Improve Your Page Traffic with the Right Focus Keyword

August 17, 2021March 20, 2023

Improve Your Page Traffic with the Right Focus Keyword

Choosing the right focus keyword or keyphrase requires a clear understanding of your target audience. To gain this type of insight, ask yourself: What are people searching for online? What are their interests?

Highlights:

A focus keyword or target keyword is the term around which you optimize your content to help you rank on Google SERP.
Many SEO writing tools use focus keywords and phrases to help writers optimize their content.
Semantic search allows Google to generate the most accurate results by understanding search intent, query text, and the relationship between words.
Knowledge Graph was Google’s first attempt at improving search results by understanding search intent and the relationship between real-world entities.
The Hummingbird algorithm focuses on conversational search and human search.
RankBrain is a machine learning system aimed at understanding the intent behind people’s searches.
BERT helps Google understand the context of words used by people in their queries, particularly conversational queries.
Keyword research is still an essential part of any search engine optimization strategy.
A focus keyword helps establish a clear subject relevance and determines the ideal traffic for your page or site.

Keyword research is not an exact science. You have to consider different factors to choose the best primary keyword that would help drive traffic to your page. In this post, we’ll give you helpful tips to improve your page traffic with the right focus keyword.

What is a Focus Keyword?

A focus keyword or target keyword is the term around which you optimize your content to help you rank on Google SERP. It should match the intent of your target audience. Meaning, it has to be relevant so your page gets a better chance of being discovered online.

A good deal of SEO writing tools today, like the INK Editor, use focus keywords and keyphrases to help writers optimize their content better. For instance, the INK editor’s SEO scoring system measures your content’s overall search engine optimization based on the focus keyphrase(s).

INK compares your work with millions of content pieces competing for the same focus keyword on the web in real-time. Then, it computes your content’s relevance and topical completeness. In addition, its advanced AI technology understands the meaning and concepts behind your keywords and content, allowing it to give intelligent SEO recommendations.

The higher your INK SEO Score for a focus keyword, the higher your chance of getting to the first page of SERP.

So, as you now know, selecting the right focus keyword is vital to your website or online business. Moreover, the right word or phrase could help establish your site’s online visibility and traffic.

However, to pick the right focus keyword, you must know what people are searching for online. The best way to do this is to create an effective keyword research strategy.

But before that, let’s first look at how Google interprets keywords and uses them to provide users with the best answers to their queries.

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How Google Interprets Focus Keywords and Uses Natural Language

Before 2013, Google’s algorithm didn’t understand the context of the questions people entered on Google Search.

For instance, if you search “what is a pine cone made of” back then, Google would only pick the first keyphrase that makes sense to it. In this example, it would be “what is a pine.” Then, it would match this phrase with web pages using that exact phrase.

Because Google Search relied heavily on keyword matching that time, site owners resorted to keyword stuffing and spamming to rank high on SERP. Unfortunately, this black hat SEO technique led to people getting irrelevant results for their queries.

However, the advent of semantic search changed everything. It allowed Google to generate the most accurate results by understanding:

Search intent
Query context
Relationship between words

Simply put, semantic search not only relied on keywords to provide people with the best answers to their queries. It also aimed to understand natural language — the way we, humans, would.

The following is a brief history of how semantic search began:

History of Semantic Search

Natural Language Processing Allows Google to Provide More Accurate Results

Knowledge Graph

The semantic search began with the introduction of the Knowledge Graph in 2012. It was Google’s first attempt at improving search results by understanding search intent and the relationship between real-world entities. According to SEO experts, the Knowledge Graph paved the way for Google’s many broad core algorithmic changes.

The Knowledge Graph collected information from public domains to create a massive repository of entities and fact-based information. Google then tapped into the Knowledge Graph’s understanding of semantic search to show people the most relevant results.

Hummingbird

Following the launch of the Knowledge Graph, Google rolled out its first broad core algorithm update in 2013. It’s widely known as the Hummingbird update, which affected about 90 percent of searches worldwide.

The Hummingbird algorithm focuses on conversational search and human search. It uses natural language processing(NLP) to provide niche results for focus and long-tail keywords through conversational search.

Hummingbird improved search by focusing on theme-related topics and synonyms of keywords. As a result, it made searching for topics you’re not knowledgeable about more straightforward.

Through semantic search and NLP, the Hummingbird algorithm laid the groundwork for Google’s voice search.

RankBrain

Two years after rolling out Hummingbird, Google updated its search technology with an AI known as the RankBrain. Unlike Hummingbird, RankBrain acts both as a ranking signal and a query analysis system.

