I’ve been looking at websites for over 8 years, and have developed quite a keen sense of what constitutes a real or a fake blog.   

One thing I’ve noticed is, it is getting harder to tell the difference because it is very easy to fake things like social proof, by simply buying cheap fans and engagement.

And, it is easier to set up a good looking site or blog as well because there are just so many great free templates and great, free website builders.

What is a fake blog?

A fake blog is one that has been set up along with around 200 more fake blogs for the purpose of pumping out low quality content and profiting from it.  

One webmaster and several hundred blogs does not lead to high quality editorial standards and fully researched and accurate information.  Fake blogs are not the types of places you want to go to in order to research what is the best holistic health diet to follow, or what herbal medicine is available for your toddler.

There is no integrity on these blogs.   The owners don’t care if you get the right information, just that you click a link and buy something.  Or, if you are a company that you pay to be featured on the site for SEO purposes.

Why should you avoid working with fake blogs?

Its obvious why you wouldn’t want to take health advice from these blogs, but what about guest posting?

With the recent announcement of Rank Brain, a system which Google can use to look at the quality metrics of websites - including time on page.  It has become even more important for webmasters not to be associated with these kinds of low quality sites.

If Google takes a look at your backlink profile and can tell that you’ve been associating with these types of blogs then it is a definite indicator that you have been link building against Google’s guidelines.    If you are not penalised then at best these links will be discounted and with it your hard earned rankings will drop and no-one wants that.. not even this lady.

So, do not work with fake blogs. They don’t provide any additional benefit further than a link and purely guest posting for links is a risky, risky business.

To help you build up you fakedar let’s go through the subtle signs of a fake blog now.

5 Subtle Signs Of A Spammy Or Fake Blog

1. A generic template

If you land on a blog and the template is one that you’ve seen literally everywhere then it is very likely to be a fake blog. Webmasters that create these blogs need to create a lot of them cheaply and quickly.  

They won’t put very much effort into the look of the website but instead just buy a free template and upload a ton of low quality content to make it seem like this is a blog that has been around for a while.

Often, the design is one that has a lot of categories set up, so it seems like there is a wide variety of content which makes it feel more aged. But, on closer inspection you’ll notice that one post will be in multiple different categories. You might also notice that the last post was uploaded several months, or even years ago.

Be wary of blogs which use generic templates!

   2. Too much social proof everywhere

Have you ever been to a networking event or a party and there’s that one guy that can’t stop going on about how amazing he is and all of the great stuff he has been up to? He’ll be name dropping and talking about all of his latest achievements, you just can’t get a word in.  How do you feel listening to that?

It doesn’t feel natural does it.  It feels forced, like he’s trying to prove something.   It’s the same on a blog.  We’ve all heard that social proof is a good way to show you are an expert, and it is.  Having social media numbers and shares visible on your blog is a good way to make visitors feel like they are not alone in coming to you for advice.

However, be wary of the unknown blogger who has been featured in every single top publication, who has several thousand homepage shares and displays all of their social media follower counts (which by the way are all huge).


3. Social media icons which redirect to the homepage

Another subtle sign of a fake blog is if the social media profile buttons don’t link anywhere.  Very often the site appears on face value to be legit but when you click on the social media icons they redirect back to the homepage.

This shows that the webmaster has set up a generic template, imported content and not even bothered to make sure the links work properly.  Make sure you click through and check that the blog does in fact have some kind of a social media presence.

4. No visibility of the owner

I’m pretty proud of Ginger Marketing, and I’m proud to put my name to this company and this blog. Of course,  I’m not yet at the level that I want to be, there is always room for improvement and growth and I try to improve with every single client, placement, blog post & interaction.  But, what I produce is to the best of my ability in this moment. That should be the case of the types of people you want to associate with for Digital Marketing purposes.

There are many, many nameless blogs out there with owners who are not proud of the work they are doing and so don’t want to be associated with it. If you land on a blog which does not have any description of who runs it then be wary! This could be a fake blog.


