11 Reasons Why Every Affiliate Marketer Should Learn SEO

 As an affiliate marketer, you probably spend a LOT of time thinking of ways to drive traffic to your site.

After all, no traffic = no affiliate sales.

The two main sources of traffic for most websites are usually:

1. Organic Search

2. Paid Advertising

Social media and other sources will also bring visitors to your site, but these are usually your two best bets for consistent, ongoing traffic.

Why Should You Care About Organic Search? 

Of these two main sources of traffic, search always comes out on top. In fact, a recent study by Experian Marketing Services found that on average, 87% of a website’s traffic comes from organic sources. This percentage of course, varies by industry. However it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of traffic in almost every industry comes from people typing their queries into Google or another search engine and clicking on the links in the results. 

This means if your website is not optimized for search, you are potentially losing out on large amounts of traffic. 

But what do I mean by "optimized for search"? I mean, your website should be created and maintained according to several widely accepted best practices for search engine optimization. You should also implement your other marketing efforts (especially content marketing and social media marketing) keeping your SEO goals in mind.

Why Should You Learn SEO?

OK, so we know SEO is important. But, there are thousands of SEO experts in the world. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hire someone to do your SEO instead of trying to understand it all?

Yes, of course. I definitely think it’s a good idea to hire someone with SEO expertise to help you out. However, if you develop an understanding of how search engine optimization works, your affiliate marketing efforts will ultimately benefit from it. In fact, by understanding what your SEO provider does, you may be able to get more out of the services they provide. 

But if you're still not convinced the additional SEO knowledge will do you any good, here are 11 reasons why every affiliate marketer should learn SEO. 

(By the way, our free lesson, Introduction to Affiliate Marketing SEO, is a great place to get started with your SEO learning.)

1. Understand Search Engines

You get that search traffic is important, but do you understand what it takes for your website to do well on a search engine? How do Google, Bing and Yahoo even work?

When you learn SEO, you don't just learn a new marketing skill. You actually start to understand how search engines work. This is hugely useful when you're in the business of driving traffic to your site.

Search engines consistently crawl the web for new content (links) and index them so when a person performs an online search, Google/Bing/Yahoo can deliver the most relevant results for their search query. The results are ranked so the most popular link for a search term (or the one most likely to give an answer) appears at the top (number 1 position). 

But how does a search engine determine the most popular and relevant site for a search term? 

Well, we don't actually know. Search engines rely on secret algorithms to decide what pages to show. SEO experts make educated guesses about what goes into those algorithms based on common factors in high-ranking websites. And Google occasionally drops little hints about what's important, too. These have led to best practices and general guidelines for SEO that make it possible for website owners like yourself to build sites specifically to get found by the search engines.  

I recommend checking out Google's website on How Search Works to get a deeper understanding of what really goes on behind the scenes of the number one search engine. 

If you're interested in learning more about best-practice recommendations for ranking on the major search engines, check these out: 

• Google webmaster guidelines
• Bing webmaster guidelines
• Yahoo search ranking guidelines

By developing a more thorough understanding of search engines and terms like crawling and indexing, page rank and more, you will become more aware of what it takes to optimize your website and benefit from increased search traffic.

2. Improve Your Website's Design

Once you begin to understand how search engines work, you will see that a good website is not just about a pretty design and some clever content. While the focus of modern SEO is to make websites human-friendly, it's important to remember that how you and I see a website is different from how search engines view it. 

For your website to be truly search engine friendly, it must follow some pretty technical specifications for design and development.

Learning SEO will help you grasp the importance of aspects of website creation, such as:

• Creating quality content.
• Making your content indexable. 
• Organizing your website into a proper structure.
• The proper use of keywords in your site content.
• Having quality inbound and outbound links for your website

Here's some advice from Google on how to create a Google-friendly site.

An understanding of SEO will ensure you don't waste your time making website changes that don't deliver results. Plus, for any new websites you launch, you will also know how to structure your site and optimize it right from the start.

3. Optimize Your Content

You don't need me to tell you this, but... content is king.

On your site, on your blog, on social media... everywhere you look, the web is overflowing with millions of pieces of content.

But, how much of it is actually good quality?

In the early days of the web, it took very little to get your website to do well on a search engine. In 2015, that has completely changed. The major search engines are heavily focused on the quality of your website now, and your content has a lot to do with it. 

