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The world of SEO keeps evolving and changing, which is why it’s important to keep developing your own skills. An excellent way to do this is via hands-on experimentation. In this post, I’ll share three valuable lessons I’ve learned from my previous ventures. Note that this blog post was inspired from my talk at BrightonSEO in October 2024. Where it all started A bit of background information: I started experimenting with SEO in 1999 without realizing it, when I created a South Park fan website. This was done via my early foray into the fundamentals of HTML and having fun with the site through different experiments. I discovered that by manipulating meta keywords, I could influence search rankings. Nowadays, that tactic wouldn’t fly, but it’s still incredible that I learned about SEO this way rather than the more predictable entry through my first professional jobs! It didn’t stop there, though. I kept learning by starting my own businesses and creating my own websites and plugins, which gave me invaluable insight into customer behavior, product development, and marketing. Plus, I gained a deeper understanding of website structures and functionalities, which we all know is invaluable for technical SEO. Tip 1: Embrace experimentation It’s unsurprising, then, that my first piece of advice is: embrace experimentation. That’s how I learned most of what I know. Simply start by experimenting on your own personal website or create a new site to work with. If you use tools like LocalWP, you can freely experiment without impacting live websites. And don’t shy away from getting your hands dirty with code! Writing code might seem daunting at first, but I promise you it pays off. I taught myself coding in PHP around 2002 and figured it out quite quickly, approaching code like a puzzle I needed to solve. If I could figure it out on my own during my teenage years (when the technology was in a much earlier stage), then you can too. Explore new technologies and platforms We all know WordPress is great. I think so too. It’s a truly unique and amazing platform to get started with, because it allows you to extend and experiment with plugins, as well as being able to create custom websites to your heart’s desire. In recent years, more CMSs (content management systems) have launched as well as really upping their game to the wider market. Whilst a lot can be good for simpler needs, my preference always naturally returns to WordPress as my experiments and scaling attempts will always eventually hit a wall with other CMSs out there. Create that website for someone else After you’ve experimented and gained an understanding of websites and SEO, people you know may start to ask you to build one for them, or help out with one they have already. Whilst this may sometimes seem annoying at the time, it’s a great opportunity to experiment with someone live on the web so you can create a use case for your work. Working with different people and businesses will make sure you encounter different challenges and opportunities to develop new skills. This will ultimately enhance your SEO capabilities. Tip 2: The importance of a customer-centric mindset One venture I learned many lessons from is from when I owned a bar with my wife. Whilst this was far from SEO, it taught me many lessons, some of which I apply in my job today. It’s the same with any business, online or physical. If you understand who your customer is, you can create content and products that resonate with them. This will make them much more likely to become your customers. With a physical business, it’s easier to engage directly with the customer, but in the digital world this can be more challenging. You can learn a lot by engaging with individual customers or end-users directly through a video call or meeting them in real life—try to do this for your clients or the company you work for. Build a strong (online) community An interesting story of brand loyalty: one day the bar received a one-star review on TripAdvisor. The reviewer said they were happy with their visit in general – with great service and wine – but there was a dog in the bar, which seemed unfair considering that the dog was 3 tables away from the customer and that it’s a dog-friendly bar (as most are in the suburbs). However, this does happen to businesses from time to time and we replied to the review. Back at the bar, some regular customers noticed the review and decided to add their own—all 5 stars. Three days later, the review was removed. This brought our average rating up as a result, which also improved our ranking within TripAdvisor. This really brought home that not only can a disproportionately negative review have real consequences for a business and its owners, but also showed how brand loyalty counts for so much. By nurturing and maintaining a relationship with your audience, people will talk about you online and offline. Tip 3: Be mindful of niche trends Remember NFTs? Non-Fungible Tokens are a form of digital asset all powered by the blockchain and were extremely popular during 2020-2022. You may have seen a couple of them, including Bored Ape Yacht Club—a generative NFT collection—or a single NFT by Beeple sold for $69.3m. During its increased popularity, I co-founded an NFT marketing agency. One SEO tactic I used was to utilize my existing agency and create a landing page there to sell the service, using the site’s existing relevance and authority. As a result we began ranking quicker than any other agency was attempting to, whilst also using our newly built site to do the same. Building something from the ground up is a long process but is still worth it, as even the new agency’s site ranked independently and earned its own authority. Avoid putting all your eggs in one trendy basket Whilst the NFT marketing agency gave me a lot of invaluable experience and garnered new connections, the trend—and therefore the business—didn’t last. This experience highlighted the limitations of niche trends for me. It was a great learning experience, but it taught me that trends are usually not a solid foundation for any long-term goals you might have. Whilst it’s great to go “all in” on a new venture, ensure that your current one is supported enough or balance both until one gets to a position you make yourself redundant in the other. Get experimenting! I hope this post helps nudge you to explore beyond business as usual. After all, the best way to enhance your SEO and other professional skills is by experimenting! The post Enhance your SEO skills through experimentation appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

