Websites that sell products need a secure connection because they are taking people’s personal information like their name, address, phone number, email address, credit card information, etc. The consensus is that websites that collect sensitive information need to be secure, but what about websites that don’t collect this information? Some people do not think they need to secure their website if they are not asking people to submit their personal information. In the 20th episode of the first season of the Marketing Myths Podcast, Tobaria and Aaron talk about why you may or may not need to secure your website with an SSL certificate.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer

Without getting overly technical, adding an SSL creates a safe connection for customers to buy products or services, and share information safely with you online.

If you’ve ever wondered how SSL works, look no further. An SSL certificate works to create an encrypted connection between your visitor’s browser and the server. A secure session is established via a “handshake” process, one that involves a back-and-forth between the web browser and the web server, and it occurs behind the scenes — all without interrupting the shopping or browsing experience.

An SSL works to protect valuable information passed between the two parties.

Top Situations for SSL

• Accept Payment Securely
• Protect Password Logins
• Secure Web Forms

TRUST

Your SSL certificate is a confirmed credential that you are who you say you are. That builds trust!

CAN HELP SEO

Google Announcements

• August 2014 Google confirmed it would start using HTTPS as a ranking signal.
• September 2016 Google announced 2 major things:
  • They will start marking HTTP sites that transmit passwords or credit cards as non-secure
  • This is part of a long-term plan to mark ALL HTTP sites as non-secure.
• February 2018 will mark ALL HTTP sites as not secure.

Getting an SSL is easy and affordable if not free.

All reputable hosts offer SSL certificates to purchase from them and they will implement into your site without any hassle.

Reputable hosts

• InMotion
• Bluehost
• HostGator
• GoDaddy
• Flywheel for WordPress

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. It is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Let’s Encrypt gives people the digital certificates they need in order to enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) for websites, for free, in the most user-friendly way they can. They do this because they want to create a more secure and privacy-respecting Web.

There are a lot of question around the effectiveness of Facebook and LinkedIn advertising strategies. Are they worth the time and money? On this week’s Marketing Myths Podcast, Aaron and Tobaria talk through this myth, offer real data that backs their final conclusion, and even give advice on how to successful run a campaign on these platforms.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

Search Engine Journal: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/improve-remove-old-content/300961

February 23, 2011 – Google launched its Panda Update.

Panda was developed to reduce the prevalence of low-quality, thin content in the search results, and to reward unique, compelling content.

At the time Panda launched, user complaints about the increasing influence of “content farms” were growing rampant.

Google’s Panda algorithm assigns pages a quality classification, used internally and modeled after human quality ratings, that is incorporated as a ranking factor.

Websites that recover from the impact of Panda do so by revamping pages with low-quality content, adding new high-quality content, eliminating filler words and above the fold ads, and in general improving the user experience as it relates to content.

In 2016, 130 trillion individual pages on the web. But the Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages – only a portion of the total pages available in the web.

The search engine is filtering out a lot of stuff and you don’t want that to be you.

Google spokespeople have downplayed the idea that “old content won’t hurt you.” They have also warned that removing content is a dangerous SEO strategy.

In October 2015, Gary Illyes said in a tweet, “We don’t recommend removing content in general for Panda, rather add more high-quality stuff.”

A couple years later in October 2017, Illyes said, “It[‘]s not guaranteed that you will see any positive effect from that… For those that don’t show up in the search results, those are not indexed, and if they are not indexed then typically they are not affecting your site.”

In March 2018, John Mueller said, “Improving it means that the rankings can only go up, whereas by removing it, can cause loss of rankings instead of the gains that some people think content removals will do.”

Starting in July 2017, Search Engine Journal started a plan to hack and slash their way through their archives. The results: increased pageviews and organic traffic up over 60%.

Search Engine Journal’s process:

Step 1: Audit Your Content

Created 3 content buckets:

1. Content that helps you
2. Content that does absolutely nothing for you
3. Content that can hurt you

Then they crawled their content.