RankBrain is a machine learning system that shares the same goal as Hummingbird — to understand the intent behind people’s searches. However, RankBrain continues to learn. It analyzes high-performing search results and identifies the similarities between web pages people find valuable.

Because of RankBrain, a page could rank high on SERP, even if it’s not using the exact focus keyword used in a query.

BERT

The most significant update to search since Google launched RankBrain in 2015 was BERT. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It is a neural network-based technique for natural language processing.

BERT’s purpose is to help Google better understand the context of words used by people in their queries, particularly conversational queries.

Often, conversational questions include prepositions like “from” and “to.” But before BERT, Google didn’t understand these words. So, by teaching Google’s search algorithm to understand the intent behind these words, people can now search in ways that feel natural to them.

Is Keyword Research Dead?

With Google’s shift to semantic search, many SEOs now ask: Is keyword research dead?

Keyword research is not dead, and it’s still an essential part of any search engine optimization strategy. However, it’s not a straightforward process anymore. You can’t just jump online, use a keyword research tool, and pick the most searched and lowest competition keyword you’ll find.

When doing keyword research, you now have to think of the topics people are searching for online. You can’t just rely on the search volume to determine the amount of traffic it can generate for your content. That’s not how it works now.

With Google using NLP and semantic search, you should use keyword research to shape and inform your content strategy. Meaning, your focus keyword should not take over your page’s content. Rather, use it along with its synonyms and related terms to make your content sound natural.

Why Use a Focus Keyword in Your Page Content?

Now that Google has shifted to semantic search and favors intent over anything else, it doesn’t mean that you should stop using focus keywords in your content. It’s best to have a target keyword for two things:

Establish a clear subject relevance
Determine the ideal traffic for your page or site

Establish Subject Relevance

Contrary to what some SEO professionals believe, using keywords is not an obsolete optimization process. A target keyword could help you establish your content’s subject or topic relevance.

Keywords help Google understand the relevance of your content to people’s queries and its relationship with other topics online. Therefore, you must use your primary keyword to familiarize yourself with topics that matter to your target audience.

Semantic search now enables writers to use their focus keyword in combination with its synonyms and related terms. Thus, giving content today a more natural tone and sound.

Target the Right Traffic

Part of optimizing your content is placing your primary keyword in essential sections of your page. Yes, the whole page and not just your content, including page elements like the meta description, title, and your page’s URL. Doing so may help you attract your target audience and drive the right traffic to your site.

Using a primary keyword in your URL can help people and Google determine what your page is about even without looking at it. But first, you need to make sure that your keyword is relevant to the topic you’re covering. Otherwise, your page might end up being penalized by Google and other search engines.

💡 Make sure that your metadata, particularly your page’s meta title, contains your focus keyword or keyphrase. Google and other search engines put a lot of SEO value on this meta field. The closer your focus keyword is to the beginning of the meta title, the more relevant it is to the eyes of search engines.

How to Choose the Right Focus Keyword

Avoid Using Focus Keywords That are Highly Competitive

You should know how to do proper keyword research to identify the best focus keyword for your topic. However, if you’re new to SEO, here’s a quick guide to help you search for the right keyword efficiently.

1. List the Topics You Want to Cover

The first thing you need to do is create a list of topics you want to cover. Come up with five to ten topics related to your site’s niche or business industry. For instance, your topics would most likely be about shoes, clothes, accessories, or bags if you’re managing a fashion blog.

2. Identify Words and Phrases That Fall Into Your Chosen Topics

With your chosen topics as your guide, you now need to search for terms that fall under these topics. Let’s say your first topic is “workout shoes.” Use this as your seed keyword to find keywords related to your topic. Create a list of at least ten to fifteen keywords.

3. Check the Ranking Difficulty and Monthly Search Volume of the Keywords

When choosing your keywords, make sure that you check their ranking difficulty and monthly search volume.

The ranking difficulty refers to the competitiveness of the term. The higher the ranking difficulty of a word is, the harder it is to rank for.

On the other hand, the monthly search volume pertains to the search frequency of the term in a month. Popular terms tend to have higher search volumes.

In essence, the ideal focus keywords have low ranking difficulty or competition but have high search volume. For this step, you can use tools like Ahrefs and KWFinder to show you the ranking difficulty and search volume of keywords.

4. Narrow Down Your List to the Most Relevant Keywords

After completing your list of keywords, it’s now time to narrow your list down to the most relevant ones. First, you must filter your list and set aside the terms with low search volume or are highly competitive.

Now, choosing the most relevant term to be your focus keyword depends not only on your keyword research tool’s data. It would help if you also use your sound judgment.