Your customer service department is at their wits’ end. They’re small and not capable of providing the same proactive customer service as larger teams. It feels like they’re losing a battle against their own software – firefighting technical issues, but never able to see past the smoke. You know there’s got to be a better […] The post 3 Tips for Successfully Implementing Predictive Customer Service appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Your colleague has been experimenting with a new automation tool and insists your team should use it to speed up some of your workflows. Everybody has reservations – this person has only used this tool a few times and there are complexities in these workflows that are difficult to automate – but your team member isn’t willing to listen to the naysayers. Confident, eager, and excited, your overly optimistic coworker charges ahead with rolling out the tool. It isn’t long before your workflows are a tangled knot and your team member is grappling with how things went so wrong when they swore they were an expert. Been there? It’s tempting to write off your colleague as misguided, stubborn, and even arrogant. But in reality, they defaulted to a common cognitive bias: the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Dunning-Kruger effect: What it is and why it happens Related Article The Johari window: a fresh take on self-reflection By Kat Boogaard In Teamwork The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when someone overestimates their knowledge and abilities. It was first coined by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, both psychologists at Cornell University, in their 1999 paper. The psychologists conducted four different studies that each tested participants on humor, grammar, and logic. Participants weren’t just evaluated – they were also asked to predict their own performance. The participants who scored in the bottom quartile of the tests had grossly overestimated their own abilities. Their actual performance, on average, put them in the 12th percentile, despite the fact they self-estimated they’d be closer to the 62nd percentile. That disconnect lives at the heart of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The typical “sitcom dad” is one trope where you’ll see this particular bias pop up. He refuses to ask for directions on a road trip and gets his family hopelessly lost. He insists he can complete a basic home repair only for chaos (and property damage) to ensue. He’s confident he can cook a family meal, then the frying pan starts on fire. But that tired comedy device implies that the Dunning-Kruger effect relates to basic intelligence and only happens to the most bumbling and inept among us. In reality, the Dunning-Kruger effect can happen to all of us – including you. What is a cognitive bias? The Dunning-Kruger effect is one of many cognitive biases our brains can fall victim to. A cognitive bias is when you allow your personal preferences and beliefs to influence your decisions – even if other information threatens or disproves those preconceived notions. Think of it as a brain shortcut that helps you process the overload of information you take in daily. It’s not a perfect system, but one our brains seem intent on sticking with, because it’s our system (that’s called modal bias, by the way). Why does the Dunning-Kruger effect happen? But why do some of us tend to be so optimistic about our abilities, especially in areas where we should readily recognize that we have limited knowledge and skills? In their paper, Dunning and Kruger described it as a “dual burden.” We charge ahead while overestimating our talents, but we also lack the awareness (something Dunning and Kruger called “metacognitive abilities”) to recognize that we’re falling short in the first place. Basically, you don’t know what you don’t know. Because you’re inexperienced in a particular area, you don’t have the basic information you need to distinguish between a good performance and a bad performance. Think of it like this: If you’re not into wine, you probably can’t tell the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle. Another reason we tend to aggrandize our own skills and talents is that it can feel shameful to admit that we don’t know something – hence why “fake it ‘til you make it” is such a popular slogan. What are the four stages of the Dunning-Kruger effect? The four stages of competence model is often talked about in conjunction with the Dunning-Kruger effect. This model shows how learning progresses through four distinct phases. These stages are: Unconscious incompetence: You are completely unaware of a gap in your skills or knowledge Conscious incompetence: You are aware of the skill or knowledge you lack and are eager to acquire it Conscious competence: You are able to perform the new skill, but with a lot of focus and effort Unconscious competence: You are able to perform the skill so naturally and easily, you can do it without much conscious thought It’s in the first stage – or the transition between the first two stages – when the Dunning-Kruger effect most commonly comes into play. What’s the harm in the Dunning-Kruger effect? We all over-inflate our abilities occasionally. But even so, most of us still have a somewhat realistic grasp on what we’re capable of – you probably aren’t volunteering when somebody on a plane asks for a doctor simply because you’ve watched a few medical dramas. So is this cognitive bias really all that bad? What’s the harm? Dunning-Kruger does have some potential for fallout, including: Poor decision-making: Whether it’s pursuing a career that ultimately isn’t a match for your abilities or volunteering for a project you can’t realistically pull off, that dual burden can trigger some poor decisions. Mistrust among team members: If your overconfidence becomes a pattern, your co-workers could start to doubt your ability to perform at a high level in any area. A tendency to overpromise and underdeliver erodes teammates’ trust. Potential danger: Overestimating your skills could pose a danger to yourself and others, particularly in hazardous and high-risk careers. The Dunning-Kruger effect isn’t all bad, though. A little extra optimism and self-assuredness could be what’s needed for people to achieve stretch goals that might’ve seemed completely unreasonable to others. Dunning-Kruger vs. imposter syndrome The Dunning-Kruger effect seems to be in direct conflict with one of its better-known relatives: imposter syndrome, which occurs when we underestimate our own talents and worry (without reason) that we’ll be exposed as frauds. The two are indeed opposites, but it’s possible to experience both types of blind spots. Dunning-Kruger tends to show up in areas where we lack expertise but assume we’re proficient. In contrast, imposter syndrome happens when we really are experts but distrust our own intelligence anyway. Is the Dunning-Kruger effect even real? Like any other theory or finding, the Dunning-Kruger effect has been the focus of criticism – with some skeptics pointing toward regression to the mean or even random occurrence to explain the original study’s findings, rather than a real defect in our self-insight. But beyond the scholarly hole-poking, perhaps the biggest problem with the way we talk about this bias lies in the undercurrent of shame. Academic explanations are riddled with words like “incompetent,” “ignorant,” and “poor performer,” terms that can understandably trigger some self-consciousness and humiliation. As a result, identifying the Dunning-Kruger effect as the cause of someone’s bias can feel like a personal attack, even though it’s a universal experience – something that can (and will) happen to all of us. How to overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect While it’s bound to still creep in from time to time, awareness is the best antidote to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Here are a few strategies you can use to fuel reflection and recognition, for yourself and your team. Overcoming the Dunning-Kruger effect yourself Most of us like to think of ourselves as self-aware, but one study found that only 10-15% of people fit the criteria. Here’s how you can get a more realistic grasp on yourself and your capabilities: Solicit feedback from various sources: 360-degree feedback offers a well-rounded perspective of your performance, capabilities, and what you’re like to work with. While some companies make this a formalized process, you can solicit feedback from the people you work with on a steady basis (such as during 1-on-1 meetings, at the end of big projects, or during performance review cycles) to keep your self-perception in check. Reflect on your past experiences: History is a great teacher, especially when it comes to boosting your self-awareness. Look back on previous projects or challenges. When have you struggled? When have tasks felt effortless? What are you consistently praised for? What work fulfills you? What drains you? This can clue you in on where your capabilities are best utilized. Overcoming the Dunning-Kruger effect on your team Related Article What does psychological safety mean, anyway? By Katie Taylor In Teamwork If you’re leading a team, there are a few other steps you can take together to minimize this bias and root everybody in reality: Prioritize psychological safety: A high degree of psychological safety means people feel more comfortable admitting they don’t have the necessary know-how to do something, rather than feeling like they need to put on a front. Value and celebrate diverse skills: As a manager, it’s tempting to zone in on patching up weaknesses on your team. But classic research from Gallup found that a strengths-based culture, as opposed to one that fixates only on growth areas, increases employee engagement. Plus, people will feel valued for their unique attributes rather than pushing beyond their capabilities to get your recognition and approval. Complete a self-reflection exercise: The Johari window is a personality assessment that improves your understanding of yourself. You’ll select five or six terms that best describe you and your colleagues will also select descriptors they think fit you best. You’ll plot the qualities on a matrix to see how your self-perception compares to the way your colleagues view you. Fuel a growth mindset: A team that has embraced a growth mindset is hungry to learn and improve and views failures and mistakes as learning opportunities. You can feed this mindset by providing plenty of resources – like mentorship, seminars, books, courses, and other professional development opportunities – for team members to explore and refine their skills. Give thoughtful and honest feedback: Constructive criticism is hard to hear and sometimes even harder to deliver. But if you keep your lips zipped and let your low performers continue to assume they’re knocking it out of the park, they’ll stay on that same path, blissfully unaware that they’re falling short. Aim for awareness, not apprehension It’s off-putting to know your brain is basically hardwired to trick you into an inflated self-assessment. But the goal here isn’t to inspire doubt or hesitation. Rather, understanding the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it might show up in your work and your life will help you build your self-awareness. When you have a more pragmatic sense of your actual strengths and weaknesses, you’re able to seek out roles, projects, and situations where you (and the other people on your team) can shine – not struggle. Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post The Dunning-Kruger effect: why and how we overestimate our own abilities appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Your colleague has been experimenting with a new automation tool and insists your team should use it to speed up some of your workflows. Everybody has reservations – this person has only used this tool a few times and there are complexities in these workflows that are difficult to automate – but your team member isn’t willing to listen to the naysayers. Confident, eager, and excited, your overly optimistic coworker charges ahead with rolling out the tool. It isn’t long before your workflows are a tangled knot and your team member is grappling with how things went so wrong when they swore they were an expert. Been there? It’s tempting to write off your colleague as misguided, stubborn, and even arrogant. But in reality, they defaulted to a common cognitive bias: the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Dunning-Kruger effect: What it is and why it happens Related Article The Johari window: a fresh take on self-reflection By Kat Boogaard In Teamwork The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when someone overestimates their knowledge and abilities. It was first coined by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, both psychologists at Cornell University, in their 1999 paper. The psychologists conducted four different studies that each tested participants on humor, grammar, and logic. Participants weren’t just evaluated – they were also asked to predict their own performance. The participants who scored in the bottom quartile of the tests had grossly overestimated their own abilities. Their actual performance, on average, put them in the 12th percentile, despite the fact they self-estimated they’d be closer to the 62nd percentile. That disconnect lives at the heart of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The typical “sitcom dad” is one trope where you’ll see this particular bias pop up. He refuses to ask for directions on a road trip and gets his family hopelessly lost. He insists he can complete a basic home repair only for chaos (and property damage) to ensue. He’s confident he can cook a family meal, then the frying pan starts on fire. But that tired comedy device implies that the Dunning-Kruger effect relates to basic intelligence and only happens to the most bumbling and inept among us. In reality, the Dunning-Kruger effect can happen to all of us – including you. What is a cognitive bias? The Dunning-Kruger effect is one of many cognitive biases our brains can fall victim to. A cognitive bias is when you allow your personal preferences and beliefs to influence your decisions – even if other information threatens or disproves those preconceived notions. Think of it as a brain shortcut that helps you process the overload of information you take in daily. It’s not a perfect system, but one our brains seem intent on sticking with, because it’s our system (that’s called modal bias, by the way). Why does the Dunning-Kruger effect happen? But why do some of us tend to be so optimistic about our abilities, especially in areas where we should readily recognize that we have limited knowledge and skills? In their paper, Dunning and Kruger described it as a “dual burden.” We charge ahead while overestimating our talents, but we also lack the awareness (something Dunning and Kruger called “metacognitive abilities”) to recognize that we’re falling short in the first place. Basically, you don’t know what you don’t know. Because you’re inexperienced in a particular area, you don’t have the basic information you need to distinguish between a good performance and a bad performance. Think of it like this: If you’re not into wine, you probably can’t tell the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle. Another reason we tend to aggrandize our own skills and talents is that it can feel shameful to admit that we don’t know something – hence why “fake it ‘til you make it” is such a popular slogan. What are the four stages of the Dunning-Kruger effect? The four stages of competence model is often talked about in conjunction with the Dunning-Kruger effect. This model shows how learning progresses through four distinct phases. These stages are: Unconscious incompetence: You are completely unaware of a gap in your skills or knowledge Conscious incompetence: You are aware of the skill or knowledge you lack and are eager to acquire it Conscious competence: You are able to perform the new skill, but with a lot of focus and effort Unconscious competence: You are able to perform the skill so naturally and easily, you can do it without much conscious thought It’s in the first stage – or the transition between the first two stages – when the Dunning-Kruger effect most commonly comes into play. What’s the harm in the Dunning-Kruger effect? We all over-inflate our abilities occasionally. But even so, most of us still have a somewhat realistic grasp on what we’re capable of – you probably aren’t volunteering when somebody on a plane asks for a doctor simply because you’ve watched a few medical dramas. So is this cognitive bias really all that bad? What’s the harm? Dunning-Kruger does have some potential for fallout, including: Poor decision-making: Whether it’s pursuing a career that ultimately isn’t a match for your abilities or volunteering for a project you can’t realistically pull off, that dual burden can trigger some poor decisions. Mistrust among team members: If your overconfidence becomes a pattern, your co-workers could start to doubt your ability to perform at a high level in any area. A tendency to overpromise and underdeliver erodes teammates’ trust. Potential danger: Overestimating your skills could pose a danger to yourself and others, particularly in hazardous and high-risk careers. The Dunning-Kruger effect isn’t all bad, though. A little extra optimism and self-assuredness could be what’s needed for people to achieve stretch goals that might’ve seemed completely unreasonable to others. Dunning-Kruger vs. imposter syndrome The Dunning-Kruger effect seems to be in direct conflict with one of its better-known relatives: imposter syndrome, which occurs when we underestimate our own talents and worry (without reason) that we’ll be exposed as frauds. The two are indeed opposites, but it’s possible to experience both types of blind spots. Dunning-Kruger tends to show up in areas where we lack expertise but assume we’re proficient. In contrast, imposter syndrome happens when we really are experts but distrust our own intelligence anyway. Is the Dunning-Kruger effect even real? Like any other theory or finding, the Dunning-Kruger effect has been the focus of criticism – with some skeptics pointing toward regression to the mean or even random occurrence to explain the original study’s findings, rather than a real defect in our self-insight. But beyond the scholarly hole-poking, perhaps the biggest problem with the way we talk about this bias lies in the undercurrent of shame. Academic explanations are riddled with words like “incompetent,” “ignorant,” and “poor performer,” terms that can understandably trigger some self-consciousness and humiliation. As a result, identifying the Dunning-Kruger effect as the cause of someone’s bias can feel like a personal attack, even though it’s a universal experience – something that can (and will) happen to all of us. How to overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect While it’s bound to still creep in from time to time, awareness is the best antidote to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Here are a few strategies you can use to fuel reflection and recognition, for yourself and your team. Overcoming the Dunning-Kruger effect yourself Most of us like to think of ourselves as self-aware, but one study found that only 10-15% of people fit the criteria. Here’s how you can get a more realistic grasp on yourself and your capabilities: Solicit feedback from various sources: 360-degree feedback offers a well-rounded perspective of your performance, capabilities, and what you’re like to work with. While some companies make this a formalized process, you can solicit feedback from the people you work with on a steady basis (such as during 1-on-1 meetings, at the end of big projects, or during performance review cycles) to keep your self-perception in check. Reflect on your past experiences: History is a great teacher, especially when it comes to boosting your self-awareness. Look back on previous projects or challenges. When have you struggled? When have tasks felt effortless? What are you consistently praised for? What work fulfills you? What drains you? This can clue you in on where your capabilities are best utilized. Overcoming the Dunning-Kruger effect on your team Related Article What does psychological safety mean, anyway? By Katie Taylor In Teamwork If you’re leading a team, there are a few other steps you can take together to minimize this bias and root everybody in reality: Prioritize psychological safety: A high degree of psychological safety means people feel more comfortable admitting they don’t have the necessary know-how to do something, rather than feeling like they need to put on a front. Value and celebrate diverse skills: As a manager, it’s tempting to zone in on patching up weaknesses on your team. But classic research from Gallup found that a strengths-based culture, as opposed to one that fixates only on growth areas, increases employee engagement. Plus, people will feel valued for their unique attributes rather than pushing beyond their capabilities to get your recognition and approval. Complete a self-reflection exercise: The Johari window is a personality assessment that improves your understanding of yourself. You’ll select five or six terms that best describe you and your colleagues will also select descriptors they think fit you best. You’ll plot the qualities on a matrix to see how your self-perception compares to the way your colleagues view you. Fuel a growth mindset: A team that has embraced a growth mindset is hungry to learn and improve and views failures and mistakes as learning opportunities. You can feed this mindset by providing plenty of resources – like mentorship, seminars, books, courses, and other professional development opportunities – for team members to explore and refine their skills. Give thoughtful and honest feedback: Constructive criticism is hard to hear and sometimes even harder to deliver. But if you keep your lips zipped and let your low performers continue to assume they’re knocking it out of the park, they’ll stay on that same path, blissfully unaware that they’re falling short. Aim for awareness, not apprehension It’s off-putting to know your brain is basically hardwired to trick you into an inflated self-assessment. But the goal here isn’t to inspire doubt or hesitation. Rather, understanding the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it might show up in your work and your life will help you build your self-awareness. When you have a more pragmatic sense of your actual strengths and weaknesses, you’re able to seek out roles, projects, and situations where you (and the other people on your team) can shine – not struggle. Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post The Dunning-Kruger effect: why and how we overestimate our own abilities appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

