Welcome back, folks, for our monthly SEO review of local Milwaukee businesses, websites, and blogs! For this month (February 2013), we will be reviewing WedInMilwaukee.com, a Milwaukee Wedding Blog.
Wed in Milwaukee is a blog about, as you’ve probably guessed, getting married in Milwaukee (or, for Milwaukeeans who are planning on getting married in general). Since I marked this site down as one to be reviewed, it appears as though they’ve made some improvements overall to the site, in terms of their content and SEO. However, as with anything, there is always room for improvement, so I will be covering some areas where I think they could still improve upon and find some wins with.
To preface this review, we are in no way professionally affiliated with WedInMilwaukee.com; but we have asked, and received, their permission to publish the content of this post. The information provided herein is for academic purposes (on our end) only, and is also provided as recommendations to WedInMilwaukee.com free of charge. Whether they choose to implement these changes or not, is solely up to them.
So, now that my preamble is out of the way, let’s get going!
1. Information Architecture
I am recently engaged and looking to get married sometime early-mid 2014. Because of this, we are starting to scour locations (local and destination), vendors, and other options, including who we want to add to our list of invitees. As someone who is going through this wedding process for the first time, it’s very important for me to be able to find, navigate through, and learn as much as I can.
At this point in time, while there’s a lot of fantastic content on Wed In Milwaukee that would help a searcher such as myself; however, the organization of that content isn’t as intuitive and search friendly as I think it could be. As an example, here are some URL’s taken from the site as it stands currently (upon this review post):
category page: http://wedinmilwaukee.com/category/wedding-planning/attire/
single page / post: http://wedinmilwaukee.com/onlinetailors/
For this example, I am referencing a category URL and a page URL that is organized inside that category. There are a couple of things here I think that could be fixed. Firstly, I would remove the term “category” from the overall categorical URL structure. It does not provide value to users or search engines, and ultimately, just adds to the overall “depth” and structure of the sites’ content organization.
Removing “category” would leave us with something like: http://wedinmilwaukee.com/wedding-planning/attire/.
What this does is lower our “levels of depth” by one, it removes an arbitrary term that is not needed, and it makes the visible reference of the URL easier to consume. While I don’t think that this change would dramatically effect the results of Wed In Milwaukee’s rankings, traffic, etc., I do think that there could be some value from it. That, in connection with the implementation of some good internal linking via breadcrumbs, could also help our categorical sitelinks within search results pages, which could lead to a higher CTR (click thru rate) overall. The next thing I would do with the page URL’s, the page URL’s specifically, is include the categorical structure, thusly resulting in:
http://wedinmilwaukee.com/category/wedding-planning/attire/onlinetailors.
Actually, in this example, I would also make sure the slug of the page itself was structured in a way that was easier to read as well, such as:
http://wedinmilwaukee.com/category/wedding-planning/attire/online-tailors (with the hyphen, as compared to without).
So, this would be a first step I would recommend taking, so that the overall structure and organization of the content made better sense to both users, and well as search engines. An example of the new site organization can be seen on the left.
New sitemap suggestion for WedInMilwaukee.com
2. Social Integration
Social integration is a huge thing. It’s an even huge…er..er.. thing for blogs, and I would reckon to say, and even more important thing for blogs that cover “living” topics such as weddings. So, given that Wed In Milwaukee fits the bill of being a Milwaukee wedding blog, and it should just be a given. Now, I’m not saying that Wed In Milwaukee isn’t hitting the target here with this one, but I am saying that they can be a bit more accurate with how and what is being implemented for social engagement features, as well as open graph data.
2.1. Social Button
There ARE social buttons on the right sidebar of the site. Some for sharing, some for driving users to the Wed In Milwaukee social profiles; however, they’re not the ones that we would choose (aka - they are older versions of the buttons, and not what we’re typically used to seeing for social action buttons), and also do not include platforms such as Google+ and Pinterest (both which would be very beneficial for Wed In Milwaukee).
So first things first here, I would swap out their current social buttons for better, more actionable options, in addition to reviewing which social platforms are really getting traction with their content and users. Then, I would separate the action buttons from their profile buttons, so as to avoid confusion with which ones a user should be clicking on.