Remember: the best keyword must reflect your site’s niche, values, products, or services. And, it also has to echo your target audience’s interest.

5. Related Keywords and Phrases

Now, you might be wondering what you’re going to do with the other terms on your list. If they’re too competitive, you can discard them. Or, if they are connected to your focus keyword, you can use them as related terms in your content. In some cases, you might even use them as focus keywords for other topics that you want to cover.

Following these tips, you’ll be able to come up with a list of focus keywords that could drive traffic to your page. If you’re looking for free tools to aid you with keyword research, keep reading for some recommendations.

Free Tools for Finding the Best Focus Keyword

Keyword research tools are essential for finding the best target keyword for your content. However, most of these tools require monthly or annual subscriptions that could cost anywhere around $50 to over a hundred dollars. But don’t fret because there are free tools out there that you could still use. Below is a sampling of them.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a great tool when it comes to visualizing the popularity of a term over time. It can tell you when people show the most interest in the topic or keyword you’re targeting. Google Trends ranks a search term’s popularity from 0-100. The higher the score, the more popular the search topic is.

Google Trends can also tell you the regions where your target keyword attracts the most traffic.

You can use Google Trends not just to measure the popularity of your target keyword or chosen topic. You can also use it to determine the best times to publish your posts and where your target audience is located.

Keyword Sheeter

If you want a quick way to generate related terms out of your seed keyword, Keyword Sheeter may be the tool for you. In one click, you can generate around a thousand ideas out of your key term.

You can also use Keyword Sheeter’s negative and positive filters to get specific results. However, this keyword research tool is only free when you’re generating related ideas for your topic. You must purchase the complete report if you want to access additional information like search volume and CPC.

Keywordtool.io

Like Keyword Sheeter, Keywordtool.io is a scraper. However, it’s faster, and it gets its results not just from Google but also from other platforms, like YouTube, Amazon, or Instagram.

This tool is handy if you’re managing an e-commerce site or social media channels.

These three tools are good choices if you’re new to SEO and want to learn the basics of keyword research. However, if you need a more reliable tool, check out our resident SEO expert and CTO, Alexander De Ridder’s recommendations here.

Final Thoughts

Using focus keywords for optimizing your content or site pages is still an essential part of any SEO strategy. However, when Google shifted to semantic search, the purpose and approach for using keywords changed.

Keyword research is not dead, but it’s now part of a more complex SEO process. It’s about more than just finding the popular terms people use to search for information online. Keyword research is the foundation that guides the whole optimization effort.

Without a clear focus keyword, writing your content or optimizing your page would be like walking on a busy street blindfolded. You’ll have no sense of direction and might end up going the wrong way.

So, never take keyword research for granted. It’s the compass that will help you stay on the right track as you write your content.

Why Digital Branding Matters and How it Can Help Grow Your Business

Why Digital Branding Matters and How It Can Help Grow Your Business

There’s no denying that old-fashioned branding methods are essential to the success of any business. However, digital branding offers a more diversified way to cement your brand identity online.

Main Digital Branding Takeaways:

Digital branding combines branding with digital marketing.
Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a business or its products.
Brand identity describes the elements that identify and distinguish a brand in a consumer’s mind.
A strong brand image may be your most valuable asset as a company.
Digital branding allows companies to target audiences on the platforms that they frequent.
Companies invest in digital branding to increase their reach.
Developing an effective digital brand strategy begins with identifying your company’s goals.

During the 2014 World Cup, PepsiCo ran an interactive can campaign to improve customer engagement.

This campaign involved creating 250 million interactive cans that used augmented reality (AR). So, Pepsi drinkers could use the Blippar app to play a football game with the world’s five leading players.

It was a success. Not only did Pepsi record 60,000 hours of engagement within a month, but it also reported an increased conversion.

By the end of the campaign, roughly 3.5 million people blipped their Pepsi cans. That’s the power of digital branding.

That brings us to our subject.

What is Digital Branding?

Digital branding is a marketing practice that combines traditional branding with digital marketing for brandmanagement. It involves building your brand using various digital platforms such as apps, websites, social media sites, videos, and other internet-based technology.

As you may have noticed, digital branding involves two essential components — branding and digital marketing.

While these concepts are not entirely the same, they can co-exist to create digital branding. So, let’s break it down, shall we?

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Branding vs. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing involves using online-based technology to promote products and services. On the other hand, branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a business or its products.

Digital branding combines these two concepts. It involves using the internet and also other online-based technology to highlight a company’s underlying value.

With that in mind, digitalbrandingstrategies aim to achieve any of the following:

Help prospects understand your business
Build digital awareness and relationships with customers
Create a compelling digital brand story
Establish digital channels to reach customers

However, the most crucial objective of digitalbranding is to use digital strategy and planning to build a strong brandidentity. That brings us to another critical element of this strategy.

