As 2019 starts to wrap up, and 2020 planning is upon us, we’ve compiled our top 10 blog posts of the year (in case you missed ‘em). Check out the posts that our readers couldn’t get enough of this year and let us know what your favorites were in the comments below and on social (@SeerInteractive)!…
The post Seer Interactive’s Top 10 Most-Read Blog Posts of 2019 appeared first on Seer Interactive.
If you’re a larger business, your brand has likely created a YouTube channel at some point in time. You may have inherited this part of marketing or even contributed to the creation of a video, but how do you know if this video content is making an impact?…
The post So Your Business has a YouTube Channel, Whats Next? appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Project management is important because it ensures proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much.
The key to successful project management comes down to understanding your client as a human. As someone new to a project or meeting a client team for the first time, it is critical to leverage this opportunity as a time to get to know the client.…
The post Why Project Management is Critical for An SEO Project appeared first on Seer Interactive.
An agency should be an extension of the client’s team. Sharing the same goals, talking to the same people, and sometimes even getting drinks together. To start the journey towards that solid agency-client partnership, here are three areas to work on together and some questions agencies can start asking to get there.…
The post 3 Characteristics of a Strong Agency-Client Partnership appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Working in an agency environment, managing internal deadlines alongside client requests can get tricky. Each week, I would come out of my internal meetings on Mondays overwhelmed by the number of things that needed to be accomplished by the end of the day on Wednesday.…
The post How to Manage Internal Deadlines Effectively appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Duplicate content is a major cause for concern for site owners.
Google favors sites with fresh and unique content. The main goal of their search engine is to give the best result for a user’s search query, right? A piece of content found on five other sites probably doesn’t fit that criteria.
Not only that, but Google spiders won’t know which is the original piece if another site copies your content word-for-word. They’ll rank both lower than a completely unique piece of content since they don’t know which deserves the higher spot.
The bad news? Your content is free and easy to access. People can cut and paste your content onto their own site, resulting in duplicate content—which is extremely bad for SEO.
One tool aiming to help site owners combat it is Duplichecker.
We put this tool to the test to find out:
Duplichecker is a plagiarism checker tool that can find instances of duplicate content.
It scans the internet for the same sentences, phrases, or paragraphs you’ve got on your website, and points you to external URLs that have the same content.
Here’s an example of duplicate content copied from our guide to Private Blog Networks:
We know what Duplichecker is supposed to do. But the real question is: Does it do the job?
I spent a few hours playing around with Duplichecker, judging how many instances of plagiarized content it could pick up.
But during that testing, I found some good parts about the tool—along with others that show Duplichecker still needs some improvement:
Arguably the best part about Duplichecker is the fact it’s free.
Unlike other plagiarized content tools like Siteliner and Copyscape, Duplichecker is completely free to use—and you don’t need an account to use it.
Another benefit of Duplichecker is the fact you can upload several file types, including:
Or, you can pull content from a URL. Simply plug the link where your content is published and find a list of duplicate results found elsewhere:
The Duplichecker tool is part of a wider branch of marketing tools.
That’s why the Duplichecker feature can also analyze grammar by hitting one of the two options below:
Both tools are free, and could replace costly tools like Grammarly Pro.
There’s no doubt that Duplichecker has lots of benefits. However, there are also areas that the tool lacks.
One of those is the word count limit. You can only have 1,000 words per search, which could be an issue if you’re checking whether long-form content has been plagiarized.
(You can work around this limit breaking up your text to 1,000-word chunks. However, you won’t find instances where different blocks of content are used because you can’t check the entire piece at the same time.)
Another downfall is that some content gets weirdly formatted when plugged from a URL. Here’s an example:
But unfortunately, the glitches don’t stop there.
I copied a chunk of text directly into the editor, and it ended up adding hundreds of extra lines:
This mistake, combined with the overwhelming wall of ads on the tool’s homepage, give it a “buggy” feeling. It doesn’t feel like a professional tool.
Finally, it’s worth noting that you can’t run a duplicate content check site-wide with Duplichecker. You need to plug the URL in one by one, which can get time consuming (especially if you have a large website.)
Other tools—including Copyscape—can do site-wide searches.
The short answer is not very. Granted, it does pick up some instances of plagiarized content, but the accuracy isn’t spot on.
I had a few issues using the tool, including:
During my testing, I copied a section of a guest post I’d written for Sellbrite into Duplichecker. The original piece was also syndicated to Business2Community, so I knew there was at least one instance of duplicate content.
