How to Complete the SEO Tab in the WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin

Focus Keyword

• Look at your post title as well as the content and determine your Focus Keyword or Keyword Phrase.
• Enter this phrase into the Keyphrase area in the SEO tab.
• Under the Meta description you will see SEO Analysis. (This bulleted list will tell you if you have used your keyword or phrase in all the right places for optimal SEO. If one of these says “No,” I’d suggest you go back to that area and see if you can find a creative way to add in your Focus Keyword.)

SEO Title

• Copy and paste the title of your page or post in this blank.
• After entering your title, if the green bar under this blank turns red you’ll need to shorten your title until the warning goes away. (This title appears in search engines, and if your title is too long it will be cut off in the display.)
• When shortening your title, make sure the Focus Keyword is still included within the title.

Meta Description

• This is a brief description of your post or page that is displayed in search engines. Make sure it will compel the reader to click the link.
• The Meta description must be no more than 156 characters and contain the Focus Keyword.
• To complete this Meta description you can often take the first sentence or two from your post or page and shorten it up. (And if you choose, you can write a totally different meta description.)

Once you have filled in the Yoast plugin SEO tab and clicked “save draft,” it will then give you an SEO score – as well as list out the places where your post or page needs work to improve your score. Follow the basic steps outlined here and you’ll be on your way to increasing the SEO ranking of your posts/pages. The preview of your page/post information that users will see in a search will look something like this.

Desktop Result

Mobile Result

Completing the Social Tab Within the WordPress SEO Yoast Plugin

Once you have completed the SEO tab, you can now use most of that information to complete the Social tab.

Post / Page Title

• Copy and paste the title from the SEO tab into the Social tab in the blank for the Facebook title. We usually add the website or company name after the title. (Example: How to Complete the Yoast SEO Plugin | Rocks Digital)
• Copy and paste the title and information you listed in the Facebook area above into the Twitter title.
• For the Twitter title, change the company name to your Twitter handle (example: How to Complete the Yoast SEO Plugin via @RocksDigital). When someone shares your post from the share plugin, it will link to your Twitter account automatically.

Post / Page Description 

• Click back to the SEO tab and copy the Meta description information, then click on the Social tab and paste that description into the Facebook description box.
• Copy and paste the description you listed in the Facebook area above into the Twitter description.

Featured Image 

• In filling out the Social tab within the Yoast SEO Plugin there’s one last step – select the featured image you would like to be displayed when you (or someone else) share the post or page on social media.
• Usually you’d select the image you added to the post or page as your featured image, but it can certainly be a different image. You have total control over selecting the image that is displayed.

Working through completing the Yoast SEO Plugin can be challenging and time-consuming at first, but it’s worth every bit of effort involved.

This plugin helps you ensure that each post and page is optimized for search. When done correctly, it will help increase your ranking on Google and other search engines.

#HowTo Complete the #WordPress Yoast SEO Plugin by @LissaDuty #RocksDigital
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Writing great content is just one part of the process. The next part is making it easy for others to find it through search and then share it.

Read more about the WordPress Plugins we recommend.

The post How to Complete the WordPress Yoast SEO Plugin appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Before we dive into A/B split testing, remember my last Rocks Digital article? I discussed how to get more ROI from your social media marketing through the use of UTM codes and Google Analytics.

Wow! The response to that article was amazing! Thanks for reading! But now we’re going to dig a little deeper into one part of that article that I didn’t touch a whole lot on: split testing to get even better results.

I’ve talked before about A/B split testing ads, and that’s something we should be learning how to do now – and then do it – after our campaign ends (or during, if you’re a pro like that), to gather intel on who bought from us, what they liked and didn’t, and who we should probably be marketing to more often to increase our sales even further.

Let’s Do the Splits – A/B Split Testing

Remember, from my UTM tracking article, when I mentioned in our goals process that we chose Product Page X? In this article, we’re going to talk about how to split test that product page with a totally different page, to find out what our audience not only likes more, but will buy from more often. This is called “split testing” or “AB testing,” or sometimes also “A/B split testing” – but it’s all the same thing.

Now, in that last article, I didn’t discuss testing the product pages or the ads against each other during the campaign, but you should absolutely do that. From my experience, any good campaign lasts a few months, and the amount of data that you can collect from that timeframe is golden stuff. While you are tracking your campaigns you should also be willing to make some changes as well, and create lots of test ads and a few product pages.

To that end, I’m going to tell you to get ready to create 3 different product pages for the same product. Why would you want to have the same product on 3 pages? Simple. People like different things, and you may not really be in tune with what your audience wants to see or read or experience, and that is why we are going to split test 3 landing pages!

