websites that were using Joomla or Drupal that I began to appreciate the simplicity and flexibility that WordPress offers. Don’t get me wrong, Joomla and Drupal are both great, but they require a lot more setup and learning beforehand (especially if your goal is to optimize the site for organic search).

What this post is about

This post is going to walk through the process of uploading and optimizing a blog post using WordPress and Yoast SEO. I’ll go into detail on both of these topics and provide you with a downloadable checklist that you can give to your team or use yourself.

Before we get started

Yoast SEO

While it’s true that there are a variety of SEO plugins available for WordPress, I prefer Yoast SEO and will be referencing it as an essential plugin for this post. If you don’t currently have Yoast installed, you can visit their website to download it or simply search for “Yoast SEO” in WordPress and install it directly.

Pages and posts

WordPress has two basic sections for uploading content. There are pages (which are defined as landing pages on your website), and there are posts (which are essentially blog posts). One could argue that this article could be used as a guide to uploading and optimizing landing pages on WordPress, but I believe there’s a different approach for that and therefore will keep the focus of this article around posts.

Uploading your blog post

Before you get to optimizing your blog posts for organic search, you need to get them live on your site. If you’re familiar with how posting a blog works on WordPress, feel free to skip ahead to the optimization section of this article.

1. After logging into your site, hover over “Posts” and then click on “Add New.”

2. Copy and paste the title of your post where it says “Enter title here,” then paste the body text of your post in the section below (don’t copy over images yet).

Pro Tip: I personally write all of my blog posts in a separate program (like Word or Ulysses) and then copy over the text into WordPress when I’m ready to post it. You can definitely write your blog within WordPress and save it as a draft if you aren’t ready to publish it, but if you like having a local copy of your writing I’d recommend simply writing it in a different program.

Pro Tip: You can alternate between the “visual” and “text” editor here. If you’re familiar with HTML, I’d recommend “text,” as you can spot any potential errors in the code and have more control. If not, the “visual” editor works perfectly fine.

Pro Tip: If you have links in your post (which you should), double check that they were added correctly. If not, you can add a link using the WYSIWYG editor. In general, try to at least have 3 relevant internal links in each of your posts. Don’t be afraid of adding external links, either! The important thing to remember is that if the reader will find it useful, it’s okay to add it.

3. If you have images, place your cursor where you want the image. Click on “Add Media” and select “Upload Files.” After choosing your preferred settings, click “insert into post” to add your image in your article.

Note: There are various settings and options for sizing and aligning images. Please see this write up for a more detailed explanation of how images and featured images work in WordPress.

Pro Tip: It’s always a good idea to compress your images before uploading them so they don’t cause long load times. Here’s a great guide to compressing your images.

4. Scroll down a bit and you should see the “Categories” section on the right side of your screen. You don’t have to categorize your post (unless your site is organized by categories), but you can add one if you wish. If you do, WordPress will create category pages that pull in posts within that category. Here’s a great write-up on how WordPress utilizes category pages and what you should consider from an SEO perspective.

5. Under the “Categories” section, you’ll see the tags section. Similar to categories, you don’t have to use tags. In fact, I would argue that you should always noindex tagged pages that are auto-generated by WordPress, as oftentimes it can cause duplication issues. Nonetheless, you can add tags to your post here.

6. If you scroll down further you’ll see an “Author” section, where you can choose the author of your blog post.

7. Scroll back up and find the section that’s called “Publish.” Here you can choose “Preview” to make sure everything looks right in your post before optimizing/uploading it. If something doesn’t look the way you want it to, just edit that section.

8. If you want a snippet of your post to appear on your blog homepage instead of the entire thing, simply place your cursor where you want the break to be and click on the “Insert Read More tag” button. Read this post that explains the “Read More” tag and its function in WordPress.

This should get you to a point where you’re ready to optimize your blog — let’s focus on this next.

Optimizing your blog post

Getting down the foundational elements of uploading a blog post on WordPress is crucial, but we are marketers, aren’t we? This section breaks down what you (or your team) should be doing to optimize a post on WordPress as best as possible. My goal with creating the checklist at the bottom of this article is so that you and your team can reference it when uploading posts. Pretty soon it’ll become second nature!

1. Assuming you’re still on the “Edit Post” page, scroll down until you see a section titled “Yoast SEO.”

Pro Tip: If you don’t see this section, make sure you have the correct plugin installed. If you do and still don’t see this section, scroll up to the very top right of the screen and click on “Screen Options.” From here, make sure that “Wordpress SEO by Yoast” is checked.