[will list popular crawlers in the show notes]

After the crawl, here’s what you need to know for each page:

• Title: Is it optimized? Does it include a reader benefit?
• URL: Is it SEO friendly? Do you need to change it?
• Author: Who wrote it? Is it an expert/authority in the field?
• Publication date:Is it still fresh or out of date?
• Number of reads:The more reads, the better. It’s a sign of good content that connected with your audience
• Word count: It isn’t necessarily a sign of low-quality content but it could potentially indicate quality issues.
• Number of links: How many inbound and internal links do you have?
• Trust Flow and Citation Flow: This is Majestic’s metrics for quality score and link equity.

Step 2: Evaluate the Quality of Your Content

Here’s how Search Engine Journal defines quality content:

• Accurate
• Mobile-Friendly
• Answers Questions
• Informative
• Original
• Shareable
• Solves Problems
• Inspiring
• Readable
• Visual
• Entertaining
• Educational

Here’s how Search Engine Journal defines low-quality content:

• Has no target audience.
• Has no goal / purpose.
• Is not optimized.
• Is unsuccessful.

On the other hand, Google defines quality content as:

• Useful and informative.
• More valuable and useful than other sites.
• High quality.

A term that also comes up often is E-A-T which comes from Google’s search quality rating guidelines. Simply put E-A-T means:

• Expertise: Your unique skills, information, or knowledge.
• Authority: Other people know about and recognize your skills or knowledge.
• Trust: People believe what you think, say, or do and feel secure buying from or endorsing you.

Google considers content as low quality when it has the following elements:

• Inadequate E-A-T.
• Main content quality is low.
• Unsatisfying amount of main content.
• Exaggerated / shocking title.
• Ads or supporting content distracts from main content.
• Unsatisfying amount of info about website or content creator.
• Mildly negative reputation of website or content creator.

In 2017, Search Engine Journal ran the numbers and figured out that the top 3% of posts on their website drove as much traffic as the bottom 97% combined.

We’re talking about a few hundred posts driving as much as several thousand posts.

Step 3: Determine what to do with your existing content

The final step of this process is making data-driven decisions about whether you should improve (update, rewrite, or consolidate) or remove (deindex) old content from search engines.

There are five possibilities for your content:

Scenario 1: No Changes Needed

You won’t need to change anything in your content if:

• All information is accurate, or has historic value.
• It consistently getsgood traffic and
• It has attracted many quality linksand social shares.
• It ranksin Position 1-3.
• It generates conversions.

If content is already working well for you, leave it alone. Focus on areas where you can actually make gains.

Scenario 2: Content Update / Refresh

Content that needs an update or a refresh:

• Gets consistent traffic(or used to).
• Has earned some valuablelinks / shares.
• Rankson Page 1 of Google.
• Few / no
• Below average

Scenario 3: Content Rewrite

Your content needs to be rewritten if the following apply:

• Currently gets little or no traffic.
• No longer attracts new links / shares.
• Doesn’t rank on Page 1.
• Is it indexed?
• No conversions.

Scenario 4: Content Consolidation

Here are the reasons why you might want to consider consolidating your content:

• You have multiple articles on one topic.
• One piece gets some traffic; others get little or none.
• They do not attract any new links or shares.
• The article is not ranking on Page 1 or…
  • The wrong page ranks.
  • Two pages are competing on the same SERP.

Scenario 5: Content Deletion / Deindexing

Your content needs to get the boot if:

• It’s “thin content”.
• It’s poorly written / off-topic / syndicated / stolen / plagiarized.
• It has no historic significance.
• It has a very low number of pageviews.
• It has few or no traffic, links, shares, conversions, or engagement.

Will deleting old blog posts hurt your website?