First of all, creating a good landing page isn’t exactly super-easy, however, it’s not rocket science either. One of the first things you should do before creating anything for your product ads is to create the 3 product pages (on the flip-side, you could create just 2). So for now, check out some of your competitors’ landing pages – and landing pages that have converted YOU – and find what was most appealing. If it worked on you, it may work on your customers, too.

Designing Moments

Once you’ve narrowed down what you want to try out from different websites and landing pages, talk to your graphic designer and have him/her create a few mock-up designs based on your branding, your product or service – and, of course, your target audience – using those elements you chose from the other pages you saw. Once you have 3 distinct winners, take the mock-ups to your web designer or admin and have them create the pages, unlisted, on your site. You don’t want them showing up in the menus because we need to test them, and unwanted traffic will just mess up our data.

To give a very quick example, here are 2 versions of a web page on my website: one is the original, and the second is the improved version of that same social media marketing services page.

Before Optimization

After Optimization

Now, just based on these images, which do you think converts better? I bet you guessed it: The newer one does a lot better.

This is what we want to know when we are creating your landing pages and then, your ads. We create the 3 different pages using knowledge about our target, and research on what helps people convert on a landing page – then we use our ads to figure out what kind of ads work on our target. (Or create 2 different landing pages, making the test smaller.)

All the Testing and Reporting

The best way to test a LANDING page is to, of course, direct traffic to this page or pages. Knowing your target, you should be able to place these links in places you know they’ll probably (most likely) click on them, such as Facebook or on LinkedIn. Since those two platforms have different audiences, it might be good to use two different landing pages, and then switch the links at a specified date to determine which platform liked which page better.

You determine this, of course, by conversions – but also by going back to our handy, dandy Google Analytics report!

By looking at our Acquisition > All Traffic > Social > Landing Pages report, you can see which networks brought you the best kind of traffic. The active, engaged kind. Not the bouncy, short-lived kind.

These are the landing pages that people have clicked through to on your website from Social networks. If you add a secondary dimension, by clicking on the “Secondary Dimension” button, type “Social network” into the text box and select the first option, you’ll see it adds a column listing which social media networking was responsible for what pieces of traffic to each landing page.

Now we just need to see how they interacted with our landing pages. Click on the URL of one of your landing pages for this campaign and it will show you another report on which social media platforms sent traffic to that page, and how well that traffic acted on your site.

While we can’t see the fun information on this report, like bounce rate, we CAN see average session duration and pages per session. These are still pretty valuable numbers, because if you have a high session average, then people are probably not bouncing away. If you have a higher pages per session, people are also probably not bouncing away. You can also double-check this by checking the All Traffic > Channels > Social report. And voila! You can see bounce rate, new users, and even conversion data.

Segmenting Your Data in A/B Split Testing

Now this won’t be directly for the traffic for your landing pages, so let’s create a segment, to make this easier.

At the top of the page, click “+Add Segment” then click “New Segment.” Now click on “conditions” on the left-hand side of the menu. Here, you’ll start adding filters for your traffic to tell Google that you want to see traffic information for just the traffic that matches the parameters you are setting.

In the first box, change “ad content” to “source.” You can type “source” into the white box at the top of the menu that opens. We’ll leave “contains” as it is. Now begin typing in a name of a social media platform. “Facebook” is my first one.

Now click “OR,” and another filter box appears, and we’ll change the settings to this one to say “source” “contains” “twitter.” And click “OR” again. Fill in more filters until you have listed all of the social media platforms you are using to promote your landing pages.

Once you have finished this, click “Add filter.” You’ll want the boxes to say something different this time, so the first box should say “Landing Page” and the second box should say “Exactly Matches.” In the text box, type in the URL to your first landing page. Click “OR” and add the second (or third) URL for the next landing page (mine are pretend landing page URLs).

When you’re finished, be sure you’ve named the Segment at the top of the page, next to the blue save button, and then click “save.”

This will take you to a report comparing the traffic we just segmented to “All traffic.” Click on the arrow next to “All traffic” at the top of the page and click “remove” to remove that segment data and clean it up, so you can read the segment we just created.

As you can see, this information gives us the data from the landing pages we included in the segment, and breaks it down for us by social media platform. Wonderful stuff.

Now just add a secondary dimension for landing pages, and you can now see which landing page goes with what social network. And since the segment is saved, you can use this report anytime that you want/need!

Master Testing and Tracking via A/B Split Testing

Of course, some of this information is similar to when you run social media ads, but I definitely recommend using the UTM tracking method I mentioned in my UTM article for simple reporting.