What is Brand Identity?

Brand Identity Refers to the Visible Elements That Distinguish a Brand in Consumers’ Minds

Brand identity describes the elements of a brand that identify and distinguish the brand in the consumer’s mind. It’s the intent behind picking a specific color, logo, advertisement language, or name. The result of a brand identity effort — successful or otherwise — is the brand image.

For example, Apple remains the most beloved brand among consumers for various reasons. However, one explanation is because its brand identity aligns with its brand image.

Besides privacy, innovation, and being a status symbol, the company is also known for creating products that just work. As a result, consumers feel a stronger emotional connection to Apple than other tech brands.

Indeed, a strong brand image may be your most valuable asset as a company. Fortunately, digital branding can help with that.

Why is Digital Branding Important?

The primary reason companies invest in digitalbranding is to increase reach. According to Statista, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide as of January 2021. That means a company’s online presence is vital to enable prospects to learn about and interact with your brand. Moreover, digitalbranding allows businesses to target audiences on the platforms that they frequent — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others.

Here are other reasons why digital branding is vital:

1. Access to Multiple Channels

One primary advantage of building a strong digitalbrand is access to multiple online channels. You can promote your brand across various digital marketing platforms. These include:

Social media advertising
Search engine marketing
Content marketing
Email marketing

The most popular brands maintain a single brand message across multiple online channels. However, they also personalize their advertising messages based on the audience and digital landscape.

2. Higher Chance of Going Viral

“Going viral” is a big deal in this digital age. But what exactly does it mean to go viral?

Something that goes viral could be an image, video, or link that spreads rapidly across a population through sharing. For example, video data analysts argue that the minimum benchmark for virality on YouTube is 100,000 views.

Be that as it may, brand messages that go viral are rarely planned. Instead, it’s the result of an excellent marketing effort that encourages user action. These include likes, shares, recommendations, and feedback.

Although going viral involves luck, specific actions can sometimes improve your chance of something going viral. One example of such an action is consistency.

So, consider posting your brand message across many digital platforms as often as possible.

3. Improves Customer Interaction

Digital Branding Helps Businesses Interact With Customers Via Multiple Channels

Digital branding helps businesses develop a better connection with their target audience.

Thanks to this brand marketing technique, businesses can conveniently interact with customers via multiple channels. These not only include social media feeds, but also email marketing campaigns, websites, and blogs, among others.

As a result, customers will have timely access to information and updates about a business. And that’ll help them reach a decision that might result in a purchase.

4. Sets You Apart from the Competition

The competition is fierce today irrespective of the sector — whether it’s tech, manufacturing, or construction. However, excellent digital brand management can help secure your role in the crowded marketplace.

Besides highlighting your strengths, digitalbranding helps the audience focus on your company’s successes too.

In the end, your brand will remain at the forefront of the digital landscape and connect with more customers. More importantly, you’ll also remain ahead of the competition.

We’ve covered the importance of digitalbranding in business. Now, let’s delve into the details.

How to Develop Digital Branding Strategies

Developing an effective digital brand strategy begins with identifying your company’s goals — both in mission and vision. Also, in-depth knowledge of your audience and sales funnel will take you a long way. Other options include leveraging market opportunities and publishing quality content.

Let’s delve a little deeper.

1. Identify Your Company’s Objectives

The first thing you want to do is identify your business’s purpose. This could include your brand’s mission, vision, values, and tagline.

Besides telling the target audience what you stand for, the company objectives also present something to connect with. It serves as a way to draw your audience into a long-term relationship.

So, write a clear statement to describe your brand’s mission, vision, and values. Also, consider leveraging the power of storytelling to connect with your audience.

2. Know Your Audience

Defining your audience may be the most crucial step to take when developing your brand.

With that, you can develop informed digital branding strategies that are specific to your prospects. What’s more, it provides the guidelines that are necessary for consistent and accurate branding.

Consider segmenting your audience into the following categories:

Geography: Country, city, language
Demographics: Age, gender, income level, etc.
Psychographics: Lifestyle, interest, opinion, personalities

After creating the segments, the next step is to create buyer personas — a description of someone who represents your audience. Also, you could come up with fictional names for the various personas that you create.

3. Evaluate Your Brand Funnel

The Brand Funnel Illustrates the Stages of Relationship Brands Have With Their Customers

Brand funnel is a concept that describes the stages in a customer’s relationship with your brand. While the stages may vary, it typically includes awareness, consideration, purchase, and loyalty.