Can you believe the end of the year is almost here? The holidays can sneak up on all of us, but shopping for all the different people in your life can be simpler if you plan ahead and take the guesswork out with a curated guide of great gift ideas. View the full article

Happy Monday! Can you believe it? The first Monday of the final month of 2024 is already here. As we wind down the year, it’s the perfect time to reflect: What’s one thing you're especially grateful for in 2024? For me, it's that Remotive turned 10 this November (exact date still a mystery, ha!). A full decade of championing remote work. How amazing is that? Excited to hear what you’re grateful for! Vic Our Favorite Articles 💯How to Avoid Job Scams (Remotive)New article on the blog about job scams, with updated information, advice and real examples from users. ​Read on​. Amazon makes it harder for disabled employees to work from home (Seattle Times)Amazon's newly revealed disability policy is causing a stir among employees already upset about the five-day return-to-office mandate. ​Get the details​. Workers at Bethesda parent company strike over remote work policies (The Verge)ZeniMax Workers United is Microsoft's first union. They went on strike on November 13. ​Learn more​. Do You Really Need a Big Career Change? (HBR)Sometimes, the change we need isn’t in our career—it’s in ourselves. ​​Find out why​. This Week's Sponsor 🙌Nomad Insurance By SafetyWing. Global travel medical coverage for remote workers and nomads. Remotive Jobs 💼Is this job for you? 👉 ​Senior Next.js Developer at Proxify​ (CET +/- 3 HOURS) 👉 ​Senior DevOps Engineer (AWS) at Proxify​ (CET +/- 3 HOURS) Free Guides & Tools​Public Job Board​We curate 2,000 remote jobs so you don't have to! ​Find your remote job →​ ​Exclusive Webinar​3 Mistakes to Avoid When Looking For A Remote Startup Job (And What To Do Instead) ​Register for free →​ ​Job Search Tips​Looking for a remote job? Here are our tips to help you work remotely ​Check it out → Join the Remotive newsletter Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email address Subscribe Powered by ConvertKit View the full article

Setting Goals for December: Reflect, Plan, and Achieve December is here—the month of twinkling lights, ambitious to-do lists, and the quiet reminder that another year is wrapping up. It’s easy to get swept up in the hustle, but pausing to reflect and plan is one of the best gifts you can give yourself this season. If The post Yes, Virginia, you can be productive in December appeared first on RescueTime Blog. View the full article

Not too long ago, I was able to spend 10 day in silence, training the practice of meditation with Buddhist monks. Though not easy by …View the full article

“Cancelled due to volcano.” “Cancelled due to volcano.” “Delayed due to volcano…” I stood in the Bali airport, staring in astonishment at the flight information …View the full article

When you apply for a remote job, the application process has some specific nuances compared to a traditional office-based role. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or someone new to remote work, understanding what to highlight in your resume and cover letter can make the difference in landing the job. In this post, I’ll walk you […] The post How to Write the Perfect Remote Job Application – Templates & Examples appeared first on Digital Nomad Soul. View the full article

Are you a support manager who wants to help your team improve their skills? If so, you’re in the right place! When most people think of support managers, what comes to mind is daily tasks like tracking the ticket queue, setting customer satisfaction goals, and analyzing feedback. But in reality, as I’m sure you know, […] The post How Support Managers Can Help Their Teams Level Up in the Industry appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article

Discover the features and benefits of Zoho Projects software. Read our review to see if it's the right fit for your project management. The post Zoho Projects Software Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

If you're considering Freshdesk, but also trying to evaluate alternatives for pricing and feature set - we've done the legwork for you. Check out this free evaluation with competition and ratings. The post 5 Freshdesk Alternatives for Small Online Businesses appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article

You’re pretty happy with the quality of support your customer service team provides. They reply quickly to customers, get problems resolved ASAP, and offer empathetic support. And yet, you can’t help but feel like there’s something more they could be doing to leverage support for growth. Rather than just keeping things afloat, you’re wondering how […] The post The Fundamentals of Support Driven Growth appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article