Now that you have information flowing in about your landing pages, you’ll be able to figure out which pages convert better, and then you can start creating similar pages to further test the copy, the images, the layout, etc. This is what A/B split testing is all about. Testing. Every. Thing. All The Things.

Give ROI a Boost! Use #Google Analytics for A/B Split Testing by @R3SocialMedia #RocksDigital
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Will you now refine your A/B split testing? Has this article clarified the process? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments!

The post Looking to Boost ROI? Here’s How to Use Google Analytics for A/B Split Testing appeared first on Rocks Digital.

When most companies start thinking of their digital marketing, they immediately turn to social media – as opposed to Google Analytics. Many now know how much time and effort it takes, along with the amount of money it takes to make a campaign, but everyone doesn’t know how to make it all work together. However, Google Analytics can be a cohesive and powerful tool to make this happen.

In this article, I’m going to discuss how to tie all of your social media platforms into one seamless campaign using Google Analytics to track the results, so that you get the biggest “bang for your buck.”

Before Getting Started with Google Analytics You Have to Set Your Goals

First things first, you need to know the end-game. What is the purpose? What are you trying to achieve? Is it more sales? Is it a larger audience? A different audience? Plan out some time and make sure you know what you are going to be working for! Many times for a small business (or really, any business) the goal will be to increase sales, so that’s what I will focus on in this article. Just be intentional. Write down the goal.

Plan Out the Attack

Next, we need to plan out the attack. Part of this will include figuring out what happens on what platform, and even what platforms you’ll be using. It’s not much different than planning a 5-year business plan; small bites. Work backwards here. If our goal is more sales, what do we need in order to do that? What has to happen before we reach that goal? People have to pay for our service/product. Look at it this way:

Item 1 > Item 2 > Item 3 > Item 4 > GOAL: Increase sales.

In this line, we are looking for Item 4. So let’s say Item 4 is “People are buying our product.” Let’s make that note.

Item 1 > Item 2 > Item 3 > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Alright. Now, again, working backwards, let’s figure out what we need to do for people to be buying our product. It’s probably already listed on the website and the website is already configured for sales. Great. So we need to be sending people to the website. But what page? What product are you selling or attempting to get more sales on? Some of this may seem like a lot of kindergarten stuff, but I promise, getting a good outline and plan of attack will help in the long run, especially if you have people like me helping make it happen for you. One document or photo will help keep everyone on the same page and moving along.

So, Item 3 should be “Send more traffic to product page X.” Easy enough.

Item 1 > Item 2 > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Now how do we move people to that page? This is where a simple answer that we’ll break down later will get us going. The answer in our example will be “Push product X page on social media.” Now, we’re not going to worry about the How right now, just the plan. We’ll get into the How later.

Item 1 > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

And finally, Item 1: What needs to happen before pushing the page on social? What do we need? Answer: A manager or point-person for our social media! As the owner, you may do this yourself, or you may choose a salesperson, since they know the product intimately. Just make sure this person has the time available to do what needs to be done, and knows how to do it.

Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Add the Details

Now that we have a plan, we need to go back and detail each item so we know who does what, and what exactly that each item entails. This is where the How comes in.

Delegate Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Delegating the social media or taking it on yourself also means figuring out who has the usernames and passwords. Who has the access you need? Which pages or accounts are you going to be using? Based on the most recent research, the largest chunk of each daily audience is as follows:

Image credit: Pew Research Center

Knowing this helps when you plan out where to spend your time and money. Please visit the research link provided above for the additional data, you’ll need to plan out your campaign. You also need to take into account what age groups are using each, to determine if that is indeed where your target audience lies. It’s nearly a year old so we are all eagerly awaiting the new research, but until then, this report does help us.

Each Item Has Its Own Tasks

So, you see how Item one (where we delegated platforms) worked. Item 2, Push Traffic to Product X Page, will also have its own tasks. Now we know what platforms, but how are we going to push our link to those pages properly? What etiquette is appropriate for each platform and each audience on that platform? We can’t come off as spammy or else people will simply ignore our messages.

So now you have a little homework to do, unless you know your audience so well that you can answer these questions already:

1. Does my audience like daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly reminders?
2. Do they prefer links, photos, videos, or text posts – or a combo?
3. How often is too often to post on this platform?
4. Do my customers leave frequent reviews I can use to push the product?
5. Can I use a contest or some other creative motivation to get people to buy the product?