Consider tracking your brand funnel health to develop effective digital branding strategies.

For example, an inverted triangle funnel suggests that you’re generating massive brand awareness. However, you’re not generating as many sales as you should.

A healthy brand funnel should be wide at every stage. Admittedly, not everybody aware of your brand will develop some sort of loyalty. However, it’s best to aim for a healthy majority.

4. Assess the Competition

Your first instinct might be to reinvent the wheel — and that’s alright. However, information from your competition can also help you create a strong digital brand identity.

Consider performing an in-depth analysis to review your competitors’ performance in the marketplace. That way, you can replicate what they’re doing right and pinpoint what you can do differently.

Also, here are some aspects of the competition that you’ll want to assess:

Audience reach
Social media usage
Content marketing
Call to actions (CTA)
Persona

Remember, the aim here is to find the strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ digital branding strategy. That way, you can identify possible gaps that need filling.

5. Pay Attention to Your Brand Design

Your brand design plays a significant role in boosting your digitalbrandingstrategies. Besides improving your brand recognition and perception, the right brand design can also increase sales revenue.

With that in mind, it’s crucial to pay attention to brand identity elements such as:

Company logo
Fonts and typography
Color palette
Photography and imagery

Whatever your choice may be, the best brand visual identities are unique and consistent. More importantly, there’s no ambiguity about what your business does.

6. Explore Various Media

Admittedly, written content formats such as blogs, e-books, and email marketing are essential in branding. However, several other media channels can also help you connect with an audience.

For example, you may want to explore videos, webinars, infographics, and podcasts.

Regardless of your preferred media channel, it’s vital to share something helpful with your audience. Consistently addressing your audience’s problems ensures that they seek out your brand for reliable information.

7. Perform Regular Brand Audits

After setting up digitalbrandingstrategies for your business, the final step is to measure your performance.

Consider checking your analytics to understand whether you’re matching or exceeding your KPIs. Also, you may want to look out for areas where you can reallocate your branding budget.

Another option is to talk directly to customers for answers on how they perceive your brand. Possible survey questions can include:

Why do you use our product?
What problems do you often experience?
How can we help you solve these issues?
Would you recommend us to families and friends?
Which alternatives to our product do you consider?

Note that it’s always best to remain objective in your survey. That way, you can eliminate possible statistical fallacies.

Wrap Up: Develop a Digital Branding Strategy that Works

Your brand’s digital presence impacts how potential customers view your business. Luckily, the digital branding strategies above can help you engage potential customers at all stages of the purchase funnel.

Consider utilizing these strategies to improve your business’s digitalbranding. If you have questions or want to share your experience about digital branding, feel free to leave it at the comment section below.

AI Copywriting: Benefits, Tools, and How It Could Improve Your Content SEO

Creating excellent web content may seem more challenging than ever due to increasing demand. However, the right AI copywriting tool can help scale your content creation process.

Main AI Copywriting Takeaways:

AI copywriting involves using natural language processing (NLP) software to generate content.
An average AI copywriting tool can perform reading and writing tasks at a near-human level.
AI copywriting tools can generate blog posts, meta descriptions, product descriptions, and ad headlines.
Businesses use AI copywriting to save time and money.
Copywriters that are looking to generate AI copy in record time can use INK.
AI cowriting involves collaborating with artificialintelligence on a writing task.

Artificial intelligence is now an essential part of our daily lives — thanks to several tech advancements.

From chatbots to personalizedadvertising, businesses now rely on AI to innovate in various areas of the digital world. It’s no wonder that 37% of organizations have implemented artificial intelligence in some form.

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One exciting use of AI in marketing is in the field of copywriting.

Yes, businesses and advertisers are already using artificial intelligence to write marketing copy. What’s more, distinguishing AI-generated text from human writing is already a challenging task.

In this article, I’ll explore what AI copywriting means and how to use it to scale your content creation process. Let’s jump right in.

What is AI Copywriting?

AI copywriting involves using natural language processing (NLP) software to generate content on computers. These programs rely on deep learning models such as Open AI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3). As a result, an average AI copywritingtool can perform reading and writing tasks at a near-human level.

Besides text generation, GPT-3 enables other natural language processing tasks such as:

Text classification
Text summarization
Named-entity recognition
Question answering
Sentiment analysis

That’s why AI copywriting is handy. Whether you want to generate blog posts, meta descriptions, or ad headlines for your brand, artificial intelligence can help ease the process.

But that’s not the only reason businesses use these tools.

How Businesses use AI Copywriting to Improve Marketing Messages

The first reason business owners and marketers invest in AI copywritingare to save time in writing and brainstorming.