[needs to be done strategically]

• Search Engine Journal: No
• SEO Blog: No
• Yoast: No
• Raven Tools: No; recommends using a WordPress plugin to set a date when your post expires.
• Inmotion Hosting: No

Yes, it will hurt:

• Ezoic Blog

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

Find out more about Sarah on her website.

Listen to the Write Now Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or other places.

Listen to the Girl in Space Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or other places.

Find more information about Sarah’s Podcast Now Masterclass.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

Considerations:

1. How much money do you have to put into social media marketing?
2. How much time do you have available to put into social media marketing?

Cost

As a percentage of the total marketing budget, the Survey found that social media spending is at 11.7% in 2016 — a three-time increase since 2009.

What is the cost to outsource social media marketing services?

• $4,000 to $7,000 per month
• $130 to $230 per day

https://buffer.com/library/social-media-marketing-budget

https://www.contentfac.com/how-much-does-social-media-marketing-cost/

Capacity

How much of your time can you devote to your social media marketing?

Do you have people commenting on your social media posts? Do you have people messaging your pages or accounts? You could easily spend 10-30 minutes daily answering customers.

How long does it take you to come up with, compose, and publish a thoughtful social post?

How long does it take you to prepare and implement a solid strategy?

In 2015, Social Media Examiner surveyed almost 4,000 digital marketers to ask “How much time do marketers spend on social media?”

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2015.pdf

• 64% of marketers spend more than 6 hours per week on social media, and 41% actually spend more than 11 hours weekly on the medium.
• Novice social media marketers spend significantly less time on social media than those more experienced with the medium.
• Time spent on social media correlates with business and employee size, which makes sense given the often limited resources for small businesses.
• Do you know what a Facebook pixel is?
• Do you know how to target your ads to people who have accessed specific content on your website?
• Do you know the right image dimensions for a social media ad?
• Do you know what a hashtag is? Do hashtags even matter?
• Do you know the difference between CPM, CPC, CPV?
• Do you know what social networks your customers hang out on?
• What is a good Cost per Click?
• What is a good Click Through Rate?

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

American Time Use Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/tus/

https://www.emarketer.com/content/exodus-from-pay-tv-accelerates-despite-ott-partnerships

Connected TV is popular with cord cutters, or those who have ceased paying for TV services in the home. According to eMarketer estimates, about 33 million have stopped their subscriptions to a paid TV service.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/connected-tv-advertising

In 2018, our forecast puts the number of connected TV users at 182.6 million, or 55.5% of the US population. In 2022, the number of connected TV users will rise to 204.1 million, which will represent 60.1% of the population.

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/tv-advertising/

National TV Prices by Show

https://adage.com/article/media/tv-pricing-chart/315120/

It takes money to make money and the more you have the more you will be seen, right? Well, when it comes to paid digital tactics, that not may be the case. In today’s episode of The Marketing Myths Podcast, Tobaria and Aaron talk through the myth that the more money you throw at your paid search and display campaigns the higher your ads will rank and the more they will be seen. Enjoy!

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

I think we’re both familiar with the thought that if we want to have the best placements within Google Ads, all we need to do is throw some more money at it.

Well, that’s not true all of the time.

One instance that we did find this to be true is when you’re trying to use Managed Placements on the Google Display Network.

Before we jump too far into the weeds, let’s define what Managed Placements are.

Managed Placements are just a feature on Google where you tell them where you want your ads to run across. So you can think about it as site-specific advertising.

According to Google’s help article on Managed Placements, this may be the one time where you may need higher bids in order to place on those top quality websites.

However, if we look at it from the Google Search network perspective, Google’s Ad Rank formula comes in play a little more when it comes to determining placements.

The obvious question here is what is Ad Rank?

Ad Rank is just a value used to determine your ad position and whether your ads will show at all.

When it comes to ad rank, here’s everything that goes into this magical formula:

Bid Amount, your Auction-time ad quality (expected click-through rate, ad relevance (so your targeting) and landing page experience), the Ad Rank thresholds, context of the persons search (so think location, device, time of search, etc.) and the expected impact of extensions that you’ve added on to your search campaign.