Answering these questions can get you started. Be sure to keep each platform’s general etiquette in mind. This is easier if you’ve been a user, so delve in and use the platform yourself on a personal account so you can be more in-tune with your audience and the platform. Once you’re able to post your link on the platform without being a spambot, people will start to listen and click your link.

Note: I’m not discussing ads in this post, but that’s another possibility to push out your product on the different platforms. You can refer to my other posts for more information about Facebook ads.

Google Analytics – Analytics Everywhere!

Item 3, Send More Traffic to Product Page X, is easy enough. We’ll need to set up UTM links for our campaign, and then we just need to be able to peek through our analytics for our website.

When creating a UTM, or Urchin Tracking Module, we want to probably use the same link, but attach different platforms to it, so we will be able to differentiate the traffic later, which we’ll discuss. But they are easy to create, and Google gives us a tool to make it super-easy.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

You’ll add the URL to the product page, since that’s where we are sending people in the first box, asking for the Website URL. Campaign Source will be the platform, such as Facebook (or you can use an abbreviation like FB, just make sure you’ll know what it stands for). Though it doesn’t require it, you’ll also need a Campaign Medium. This is to represent the traffic, such as is it coming from an email? From a banner ad? In the image below I’ve put in social. The last bit that Google wants (or perhaps needs) is going to be the Campaign Name.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

I named it fall sale. It can be whatever you want, but in order to present our information correctly, it needs these three pieces filled out. Once you are done, you’ll see the URL in the bottom box and you can click “Copy URL” from there to paste it into your social media! Create a different UTM for each platform, and you’ll be able to find out which platform is making you the most money when we look at the data.

Diving into the Google Analytics Data

To find the data we’ll be collecting on our website, most people do this through Google Analytics. Setting up a goal to find out that our traffic from social media is sending traffic to the right page AS WELL AS converting them into customers is pretty simple. We’re going to focus on someone going from our social media to the product page then buying something.

The easiest way to do this is build a URL we can track, set up the goal for a destination page (because we know what page our customers will end up on after going through a purchase), then go into a report to see what platforms they came from.

In your Google Analytics, go to the “Admin” tab on the left-hand side of the page. Select the correct Account, Property, and View for your website. Under the “View” column, click on “Goals.” Click the red “+ New Goal” button to get started.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

You’ll see the various templates, but just select “Custom.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Then select “Continue.” The next “page” will let you name your goal. Be sure it’s easy. Then we will select “Destination.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Google states: “Use destination goals to treat a pageview or screenview as a conversion. Enter the screen name or page URL in the Destination field. Specify the match type as Equals to, Begins with, or Regular expression.” For our purposes, use “Equals to” and type the URL for your confirmation or Thank you page after a purchase has been completed. In the image below you’ll see “/thanks.html” representing the confirmation page URL.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Also in this image, you’ll see that I’ve added a pretend Value of $20.00 because I’m imagining we’re selling a $20.00 item. Add the correct value for your item in this box, and Google can help you track how much money in sales you’ve racked up based on this goal, per platform.

Track the Attack with Google Analytics

Using Google Analytics and by looking at the campaigns report, we can also find out if we’re reaching Items 3, 4, and 5.

Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Now since I haven’t actually created this goal, I won’t have any photos of this. But this article does have some good advice about this topic and also shows you what it will look like. I’ll show you how to get there.

In your Google Analytics, you’ll click on “Acquisition” on the left-hand side, then “Campaigns,” and next “All Campaigns.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Here you’ll see your campaign tracking! But breaking it down further, we can get the information by platform by doing one of two things: clicking the “Secondary dimension” and choosing “Social > Social Network,” or by simply clicking the “Source” primary dimension on the top of the columns.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Now you’ll see the campaign broken down by platform. But I would use “Source” rather than the “Secondary dimension” until you’ve created multiple campaigns (with different names).

But either way, in this report, you’ll be able to see the goal conversion rate (how well the traffic converted) and the goal value, which is the total value of the goals accomplished via traffic from that particular platform (i.e., how much money those platforms earned based on your efforts).

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Testing All the Things

Finally, after you’ve run a few of these types of campaigns, you’ll be able to look at all of the data and figure out if you’re reaching your goals, since Google Analytics makes it pretty easy for us to check that out! Testing other products or services, pages, images, etc. and platforms will help you find out if this kind of marketing is helping you. And if you plan ahead, you’ll be able to move seamlessly through your campaign and make sure that all of your social media marketing is well thought-out, which is crucial for any campaign.

Tracking #DigitalMarketing ROI w/ #Google Analytics and UTM Codes by @r3socialmedia #RocksDigital
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Did you learn something new about Google Analytics and tracking ROI? What’s your next step? Jump in and share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Getting Started: How to Track Social Media ROI with Google Analytics and UTM Tracking Codes appeared first on Rocks Digital.