Every business owner with a website is looking for ways to get noticed in the search results. There are loads of tactics to rank well as a local business, but unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. As with most things SEO, this is a combined effort. One of the ways to get noticed is by offering customers up-to-date information like opening hours and contact information. You can do this using Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. But what is it exactly, and why is it so important for local SEO? Table of contents What is Google My Business? How does it work? Ranking factors Optimize your Google Business Profile listing Ranking factors beyond your control Google Business Profile Insights Troubleshooting listing issues A tool to manage your reviews Structured data and Yoast Local SEO Local SEO is critical, even with Google Business Profile What is Google My Business? Before we start, it’s good to know that Google recently changed its name from Google My Business to Google Business Profile. But even with its new name, Google Business Profile is still your one-stop shop for managing your business information and how it will be presented in the search results. It is an essential tool to adjust how your business is shown in Google Maps, the Knowledge Graph, and organic search results. According to the most recent edition of Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, Google My Business remains the biggest driver of local SEO success, with reviews coming in second place. You can manage your business listing by adding NAP details, opening hours, photos, etcetera. There are even unique options to show multiple ways to shop (delivery or curbside pickup). In addition, you get many other options, like managing the reviews your customers leave behind. As you might already know, reviews should be a critical part of your local SEO efforts. Want to learn more about local SEO and how to get higher rankings in the local search results? Our Local SEO training helps you improve your online presence and attract more online and offline visitors. How does it work? Getting started with Google Business Profile is easy; you make an account and claim your business. After filling in your details, you need to verify your business. You can choose between receiving an automated call or text with a verification code, or receiving a real-life postcard from Google at your specified address with the verification code. Some businesses may need to verify with a video. You may have to verify with more than one method. So, why does Google want you to verify your account? They want to ensure that you’re telling the truth and that you’re the business owner listed at the address. Google has a special page that helps you check your verification status. Once verified, you can fill in all the necessary details and check how your listing is doing. You can get regular insights to see how many impressions, clicks, and subscribers your listing got over time. It’s a great way of getting a feel for how Google and customers perceive your business. Keep in mind that Google My Business (or Google Business Profile) is not the catch-all tool for your local SEO. It has to work in tandem with your other off-page and on-page SEO efforts. You probably won’t climb the charts if your profile is inaccurate, but you won’t reach the top without a well-optimized site and localized content. These things go hand in hand. Ranking factors Google Business Profile uses many factors to determine rankings for businesses. We’ll highlight the three most important ones: Relevance Distance Prominence Relevance Relevance determines how well your business fits the search intent of the customer. Is your focus identical to what the customer needs, or are you a bit opaque about what your company does? Vagueness doesn’t rank or sell. Be as clear as you can be, and keep your focus. That way, Google knows what people can expect from you and will be more inclined to show your business in the search results. Tip: When setting up your profile, Google offers you common services that you can add to your category of business. It’s smart to include these, because they will help your business get found. We’ll talk about these in more detail later on. Proximity Proximity is a well-known factor for ranking local businesses. And quite logical when you think about it. You can’t rank in a local search for dentist in Philadelphia when you have located your company in Manhattan. However, the exact way Google determines which businesses to show in a local search is unknown, and it can be pretty hard to rank in a given area. Other factors play a significant role as well. It helps to say you are located in a particular area and show it by having local-oriented content around your business on your site. Google uses what’s known about the searcher’s location to present the most relevant local businesses. Prominence Prominence is all about the activity around your listing; this could be the number of reviews, events, local content, et cetera. It also helps to have loads of quality links to your site. It is somewhat hard to determine what prominence means exactly, but one thing is for sure: no one likes inactive profiles. You have to keep it updated with new photos and manage your reviews. As said before, this goes hand in hand with your site, so make sure both listings align and publish content focusing on your local area(s). It is vital that you keep your business listing accurate and up to date Optimize your Google Business Profile listing Any business with a bona fide brick-and-mortar location or an online outlet is eligible for a Google Business listing. But what if you operate your business out of your house and don’t want people to know your address? If you don’t operate a walk-up brick-and-mortar location but visit your customers in a particular geographic area, you’re called a “Service Business.” Service businesses include plumbers, carpet cleaners, and courier services. In this case, you’re still eligible for a listing. However, you’ll want to choose “Service business” when Google asks what kind of business you have. Google asks what kind of business you are operating Verifying your location Google tries to make sure that only legitimate businesses are represented in GMB. It requires anyone claiming a Listing to verify their association with the company. The easiest way to start the process is to perform a desktop search on Google for your business name (for example, “Kido Chicago”). You’ll see a link in the panel on the right-hand side of the page that asks, “Own this business?” Before you click that link to begin the verification process, make sure you are either not signed in to Google (you can create an account in the next step) or are signed into a Google account for your business instead of your personal Gmail. It’s not a requirement; however, sharing access to your listing with employees or other company agents from a business account will be much easier. Click on Claim this business to claim the profile of this business; if you are the owner Once you fill out the most basic information (see below for what these details are), if it can corroborate your address and phone number, Google will call and ask you to enter a PIN on the screen. If it hasn’t previously seen a business with the phone number and address you submitted, you’ll be mailed a postcard within a week with instructions on how to PIN verify. Verify with video Some businesses may need to verify with a video. If you own a physical store, you will need to record your location by showing street signs, your business exterior and interior, and you need to show that you’re authorized to represent this business. You will need to show all these requirements in one continuous recording, so no editing. If you own a service business, like a plumbing or landscaping business, you don’t have a physical store. That’s why you’ll need to show street signs or the surrounding area where your business is located, your business card or a branded vehicle or business tools, and finally a proof of address. Again, this needs to be done in one continuous recording. Primary business information Name, Address, and Phone This sounds simple, but it’s surprising how many business owners overthink these core attributes or try to “optimize” them. Your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are your thumbprint online. If they don’t reflect your business accurately in your Google Business Profile, Google—and your customers—lose trust that you are who you say you are. They will stop sending business your way. Do NOT stuff keywords in your business name. Represent yourself as you would answer the phone or welcome a customer into your store. You probably see spammers doing this and succeeding all the time, but it’ll come back to bite them at some point. Google is monitoring for these kinds of abuses all the time, and they’re getting better at blocking the abusers. Submit the same address you use on your website. If you’re a Yoast user, this should be the address you enter in the Yoast Local SEO plugin. Even if you’re a service-area business, you’ll have to submit a physical address, not a PO box or other mailing-only address. You’ll see a map displayed just alongside your address. Zoom in and double-check that the pin is in the correct place on your business. Google’s pin precision for U.S. addresses is typically pretty good, but it can be spotty in other countries. Don’t use a tracking phone number to segment customers coming from Google vs. other sources. There are ways to do this, but they’re pretty advanced. Implementing tracking numbers incorrectly can do tremendous damage to your local search rankings. Choose a category for your business From a rankings standpoint, the business category is the most important attribute you can optimize in your Google Business Profile. In our experience, it’s best to keep an eye on Google’s advice on categories. Remember that advice has changed frequently over the years and might change again. Start typing, and the categories magically appear. You can add more later on Google maintains a taxonomy of several thousand categories to describe local businesses. You’ll probably find a match pretty closely by typing in a few characters of a keyword that describes your business. Google suggests “using as few categories as possible,” as well as categories that are “as specific as possible.” And while it’s true that Google can and does “detect category information from your website and mentions about your business throughout the web,” our advice is to specify as many relevant categories as possible on your Google Business Profile listing. Google’s automated review system may remove one or two from your listing, but this is not spam—provided you select relevant categories. It helps you show up for as broad a range of searches as possible. Services businesses can add the specific services you offer Add your website In the process, there’s a field to add your website URL, but it doesn’t have to be your “website” per se. In particular, if you operate in more than one location, you may want to enter the page on your website corresponding to the location you’re submitting to Google—rather than your homepage. Opinions are mixed on whether listing your homepage, or a location page will help you rank better, so do what’s best for prospective customers. If you think your homepage will give them the best initial sense of your business, submit it as your “website”. If a location page—or even some other page—will give your audience a better sense, submit that instead. Add a business description Later on, you can add a business description to your profile. It’s essential to take a moment and find an excellent way to describe your business on Google. The business description field gives you a maximum of 750 characters to convince people to visit your business. This might be the first thing people read about your business, so make it unique and exciting. Describe what your business offers precisely and how you set yourself apart from your competitors. You can also talk about your history and anything else that’s helpful for customers. Keep the description short and sweet, and don’t try to push promotions or deals you have running. You also shouldn’t include URLs or HTML code. Give it a think, write a few descriptions and pick the best one! A unique business description can make you stand out from the rest More business information After entering the attributes above, you’re asked to verify your listing. But don’t stop there. There are a few other attributes that are well worth your time to add. Photos and images Photos may be the most neglected attribute in all local SEO. The success of Instagram, Pinterest, and any lesser-known apps indicates how visual our internet culture has become. Consumers often select—or reject!—a business because of its photos. Not only on the content of the photos, but consumers also judge the quality and professionalism of the photos. Photos are essential in the mobile ecosystem that Google Business Profile powers (including Google Maps), where they dominate a business’s representation in Google’s user interfaces. Try to add authentic photos instead of stock photos, and make sure the pictures reflect your business. As with all local media or social media sites, Google Business Profile has its image format requirements. Take some time to review them and make sure you have high-quality assets for each format. You can find more on improving your images in our image SEO guide. Business hours Selecting your opening hours is pretty straightforward. Google has dramatically improved its interface for telling customers when you’re open over the past several years. Hours will be front-and-center wherever customers interact with your business on Google, so they should be accurate. You can even daypart multiple times during the day and add specific hours for holidays and special events. While you can’t control it, you may be interested to know that Google now displays the busyness of your business in real time. This is based on aggregate location-tracking visitors with Android phones and iOS Google Maps users with location services enabled. See when a business opens and when the most popular times are Restaurants can add menus Specific categories of businesses will have the option to add their menu. Suppose you’re lucky enough to be in one of these categories. In that case, we highly recommend adding this, as it gives Google an additional set of keywords that your business should consider relevant. Accept messages for more leads By default, this feature is turned on. It will add a messaging feature to your Business Profile, and it can be a great way to generate more leads. Of course, you need to keep this chat feature in mind and check regularly for any messages. If you respond quickly and helpfully, you’ll probably turn visitors into customers. The chat function If you’re slow to respond to customers, however, Google might disable this feature for you. So, if you’re not sure you’ll be able to keep track of this feature, it might be better to turn it off. Share posts on your Business Profile The Posts feature is a very useful way to communicate with your customers from your profile. With posts, you can connect with existing and potential customers through your Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. You can create and share announcements, offers, new or popular items in stock, or event details directly with your customers. Use this to promote your sales, specials, events, news, and offers. You can even add videos and photos to posts to make them more interesting! Example of the post feature Many options Since Google Business Profile has grown quite a bit over the years, there are many more options to explore. You don’t need to use all of them, but some are valuable. For example, the Products feature to highlight your products in your listing is a great way to get people interested in what your offer. Another great option is the possibility of getting potential customers to ask questions that you can respond to. Keep in mind that others can also answer these questions, so keep an eye on this. When it works, it can be a real help in turning visitors into customers. And, as always, get reviews for your business! With a Business Profile, you can even respond to these reviews. It doesn’t have to be a message. Nowadays, you can also quickly respond with an emoji, like a heart or fire emoji. Ranking factors beyond your control There are two significant local search and local SEO ranking factors over which you have little control. They both have to do with the physical location of your business. The location of your potential customer The first is the proximity of your business to the location where your prospective customer is performing their search. All other things being equal, Google will display a company closer to the searcher than one farther away from them. In the early years of Google, its algorithm favored businesses close to the center of a given city or its “centroid.” This was partly because Google wasn’t as good at detecting the location of the searcher as they are now. It defaulted to showing businesses in the areas with the highest population density. Nowadays, this factor has declined in importance. Especially for mobile searches where Google has a precise idea of where you are. Google has also partially improved at detecting desktop searchers’ location information through surreptitious collection means. A physical store in the city of your customer’s search question The second factor is having an address in the city in which your customer is searching. If your customer is searching in Seattle, your Tacoma or Bellevue-based coffee shop won’t appear. This is simply because it’s irrelevant to the customer’s search. Short of opening additional locations to target areas where high concentrations of your customers are searching, there’s not much you can do to optimize for these ranking factors. Still, you should be aware of their importance. Google Business Profile Insights Google provides a free, lightweight analytics package as part of GBP. This gives you a basic sense of how customers and potential customers view and interact with your listing. Insights show how often your listing appears in plain old search vs. Google Maps. It also shows the number of clicks to your website, requests for driving directions, phone calls, and more. There’s also a breakdown of how many customers see your listing for direct searches (for your business specifically) vs. discovery searches (for businesses in your category). While no one outside of Google is entirely sure how they calculate the discovery number, it’s probably as good a barometer for the overall strength of your local SEO as any, mainly if you track it over time. Troubleshooting listing issues The most typical GMB troubleshooting issue continues to be duplicate listings for the same business. While it’s gotten harder to detect duplicate listings, it’s much easier to close them. The first step to identifying duplicates is to search for your business name on Google. If it looks like multiple listings refer to your business, select the one you’d like to report as a duplicate and click “Suggest an Edit.” Follow the suggestions to have the listing marked as duplicate. Google support staff are generally responsive to these reports within a reasonable time. If you continue to have trouble, ask multiple people—co-workers, friends, family members, or relatives—to report the same problem, and it’s more likely Google will look at it. If your issue seems particularly thorny, you’re most likely to get a response by tweeting @googlemybiz, the official Twitter support channel for Google Business Profile. A tool to manage your reviews Some time ago, Google added a new feature to the Google My Business dashboard. A feature that allows you to manage your reviews and report reviews for removal. You can also check the status of reviews you’ve already reported here. Keep in mind that Google will only remove reviews that violate their policies, such as irrelevant or offensive content. Structured data and Yoast Local SEO Google increasingly depends on structured data to determine what your site is about and which elements represent what. This is true for your business information, including the information that Google Business Profile uses. Make sure you add the correct structured data to your site. Enhance your NAP details, opening hours, reviews, product information, et cetera, with Schema.org data. This will make it much easier for Google to determine the validity of your listing. Several tools can help you with this, including our Yoast Local SEO plugin. Local SEO is critical, even with Google Business Profile So, you should activate and maintain your Google My Business account and make it awesome. But to get the most out of your listings and to get good rankings, you must have your site in order as well. Optimize every part of it. Create local content for your chosen keyword and business location and get quality local backlinks to build a solid link profile. Ask customers to review your business onsite or on My Business. Make sure your listing is active and attractive; as we said, inaccurate profiles are no good. Read more: The ultimate guide to small business SEO » The post Improve local SEO with Google My Business/Business Profile appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