With a typing speed of 212 WPM, Barbara Blackburn is currently the fastest English language typist in the world. But, even Barbara would struggle to produce ten blog introductions in less than 30 seconds.

That’s because AIcopywriting doesn’t just involve churning out content. It can also expand your thought process — prompting you to consider alternatives that you may otherwise have missed.

It’s no wonder that companies, such as JPMorgan Chase, now use AI-powered tools to improve marketing messages.

“They made a couple of changes that made sense,” said Kristin Lemkau, the Chief Marketing Officer at JPMorgan Chase. “And I was like, ‘Why were we so dumb that we didn’t figure that out?'”

Other benefits of using AIcopywriting tools to generate content are:

Speeds up writing process
Counters writer’s block
Handles repetitive writing tasks like product descriptions
Turns anyone into passable writers

That’s right. AI content generators are not reserved for writers. Anyone can generate content using these tools — from CEOs pondering email subject lines to online retailers looking for product descriptions.

And that brings us to another crucial question:

Will AI Replace Copywriters?

The potential for AI-enabled content tools is huge. But, they still require refinement to make the writing process more efficient and consistent. So, before you start thinking about AI replacing copywriters — the answer is NO.

To date, experts are confident that AI will work together with humans in the workplace. Yes, work together — not take our jobs or replace us.

But if you’re not convinced, below are three reasons why AI won’t replace copywriters or any human worker for that matter.

Creativity

AI can present legible, grammatically correct sentences. While that’s indeed true, it can only process and reform existing data. In other words, machines are not yet capable of true creativity.

As a result, AIcopywriting programs can’t create compelling content — such as breaking news — that’s based on new information. Instead, they can only research and rewrite human-written content.

Empathy

As useful as computer programs are, they are still incapable of feeling or understanding human emotions. So, they can’t string words together to evoke strong emotional reactions from readers.

Yes, it’s best to let AI handle template-like writing such as product descriptions. However, only humans can produce copy that requires a strong emotional reaction from the audience.

Judgment

Thanks to AIcopywriting, it’s now easy to split-test multiple sales copy to assess which one would perform better. However, you still need a human copywriter that can evaluate the data and make decisions.

Rather than completely replace human copywriting, AI programs will elevate your copy.

What Software Can Copywriters Use?

Copywriters that are looking to generate AIcopy in record time can use the INK Pro editor. It’s a distraction-free editor that combines AI cowriting and an SEO Assistant. Indeed, content with an INK score of above 97% is four times more likely to rank in the top 10 Google search results.

I’m getting ahead of myself. So, let’s slow down a bit and take it from the beginning — theRank Candidate Theory.

Creating an AI-Powered Solution for Content Creators

Google crawls and scrapes content to get an in-depth understanding of your page to determine if your content satisfies user intent.

If that’s the case, Google will consider your page a rank candidate and send some traffic your way to test user satisfaction. So, your page’s search engine ranking will increase if users like the content.

On the other hand, search rankings of irrelevant content that offers a poor user experience usually plummets. So, it’s safe to say that content relevance and user experience are vital ranking factors for Google.

True to the Rank Candidate Theory, we built INK to achieve two primary goals:

Improve chances to qualify as a rank candidate on Google
Optimize language for a better user experience

Sounds simple enough, right? No — not really.

Our patented approach involves mapping text to meaning using a method called wordembedding. Not only is the technique unique, but it also produces an exciting result called a conceptmap.

Think of the concept map as a Google brain scan. It provides insight into what Google considers relevant in relation to a piece of content. So, you can write based on the knowledge of what search engines expect from a relevance point of view.

Yes, it’s a game-changing way to create content for the web. But, INK is not just an SEOeditor, it also offers an AI cowriting feature to scale the content creation process.

What is AI Cowriting?

With AI Cowriting, Writers Remain in Control of Their Content

As the name implies, AI cowriting involves collaborating with an AI-powered tool on a piece of content. Like autocomplete, AI cowriting uses a massive amount of human writing data to generate the next words in a text. So, the resulting content is a blend of human and AI effort.

With that, you can enjoy all the advantages that come with AI content generation without the downsides.

Benefits of AI Cowriting

1. Writer Remains in Control of the Content

As helpful as AI copywriting is, things can quickly spiral out of control.

An AI copywriting tool cansometimes generate blocks of text that are not relevant to the subject. That means the writer would have to continually delete and generate new text until the AI tool generates relevant text.

That’s not the case when using a cowriting feature. Since it’s a collaboration, copywriters can retain control of their content. You only have to use the AI when you’re stuck.

INK’s AI Cowriting feature allows writers to work together with AI in writing compelling and highly optimized content.