One of the challenges of being a business owner/entrepreneur is finding tools that work and that won’t break the budget, and that includes tools for CRM. Once in a while you actually find a free version of something that works well for your current needs and when you do, you might move into the premium version.

Right now, my favorite tool in that vein is Streak (relax – this does not involve sitting in your office sans clothing!). Streak bills itself as a CRM for Gmail. It works with Gmail accounts, both regular Gmail and the G Suite.

The Benefits of Streak for CRM with Gmail

There are several uses for Streak, so I thought I’d share a few of my favorites.

The schedule feature comes in really handy for night owls like myself who don’t necessarily want people to know we were awake writing blog posts (*ahem*) emails in the wee hours of the morning (it’s a boundaries thing).

And the tracking isn’t just your standard read receipt, it tells you each time it is opened. This can be handy to know for follow-up conversations because it can give you a sense of how fresh your communication is in the mind of the client.

CRM Lead Tracking with Streak

One of the primary features is that it allows you to track leads:

Just open up a new Sales/CRM option, or use the Business Development option.

Then put your emails into the pipelines:

And you end up with something like this:

You can change the colors of the different stages, add new stages, and delete stages. Plus you can see when the last email was within a particular project from the pipeline view.

On the sidebar within an email you can see a number of key pieces of information:

• The stage
• The size of the deal
• When the deal should close/did close
• The source of the lead
• Any contacts associated with the lead
• Notes section

Streak Has You Covered on Collaborative Projects as Well

Collaborative Projects? Streak’s Got You Covered

But what if you don’t track clients/leads? No worries, there are other uses for Streak. You can use it to track projects, especially projects in collaboration with others where you may be waiting on elements from other people. Streak makes it easy to see where things are so that email doesn’t get buried and you don’t have important things fall through the cracks.

And I like that I can color code things, so I know that (in the example above) if something is in yellow or orange, it means I need to check up on it once in a while. Invaluable if you have a lot of projects going at once (or multiple clients) and you need to keep track of multiple projects.

CRM Helpdesk Queue? Streak Can Do That

Another possible use for Streak is to make a helpdesk type queue out of it:

So, if you’re a support person of some type (customer service or maybe tech support), you can sort the emails you receive into different categories to make sure that you don’t forget to find out why the sprocket didn’t get to Boise, or to track sending Bob the new cup holder for his computer. (Please tell me that there’s a tech support person out there who laughed at that!)

Bloggers Take Note: Streak Can Help Track Writing

And finally (for this post anyway) if you are, perhaps, a blogger, you can use it to track your writing:

This can come in really handy if you have several blogs or guest-blog a lot. It can also help you to track inquiries for guest blogging gigs.

Streak Tiers and Costs

As I mentioned, there is a premium version, and if I had to cite one downside to Streak it’s the pricing for premium features. It’s around $40/month per user for the first paid tier and around $80 per month per user for the Enterprise version. I’d really like to see them have another tier with a price point of around $10 per month to keep it affordable but practical for the small business/solopreneur power-user.

Fortunately, the free functionality has worked well for me, and I do recommend Streak if you need more organization in your email.

How-To on @Streak #CRM from #Gmail by @LauraDarkstar #RocksDigital
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Have you tried Streak for your business? Share your thoughts on this CRM tool with us.

The post Needing a Free CRM? A Helpful How-To on Using Streak’s CRM Integration with Gmail appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Twitterfeed is Going Away – Dlvr.it is Here to Stay. Now that I got that out, let’s talk about social media automation and RSS feeds. Keeping social media accounts active is one of the most important components of having success with social media.

With that in mind, I’m going to introduce you to a great RSS feeding tool called dlvr.it. Dlvr.it is used to RSS feed posts to your social media accounts. If you just started reading this and feel like I’m speaking another language, you might want to learn what an RSS feed is and how to identify the RSS feed URL. Here’s an article I wrote about this subject to help you.

Features of dlvr.it

1. Automate RSS feeds to post on social media
2. Post through dlvr.it to social media
3. Curate content to share on social media

Dlvr.it makes the services they offer pretty clear. Does the list above remind you of Buffer? It should, as they are quite similar. Personally, I prefer dlvr.it.

Today I will only focus on item #1 from the above list: Automate RSS feeds to post on social media.

Yes, you can use @dlvrit to RSS feed to your #socialmedia. @LissaDuty shares how! #RocksDigital
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First things first. Yes, dlvr.it has a free version and I will show you how to use it (for the most part) in this article. I have used the paid version of dlvr.it since they added the option a few years back. You’ll probably want to upgrade to it later.