Wordstream had a good blog on how if you just increase your bids, you’ll get fewer clicks.

One thing that they say is you have to watch out for is when you raise your bids. You will pay more. If you raise your bid, and your bid alone, you’ll see that you will get less traffic for your budget. So you want to move those 2 in tandem.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722122?hl=en

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/04/03/higher-bids-fewer-clicks

Every business owner and marketer is looking for their “golden ticket” to reach their customers. For some reason, we keep hearing that the demographics a business is trying to reach aren’t on social. Is social media really only useful for reaching young people? Can you only reach affluent people on LinkedIn and the local newspaper? In today’s episode of the Marketing Myths Podcast, Tobaria and Aaron address the myth that certain demographics aren’t reachable on social media.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-demographics/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-2018-appendix-a-detailed-table/

Percentage of Total Americans on Corresponding Network

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Gender

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Ethnicity

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Age

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Income

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Education

Percentage of Americans on Corresponding Network by Geography

Many marketers use paid search ads to serve text ads to people searching for their products and services. Pay per click, or PPC, campaigns can be very beneficial and provide a solid return on investment. However, some people believe that once the campaign is set up and started the job is done. Tobaria and Aaron tackle this myth in today’s episode of the Marketing Myths Podcast.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

I’ll tell you right now that this myth is false. Setting and forgetting is the best way to spin your wheels and not get any of the traction that you’re looking for to grow your business.

One of the more popular reasons that people like to set and forget their PPC campaigns, is because they don’t have the time to manage it. And I’m not saying that they don’t. But what I am saying is if you find yourself in this situation, you should hire someone who does have that time to dig out some valuable insights.

First and foremost, we don’t want to waste ad dollars. That’s the driving point behind 2 of the 3 reasons I’m going to list below.

One of the first things that you can find out is what is your Actual target demo? You may think it’s Men ages 18-24, but if you have your PPC campaign configured correctly, the data may actually show you that the people who buy from you the most aren’t in the 18-24 age range but rather they’re in the 55-64 range. You may be surprised that they’re a totally different gender than the one you originally thought.

You can also find out about where you can launch a product. You may have thought that the coasts was where you would see an explosion of business. However, upon further review of your campaign, there is a crazy demand for you product in the Midwest. If you were to set and forget your PPC campaign, this wouldn’t be information that you could otherwise stumble across.

It could help you launch a new product. If you review the different ways that people found your product, it could give you some insights on other things that they want as well. For example, if you sell water bottles, but somehow a lot of the searches that brought people to your website are water bottle holders, maybe you could look into water bottle holders and see if there is any opportunity to grow your product line. This is more valuable information that you wouldn’t normally get if you just set and forgot your PPC campaign.

So 3 of the many things that we covered here today that you could be missing are audience information, geo information for product interest, and you can potentially grow your business by launching new products off of your original product.

If you have shopped online, odds are you have been a recipient of retargeting ads. This tactic is a favorite around retail businesses to show products you may have looked at on a website but didn’t purchase. These ads are then meant to drive you back to the website to purchase the item. And they work! Well, they work for retail, but what about other businesses? Does retargeting work for B2B or service businesses? In this episode of the Marketing Myths Podcast, Tobaria and Aaron talk about how retargeting ads can be used outside of the retail world.

The Marketing Myths Podcast is available where you listen to podcasts!

We would appreciate it if you’d rate and recommend our podcast.

Show Notes

What’s the difference between Retargeting & Remarketing?

Retargeting is mostly used to continue serving ads to potential customers based on cookies. While remarketing is based on email.

Two main uses of retargeting ads:

1. Stay top of mind
2. Build brand awareness

Retargeted customers are 3x more likely to click on your ad than people who haven’t interacted with your business before according to an article by invespcro.

That same article says website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on the website.