El trabajo remoto es el futuro. Remotive es la plataforma de trabajo remoto número 1. Con nuestros diez años de experiencia, hemos ayudado a millones de personas a encontrar oportunidades laborales remotas. ¿Quieres saber cómo? Sigue leyendo :) Oportunidades en español¿Buscas un trabajo remoto en español? Publicamos ofertas para hispanohablantes que residen en cualquier lugar del mundo. Trabajos remotos de calidadCada oferta que publicamos es cuidadosamente seleccionada por nuestro equipo, gracias a nuestra década de experiencia que nos permite detectar las mejores oportunidades laborales remotas. Filtros avanzados para encontrar tu empleo idealPersonaliza tu búsqueda con filtros que te permiten elegir el puesto, la ubicación y las condiciones que mejor se adaptan a lo que necesitas. Atención personalizadaSi tienes dudas o necesitas ayuda, ¡estamos aquí para apoyarte! Escríbenos a hello@remotive.com y te responderemos lo antes posible. Empieza hoyEncontrar el empleo remoto ideal para ti no debería ser un trabajo de tiempo completo. Accede a las oportunidades laborales remotas más recientes, antes que nadie, en un solo lugar. Explora trabajos remotos en español y regístrate en nuestra plataforma Remotive Accelerator para acceder a las mejores oportunidades remotas hoy. Descubre 33,794 trabajos remotos seleccionados y activos Filtros de búsqueda avanzados y alertas por correo electrónicoComunidad de Slack exclusiva He leído y acepto el Código de Conducta de Remotive Únete hoy * Your Discount Code will be applied at next step! ¡50% de descuento hasta fin de mes! View the full article

Agile and Waterfall are two popular project management methodologies. Learn the differences between Agile and Waterfall and which one is best for you. The post Agile vs Waterfall Methodology: Differences & How to Choose appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

A kind remark from your colleague. Dazzling fall colors everywhere you look outside. Starting your day with a caffeine boost. When you start looking for them, you can find good things in your life almost anywhere. The approach of Thanksgiving is often a catalyst for grateful reflections. And while there’s never a bad time to The post Gratitude at work: Can a positive mindset improve your productivity? appeared first on RescueTime Blog. View the full article

As the workplace continues to evolve, technological innovation is never more than a half-step behind. With such a rapid pace of change in today's modern business environment, there is no shortage of new business challenges, either. View the full article

KEY TAKEAWAYS Today’s software solutions provide a range of valuable tools and features for project management. Google Sheets is an excellent example of a system that thrives as both a data analysis tool and a powerful resource for project managers. In this article, we will take a closer look at the capabilities and features Google… The post Mastering Project Management with Google Sheets: Guide & Templates appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

Every great customer service representative has struggled with saying no. It’s practically ingrained into your subconscious that the “customer is always right”, even if they aren’t. Sometimes far from it. And yet, you’re led to believe you need to do everything in your power to please them. In reality, this isn’t always possible. Often, it’s […] The post How To Say No To Customers (And Why It’s Sometimes Necessary) appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article