Quality content is not just about creating a great blog post or a fun infographic. It's about building an entire website that delivers that same quality. For search engines, good content is a sign of a site that is considerate of its visitors; one that tries to anticipate and answer questions. It's all about a good user experience.

Check out this really helpful e-book by SEO.com on 11 Types of Content You Should Be Creating For SEO Right Now.

Here are some guidelines from the major search engines on how to create quality content for your site:

1. Google guidelines on valuable content

2. Yahoo content quality guidelines

3. Bing on how to build quality content

If you're hiring people to do your content, it's important that they create something that won't get you penalized by search engines. When you learn SEO, you also learn what makes for good content so you can guide your writers, designers, bloggers and other content creators in the right direction. Or, if you're doing it all yourself, you'll know how to produce content that will impress your site visitors and search engines.

4. Figure Out What to Do with Keywords

Most people, even if they don't quite get SEO, understand that keywords play a big role in the world of search engines. This is true.

Keywords are fundamental to the search process. It's how users communicate what they're searching for. The search engines deliver results based on these keywords. 

Search engines measure how keywords are used within your website. This helps them determine how relevant your website is for particular search queries. So, it's essential that you use specific, highly relevant keywords to maximize your opportunities for appearing in search results.

But, be careful of keyword abuse. In the early days of the web, stuffing as many keywords as possible onto a page was a common practice. This no longer works and in fact, will count as keyword abuse and will probably get you penalized. Now, it's more important to use your keywords in a relevant, natural way.

Don't be this person! Write naturally so your visitors feel you're having a real conversation. 

Understanding how keywords work will be very helpful for you because:

• You can identify which keywords are relevant for you.
• When you do keyword research, you now know what to look for.
• If you hire a writer for your web content, you can guide them on proper keyword usage.
• You will understand where keywords need to be used, e.g., on page content, in title tags, in meta descriptions, etc. 

5. Understand How Link-Building Works

Links are another big part of the SEO puzzle. 

Search engines use links to analyze a website's popularity, trustworthiness, authority, and much more.  However, not all links are made equal. A trustworthy site is likely to link to another trustworthy site — not to spammy sites. This often helps a search engine determine the quality of links.

The more popular and trustworthy a site, the more significant it is to have a link from them. 

So, to make the most of your link-building efforts, you need to make sure you're acquiring links from other relevant, popular and trustworthy sites. These will be helpful for your website's SEO. Paying for 1,000 irrelevant links will do you no good.

Link-building is an important task for SEO. Whether you're doing your own link building or hiring someone else to do it, you need to understand how it works to make sure you're only building quality links. 

6. Build Your Online Reputation

When you learn SEO and do it right, your site will start to show up in more search results, thus boosting your brand's online visibility. 

How does a boost in your visibility help you? When you start to show up in the results for all the relevant search terms for your industry, your audience and customers will start to think of you as a leader in the industry.

I'm not making this up. People trust organic search engine results more than paid ads.

On average, people believe organic results are more likely to be current and relevant. They want the most authoritative sources. In short, they believe they are getting the best information via search engine results. 

So when you understand SEO, you can figure out how to optimize your site to appear in the results for more queries that are relevant for your customers. The more they see you, the more they will start to trust your site. 

7. Get More Traffic to Your Website

A website optimized for search engines is definitely going to start getting you more traffic.

An eConsultancy study found that an overwhelming 94% of clicks are for organic search results. 

Another experiment also found that 60% of "direct traffic" reported in your data may actually be attributed to organic search.

With people more likely to click on search results than paid ads, it's only natural that if your website is more visible online, you will start to see more people visiting your site. 

Search engines are the first point of contact for most people looking for information. SEO helps you understand how to make your site more visible to the right audience, which in turn results in more traffic to your site.

8. Make More Money

Say your website currently gets a 100 visitors a day. Let's also say that 2% of your visitors click through to your ads and this makes you $2 a day. 

Now, your website is getting a 1,000 visitors a day thanks to solid SEO. You have the same 2% click-through rate. This means you're now making $20 a day!

If you experience a jump in traffic thanks to your SEO efforts, this is eventually going to boil down to increased revenue from your website — especially if your website is optimized to make your traffic convert to sales. Who doesn't like more money?