However, Duplichecker didn’t pick either up. It marked my content as 100% unique:
Similarly, Duplichecker doesn’t seem to be able to handle quotes.
For example, I entered this quote in Duplichecker: “The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.”
The tool found just one instance of plagiarized content:
…But when you type that in Google with quotation marks, you can see hundreds of URLs containing exactly the same content:
We know that Duplichecker can’t find syndicated content or quotes, right?
Those things aren’t consistent.
I tested this post I wrote for ConversionXL, which was also syndicated on Business2Community. One of the quotes included in my article did get picked up as being duplicate, along with the original post:
But yet again, the syndicated version on Business2Community didn’t get flagged.
You can also spot that Duplichecker marked 33% of my content as plagiarized, with the remaining 67% being “unique.”
It wasn’t—the content was lifted directly from the original post, yet Duplichecker only considered three paragraphs as being duplicated elsewhere.
There are tons of plagiarized content tools you can use. One of the most famous is Copyscape. So, how does Duplichecker’s tool compare?
Let’s start by discussing the most obvious differentiator: Cost.
Duplichecker is free and checks up to 1,000 words. You don’t need an account to use it, and there aren’t any limits to how many times you can use the tool (so long as you’re beneath the word count on each search.)
Copyscape also has a free version. However, they also offer a Premium plan, which includes a scan of 10,000 pages, excludes sites you already know about, and helps you follow-up with site owners when you ask them to remove or change the duplicate content.
The price for Premium is 3c per search (up to 200 words), plus 1c per extra 100 words.
I’ve also mentioned that Duplichecker lets you check for duplicate content from uploaded files. You can’t do this on Copyscape, which makes it difficult to compare.
For example: When comparing our post on backlinks, I plugged the URL into Copyscape and got lots more results:
It showed only one on Duplichecker because I had to use a smaller sample of content:
Plus, Copyscape has a Copysentry feature. You get emails when new duplicate content is found without having to manually check for it. This costs $4.95/month, but worth the small expense if it means you don’t need to remember to search for plagiarized content.
The bottom line? Duplichecker is good for smaller businesses, or sites without much content… But it’s not very accurate.
Copyscape is the better option for larger businesses, those with lots of content, or those who pay for content. It’s also better if you use it for long-form content since there isn’t a word count limit on the text you’re searching for.
Ready to start searching for duplicate content taken from your website? While it isn’t totally accurate, it does pick up some instances of plagiarized content.
Here’s how you can use the tool to find it:
Start by adding your content to the Duplichecker tool.
You can do this through any of the file types we shared above. Or, add the URL of the content you want to search for:
Bear in mind that you might need to cut some text if it’s over 1,000 words long.
After entering your text, scroll down and you’ll see a report containing much of your content is plagiarized, unique, or has a related-meaning elsewhere:
You want most—if not all—of your content to be completely unique.
Remember: It’s bad for SEO if you’ve got content on your site that exists elsewhere, too.
Beneath your score report, you’ll see a list of URLs with similar content to yours.
Click “Compare Results” and you’ll see the other site with your duplicate content highlighted:
Check how much of your content is duplicated on this site.
For example: Is it a full blog post or just a few sentences? A full blog post might need more serious action than a few sentences.
It’s also important to check the type of content that has been duplicated. A quote from your blog post that references it as a source might not be a bad thing. But if they’re totally ripped off your content without giving credit, that’s an issue.
We already know that duplicate content is a huge SEO problem. So, we want to find any instances of plagiarized content and change it.
There are two ways you can do this:
Our final word on Duplichecker? It’s a good, free tool to have in your toolstack—especially if you produce content for your website.
However, it does lack in specific areas. It’s unable to pick up quotes, syndicated content, and probably won’t show every instance of where your content has been plagiarized.
The bottom line? I’d recommend Duplichecker to small businesses with limited content production. But if you produce lots of content or invest in content from freelance writers, you’d be better off with a more reliable alternative like Copyscape.
George Bernard Shaw once said “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
We talk about knowing your audience in search, but it goes for just about everything.…
The post Using the MAYA Principle for Effective Communication appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Anyone who’s worked at an agency before is well aware of how fast-paced and volatile these work environments can be. We can have our whole day or week planned out, yet everything can change within a split second. That said, knowing how to manage your time wisely can help you stay on top of everything even when it can get a little chaotic.…
The post 4 Time Management Tips for Working at an Agency appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This is a guest post by Erin Butler, Freelance Writer & Accountant.