2.2. Authorship & Open Graph All the Things!
Open graph tags have become a status quo in terms of developing websites and SEO in the last year or two. If you’re at all interested in developing content, having your content shared, and providing advanced data to external sources, then open graph is “a must” in terms of things you need to get on the website.
Currently, Wed In Milwaukee does not integrate open graph, Twitter cards, Google+ authorship, etc. These are items that, while they don’t seem to carry massive amounts of weight at this point in time, will continue to grow in their influence for helping generate trust and authority with websites. Additionally, SEO aside, once pages / posts within WedInMilwaukee.com start ranking for specific keywords, this integration will also help their CTR, which ultimately will assist potential bottom-of-the-funnel goals, such as Milwaukee wedding guides downloads, increase in traffic, increase in site engagement (pageviews, social shares), etc.
3. Semantic Markup of Content
3.1. Schema.org & Microformats
Microformats are becoming increasingly important as we continue to move forward with search engines finding consistency in the display of data. Events, locations, etc. should all be fully marked up with the appropriate microformats to clearly identify, for the search engines, what the data means, so that it can be easily displayed in different channels.
There are a number of events located in a right-aligned sidebar, all of which are displayed with simple HTML lists. I think having a comprehensive list of wedding events going on in, and around, Milwaukee would be a fantastic resource for people. Marking up the event data with the appropriate microformats would potentially allow search engines to display that information in their results pages. Wed In Milwaukee could take it one step further and actually develop a filterable list of all events, that site visitors could use to see events by specific dates, with specific types of vendors, etc. Since the website is based on WordPress, this would all be possible with a custom post type and custom filtering of posts based on their “wp_meta” data.
3.2. Proper Use of Heading Tags
This is a relatively basic one, and thus, one easily fixed. What we’d be looking at here would be making sure that, stylistically, all heading tags were clearly laid out, and that they were actually being used.
You’ll notice in the image to the left that there are words, both as headers as well as genearl paragraphs, that are marked up in the same way: all bolded. This presents two issues for them in terms of structure of their content: legibility for users is greatly decreased, and content structure is not as clear. I think that legibility would be our first concern, as we always want to put focus on our users and their ease to consume and comprehend our content.
What I’d recommend doing in this instance is to use a H2 or H3 tag for the headings of each content section, and then use “bold” sparingly to call out attention to important elements within the content. This will help both site visitors, as well as search engines, understand what the content is, and the relationships within itself.
4. Links & Content Distribution Channels
Wed In Milwaukee is comparable to their competition in terms of overall trust and authority; however, there is still a lot of room to improve in this area, of course. As a wedding blog, I was really hoping for a higher level of social following than what they currently have, and was really really hoping to see some good interaction from those that do follow them. Unfortunately, given their content and reach, the truth just isn’t stacking up to my hopes.
I think the problem, for both the current state of their link profile, as well as their social engagement, lies in the way the content is actually distributed.
Pinterest is really like crack-cocaine for women; seriously, they eat it up. Pinning, repinning, searching pins - my fiance uses it all the time for gifting ideas, recipe ideas, etc. This resource is one that I think is being underutilized by Wed In Milwaukee at the moment, and could provide a high level of value. I’ve referenced a WordPress plugin in the action list below that could be used to show the “latest pins” from the Wed In Milwaukee pinterest account, which I think would be great for encouraging site visitors to engage with, pin and repin. Finding great pictures of wedding color combinations, examples of cakes and flowers, etc. are great ideas to pin and share (Wed In Milwaukee already is doing this, but not large scale). Spending time on curating great pictures to be used in blog posts and then pinned to their account is highly recommended.
Who isn’t on Facebook today? Seriously, 1 billion plus users provides great opportunities for building a fan base, and connecting with them. The content that the general population of users are most engaged with on Facebook are pictures; more specifically, fantastic looking pictures. Right now, Wed In Milwaukee is doing a pretty good job of engaging with their fans on Facebook when comments are made and users post on their timelines; however, I think the content being posted by Wed In Milwaukee, could be more engaging overall. Curate and post great looking imagery, cover and post about wedding stories, and start asking for fans to recommend the page and website to friends and family!