But to make this extra money, you really have to develop an understanding of what SEO is, how it works and how you can make it work for you.

9. Market Yourself for Free

SEO is free marketing.

Pay-per-click advertising requires you to set daily/monthly budgets that you are willing to spend to buy advertising space on search engines. Each click on an ad will cost you money, and if you're in a particularly competitive industry, clicks can sometimes cost $40-50! 

Clicks on organic results don't cost you any money. All you have to do is maintain your position in the rankings, and the traffic you get is completely free.

Of course, you will be spending time and energy optimizing your site in the first place. It's going to cost you some hours, even if it costs you no money. You can also hire someone else to do the initial work, which will put a dent in your budget. But then you can save money by doing your ongoing SEO maintenance yourself — because you'll understand how SEO works! 

10. Protect Yourself From Sketchy SEO Practices

If you're working with an SEO expert, it's doubly important to at least have an idea of what they're going to do for your site. 

There are thousands of SEO providers out there, and while a lot of them are very good, some will engage in sketchy practices. Their aim is to show you results right away, but there's a few problems with that:

1. These results will be short term.
2. Your site could end up with a penalty. 
3. Google could de-index you for spammy SEO practices.

By learning a bit about search engine optimization, you'll learn the difference between what is good (white hat SEO) and what is bad (black hat SEO). Avoid black hat tactics, and if your SEO provider tries to suggest anything sketchy that falls into this category, you know to send them packing straightaway. SEO takes time, so don't be frustrated if you don't jump in the search rankings overnight!  

11. Become a Better Affiliate Marketer 

Your end goal is not to become better at SEO, but to become better at affiliate marketing...right?

By gaining an understanding of SEO, you will:

• Make better, more SEO-friendly websites, right from the beginning. 
• Get better at driving traffic to your website.
• Create better, more relevant content for your site.
• Build high quality links to your site. 
• Improve your website's authority in the industry. 
• Outdo the competition (especially if they're not doing SEO).
• Spot more opportunities for growing your site and business.

Nobody knows your business better than you, and SEO will only help to enhance that. 

Does this make you want to learn SEO to improve your affiliate marketing efforts? 

If you already do SEO for yourself, what do you think has been the number one benefit of learning SEO for affiliate marketing?

P.S. If you're looking for a tool that shows you whether your SEO efforts are getting you anywhere, we have something for you: AffiloTools automatically tracks your rankings in great detail and in multiple search engines so you can see real results.

Source

Is Your One-Page Website Killing Your SEO?

 Have you noticed the popularity of one-page websites these days? They seem to be popping up everywhere and for good reason.

Done right, one-page websites can look super creative, clean and classy.
These sites also help keep users engaged because they never have to click around a site and risk hitting a dead end that makes them bounce back to the search results.

But before you start remodelling all of your websites, there’s a little secret the one-page evangelists aren’t telling you...

One-page websites are killing your SEO!

Fashion Before Function

Yes, one-page websites look awesome. If you’re not sure what we’re talking about, check out some of these beauties.

Slick, right?

But much like great-looking high heels that you can’t walk in, these sites are big on looks but low on substance and functionality.

Yes, they function as a website. They do a fine job of delivering information to your visitors… once they are there.

But unless you plan on using social media or paid traffic sources, you will end up very disappointed with these designs.

One-Page Websites and SEO

Search engines index websites to figure out what they are all about and how that relates to their users' searches. Typically, this is done on a page-by-page basis.

That is why Google used the Page Rank scale for so long. You could have one page on a website with a PR of 5 and another on the same site of 0. Likewise, each page’s content was looked at separately. 

Search engines don’t rank web pages for a large list of differing terms. Yes, your page might show up in the results for similar search phrases, but they will typically be very closely related.

For example, if you have a page about surfing wetsuits, you could rank for terms like:

• Best surfing wetsuits
• Cheap surfing wetsuits
• Heated wetsuits for surfing

But it’s very unlikely that any search engines will rank that same page for terms like:

• triathlon wetsuits
• scuba diving wetsuits
• wetsuit patches

The content needed to rank for those terms is just too different to rank for all of them. And that is why we build websites with multiple pages. Each page can focus on a topic and hopefully rank for searches related to that content.

Even with a one-page website that has a ton of content on it, broken up by sections, you won’t be able to convince a search engine algorithm that one page is about multiple things. 