With the free version you can set up three social networks to feed content to, from five RSS feeds. Once you register your free account, you are sent to a screen to set up your first feed, much like the example image below.

Setting Up dlvr.it To Post via an RSS Feed To Social Media

You can set up the feed in one of two ways.

• Use the search option. Simply type in the website name and dlvr.it will go out and comb the web to find the website you are looking for.
• Add the RSS feed URL. Personally, prefer the method of just putting the feed URL in the search box. (If you are not clear on finding the RSS feed, look at this article)

Now, I will walk you through setting up the first feed and posting to your social media account.

1. Type or paste the feed URL into the search box
2. Click the magnifying glass or press enter
3. The name of the website you want to feed should appear
4. Click the plus sign (+) to select the feed

Once you click the plus sign your screen will refresh, and it will look something like this:

Now it’s time to customize the settings for your needs. Adding it to your queue means it is something you want to share later. I recommend you use the defaults of “share immediately” and “post the most recent item now”.

Next, click “Connect Socials”. Here you will are going to give dlvr.it access to the social media account you would like this RSS feed to post to.

As shown above, dlvr.it will post to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn Profiles, LinkedIn Company Pages, Tumblr, App.net and StockTwits. (Disclosure: I have never used dlvr.it to post to Pinterest, App.net or StockTwits, so I cannot describe how well it works on these sites, or how it appears in the feeds there.)

In this example I will set up posting to Twitter from dlvr.it via an RSS feed:

1. Click the Twitter icon (upon clicking you’ll be redirected to a Twitter login screen)
2. Login to Twitter to authorize dlvr.it’s access to the account
3. Click “Start Posting”

Once you click “Start Posting” you’ll be taken to a screen that looks much like the example above. If you want to customize the settings for this social media account, click on the sprocket symbol next to the social media account.

There are several custom options here that you can modify, and you will want to modify them based on the social media account you’re posting to. I’m going to zero in on three options you should consider using right away with RSS-feeding content to Twitter.

• Begin Posts With. Here you can add text in the front of the post title. An example might be “#RocksDigital News:”.
• End Posts With. Here you can add text after the post title. An example might be “via @RocksDigital”.
• Auto hashtag placement.it will determine the category the post is assigned to on the website you pull the RSS feed from, and share it as a hashtag at the beginning or end of the post.

These features are turned off by default. I haven’t yet uses the auto hashtag placement feature, but I’ll test it out. It is definitely a quick and easy way to reach a new audience with hashtags that you might not reach otherwise.

Once you get comfortable using dlvr.it, definitely check out the other settings available under this section. For example, if you are setting up to post to your Tumblr account via an RSS feed, you’ll want to enable the “Post Body” setting for the social media account. Then modify the settings setup within dlvr.it for the RSS feed itself to post the preferred content summary when the setting is enabled. (I know, I’m probably speaking Greek again. Whoops, I mean geek, but once you drill a bit more into dlvr.it, you’ll get what I’m talking about.)

If posting to LinkedIn or Facebook from dlvr.it via an RSS feed, you’ll need to adjust a few more settings for these social media accounts. Here are the steps:

1. Within the post options tab, under “Post Style”, select Shared Link from the dropdown menu.
2. Enable “Include Title in the Message Text Above the Shared Link”.
3. Under “Thumbnail Style” select “Auto-Detected From Item Content” from the dropdown menu.
4. For Facebook specifically, click on the advanced tab and make sure “Post as Photo” is not enabled. (Note: If enabled, it will post the update as an image and include a shortened link with the post title for the user to click on to access the article.)
5. You’ll also need to adjust the “Post Privacy” under the advanced tab. This setting applies to both Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you’ve been following along and doing this step-by-step, at this point you should have dlvr.it set up to post to one Twitter account via an RSS feed. Plus, potentially setup a RSS feed to post to Facebook or LinkedIn. Now, you must modify the settings for the RSS feed itself in dlvr.it.

Modifying RSS Feed Settings in dlvr.it

Here you control components such as how often dlvr.it checks the RSS feed for new content, how many posts it will send out at one time, whether or not the image featured in the post is shared with the article title and link, all the way down to in which order an update is posted.

