Welcome to another edition of Sites Weekly.
First up this week, a quick plug for two recent episodes of my new podcast Sites, which I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to.
As you’ll see when you peruse this week’s links, SEO ended up becoming a hot topic. So let me also point you in the direction of this Sites episode, in which I take a deep dive into an SEO mindset mistake that plagues too many website owners.
And I will also point you toward this episode about goals for meaningful content marketing. Because aiming for (at least a few of) these goals will greatly strengthen your content marketing endeavors.
Now, on to this week’s links …
Content: Are your landing pages leaving conversions on the table?
You probably already know the basics of landing pages:
- They are a single page about a single topic.
- They should have a single, focused call to action.
- The goal of landing pages is to turn traffic into money.
Once you have those down pat, and you approach your landing pages with the right mentality, how do you take your landing pages to the next level?
Digest the eight tips included in this post on Conversion Sciences.
The example about insomnia when illustrating the power of “proming” really stopped me in my tracks as I was reading. Section #4 about utilizing visual and language processing was quite compelling as well.
How To Persuade Landing Page Visitors To Convert
For more on landing pages, I also recommend this guide on landing pages from Copyblogger.
Design: How do you know if a website is mobile responsive?
You’ve undoubtedly heard a lot about “mobile responsive” design in recent years. And hopefully you’ve done more than just hear about it — hopefully your website is responsive or adaptive.
(For the record, all StudioPress themes are mobile responsive.)
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between responsive and adaptive? There are a few tell-tale signs, and this piece by Search Engine Land highlights them for you. Now you’ll never have to wonder again.
More importantly, when you see a site that you like, you will now be able to tell how it’s configured … and thus be in a better position to apply what you like about it to your own site.
How to tell whether a site is adaptive or responsive
Technology: How to position your site for local SEO success
This link may not apply to you.
If your business does not have a particular geographic focus, then local SEO may not be on your radar screen to consider. But if you do have a brick-and-mortar business, or if you are targeting searchers in specific locales, then you definitely want to pay heed to the tips in this post from Search Engine Journal.
And, actually, numbers three and six in this list are useful for everyone, so click the link even if local SEO isn’t top-of-mind for you.
8 Local SEO Hacks You’ll Actually Want to Use
Strategy: How to get links to your website (and improve your SEO)
No matter how much search engine algorithms change, one constant seems to remain: the power of the authoritative link.
But how do you get good, valuable links that come from respected sites and will send your website high-quality visitors who you want to convert?
In this Copyblogger post, Brian Clark shares how to acquire the right kind of links that also communicate your authority to search engines. Plus, an important principle for both link building and life:
Don’t be a dope.
3 Strategic Ways to Get Links to Your Website
Which of the ideas in these posts will you put to good use immediately?
I’ll be back with a new edition next week.
Keep building.