One Site, Lots of Different Content

You might be thinking that your website is going to be about your company, which makes one product, so a one-page website would be perfect.

Pump the breaks, amigo.

Let’s say your company makes widgets. In fact, you make the best widgets the world has ever seen. Last year, you won the Widget of the Year Award at the annual Widget Makers Association conference.

But what makes your widgets so great? Why should people buy your widgets? Is it the technology behind them? The cost? The value? The innovations you have pioneered?

Every aspect that makes your product the one that customers should buy deserves its own page.

That way when people are searching for “latest innovations in widget technology,” one of your pages, which focuses on that aspect of your widget, will show up in the search engines.

And what about “Contact Us,” “About,” “Terms and Conditions” and other important pages on your website? Search engines expect to see this content listed out as other pages and failing to do so can ding your SEO efforts.

Our Take

We love the look of one-page websites; they are all kinds of awesome.

If organic traffic wasn’t a concern and we wanted to make a site showcasing our fancy design skills, then a one-page website would be the way to go. 

But search engine algorithms don’t give style points, and we really like organic traffic!

If you care about ranking your website well for a variety of terms related to your business, product or service, then stick with traditional multi-page websites.

There are plenty of great-looking templates that can still give you a creative and beautiful website with just a little work.

Source

The Right Way to Think About Google

 Oops, they did it again.

Our friend Google caused a panicked rumble through the tech world late Monday afternoon, when they announced they’d be restructuring under a new holding company called Alphabet.

Never mind that this is something companies do all the time. Never mind that there’s no reason to think it will change what’s happening with search in any way. Never mind the weird, April-Fools-looking new domain.

Google can’t really do “normal things,” because every time they make even a small visible change, most of us wonder,

What will this do to my rankings?

Why the collective jumping at shadows? Well, because if your business depends on your search rankings — and we’ll talk about that in a minute — you probably have a certain amount of Google-induced stress disorder.

Key elements change. Abruptly. And secretly. And you’re left scrambling to pick up the mess.

And to be honest, it can get right on your last nerve.

But if it causes you more than a few moments of irritation, you may benefit from shifting the way you think about the web’s favorite 800-pound gorilla.

Here’s how I’ve learned to think about Google (courtesy of advice from Copyblogger’s founder, Brian Clark). Which means when they pull stunts like this — and they do, with some regularity — my pain is limited to a few curse words and some moderate tweaking.

I have five rules for keeping my sanity when dealing with Google.

Rule 1: “What’s my plan if this goes away tomorrow?”

Any time you use a tool from Google (or from any third party you have no control over), this question will help you.

Sooner rather than later, ask yourself what your backup plan is — if and when the tool (or your search ranking, for that matter) dissolves overnight.

You’ll notice that Brian asked and answered this question publicly about the Authorship program way back in April, 2013 — making us all look like Big Damn Heroes when Authorship did, in fact, blow up.

Did we think that would happen? Actually, we didn’t.

Were we prepared when it did? You know it.

Ask yourself right now what you’ll do if Facebook disappears tomorrow, or Twitter, or your Google search results position, or your pay-per-click campaign.

When tools and programs disappear in the online world, they often do so literally overnight. You need a solid plan in place for when that happens.

Rule 2: Google owes you nothing

Ranking in the search engines is not a civil right.

You don’t “deserve” to have your content found by Google. (Or Bing, or Yahoo, or anywhere else.) That’s not a service that Google has promised you.

Weirdly enough, Google won’t even promise you that they’ll accept large amounts of your money to run advertising on their AdWords platform. They can take that away any time as well. Without necessarily giving you a reason.

Too often, we think that because we put a ton of work into being found on the search engines, that we are somehow entitled to that juicy position on the results page. It doesn’t work that way.

The greater your sense of entitlement about what companies like Google owe you, the more frustration and anger you’ll feel when you get smacked. Which you will, if you’re in the game long enough.

Rule 3: You owe Google nothing

You also don’t work for Google. They don’t send you a paycheck or have you under contract.

Whether or not you want to abide by their thoughts on best practices is completely up to you — and you should make that decision like an adult, weighing the pros and cons and keeping Google in its proper perspective.