5. Traffic but no engagement

It’s gotten quite easy now to fake traffic.  Yep, that’s right, it is possible to actually fake traffic now! With sites like Traffic Junkie and others bloggers can game the system and just drive traffic to their site. Looking at pure traffic metrics is no longer an indication of a high quality blog or website.

This is the reason I talk so much about engagement metrics and how important they are. It is vitally important that you work with blogs and websites who have a real audience. Even if this audience is small, it is still an audience and that is what counts.

Growing traffic takes time, especially with so much competition.  So, be wary of any site that has managed to build high traffic in a short period of time - especially if no-one engages with their content.

We hope you've enjoyed this post! As usual let us know in the comments below. 

​To give you an idea about what dwell time could mean. A little bit tongue and cheek but this graphic from Hrefs backs up my point. The only risk for optimising for dwell time is overdoing it.  

I do see a strong trend in the online community whereby everyone is just trying to outdo each other on length of content.

It’s getting kind of ridiculous.

I love how Digital Marketers love to jump on trains.

One person notices how one metric - in this case, semantic keywords and covering a topic full and then dwell time as well impacts ranks. Then there are some studies, experts look at the theory, decide yes this looks like there is a correlation.

Then they come up with a simple tactic.

Let’s make the content longer.

And then, it becomes THE THING.

So now, blog posts are like manuals.  

Beware of following any tactic blindly. Do what is right for your audience and what is right for the topic you are covering.

If the content is good quality then your dwell time is going to be high anyway.  Readers will be engaged, reading through what you’ve written, maybe going back, double checking another point.
The thing we want to avoid is extremely low engagement metrics.

If your pages have an average dwell time of 1 minute or less then very likely readers are just skimming your content, realising it’s not relevant or of high quality and leaving.

This is a signal that

1. You don’t have the right search intent
2. You need to improve the quality of the content
   
   

As I said before, I really love that Rankbrain has got us talking about these quality metrics.  It’s a really solid reason for Marketing Managers and SEO Managers to go to their clients or company and have an argument for spending budget on the quality of the content.

Conclusion

Hopefully you have an understanding now on what this additional to the Google Algorithm does. And even more, have come away with some solid ways you can optimise for it.  Here is a quick run down of the types of things your content strategy needs to focus on.

The winners will focus on these things >>

Powerful titles

Conversion optimisation

User intent

Track time on page

Use LSI Keywords to cover a topic fully

Make sure you use Google related search

Write more in depth content (but don’t go crazy if its not needed!)

We hope you enjoyed this post! As usual let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

This is a picture from the outside of the nail salon. What can we say about the outside. Well, one thing is for certain, it looks like a nail salon.  As soon as you look at the outside you know exactly what it is.

But why - what specifically indicates this is a nail salon?

It seems very obvious to you, but there are some specific elements that have been brought together to ensure that you know exactly what it is that they do.  Let’s break them down now.


1. The Sign

Big bold letters 'Nail' its very clear what they do! 'Dance In Finger', a little less obvious, but its still clear this is pointing at a nail salon. 

2. The Branding

Colour

Pink & gold, girly and also stands out on the highstreet against the other white, grey and brown buildings. 

Curtains

They not only add a cosy feel from the outside but also make it cosy on the inside as no-one can look in the window.

Fairy Lights

Again, friendly, and makes the shop front stand out. 

3. The Price List

They have the whole price list pasted on the door making it really easy to understand what services they offer and the general cost. 

With all of these elements in place I am able to make a clear decision about whether

1. I can afford this service
2. They offer the service I’m looking for
3. Whether they are the type of people I’d like to spend an hour with

I can get all of this information by the impression that I’ve formed from the front of their shop.  This immediately puts me at ease before I’ve even stepped in their front door because I’m unlikely to find any surprises on the other side.

What happens at the enquiry stage?

Once I’ve stepped through the front door, the first thing I see are attentive and smiley people. I don’t have to go and find someone, or ring a bell, or stand in a queue.  Every time I’ve gone there, it’s just immediately a nice friendly person asking you if they can help.

It also feels like the natural next step once you get in.

It’s not pink & friendly on the outside and then once you step through the door it’s all black and white marble.

The branding is consistent.  