Do you have a website or maintain the website of the company you work for? Of course, to do this right, you need to keep a keen eye on the performance of your website. Google offers several tools to collect and analyze data from your website. You probably have heard of Google Analytics and Google Search Console before. These tools are free for everyone maintaining a website and can give you valuable insights about your website. Here, we’ll explain how to use Google Search Console for SEO! Table of contents Why use Google Search Console? Setting up an account Features in Google Search Console Google Search Console is essential Why use Google Search Console? Google Search Console helps you track the performance of your website easily. You can get valuable insights from your Google Search Console account, which means you can see what part of your website needs work. This can be a technical part of your website, such as an increasing number of crawl errors that need to be fixed. This can also give a specific keyword more attention because the rankings or impressions are decreasing. Or find the reasons why some pages aren’t indexed. Besides seeing this kind of data, you’ll get email notifications when Google Search Console notices new errors. Because of these notifications, you’re quickly aware of issues you must fix. That’s why everyone with a website should learn how to use it! The Google Search Console Overview page Search Console is structured around various sections Search Console has several sections, which keep expanding as Google adds more: URL Inspection The URL Inspection tool lets you get insights on specific URLs and how Google sees and indexes these. You’ll also see if the page is eligible for rich results. Performance In the Performance section, you’ll discover how your site is doing in the regular search results, on Discover, and Google News, if it is eligible for those. Indexing In the Indexing section, you’ll find all the insights you need to see how Google discovers and indexes your pages. You can also learn if and how Google is indexing the video content on your site. There’s also a section to check your XML sitemaps and any page removals you may have requested. Experience The Experience section gives you an idea of how Google values your page’s performance on mobile and desktop, with a little help from Core Web Vitals, and whether your pages are served via HTTPS connections. Shopping In the Shopping tab, you’ll find more information about how Google sees your products — if you own an ecommerce site or sell something else online. You can see which products have rich results, plus insights into your merchant listings and how you appear in Google Shopping. Enhancements The Enhancements section lists all the structured data that Google found on your site and whether or not it is eligible for rich results. This includes events, reviews, job postings, and more. Security & Manual Actions The Security & Manual Actions destination shouldn’t be visited often, as it lists security issues found by Google or when it issues a manual action against your site. Links The Links section overviews your site’s internal and external links. Setting up an account You’ll need to create an account to start using Google Search Console. Within Google Search Console, you can click on ‘add a new property’ in the top bar: Add a new property to get started You can insert the website you want to add by clicking the ‘Add property’ button. If you choose the new Domain option, you only need to add the domain name without www or subdomains. This option tracks everything connected to that domain. With the ‘old’ URL prefix option, you must add the correct URL, so with ‘HTTPS’ if you have an HTTPS website and with or without ‘www’. To collect the correct data, it’s essential to add the correct version: Choose domain if you want to track all your URLs or URL prefix if you want to track specific URLs You must verify that you’re the owner when you’ve added a website. There are several options to verify your ownership. The Domain option only works with DNS verification, while the URL prefix supports different methods. You can learn more about the differences in Google’s documentation: adding a new property and verifying your site ownership. You can also use Google’s Site Kit WordPress plugin to connect Analytics and Search Console while giving you statistics in your site dashboard. Add to Yoast SEO For WordPress users who use Yoast SEO, get the verification code via the ‘HTML tag’ method from the Ownership settings in Search Console. Copy the long, random string of characters. See your verification methods in the Google Search Console ownership settings You can easily copy the code and paste it into the Google field in the ‘Site connections’ section in the settings of your Yoast SEO plugin: Paste your code into the Google field to finish the process After saving this, you can return to Google Search Console and click the ‘Verify’ button to confirm. If everything is ok, you’ll get a success message, and GSC will start collecting data for your website. Features in Google Search Console Now that you’ve set up your account, what’s the next step? Well, it’s time to look at some of your data! In the rest of this article, we’ll explore some of the reports and information available. Performance tab In the Performance tab, you can see the pages and keywords your website ranks for in Google. If you’re eligible for that, you’ll also find reports on your content’s performance in Google Discover and on Google News. You’ll get 16 months of performance data for your reports. If you check the performance tab regularly, you can quickly see what keywords or pages need more attention and optimization. So, where to begin? Within the performance tab, you see a list of ‘queries’, ‘pages’, ‘countries’, or ‘devices’. With ‘search appearance,’ you can check how your rich results are doing in search. You can sort each section by the number of ‘clicks’, ‘impressions’, ‘average CTR’, or ‘average position’. We’ll explain each of them below: The Performance overview harbors a ton of information 1. Clicks The number of clicks tells you how often people clicked on your website in Google’s search results. This number can say something about the performance of your page titles and meta descriptions: if just a few people click on your result, your result might not stand out in the search results. It can be helpful to check what other results are displayed around you to see how you can optimize your snippet. The position of the search result also impacts the number of clicks. If your page is in the top three of Google’s first result page, it will automatically get more clicks than a page that ranks on the second page of the search results. 2. Impressions The impressions tell you how often your website or a specific page is shown in the search results. The number of impressions after this keyword shows how often our website is shown for that keyword in Google’s search results. You don’t know yet what page ranks for that keyword. To see what pages might rank for the specific keyword, you can click on the line of the keyword. Doing this for a keyword, the keyword is added as a filter: You can query the data in many ways Afterward, you can navigate to the ‘Pages’ tab to see what pages rank for this keyword. Are those pages the ones you’d want to rank for that keyword? If not, you might need to optimize the page you’d like to rank. Think of writing better content containing the keyword on that page, adding internal links from relevant pages or posts to the page, making the page load faster, etc. 3. Average CTR The CTR – Click-through rate – tells you what percentage of the people who have seen your website in the search results also clicked through to your website. You probably understand that higher rankings mostly also lead to higher click-through rates. However, you can also do things yourself to increase the CTR. For example, you could rewrite your meta description and page title to make it more appealing — Yoast SEO has AI features to help you do that. When the title and description of your site stand out from the other results, more people will probably click on your result, and your CTR will increase. Remember that this will not significantly impact you if you’re not ranking on the first page yet. You might need to try other things first to improve your ranking. 4. Average position The last one on this list is the ‘Average position’. This tells you the average ranking of a specific keyword or page in your selected period. Of course, this position isn’t always reliable since more and more people seem to get different search results. Google seems to understand better and better which results fit which visitor best. However, this indicator still shows whether the clicks, impressions and average CTR are explainable. Indexing The’ Indexing’ section is a more technical but treasured addition to Google Search Console. This section shows how many pages have been in Google’s index since the last update, how many pages haven’t, and what errors and warnings caused Google to index your pages incorrectly. Google split this section into parts, collecting your regular pages and video pages while giving a home for your XML sitemap and the removals sections. You can see how Google indexes your content over time We recommend you check this tab regularly to see what errors and warnings appear on your website. However, you also get notifications when Google has found new errors. Please check the error in more detail when you get such a notification. You may find that errors are caused when, e.g., a redirect doesn’t seem to work correctly, or Google finds broken code or error pages in your theme. You also find error messages like “Crawled – currently not indexed“. Google has a long list of possible reasons why pages aren’t indexed and what you can do to fix that. Clicking on one of the issues, you can analyze the error more in-depth to see what specific URLs are affected. When you’ve fixed the error, you can mark it as fixed to make sure Google will test the URL again: Fixed the specific error? Validate it so Google can check if it’s gone for real Things to look out for There are a few things you should always look for when checking out your indexing coverage reports: If you’re writing new content, your indexed pages should steadily increase. This tells you two things: Google can index your site, and you keep your site ‘alive’ by adding content. Watch out for sudden drops! This might mean that Google is having trouble accessing (all of) your website. Something may be blocking Google; whether it’s robots.txt changes or server downtime, you need to look into it! Sudden (and unexpected) spikes in the graph might mean an issue with duplicate content (such as both www and non-www, wrong canonicals, etc.), automatically generated pages, or even hacks. We recommend you monitor these situations closely and resolve errors quickly, as too many errors could signal low quality (poor maintenance) to Google. URL Inspection The URL Inspection tool helps you analyze specific URLs. You retrieve the page from Google’s index and compare it with the page as it lives now on your site to see if there are differences. You can also find more technical info on this page, such as when and how Google crawled it and how it looked at that moment. Sometimes, you’ll also notice several errors. This might be regarding Google’s inability to crawl your page correctly. It also gives information about the structured data found on this URL. The URL Inspection tool gives insights into every URL on your site Experience The experience report is an invaluable addition. It gives a good idea of how fast your site loads on mobile and desktop and how Google uses core web vitals to grade page experience. It shows which pages have issues that keep them from performing well. The data is based on the Chrome UX report, so it’s accurate data from real users. Site speed, page experience, and user experience are complex topics with many moving parts, so learning how to think about page speed is good. The answer is here: how to check site speed. Find out which pages offer a bad experience and how you can fix that Enhancements: rich results If you have structured data on your site — provided by Yoast SEO, for instance — it’s a good idea to check out the Enhancements reports in Search Console. The Enhancements tab collects all the insights and improvements that could lead to rich results. It lists all the structured data that Google found on your site. There’s an ever-expanding list of rich results, and you can find the following, among other things: Breadcrumbs Events FAQs Job postings Profile pages Review snippets Sitelinks searchboxes Videos All these tabs show how many valid enhancements you have or how many have errors or warnings. You get details about the kind of errors and warnings and on which URLs these are found. There’s also a trend line that shows if the number of issues is increasing or decreasing. And that’s just the start of it. Here’s an example of a job posting enhancement. You can overlay Impressions to get more context for the stats The Enhancements reports help you find and fix issues that hinder the performance of your rich results in search. By checking the issues, reading the support documentation, and validating fixes, you can increase your chance of getting rich results in search. We have a more expansive guide on the structured data Enhancement reports in Google Search Console. Sitemaps An XML sitemap is a roadmap to all important pages and posts on your website. Every website would benefit from having one. Do you run the Yoast SEO plugin on your website? Then, you automatically have an XML sitemap. If not, we recommend creating one to ensure Google can easily find your most important pages and posts. You can find an option for XML sitemaps within the Indexing tab of Google Search Console. Here, you can tell Google where your XML sitemap is located on your site: Don’t forget to check your XML sitemap We recommend that everyone enter the URL of their XML sitemap into GSC to make it easy for Google to find. In addition, you can quickly see if your sitemap gives errors or if some pages aren’t indexed. Regularly checking this ensures that Google can find and read your XML sitemap. We recommend regularly checking the XML sitemap section in our plugin to manage which post types or taxonomies you include in your sitemaps! Shopping Google Search Console also has a Shopping section. Here, you can check how Google sees your products and if they get proper rich results. You’ll see if they are valid or if they are missing fields that make the product snippets more prominent. Click on a product to see which fields are missing for particular products and if these are essential parts or nice-to-haves. If you’ve added these to the structured data of your products, you validate the fix in Search Console. In the Shopping section, you’ll also find your Google Merchant listings and an option to enable shopping tab listings to show your products on the Shopping tab in Google Search. With these options, Google gives ecommerce site owners — and people selling stuff — more ways of checking how their listings are doing. Optimize your product listings in Google search Links Within the links to your site section, you can see how many links from other sites are pointing to your website. Besides, you can see what websites link, how many links those websites contain, and what anchor texts are used most when linking to your website. This can be valuable information because links are still vital for SEO. Find out which pages receive lots of links Within the internal links section, you can check what pages of your website are most linked from other spots on your site. This list can be valuable to analyze regularly because you want your most important pages and posts to get the most internal links. By doing this, you make sure Google understands your cornerstones as well. You can even see how many links individual pages get Manual Actions You don’t want to see anything in the manual actions tab. If Google penalizes your site, you’ll get more information. If your site is affected by a manual action, you’ll also get an email message. Several scenarios can lead to these kinds of penalties, including: You have unnatural/bought links Ensure links from and to your site are valuable, not just for SEO. Preferably, your links come from related content that is valuable for your readers. Your site has been hacked A message stating your site’s probably hacked by a third party. Google might label your site as compromised or lower your rankings. You’re hiding something from Google If you’re ‘cloaking’ (that is, intentionally showing different content to users to deceive them), or using ‘sneaky’ redirects (e.g., hiding affiliate URLs), then you’re violating Google’s guidelines (now known as Google Search Essentials). Plain Spam Automatically generated content, scraped content, and aggressive cloaking could cause Google to blocklist your site. Spammy structured markup If you use rich snippets for too many irrelevant elements on a page or mark up content hidden from the visitor, that might be considered spammy. Mark up what’s necessary and only necessary things. Security issues Within the security issues tab, you’ll get a notification when your website seems to have a security issue. Google Search Console is essential Reading this post should give you a good idea of what Search Console is capable of and how to use it, so we’d like to ask you this: Do you already use Google Search Console for your website? If not, create an account to collect data about your website. Do you think something is missing? Feel free to leave a comment! Read on: How to make your site stand out in the search results » The post How to use Google Search Console: a beginner’s guide appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