Spending hours picking apart every syllable Matt Cutts may utter, trying to understand what he thinks the definition of is is, and making violent changes to your business model because Cutts mentioned he likes or doesn’t like something, is a sucker bet.

Refer back to Rule #2. It doesn’t matter how many hoops you jump through. Whether or not you do everything “the way Google wants,” (which you usually have to guess at, because they have no interest in telling you), they don’t owe you that search result.

As I’m fond of saying, Google is a lot like that really mean girl from high school. Your best shot at getting her to like you is to ignore her while you go about getting social sharing, links, and publicity because you’re trying to reach people. The less you care about what she thinks, the better light she tends to see you in — because real people already like you.

(And if she never gives you the time of day? Meh, you don’t need her anyway. Truly.)

Rule 4: Use the tool for what it’s good for

None of this is to say that having a good search result isn’t helpful. It can be, especially for some topics and business models.

We earlier recommended including the Authorship markup on content because it was quick and easy to do with Genesis, and the potential looked promising.

All of our SEO recommendations work that way. If you can tweak your content without messing it up for your human readers, and without putting every hour of your day into it, go ahead and do that. Use a few simple tools that will let you get your content optimized efficiently.

And if your company has the resources to hire a strong team that devotes all of its time to search, that’s fine as well. But don’t do it if you can’t genuinely afford it, and don’t do it if you can’t weather the inevitable storms.

Recognize that search is a long game. Put it in its proper place. Use other ways to connect with and engage your audience. And if a great search placement shows up over time, that’s terrific.

Rule 5: Serve the audience first

This is the granddaddy of them all.

Google robots don’t have credit cards. They can’t buy your product or service.

Instead of trying to serve Google, serve the people who will eventually become your customers. Create content that interests them and meets their needs. Make it useful. Make it entertaining. Give it some real time and attention.

The audience is where everything good comes from. Google is just one way for that audience to find you.

P.S. Same as it ever was

A slightly different version of this post was originally published in September 2014, when Google had just killed the Authorship program. And it might get republished later, when they do something else that causes a collective heart attack.

We created a new image, and I wrote a new introduction. After the words “you’re left scrambling to pick up the mess,” the only edits I made were changing the word this to it and adding a quick clarifying phrase in the first point.

Why do I point this out? Because nothing’s changed, and nothing is likely to change.

Google is going to shift. Sometimes abruptly. That doesn’t mean you need to go along for the ride. Develop a sustainable approach, and leave the panic attacks and the dysfunction behind.

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What Is SEO and Why Does It Matter?

Wondering what SEO means and how it can help your business?
Worried you don’t have the skills or budget needed to get started?
SEO is affordable and effective, allowing you to reach new customers and increase sales.
Let’s dig deeper into SEO and how it can benefit your business.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, means setting up your website and content to show up through online search results.
While many marketing tactics rely on you reaching out to your audience, SEO gives you the power to reach people when they are actively searching out information related to your products and services.
That’s why it’s no surprise that SEO leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, compared to the 1.7 percent close rate of leads from other channels like direct mail or print advertising.
SEO helps you improve your visibility within the organic (or natural) search results, not to be confused with the paid search results.

Want see what SEO can do for your business? Join us for a FREE webinar: How to Show Up on the First Page of Google (And Get More Business from Your Website)

Why is SEO so important?

If you don’t optimize your website for search engines, you risk losing potential customers to your competitors because their websites appear higher in search engine results than yours.
Think of how many times you turn to Google each day to find out which local bakeries have gluten free options or where you can get new sandals at a good price.
When someone searches for information that relates to the products and services you offer, you want to show up.
And ideally, you want to show up prominently. Research shows that 60 percent of traffic from Google searches go to websites that appear in the first three search results.

How do search engines determine where your business ranks?

Search engines use algorithms to help provide people with relevant information.
To make sure your website appears on Page 1, rather than 27, you need to focus on building authority on key topics related to your business.
Your website’s authority is determined through onsite and offsite factors.

• Onsite, search engines give higher rankings to websites that regularly publish fresh content on a specific topic. If you own a real estate agency, for example, publishing regular blog posts on home buying tips would start establishing your online authority.
• Offsite, search engines like to see that websites other than your own are linking back to your webpages. When other websites link to your content or people share your content on social media, you have a better chance of being listed prominently in search results.

How can you get started with SEO?