Erin Butler is a freelance writer who works in accounting as her day job. Though she loves numbers, she has wanted to be an author since she was 8 years old and will hopefully finish her first novel soon.…
The post Resources to Know that Help Analyze the Market on Amazon appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The State of Google Search Partners:
The post Of 3,785 Google Search Partner Placements Reviewed: 3,785 Were Garbage appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Google’s BERT update, which was released in October 2019, was one of the most significant algorithm updates in recent years. However, traditional SERP tracking tools showed only minor fluctuations after the update, and many webmasters saw no noticeable change in their core keyword rankings.…
The post How to Find BERT Keywords appeared first on Seer Interactive.
We updated a Chrome extension for SEO called SEO Meta in 1-Click. It was already awesome, but now it has 51 more tools to help you do those quick ad hoc checks for technical SEO.
The post How to Use SEO Meta in 1-Click (SEO Chrome Extension) appeared first on Seer Interactive.
When we think about Geo Analysis in search typically we’d be thinking of PPC Geo targeting, but theres a lot of information we can glean regarding our SEO efforts from performing a Geo analysis.…
The post 2 Geo Analysis Visuals You Can Create in Google Data Studio appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I’m a digital marketer. I’ve been at 3 companies prior to this job, from a 10-person startup to Fortune500. Every company has its fair shares of good and bad, but I always found myself asking more of the organization for which I worked.…
The post How I Ended Up at The Perfect Company & Why appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The most famous phrase used in SEO is “it depends”. Everything depends on the type of content, the CMS on which the site is built, the industry you’re in, etc. But when it comes to SEO for healthcare organizations, “it depends” becomes “it matters”.…
The post 3 Things You Need to Consider for Healthcare SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Some call it “Cyber 5”; some call it “Turkey 5”. Here, we have a different name for the weekend after Thanksgiving: “Game time.” At Seer, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are like the Super Bowl for our e-commerce clients, and we take the holiday shopping season VERY seriously.…
The post Seer Clients Saw an Avg. +24% YoY Revenue Increase Over Black Friday Weekend appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written By: Christina Blake & Kia Street.
Calculated fields allow you to create new or custom metrics or dimensions in Google Data Studio from your existing data. You can perform calculations, create categories, or transform your data with calculated fields.…
The post 10 Ways to Use Calculated Fields in Google Data Studio appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I recently found myself in a situation that required me to find internal linking opportunities for two separate clients. For me, finding internal links typically takes a lot of time and is a very tedious (and boring) task. For that reason, I think internal linking opportunities are often missed.…
The post How to Find Internal Linking Opportunities at Scale appeared first on Seer Interactive.
At Seer, we are here for a good interface “facelift,” and it looks like Facebook’s Creative Hub is the latest and greatest with a new look and all-new features. Present mockups of ads quicker, easier, and more efficiently with all the latest updates.…
The post Build Facebook Ads with Confidence Using the Revamped Creative Hub appeared first on Seer Interactive.
As an agency that delivers monthly SEO reports to each and every one of our clients, we’ve produced a lot of monthly reports in our 17 years in business. I review roughly 15 reports each month, and real talk, I’ve seen things that have kept me up at night.…
The post 7 Tips to Write More Effective SEO Reports appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I recently found myself in an odd situation. My client had launched an eCommerce site that is less than a year old. As I was digging through Google Analytics I noticed that about 56% of organic visitors were NOT viewing product pages!…
The post The Importance of Internal Linking to Boost Site Performance and UX appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written by: Emmilly Best, Jennifer Hester
Originally Published: September 11, 2019 | Updated: December 4, 2019
By now you’ve heard of the General Data Protection Regulation also know as “GDPR” that passed in the European Union in 2016 and went into effect in 2018.…
The post What is the California Consumer Privacy Act? (& How to Prepare for It) appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Earlier this year, Google released a Beta ad format that enables us to share visual stories with potential customers, in addition to Display, Shopping, and YouTube.
The post Our Client Saw 890 Incremental Conversions with Google Discovery Ads appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This post was written by Kevin Zabel, one of our Fall 2019 Digital Marketing interns.
Looking for an easy-to-use tool that will grant you access to thousands of new keyword ideas for your company?…
The post Google Keyword Planner: A How-To Guide appeared first on Seer Interactive.
For years, digital marketers have served one master: Google (OK, and other search engines). Search engines zigged and we zagged to play by the rules they’ve set. Keywords on the page matter most for rankings? Alright, let’s get to a keyword density of 6% and call it a day.…
The post Optimizing for People: Why User Research Matters for Marketers appeared first on Seer Interactive.