2. Click on “Edit Snippet” in the Yoast SEO section. The “SEO title” box will be where you input your title tag.

Pro Tip: In general, you want to include your main keyword first followed by your brand name or website name. Also, make sure that you stay within 40–65 characters here.

3. You guessed it — the “Meta description” box is where you’ll input your meta description.

Pro Tip: Although not necessary, including your main keyword in the meta description can be a great idea if it flows well with your content. Google has explicitly mentioned that meta descriptions aren’t important to search engine rankings, but that doesn’t mean using a keyword won’t help users click on your post. Because of this, try to make your meta description as enticing as possible to a potential user. Why should they click on your blog post instead of the other options available in the SERP? Also, as a general rule, stay within 70–156 characters here.

4. A new addition to Yoast SEO (although not WordPress), the “Slug” section allows you to edit the URL of your post. By default, WordPress will add the title of your post to the URL (which isn’t a bad way to go), but if you want to alter it this is where you can.

Pro Tip: There are “standard practice” tips for URL optimization that don’t necessarily affect your rankings, but solidify what your post is about to users and search engines. These standard practice tips include keeping your URL short, including a keyword if possible, and having the URL make obvious what the post is about. Here is a great write up from Rand on URL optimization.

5. If you click on the gear icon tab within the Yoast SEO section, you’ll notice options for things like meta robots and the canonical URL. In most cases, these settings will already be set on a global scale; however, you can override your global settings for specific posts here.

6. If you click on the “Share” icon, you can override the default metadata (titles, images, etc.) that Facebook and Twitter will pull for your post. In general, you can leave these blank. However, if you have a good reason to override them (testing different images, optimizing for various target audiences, etc.) this is where you can.

7. We’ve covered a lot of important on-page elements so far, but one we haven’t covered is the <h1> tag. This tag is crucial for telling search engines what your page is about. In most cases, your title will automatically be an <h1> tag.

Pro Tip: I see a lot of sites who have multiple <h1> tags on a page, as well as many sites who have duplicate <h1> tags across the site. Often times, the logo or phone number can be wrapped in an <h1> tag. Make sure to double check that you have one <h1> tag for every page, and make sure that these tags are all unique.

8.A dding alt tags to images is fairly simple with WordPress. There are various ways to do this, but it all comes down to whether you’re using the visual editor or the text editor.

Visual: Click on the image you want to add alt text to, and click on the “Edit” icon. Add your alt text in the “Alternative Text” field. Make sure to click on “Update” after.

Text: Simply add the alt=“” snippet of code inside the image tag. It should look something like this:

<img src="http://ift.tt/1Nhlbtk" alt="keyword goes here">

In general, alt tags should describe the photo. So, if I was writing a blog post about central vacuum systems and I had an image of a man using a central vacuum system, the ideal alt tag would be “Man Using Central Vacuum System” or “Man Cleaning With Central Vacuum System.”

9. It’s important to take a look at your internal links within your post. Are they topically relevant? Try to include at least 3–4 links that point to your internal pages and don’t be scared to throw in good external links as well.

10. Does your post have a clear CTA? Oftentimes this can be a “Read more posts like this” callout or a “Sign up for our newsletter” button; however, it could also look like a “buy now” CTA for sites that write about products.

11. After following the above steps, take a second glance at everything before hitting “publish.” If you publish your post and realize that something doesn’t look right later on, just head back to the editor, make your changes, and click “update.”

Extras

Optimization checklist

As promised, please download and distribute this checklist as you please. My hope is that after going through it multiple times, posting and optimizing your blog posts on WordPress will come as second nature to you (or your team).

I want the checklist!

3 more essential WordPress plugins for marketers

1. Broken Link Checker – Essential plugin that monitors all of your internal links and regularly reports on where they are. Easily one of the most simple yet helpful plugins out there.
2. W3 Total Cache – This plugin helps increase the speed of your site by leveraging caching, and minifying code. Highly recommended!
3. Gravity Forms – While there are some decent options for contact form plugins on WordPress, Gravity Forms beats them all because of the customization options, continued plugin support, and add-ons..

If you’re interested, I wrote an all-around guide to using Yoast SEO on the Distilled blog earlier this year. Also, please visit the good people at Yoast, as their blog is full of great advice and tutorials.

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