To access the settings area for the RSS feed itself:

1. Click “Automate” across the top
2. Click the feed title
3. Click settings at the top under the feed title

The screen should look like this:

The “Detail” tab is the first tab that will appear. You can change the feed name if you want to. You can have it set up to feed to multiple social media accounts from one feed, so you probably don’t want to rename it to a specific social media account. For example, I have the RSS feed for Rocks Digital in my dlvr.it account set up to post to about 10 different social media accounts, ranging from multiple Twitter accounts to LinkedIn Profiles, Company Pages and Facebook Pages.

Make sure “feed active” is enabled if you want to continue posting from this RSS feed URL to the social media accounts you have authorized underneath it.

Click on the second tab labeled “Updates”. The screen should look like the above image. You will want to modify the settings for this tab.

1. Change “Max posts per update” to 1.
2. Change “Max post per day” to 10.
3. Select “Post Oldest Items First” from the dropdown under “Trickle”.

Let me explain why I recommend these settings.

• Max posts per update. Basically, when dlvr.it checks this specific RSS feed and finds they have posted multiple new items, you only want to feed one of them at a time.
• Max posts per day. When you are RSS-feeding a blog, especially one that is not your own, you don’t want to fill up your social media feed with promoting them. One reason you are using dlvr.it to RSS-feed blogging content is to keep your social media account active while you are off doing other things, not to flood it!
• Post Oldest Items First. If you leave this setting on the default of “Trickle Off”, when dlvr.it checks the RSS feed and sees it has multiple items to post, it will only post whatever you authorized based on “max posts per update”, and anything else will be ignored. By selecting “post oldest items first” dlvr.it will post the oldest item that hasn’t already been posted. During the next update period it will post the next in line, and so on. This setting will help keep your feed active throughout the day. This is of course determined by the number of times the RSS feed is to be updated. Some blogs publish multiple times each day while others publish once a day, once a week, or only once a month.

There are two additional settings in this tab and I will highlight them now. One is “Update Frequency”. The default of “Every 30 minutes” is fine. This setting tells dlvr.it how often you want it to check the RSS feed to see if there is new content available for publishing during a specific update period. I usually change this to “Every Hour”, but this isn’t as important. The other is setting is “Subscribe to PuSH Updates”. I have turned this on and off and did not really notice a difference, so I just leave this setting at the default.

With the professional version of dlvr.it I see an extra section in the “Updates” tab that the free account doesn’t offer. This section, called “Update Window”, allows you to set up specific days and times for dlvr.it to check the RSS feed and post content.

Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see above, I have it set up to check this specific RSS feed 7 days a week between the hours of 9:30 am and 7:00 pm, and to post if something new is added. This pro feature allows you to avoid tweeting in the middle of the night so that you post during more peak times.

The third tab, “Item Text”, is similar to the “Begin Posts With” and “End Posts With” settings that are available when setting up the social media account. What’s the difference? Modifying the setting within the RSS feed instead of applying it to a specific social media account ensures the setting will apply for all the social media accounts you attach to the feed. If you completely fill in the “Prefix” and/or “Suffix” area within this tab, you would avoid completing it within the social media account settings. If you do this, you would have a duplication issue if you set both to say the same thing.

The fourth tab available is called “Filters”. Personally, I haven’t used this tab. You can use it to customize what you are sharing from the specific RSS feed. For example, if you are pulling an RSS feed from a site that blogs on all sorts of different topics, but you only want to share the stuff that has a specific set of words in it, such as “social media”, you would set up the filter. You can also set up the “Ignore items that contain any of the terms” filter if you want to exclude a specific topic. For example, I might use this setting to ignore “Trump, Clinton, Politics, Election”, since I wouldn’t want these types of items posting to my Twitter account.

The fifth tab is “Location”, and I recommend you do not turn this on as doing so could provide where you live.

The sixth and final tab under the RSS feed settings is “Advanced”. Here’s what it looks like:

This screen capture shows you what settings to select. There are three specific things I will share about this section.

1. Under “Body Posting Options” make sure “Preferred Summary Content” is selected. This is a short description that pulls through the RSS feed for a specific blog post. It’s usually an excerpt that is determined when the blog is put up on the website. (This is ideal if you are RSS-feeding your website content to Tumblr or a group you admin on Facebook. It will post a teaser about the article, but not the entire article.)
2. “Enable Photo Posting” must be turned on if you want the featured image on the post shared when it posts to Twitter.
3. For the “Image Selection Order” be sure to have “Open Graph Tags First” selected, so the image shared with the post on social media such as Google+ and Facebook will be the featured image, versus a random image pulled from anywhere on that blog post, including the sidebar.

That’s it for the “Advanced” section. Your RSS feed is all set up and should be posting properly now, and there is one more dlvr.it setting I want to go over with you.