Influencing search engines takes time, but it pays off when you start reaching a relevant audience. If you’re just starting out, it’s best to get really specific with your focus.
Rather than writing about general home buying tips, publish content on your website that answers specific questions related to your audience.
Going back to the real estate example, things like: When is the best time to buy a home in New England? Or What is the Boston housing market forecast in 2017?

And once you start writing content, start establishing some early authority by promoting it in your email newsletter and on your social media channels.

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The 11 Best Social Media Automation Tools For Smart Content Marketers

Social media takes time, and finding the head space to consistently do it well over and over again is challenging.

That’s why social media automation is so important.

The thing to remember with any type of social media automation is that you will still have to spend some time on social media.

Whether you are replying to a customer or commenting on another person’s post, the human factor still has to be there.

With the social media world going mobile, interaction is always important.

But for those things you can automate, let’s have a look at some of the best social media automation tools available. These tools will help save you time and can do a few other things to make your life easier too.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a dream for all of us social media lovers. There are so many actions that Hootsuite can help with that if you have not learned the full scope of this social media automation tool, then I recommend you start looking it over. If you are serious about social media… then Hootsuite it is.

Hootsuite gives you the ability to keep track of many social media channels at once. This is perfect for those who work in the social media world, because it truly does make life a lot easier. Not only does it allow you to have multiple channels, it also lets you know if your brand has been mentioned.

Knowing when your brand is mentioned allows you to know what consumers are saying in real time. If it is great news that is being mentioned, the information can be used to let your company know what is working for the consumer. If the news is not so great, the problem can be addressed swiftly.

Hootsuite works across many different platforms and allows scheduled posts. It will also help to determine the best times to be posting in order to garner the most attention.

Using Hootsuite Advanced Search

Another wonderful thing about Hootsuite is the fact that it allows you to search for many different things.

One of the little-used tools in the advanced tools is searching by sentiment. People can find out what is being said about a company and brand, by clicking the Advanced Search and ticking the box that will show both positive and negative mentions.

Sure, we all like to read the good stuff, but the negative can also be a good thing. If there is a negative Tweet it gives the company time to address it quickly. Knowing what your customers are looking for and dislike can be a great advantage.

2. Buffer

Buffer makes posting to social media a whizz. All you have to do is add your post to the queue and it will be posted for you. No need to even schedule a time that the post will be posted because Buffer will take care of that too.

Buffer is also known for providing great analytics. If you want to know what is working and not working, this analytics will let you know. Buffer is always adding more to the analytics so keep an eye on this application.

Want to keep track of a campaign link? Buffer now makes this available by making sure that each and every link is unique to each update or post. Be sure to use the web app and click on the settings, then go to “Campaign Tracking”. Yes, this makes all of us social media mavens happy because we are able to see the analytics and study them.

3. Crowdfire

Crowdfire works with both Twitter and Instagram. Want to know who unfollowed you? Crowdfire is the source to go to have your questions answered.

In both business and personal life, we want to know about those who are following us and those who have decided they do not like the posts we are putting put up. Crowdfire also allows you to find those Twitter users who are inactive and delete them if you want to.

This platform helps the user find others that are relevant to the “Copy Followers” feature. Checking the relationship between any two Instagram or Twitter accounts is possible with the Crowdfire platform.

With Instagram, Crowdfire has the ability to schedule posts, use viral hashtags and even suggest images. The clean, engage and grow technique cuts out a lot of the time that would be used to get the tasks completed without this application. A great way to keep Twitter and Instagram accounts under control and up-to-date.

Recommended for You

Webcast, March 15th: How to Scale Upmarket with Enterprise Field Sales

4. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a writer’s dream. This management tool allows for articles to be scheduled, blog post management, scheduling for marketing projects and social media management.

CoSchedule allows for the organisation that many writers and social media marketers yearn for. If you have given up on complex spreadsheets like some of us have, CoSchedule is a gift of organisation.

CoSchedule allows for the scheduling of posts and will suggest the best time to send out your posts. Over 60 messages can be scheduled at a time. This number of post allowance frees up time in order to answer customers or to interact with others. You can also collaborate with your team.

5. SociAlert

Socialert automates your hashtag search and allows a user to analyse what is happening on Twitter for your twitter campaigns in real-time.