Twitter is a great platform for sending out content, yes, but right now they’re following way more than they’re being followed, and their current engagement levels aren’t what I think they could be. Because of this, I think refocusing who they’re following and connecting with on Twitter is very important. Instead of following local business, why not follow, engage, and build relationships with others in the industry who are more susceptible to sharing and engaging on their own content? I think making these connections will, in the long term, provide great value in terms of content distribution, link building opportunties, etc., which is a very good thing, naturally.
Action Plan for Wed In Milwaukee
Site Architecture
- Review competitors websites to find out what content they’re offering and the way it’s structured. Compare that to the current structure of Wed In Milwaukee and revise accordingly. I think a good starting point would be our sitemap from above
- One thing that I noticed some competitors (competitors in terms of search results pages based on keywords) doing was offering checklists, budget guides, etc., in downloadable formats (PDF). I think this is great, and that you should build out a section for that (or integrate it into the current sections / revised sections of the site). I would also take it one step further and request information from the user, such as name and email address, request that they share the page socially first (aka, lock the download until they shared the page on a social network), or require the user to sign up an account with the website. I would say that the social share would be the easiest and preferred way by the user, but that the email signup would be the best option for Wed In Milwaukee. The third option (account signup) hasn’t even been built into the site yet (wouldn’t be much to do though) and would probably provide the most resistance by the user; though it’s still an option.
Social Integration
- Swap out the current social action buttons with ones that show the number of likes
- “Unbury” the buttons by putting them at the top and bottom of the post, as compared to the top-right sidebar, or setup a left-aligned hover box for the social action buttons, that floats with the user as they read through the post.
- Integrate “Like” and “Follow” buttons for the Wed In Milwaukee profiles themselves, that a user can just click on, instead of sending them to the social profiles to take action. Basically, try to make it as easy as possible for people to connect with you and share your information
- Integrate open graph tags, twitter card tags, Google+ authorship and publisher accounts, etc. These items allow platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to easily understand and display advanced information about your site when being shared, or shown in search engines
- Build out the ability to show content from your profiles, such as Pinterest. There’s a plugin for that: Display your Pinterest Board
Semantic Markup
- If you’re posting event data such as the name of an event, its location, details, etc., I’d highly recommend marking it up using the schema.org protocols so as to provide an easier way for Google and others to consume and display the information. More information can be found here: http://schema.org/Event. Microformats can also be easily implemented using the schema creator plugin by Raven Tools.
- Differentiate your content by using proper heading tags (and styling of those tags), compared to paragraph text, compared to bolded / italicized copy. It will help your users, and will provide a recognizable structure that search engines will be able to easily consume
Links & Content Distribution
How do we build links and get our content distributed to the masses? Easy: create something people want, and create something people want to share. Okay, maybe this isn’t as easy for some, but ultimately this will help us build links, naturally and editorially, over time and increase the visibility of our sites’ content over time. Here are some things to start doing to improve upon it:
- Start using Twitter for a content and connection curation platform and start making relationships with people who will want to share your content, whether or not they are your ultimate target audience. Some examples of potential connections to make would include: @StacieFrancombe, @BucksCoBride, or @midwesttraveler
- Create incentive to have people link or share your content by creating eBooks, eGuides, or other unique and robust content resources, and request information or action from your users in order to access it (via email signup, social share, etc.)
- Research and connect with other blogs to provide guest posts and add value to their blogs / websites. In exchange for your insights and experience, make sure to get links back to relevant content on your site, preferably “deep” content that is relevant to your post
Other Tips and Tricks
- Google Alerts - setup Google alerts to stay in front of the trends, as well as on top of your brand-mentions. If you’re referenced in digital publications, blogs, etc., it’s a great way for you to engage the sources covering you; and if you’re being continuously alerted about wedding information being published, it’s a great way to stay in front of trending topics, and thus, continue to grow and be a leader in your niche
- Reach out an connect with businesses, couples, etc., that you’ve covered. Build connections with them, and encourage / ask / request that they cover you back, if applicable
If you’re a business owner / manager, marketing director, or director of an organization, and are looking to start using your website as a marketing tool, we can help. Through SEO, social media, email marketing, improvements in user experience, and goal setting and measurements, we can help you realize the power of the internet as a marketing channel for your business. Give us a call at 414-455-0552, or reach out to us on our contact page to find out more!