Mostly white interior with pink flowers on the walls, quotes saying “love” and fairy lights.  A girly, flowery vibe, consistent with the outside and what I expected before I walked through the door.

There are lots of visual cues that this is indeed a nail salon.

There are nail varnishes lined up on the wall in a huge range of colours.

There are chairs and a table with manicure equipment laid out on the table and behind.

It’s neat and tidy and clean.

There are also visual cues telling you immediately what you have to do next. 

Partly this is down to the fact that I’ve been to nail salons before.  And this is an important note. Have your clients used a similar service to yours or read a similar blog before?

An increasing number of brands are recognising the benefit of tapping into organic social networks by partnering with social media personalities & bloggers.

However, one of the most effective approaches for generating high-quality leads has been the use of micro-influencers – people with relatively small but highly targeted followers.

As such, many marketing agencies and consultancies have begun emphasising the importance of engagement metrics versus sheer volume when assessing the value of an influencer.

In fact, marketing research suggests that pushing promotional efforts through finely select influencers is one of the most reliable ways to quickly bring brand awareness to a viral level.

More specifically, here are ten influencer marketing stats that shed light on the benefits and recent growth of micro influencer marketing:

1. Higher Customer Quality Reported by More than Half of Early Implementers

According to an influencer marketing study released by the Tomoson platform, roughly 51% of surveyed marketers reported obtaining better customers that engage and convert at a higher rate. This indicates that influencers have an unmatched ability to facilitate rapid and effective social engineering.


2. Micro Influencers Encourage Purchases and Actions Frequently

Part of the reason smaller, more targeted networks are more efficient marketing channels is because micro-influencers are almost expected to recommend products and ideas to their followers and viewers.

More specifically, roughly 75% of micro-influencers regularly encourage their followers to take action. Such promotional efforts from larger stars seem to be less efficient at producing high engagement levels.

3. About 70% of Brands Engage with Influencers to Promote Content

According to a 2015 report from Schlesinger Associates and Agure, approximately 67% of marketers and brand communicators are using influencer marketing on some level.

Analysts estimate the figure has risen closer to 75% now. However, many of those brands have yet to discover the power of using micro-influencers.

4. Micro-Influencers Don't Have to Pay to Promote Posts and They're Less Expensive to Work With

More than 50% of micro-influencers have never had to pay to promote their content a single time. Platforms and blogs tend to welcome them with open arms because of the high-quality visibility they provide.  

This makes smaller influencers easier and more affordable to work with, despite the fact that they bring in better leads when results are extrapolated on a larger scale.

5. Micro-Influencers with a Following Base of 1000-4000 Users Have a High Engagement Rate

A following of a few thousand seems to be the sweet spot, with micro-influencers in this range receiving more than 4.5% engagement from their followers and subscribers.

6. YouTube Micro-Influencers Have the Heaviest Influence on Younger Demographics

A study from Google and Ipsos Connect indicates that YouTube stars are becoming even more influential than conventional celebrities, especially with the younger generation.

Approximately 70% of teens said that they can more closely relate to their favourite YouTube channels than their favourite celebrity.
​
​(Pictured below, Youtube Star & Comedian Miranda Sings)

7. Influencer Marketing Searches Tripled in the Past Two Years

During the past year alone, the number of Google searches for the term “influencer marketing” have tripled, going from about 4,000 annual searches in 2015 to more than 21,000 in 2017.

8. Supply and Demand for Micro-Influencers Increasing Exponentially

Perhaps even more interesting than the search volume is the number of agencies and platforms that have sprung up to accommodate the need to link brands with influencers, rising from only about 200 agencies in 2015 to more than 420 in 2017.

9. More than 80% of Consumer are Highly Likely to Consider Recommendations Made by their Favourite Micro-Influencer

Roughly 82% of consumers are very likely to consider and follow through with a suggestion made by a micro-influencer because they view them as being more “genuine” when compared to endorsements made by celebrities and larger influencers.