In SEO, using top tools is key. Yoast and Semrush have joined forces to combine their technologies. This integration benefits WordPress and Shopify users by improving their SEO work. Yoast SEO offers easy-to-use SEO features, while Semrush brings solid data that can be used for keyword research. This article will explore the Related Keyphrase feature, which uses Semrush’s keyword data. Table of contents Why integrate Yoast SEO with Semrush? Using Semrush for related keyphrases Better keywords with Semrush and Yoast SEO Why integrate Yoast SEO with Semrush? SEO involves more than just content optimization; it requires understanding the search landscape and adopting strategies. The Yoast SEO and Semrush integration offers powerful tools for various SEO areas, like finding keywords, planning, implementation, and analysis. Benefits for WordPress users Benefits for WordPress users include enhanced keyword research. You can access Semrush’s vast database from the WordPress editor to find and apply effective related keywords. Get real-time SEO suggestions to refine your content as you write using current SEO data. This integration simplifies your work. You don’t have to jump between tools and platforms as much, so you can concentrate on writing content that ranks. Advantages for Shopify store owners Advantages for Shopify store owners include access to ecommerce keywords. These insights help drive targeted traffic to your store. Conduct SEO health checks to analyze and optimize product descriptions and meta tags, ensuring full SEO compliance. Integrating targeted keywords into your Shopify store’s content enhances visibility and boosts conversion potential. Using Semrush for related keyphrases Setting up the integration is simple for both WordPress and Shopify users. Connect your Semrush account to Yoast through the plugin or app interface. This lets you access keyword analytics and SEO advice right in your dashboard. If you haven’t installed Yoast SEO yet, start there. We offer a guide to help you with the setup. Finding related keyphrases Related keyphrases, or related keywords, are terms linked to your main keyword. They boost your content’s relevance, which helps search engines grasp your page’s topic and details. Adding related keyphrases makes your content more comprehensive and informative. This enhances its visibility in search results, as search engines favor pages that cover a topic thoroughly. Using related keyphrases also avoids keyword stuffing, leading to more natural, reader-friendly text. This approach attracts more organic traffic and helps your content rank for a wider range of search queries. Getting started with related keyphrases Navigate to the post or page you wish to optimize in the content editor. To access the Semrush tool, locate the Focus keyphrase section and enter your main focus keyphrase. Then, click the Get related keyphrases button, and a pop-up will appear. Enter your focus keyphrase and click the Get related keyphrase button to access the Semrush pop-up Semrush presents related keyphrases in the pop-up, including search volume, search intent, difficulty, and trends. For more detailed insights or to explore further, use the Keyword Magic Tool in Semrush. Alternatively, use your preferred keyword research tools to gather additional insights. Search volume and difficulty data help understand popularity Semrush’s search volume data shows how often users search for a specific keyword or keyphrase each month. This metric highlights the keyword’s popularity and demand. High search volume suggests strong interest, while low volume indicates fewer searches. You can use search volume data to identify trends over time, spotting seasonal or emerging keywords. Analyzing these volumes helps you gauge your content’s potential reach and find high-demand keywords to target. However, high search volumes often mean high competition. Balancing search volume with keyword difficulty is key. Keyword Difficulty measures how hard it is to rank in the top ten for a keyword, ranging from 0% to 100%. Lower percentages mean less competition, making it easier to rank, while higher percentages indicate tough competition requiring significant effort. Yoast SEO shows intent, volume, trend and difficulty data for suggested keyphrases Semrush and search intent Semrush provides tools to integrate search intent into your keyword research. Understanding search intent allows you to tailor content to user needs, improving rankings and attracting relevant traffic. Semrush offers a search intent metric for each keyword, helping you identify whether a keyword is navigational, informational, commercial, or transactional. This insight lets you align your content with user searches. For instance, commercial intent keywords might lead to content focused on comparisons or reviews, while transactional keywords benefit from clear calls-to-action. You can explore keywords based on search intent using Yoast SEO’s Related Keyphrases tool. This helps you target the most relevant keywords for your content goals. You might focus on informational keywords for a blog aimed at new audiences. For an ecommerce site, combining commercial and transactional keywords can attract potential buyers to your product pages. Yoast SEO also shows search intent and keyword difficulty data from Semrush Integrating related keyphrases into your content Select the most relevant and beneficial related keyphrases from the list provided by Semrush. Focus on search volume, difficulty, and how they relate to your main topic. You can add up to four additional related keyphrases to your content. Yoast SEO will factor in these related keyphrases when analyzing your content and offering suggestions for improvement. Incorporate related keyphrases naturally After selecting the best keywords, add them naturally to your content. Avoid keyword stuffing. Use related keyphrases in sections like subheadings, bullet points, and within the body text. Ensure they complement the primary keyphrase and enrich the content’s context. Include related keyphrases in meta descriptions and image alt texts to expand your content’s relevance. Yoast SEO will give feedback on their integration and suggest improvements. Analyze and optimize Once you’ve integrated the related keyphrases, check the analysis from Yoast SEO. The plugin will offer tips for further optimization. Focus on readability and overall keyword usage. Adjust your content based on Yoast SEO’s suggestions to ensure it’s optimized for primary and related keyphrases. Better keywords with Semrush and Yoast SEO The Yoast SEO and Semrush integration is a great tool for marketers, content creators, and ecommerce professionals. This partnership helps improve your SEO on WordPress and Shopify by combining data-driven keyword research with practical SEO implementation. Enhance your SEO by connecting Yoast SEO and Semrush today. Experience the benefits of integrated SEO tools right at your fingertips. Have fun exploring the integration! The post Enhance keyword research with Yoast SEO and Semrush appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