From digital marketers to established brands and media agencies, everyone can make the most out of their twitter campaigns with this hashtag tracking tool.

You can also use socialert to track event hashtags and monitor your brand as well.

If you are really interested in how your twitter marketing works for you then this is the application to be using.

6. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo allows for many different tasks to be accomplished.

Here is a short list of just a few of the things that BuzzSumo helps with:

• BuzzSumo has an influencers search that cannot be beaten. It allows for searches being conducted by location, topic and area.
• You can also analyse influencers with the filter you can go by authority, reach, engagement and influence.
• It also has the ability to build lists and communicate with key influencers.
• Follow those influencers you choose to and add them to your Twitter lists.

Finding great quality content along with all of the statistics will allow you to be able to know what is working with the consumer and what is not.

Searching for viral content and the analytics to go with it has never been easier. Reaching out to a list of authors and establishing relationships with them is also worthwhile while using BuzzSumo.

Remember, influencers already have a following built up, so if you are able to gather information and share it with their audience it will amplify its reach. Building relationships with influencers always pay off in the end.

7. Scoop.it

Scoop.it allows for content publishing in less time than any other social media automation application.

With Scoop.it content can be curated from other sources and shared with your opinion or angle. It also allows posts to be shared across social media platforms with the push of a button. Searching for content is easy with the use of the search bar for a particular topic.

Scoop.it is great for when you want to share something on a certain niche or topic. It also allows for freedom from writing all of your own content.

Looking for ideas on topics and what is getting traffic? Head over to Scoop.it and I bet you will be mildly surprised.

8. Post Planner

Post Planner is a helper when it comes to finding, planning and posting content that helps to increase followers and visibility on Twitter and Facebook. Finding content that works and will draw customers to your website is what post planner does best.

With Post Planner, the user can actively choose photos, articles and even statuses to share.

Having issues with content creation? Post Planner will certainly fill the void when needed. Hit that writing block or just need something intelligent to share? Try Post Planner!

9. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a marketing tool with social media scheduling for marketers and social media management teams. SocialPilot allows you to collaborate with your team by sharing their social media calendar.

Over 500 posts can be shared to 200 social media accounts. Bulk scheduling of posts and updates is easy with SocialPilot. To use bulk scheduling all the user has to do is upload a file in CSV format or text. The bulk text will then go out as scheduled.

Looking for article topics to write about? SocialPilot takes care of that too so that you do not have to wrack your brain trying to think of something when in a pinch. Separate account groups and calendars for each of your clients keeps things organised and helps with team communication.

10. Sprout Social

Sprout Social has some great analytic tools for those interested in growing their following on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more. That being stated, here are a few other things that Sprout Social will help with.

• Engagement – Sprout Social gives the user insights on monitoring and user engagement. With the ability to monitor these things, your engagement can rise, thus allowing for more followers and interaction with influencers.
• Article and blog publishing can be accomplished using Sprout Social. From planning to scheduling and posting, Sprout Social cuts the time down on having to get these tasks accomplished.
• Social listening tools allow for tracking of hashtags, mentions, and keyword usage. This is also a great way to keep track of competitors. It is a super handy tool if your competitors are sneaking up on you for certain keywords in search engine rankings.

Sprout Social has many valuable tools that can both increase business revenue and help social media managers remain organised and save time.

11. Zapier

Zapier allows you to link your web apps together to streamline your information and make things a whole lot easier.

Once the apps are connected it is then possible to pass the information between them creating workflows which are named zaps. Zapier will automatically finish routine tasks so that you are able to complete other tasks that need your attention. Having the ability to plan and build workflows results in more work being completed and staying organised.

Zapier is great for those who want to integrate process and automation into a business. The next wonderful gift is that building process and automation does not include having to know how to code because this application will handle it for you. Can’t put out a bit of code? Do not get discouraged because Zapier will keep things stress free.

Data entry getting to be too much? This is another task that Zapier handles like a pro. Data entry can be so time-consuming and who wants to spend a few hours with data entry? Most users would agree that cutting down on the time it takes to do data entry is something to be happy about.

Wrap

The above social media automation tools are designed to be helpful and save you time.

Whether you are a small business owner or a social media manager in a large corporation, these tools will prove to be more than helpful.

Learning what each automation tool can accomplish will surprise even the most social media savvy folks around.



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