10. Almost 10% of UK Marketers Will be Spending More Than £100,000

A survey of 600 marketing and PR firms in the UK revealed that approximately one tenth of respondents will be spending a total of more than £100K on influencer marketing during the next year, and almost 40% will be spending up to £10,000. Such spending habits indicate that these brands have been achieving desirable returns on their investments.
​

Influencer Marketing Reaching Mainstream Heights

At this point it would be silly for any online business to ignore the power of influencer marketing and the social leverage that micro-influencers provide.

With the demand tripling and the supply doubling in the span of just two years, it's likely that influencer marketing will have a significant impact on internet economics and will probably become as popular as traditional marketing methods within the next 5 years.

As usual, let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Are you surprised by any of these stats?  Do you have one of your own to add and share with our readers? 

But, how much of that is realistic, or just hype?

It’s in the best interest of the AI technology companies & their investors to create a lot of buzz and “positive sentiment” as an AI robot might say. They want companies to feel like if they don’t jump on this technology straight away they will be left behind in the dust - their competitors speeding ahead as they adopt AI into their strategies.

So, I did some research of my own.

Going into the research adamant that a robot was going to take away my job, and worse my only true passion. A writer writes because that’s what they are on this planet to do. Take away the reason to write, what has a writer got left?

However, after completing this research I feel better - and I hope after reading this you might too.

This isn’t going to be a scientific study I’m afraid. I’m a writer, not a scientist.

I’m also obviously bias because I don’t want robots to take away my job, or my passion.

But, I don’t think those things mean I shouldn’t have a voice on this matter. If anything we need more voices on the other end,

For this unscientific study of AI technology & copywriting I focused on a tool, Atomic AI, which is pitched as a tool to help marketers write better. It does this by telling you if you are writing for the right level of audience and scores you accordingly.

I wanted to look at its scoring system, relative to how many shares a piece of content got.

The premise being, if a piece of content scores higher, then it should be shared more. That’s what  the tool is helping writers with.  To write for their audience better, make a deeper connection in order for them to share or engage with the post, which is what every marketer wants as a result from their content.

For this study, I’m going to look at the same website.  Because, as we know the size of an audience has a direct impact on how many shares an article will get.

Yes, so does a million other factors.  This is not scientific, remember.

I’m also going to use the blog content of a website I admire and respect for their copywriting.

Kopywritingkourse.com

As with every single blog out there, some content does better than others.

Some content gets a higher level of engagement from the audience.

This is what we are always trying to improve on.  To identify what it is that makes our content great + try to replicate that greatness for future posts.

So, let’s see if content that got a lower level of engagement on Kopwritingkourse.com, gets a lower score on Atomicreach.com

The Pages I Chose From The Homepage Of The Blog >

1. https://kopywritingkourse.com/airbnb-listing-description/ - 73 shares

2. https://kopywritingkourse.com/create-advertising-that-sells-david-ogilvy/ - 223 shares
​
3. https://kopywritingkourse.com/billboard-advertising/ - 116 shares



Now Let’s see what each one gets as score from Atomic.

1. https://kopywritingkourse.com/airbnb-listing-description/ - 73 shares

The primary goal of a good SEO Copywriter should be to captivate and influence a targeted human audience and attract search engine rankings with content that informs and answers common queries in a unique and engaging manner.

In other words, the content has to do more than just read well – it has to be tailored around specific topics and phrases to rank highly for popular search terms and keywords.

Therefore, excellent copy consists of content that is both written well and developed with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind.

Let's look at seven actionable copywriting techniques you can use to push your content to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs)

1. Start with a Show-Stealing Title

When you're initially coming up with the topic and outline of the content, the very first step will be formulating an eye-catching, click-provoking title.

Fortunately, if the title is good enough to persuade people to click on it, Google's algorithms will recognise this positive organic traffic trend as an indicator that your page is a useful resource deserving of higher rankings.

Here's a step-by-step example illustrating the typical SEO-oriented title creation process:

1. Think of a basic way to describe your topic.

For example: 

Methods for Improving a Blog Post Title

Check point 6 and make sure you include your longtail keyword research at this stage.  Look for keywords which have less competition but describe the topic you want to cover in detail. 

2. The above “title” is actually more of an extremely bland and vague description, so the next step is to spice it up using buzzwords/keywords, adjectives, lists, mystery/curiosity, benefits/advantages, and other persuasive tactics.