Setting Up dlvr.it To Use Your Preferred URL Shortener

Here you will tell dlvr.it which URL shortener to use when posting to the social media accounts you authorize. (Keep in mind, shortened URLs do not appear when posting on Facebook, etc., so this applies mainly to Twitter.)

To access the settings area for this feature:

1. Click “Socials” across the top
2. Click “Short Links” on the left
3. Click “Add a Shortener” on the top right

Select your preferred URL shortener from the dropdown and then walk through the authorization process. The screen capture below shows what settings to select:

Personally, I use and recommend Bit.ly as a URL shortener. Using bit.ly as my selected shortener in dlvr.it allows the tracking data (such as link clicks) to be passed to bit.ly. This way, I see all my link clicks for posts in one place, and I like that. Bit.ly is certainly not the only choice as there are many others you can use. Walk thru the settings and authorize the URL shortener you prefer.

And That’s a Wrap…

I’ll test out some of the settings I haven’t played with yet, like curating content with dlvr.it and using the scheduling feature, and return with my analysis and recommendations soon.

I welcome you to set up Rocks Digital to feed to your social media accounts, and I’ve made it easy for you. This page provides the RSS feed URL for categories, specific contributors, or the entire blog. Now you can decide exactly what you want to feed (or whom), and can set it up quickly and easily.

A comprehensive #howto on @dlvrit, RSS feeds and #socialmedia by @LissaDuty #RocksDigital
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What do you think about setting up an RSS feed to post to your social media accounts?

The post Start RSS Feeding Content Today With dlvr.it to Social Media [How-To] appeared first on Rocks Digital.

How To Use Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools

If you have a Google account, then you have access to a free tool known as Google analytics. The basic tool is free to use and it can provide valuable information about your current SEO and marketing campaign. Google Analytics can tell you how many unique users visited a specific page of your website and, if you link it with your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can know what keywords brought them to your website.

How To Create Reporting Views on Google Analytics

One of the first things you’ll want to do after you’ve set up your Google Analytics account is to create reporting views. These are filters that will allow you to perform multiple actions in Google Analytics like:

• Count traffic or “hits” for specific parts of your site or certain pages (without counting internal views)
• Set up restrictions so only certain people can view your analytics results
• Organize your information and statistics in order of preference
• Place information and statistics into manageable groups

How To View Where Your Website Visitors are Located

Many social media sites, including Facebook will ask you to target your advertising to certain groups. If your company isn’t local, knowing where to target your ads can be difficult. Google Analytics can help with this by showing you where most of your visitors are located in and beyond the United States.

To find this information in Google Analytics:

• Click “Audience” on the left side bar so the section expands
• Then click “Geo”
• Select “Location” underneath that

On the right side of the screen a map will appear showing the countries where your websites visitors are located. You can then click the countries individually to expand the map further and see more details about the states and cities where your website visitors are located.

Why Link to AdWords

If you’re utilizing Google AdWords, you’ll be happy to know that you can connect your AdWords and Analytics accounts. When the two accounts are linked together, you can view even more useful information.

• Ad performance data
• Bounce rates
• Remarketing options offered by Google

Why Link to Google Webmaster Tools

Have you ever wondered what people search for once they’re on your site? Google’s Webmaster Tools can help! Google Webmaster tools is a free feature that allows you to know what is happening within your website.

Google Webmaster Tools can show you what your visitor’s type into Google to end up on your website. After you create your account you need to link it to your Google Analytics for the best results.

With both tools linked to each other you will have an idea of why people come to your site, what they expect to find, and how well you’re delivering on both counts.

How To View Your Website Clicks and Click Through

Just as you can view what people search for on your site, you can also see which exact links people click on. This is great for troubleshooting because it can help you to make important decisions about what’s working on your website and what’s not.

To learn about “clicks”:

• On the left side bar within Google Analytics click on “Behavior”
• Click on the “In-Page Analytics”
• The page will split with your website being displayed in the lower portion

This feature in Google Analytics will show your site’s click analysis by displaying percentages next to links users have clicked on your website.

Some Google Analytics features do have to be set up by you, the user, but you can learn more about that from Google itself. Once you’ve got the basics down, you’re ready to use this tool to further your business and its online marketing. Using these Google tools is just part of a successful digital marketing strategy.  Keep going and read my low tech guide to SEO for the technically challenged.

How To Use #Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools on Your #Website by @BernieColeman #LocalSEO
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If you’re already using Google Analytics, we’d love to hear how its helped you, or if you have questions about getting started, join in the conversation below!

The post How To Use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to View Site Traffic and Click Through appeared first on Rocks Digital.