2. Revising Content is Easier

INK’s AI cowriting has “expand” and “simplify” features that makes revising your content a breeze. You only have to write a rough draft of your idea and let the AI simplify or expand the sentence.

That means you only have to write out your idea and then just let the AI help develop it.

3. Adds Fresh Perspective and Elements

AI cowriting can introduce exciting new perspectives and elements to your copy. For example, it could help you reach new audiences with fresh content. It could also recommend alternative words and phrases to change the tone of the message for a stronger impact.

Wrap Up

AIcopywriting can help you scale your content writing process — whether you’re a digital marketer or a business owner.

Editors such as INK have AI cowriting that’s fun to learn and easy to use. What’s more, you can collaborate with the program to produce engaging copy that supports your content needs.

Performance Marketing: Everything You Need to Know

Interest in performance marketing is rising every day as more shoppers rely on retail websites. Here’s everything you need to know about this online advertising strategy and how to leverage it for your business.

Main Performance Marketing Takeaways:

Performance marketing is an online marketing strategy that’s based on performance.
Brand marketing focuses on long-term results compared to performance marketing.
Growth marketing is not the same as performancemarketing.
Search engine optimization is an essential aspect of performance marketing.
Some performance marketing types are: social media advertising,native advertising, affiliate marketing, and searchenginemarketing.
The primary benefit of performance marketing is the advertiser’s ability to track results against expenses.

Marketing is an essential part of any business endeavor.

Besides improving sales, marketing also helps create the necessary buzz around your brand. However, getting excellent marketing results involves setting specific goals and measuring some key performance indicators.

That’s where performancemarketing comes in. This article explores what it means, the types, and benefits.

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What is Performance Marketing?

Examples of Performance Marketing KPIs

Performance marketing is an online marketing strategy that’s based on performance. This means that advertisers pay marketing companies or advertising platforms only after consumers carry out specific actions. These can include clicks, leads, bookings, downloads, or sales.

Depending on the performance marketing channel, some KPIs include:

CPC — Cost Per Click
CPM — Cost Per Mile
CPA — Cost Per Action
CPL — Cost Per Lead
LTV — Lifetime Value

As you may have guessed, a performancemarketing strategy provides a win-win opportunity for both parties.

Merchants can determine the specific actions that they want to drive — clicks, sales, or leads. At the same time, a performance marketing agency gets paid only after achieving the retailer’s marketing goal.

Indeed, that’s why it’s called performance marketing.

There’s just one slight hiccup. A few retailers are still unsure of how this online marketing strategy works.

As a result, they tend to use the word performancemarketing interchangeably with other digital marketing methods. After all, marketing is marketing, right? Well, not really.

So, let’s unpack these misconceptions.

What is the Difference Between Brand and Performance Marketing?

Performancemarketing is primarily about hitting or exceeding specific KPI goals. Meanwhile, brand marketing involves promoting your product or services in a way that bolsters the brand. In other words, you’re using your brand as the bridge between the product and consumers.

As a result, brand marketing focuses on long-term results compared to performancemarketing.

Be that as it may, you can merge both marketing methods into a cross-team strategy called performancebranding. In such a case, the KPI is the revenue potential and the brand lifetime value.

Is Growth Marketing the Same as Performance Marketing?

Performance Marketers Focus on Paid Channels and Get Paid Based on Results

No, growth marketing is not the same as performancemarketing. Performance marketers tend to focus on paid channels and typically get paid based on results. On the other hand, growth marketers create holistic marketing strategies for sustainable business growth.

Here are some other differences between performancemarketing and growth marketing.

1. Period

Growth marketing involves optimizing your entire marketing strategy for a sustainable, meaningful return on investment. Unlike performancemarketing, this marketing method focuses on long-term results.

2. Expected Result

Success in performancemarketing depends on meeting specific key performance indicators. On the other hand, growth marketing success depends on the ability to scale the entire business.

3. Technique

Performancemarketing relies on tried-and-true techniques. Meanwhile, growth marketing involves using growth hacking techniques to experiment on various channels.

These include social media, content marketing, paid advertising, and searchengineoptimization. That brings us to the next question:

Is SEO Part of Performance Marketing?

PPC, native advertising, and social media advertising are the three key marketing channels that aspects of performancemarketing. So, what does SEO have to do with performancemarketing? Well, it represents the very beginning. SEO is the catalyst that ignites the other marketing channels. It helps bridge the gap between traffic and conversion. And it paved the way for performancemarketing to be launched.

In other words, search engine optimization is an essential aspect of performancemarketing. But there are others.

What are the Types of Performance Marketing?