Except in this step you'll come up with a couple of variations like:

5 Title Tweaking Techniques that Promote Higher CTR

Multi-Tiered Guide on Creating Blog Titles Like a Pro

3. Now list your prospective titles using a headline analyser (CoSchedule's is the most popular) and refine from there. These tools are very straightforward and highly insightful ways to make a good title great.

Virtually all successful SEO Copywriters use a similar process to the three steps mentioned above.

2. Keep it Simple, But Not Short and Sweet

To develop content that can accommodate the average attention span and patience of an online reader, you'll want to stick to certain formatting guidelines.

Sentences and paragraphs should be straightforward and uncomplicated.

However, the content itself should be full of useful, entertaining, and engaging information. Furthermore, the outline should be as comprehensive as possible.

By keeping the attention of readers with succinct and effective messages, yet delivering a piece that covers every aspect of a topic, you'll position the page as a go-to resource that will attract inbound links and high rankings.

Knowing that, here are a few steps you can take to make sure you're implementing this technique:

1. Pretend like you're having a conversation and use a relaxed vocabulary. There's no need to be extra fancy – just convey your point without adding extra fluff.

2. Once you're ready to write in a conversational tone, next you'll want to create an all-inclusive outline that covers every possible facet of the main topic. This is sometimes referred to as the skyscraper technique – outdoing the most comprehensive pre-existing resource.

Many brands have begun simplifying their content while aiming to provide more informative value within fewer words. Writing in this style makes your content easier to scan and digest.
​

3. Using Google's Autocomplete Suggestions to Fill a Demand

One of the best ways to propel a page straight to a #1 ranking is to find a common search query that hasn't yet been answered definitively by an authoritative source.

Questions and how to phrases are the best kinds of phrases to look for because there are a lot of them that have only been discussed on forums or user-maintained question/answer sites like Quora.

Luckily, it's easy to find these terms just by typing an incomplete phrase into Google and waiting for the Autocomplete suggestions to pop up.



Here's how:


1. Visit the home page of Google.com. Start typing a query related to your niche and pay attention to the suggestions that appear as you type each letter. If the suggestions feature isn't enabled, see Google's page on activating auto complete.


2. Another option is to use a Google suggest keyword scraper tool like the one at keywordtool.io in order to build large lists of suggested search terms.

The best part about this technique is that many marketers neglect to use it to their advantage, so it's a largely untapped source of SEO topics.

4. Compile Massive Lists to Become a Popular Resource

If you've ever seen the top 30 or top 100 lists on blogs, you know that they rank particularly well on Google.

This is because the most exhaustive resources tend to be linked to within blog posts and on social media based solely on their usefulness.

Here are a few steps you can take to build better lists than the competition:

1.       Use a content map or brainstorming session to write down a predefined number of topics or tips.

2.       Once you have your list, search for similar lists online and double check to make sure you're covering everything that they include as well.

3.       Once you have a solid list, try to condense the most important facts and sound advice on each point while keeping each one short and easy to read.

For example, we put together a list of the top places to find guest posts and included in our guide; How Do I Find Blogs Which Accept Guest Posts

5. Use Longtail Keywords

Tapping into a new set of keywords that haven't been targeted by other marketers puts your brand in a unique position to thrive in its own lane, with less competition.

Here are some steps you can take to achieve this:

1. Find longtail keywords and modify them slightly. You can use the advice in tip #3 to find commonly searched for phrases that don't have competitive search results
   
   

      2. Create content around your new keywords, then analyse and refine.
​
Many brands have boosted their popularity by inventing new buzzwords that didn't previously exist, so that's another idea worth considering.

6. Utilise Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)

If your brand isn't yet taking advantage of LSI, it's time to get started as doing so will help you rank for obscure terms that you might be completely overlooking.


1.       Study this guide on LSI.
2.      Implement, rinse, and repeat.

LSI is now common practice among leading SEO agencies after becoming a hot topic following the Panda and Penguin updates that placed an emphasis on content quality.


We hope you've picked up some new techniques! Let us know in the comments below.  Do you have something to add?