When we started Remotive back in 2014, we almost never encountered job scams. And when we did, they were usually pretty easy to spot. As remote work grew, unfortunately, so did job scams. And they have become increasingly sophisticated. They are very difficult to differentiate from real job opportunities, even for our team with our 10 years of experience. The job search can be challenging enough without falling prey to online scammers. It's important to stay vigilant. And when in doubt… don’t apply! Here’s how to avoid job scams, including a newer threat you should know about: pig butchering scams. What Are Pig Butchering Scams? Pig butchering scams are a type of elaborate fraud where scammers invest time building trust with victims before convincing them to invest in fraudulent schemes, typically involving cryptocurrencies. The term "pig butchering" comes from the analogy of fattening up a pig before slaughter, as the scammers first "fatten up" their targets by gaining their confidence over weeks or months before "butchering" them by draining their finances. Linked initially to cryptocurrency fraud, these scams are now infiltrating the remote job world, unfortunately. Here’s how it typically unfolds: Gaining TrustScammers often start with friendly, casual conversations, sometimes pretending they found your contact through a job board or a referral. They build trust over time, posing as legitimate recruiters or companies with attractive job offers. Often, they use professional-looking profiles or company pages to appear credible. Introducing the Job OfferOnce trust is established, the scammer will offer a remote job that seems almost too good to be true, promising high salaries, flexible hours, and enticing benefits. As part of the onboarding process, they might introduce a request for “training” fees or ask you to purchase equipment with the promise of reimbursement—these are red flags. Collecting PaymentAfter convincing the victim to pay for fake onboarding fees or equipment upfront, the scammers collect the funds through untraceable payment methods like wire transfers or cryptocurrencies. They may also ask for sensitive personal information under the guise of payroll setup, opening the door to identity theft. Disappearing ActAfter securing the money or sensitive information, the scammer disappears. They deactivate their accounts or stop responding, leaving victims with no job, money, or way to trace them. Some scammers even create fake company websites or use real company names to make their offers seem legitimate, further complicating the victim’s ability to spot the fraud. Victims have reported losing thousands of dollars and sensitive personal information through these schemes. According to the FBI, losses from crypto scams, including pig butchering, reached $5.6 billion in 2023. If you want to know more about pig butchering scams, this segment of Last Week with John Oliver is very informative and, to be honest, scary and disturbing. Why You Should Be ConcernedWe’ve received reports from our community about such scams, with scammers posing as hiring managers and even sending fake offer letters. We’ve also received reports of scammers posing as “Remotive recruiters” in text messages and emails. Be cautious if a job sounds too good to be true or requires upfront payment.Staying informed and questioning unusual requests will help protect you from falling into these elaborate traps. Common Remote Job Scams & Red Flags Research the EmployerAlways look up the name of the company or person who’s hiring you, plus the words “scam,” “review,” or “complaint.” Legitimate companies will have a strong online presence and verifiable references. If you can’t find any reliable information, proceed with caution. Check for Legitimate WebsitesA professional, well-designed website is often a good indicator of legitimacy. Double-check the domain (look out for suspicious-looking URLs) and verify if the company has a solid reputation online through reviews or testimonials. Scammers often use fake websites or mimic real ones with minor changes. Don’t Pay to Get a JobNo legitimate employer will ever ask you to pay for a job, whether for “training fees,” “placement fees,” or any other upfront cost. If you're asked to transfer funds or provide financial details upfront, it's a major red flag. Applicants are sometimes asked to pay fees via services like Western Union or buy gift cards—steer clear of these! Guard Your Personal InformationNever give out personal information, such as your passport number, social security number, or bank account information, before securing a legitimate job. Scammers might use these details for identity theft or to gain access to your financials. Beware of Too-Good-to-Be-True JobsIf a job offer seems unrealistically high-paying or promises “instant success,” it’s likely a scam. Always trust your instincts. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Real-World Examples from Remotive Users Example 1Monique reported a scam attempt involving a job listing that we removed within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the job seeker contacted the company before realizing it was a scam. The scammer impersonated a real recruiter named Greg from a legitimate-looking company— a common tactic that makes these scams hard to detect. Always verify the authenticity of job offers and report any suspicious listings to us immediately. This is how the conversation via text went: Example 2Dawn applied for a Virtual Assistant job and received the following text message on her mobile: She then had an interview with the recruiter via Skype. This is what she told us via email after that call: The portal to the application requires minimal information and is not hosted on the RestorMedicine site. Formstack is a site that anyone can use to create a form. Not a huge red flag, but when combined with everything else it seemed strange.The interviewer first contacted me via a text message on my phone. Again, strange (I attached a screenshot of the text message).The interviewer wanted to do an interview over Skype or Teams via chat. Also strange.I sent my Skype email address and was contacted by someone who introduced herself as both the "doctor" and one of the "recruiting staff". I felt they were copy/pasting a script and would take anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes to respond to my answers. I avoided giving them any personal or identifiable information. Though they often had long pauses, they were insistent I respond quickly. Thanks to Dawn's quick reporting, we promptly took down the job. The website and recruiter, with real-looking Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, appeared highly credible. It seems this was a sophisticated scam, either impersonating real individuals or creating detailed fake personas to carry it out. Example 3We also received this email from journalist TC Newman: TC then shared with us the screenshots of the conversation: Example 4 We've found warnings on many companies' pages as job scams are increasingly more common. Here's an example: Stay Safe in Your Job Search By staying informed and cautious, you can avoid becoming a victim of these increasingly sophisticated scams. Remember to follow these tips and always trust your instincts when something feels off. We never contact job seekers for job offers or are involved in the recruitment process for any jobs listed on Remotive.com or the Accelerator platform. If you are contacted by someone posing as a Remotive team member, please let us know as soon as possible, and don’t engage with the scammer anymore.For more information or to report a suspicious listing, contact the Remotive team. We’re here to help! Global Resources for Reporting Job Scams: A Comprehensive Guide by Region Reporting job scams is crucial to protect yourself and others from fraudulent activities. Below is a list of resources for reporting job scams, organized by region: Global Reporting Resources eConsumer.gov: Managed by the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), this platform accepts scam reports from multiple countries, including those in Europe and Latin America.eConsumer.gov Interpol: For transnational fraud cases, Interpol can assist with international scam reports.Interpol North America United States – Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Handles complaints about fraudulent business practices, including job scams.ReportFraud.ftc.gov United States – Better Business Bureau (BBB): Tracks and reports scams; you can also file complaints.BBB Scam Tracker Canada – Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC): Canada’s central agency for reporting fraud and scams.Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Latin America eConsumer.gov: As mentioned above, eConsumer.gov accepts scam reports from Latin American countries.eConsumer.gov Argentina – Dirección Nacional de Defensa del Consumidor: Argentina's national consumer protection agency for reporting fraud.Dirección Nacional de Defensa del Consumidor Europe European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net): Assists with cross-border disputes within the EU, Norway, and Iceland.ECC-Net eConsumer.gov: Accepts reports for international scams within Europe as well.eConsumer.gov Australia Scamwatch (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission): Provides scam reporting and education for Australian residents.Scamwatch Asia Hong Kong – Consumer Council: Handles consumer complaints, including job scams.Hong Kong Consumer Council India – National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal: India’s government portal for reporting cybercrime and job scams.Cyber Crime Portal Middle East United Arab Emirates – Dubai Police eCrime: Allows UAE residents to report cybercrimes, including job scams.Dubai Police eCrime Saudi Arabia – Anti-Fraud and Cyber Crime Unit: Cybercrime units in Saudi Arabia handle fraud reports; contact through the Ministry of Interior.Africa South Africa – South African Police Service (SAPS): Handles various forms of fraud and cybercrime reports.SAPS Crime Stop Nigeria – Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC): Nigeria’s central agency for reporting financial fraud.EFCC When reporting a scam, provide as much detail as possible, including any correspondence, the company's name, and the nature of the scam. This information helps authorities investigate and take appropriate action. TL;DR Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Remote Job Scams 1. What are common remote job scams?Common scams include fake job postings that ask for upfront payments, requests for personal information under the guise of payroll setup, and scams involving fake equipment purchase reimbursements. 2. What is a pig butchering scam?Pig butchering scams involve scammers building trust over time to convince victims to invest in fraudulent schemes, often related to cryptocurrency or fake remote jobs. 3. How can I avoid job scams?Research the employer, avoid any jobs that require upfront payment, and verify company details on official websites or LinkedIn before proceeding. 4. What should I do if I suspect a scam?If you encounter a suspicious job posting, stop communication, avoid sharing personal information, and report it to the platform or authorities immediately. 5. Is it safe to apply for remote jobs online?Yes, but staying informed and vigilant is crucial. Always verify the legitimacy of job offers and avoid any that seem too good to be true. View the full article

You’ve built an amazing SaaS product, but now you’re drowning in a sea of customer queries. Your support team is getting sidetracked by repetitive tickets, the churn rate is creeping up, and you’re losing sleep over missed follow-ups. Sound familiar? In the fast-paced world of SaaS, stellar customer support isn’t just nice to have—it’s critical […] The post How To Choose the Right SaaS Helpdesk Software appeared first on Groove Blog. View the full article