Social Media Advertising is One of the Most Popular Types of Performance Marketing Today

The four common types of performancemarketing are: social media advertising, native advertising, affiliate marketing, and search engine marketing. Let’s delve a little deeper.

1. Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising involves using social media platforms to connect with your audience, drive traffic to your website, and increase sales.

According to a study on social network users, over 3 billion people globally are currently on at least one social media platform. What’s more, that number should grow to a whopping 4.4 billion by 2025.

Businesses use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to gain traffic and boost brand awareness. However, it’s also handy for boosting engagement, leads, and sales.

Some key performance indicators for social media advertising are:

Likes
Comments
Impressions
Shares

With that said, the metrics above are only useful for organic social media advertising. For paid content, the CPM may be the most crucial KPI.

2. Native Advertising

Native advertising involves using paid ads that match the form and function of the media format in which they appear.

In other words, this form of paid advertising blends seamlessly with the environment. For example, they appear in the form of suggested articles in social media feeds or news sites.

Here’s how to measure the performance of your native advertising campaign based on specific goals.

Brand awareness: Viewable impressions
Unique visitor: Click-through rate (CTR)
Behavior: Bounce rate, Page per session
Conversion: Downloads, sign-ups, sales

Other pricing models for native advertising are CPC and CPM.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing in which a business rewards an affiliate for specific actions. These can include traffic, leads, free trial users, or sales. Here’s how it works.

The affiliate marketing process begins with the affiliate sharing a product or service on their platform — whether a blog, social media, or a podcast. Then, they can earn a commission on any purchase that occurs via the platform.

The key performance indicators for affiliate marketing include:

Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Conversion Rate
Cost Per Action (CPA)
Average Order Value (AOV)

As simple as it sounds, this online marketing type is quite effective. Indeed, advertisers generate between 15% and 30% of all sales from affiliate programs.

It’s no wonder that performancemarketingmanagement might favor affiliate marketing.

4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing is a paid advertising form that involves using search engines result pages (SERPs) to increase your brand’s visibility. It allows you to reach searchers on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Here’s how it works.

SEM involves paying for ads to appear as search results on SERPs The brand targets specific keywords that searchers might use. That way, their paid ad can pop up when users type those keywords in the query box.

With that said, search advertising platforms only charge if a user clicks on a specific ad. Besides CPC, other KPIs for search engine marketing include:

Ad impression
Engagement
Conversion
Click-Through Rate

Moreover, it’s important to note that various companies measure their SEM campaigns differently. While some use performance, others partner with performancemarketingagencies and measure based on results.

So, we’ve looked at what performancemarketing means and the various types it can encompass.

You may have one lingering question, though.

What are the Benefits of Performance Marketing?

Performance Marketing Allows Marketers to Reach and Attract a More Diversified Audience

The primary benefit of performancemarketing is the advertiser’s ability to track results against the expenses. Since each transaction relies on prospects’ actions, you only have to pay for the successful ones. Unlike traditional marketing, measurement in performancemarketing is not based on estimates. Instead, it relies entirely on results.

Besides being easy to track, here are other benefits of performancemarketing.

1. Extend Your Reach

Performancemarketing allows you to reach a more diversified audience than traditional advertising.

It provides access to publishers, social media influencers, and affiliates working together on one goal. And that’s to market your brand, product, or service to their audience.

As a result, you can now reach into specific niche markets that you might never have considered.

2. Greater Flexibility

You can enjoy so much flexibility with performancemarketing — and for obvious reasons. The numbers dictate your approach. So, if a specific marketing strategy isn’t working, you can adapt and react in real-time.

For example, an ad with a specific headline may deliver a higher CTR than others. You could then use the same headline on other digital channels to replicate the result.

3. Convenient Planning Process

Since performancemarketing is primarily about results, its planning process is relatively straightforward.

It begins with identifying your goals and an acceptable CPA for each of your marketing goals. That way, you can quickly determine the ideal budget for your campaign.

For example, your goal could involve getting 100,000 website visits every month. If you’re paying $0.20 per click, your budget would be $20,000.

To Wrap Up: Use Performance Marketing to Improve

Several performance-based platforms — such as Google Ads, Facebook Advertising, Affiliate sites — exist on the web today.

So, setting up a performancemarketing campaign is relatively straightforward. This is especially useful for small business owners lacking the budget for a performancemarketingagency.

With that said, it’s vital to determine your marketing goals ahead. In other words, what do you hope to achieve with the campaign? Are you looking to generate more leads, clicks, or conversions?

Regardless of your objectives, consider measuring the results and optimize your campaign based on those results. Then, repeat the process until you achieve your goals.