Digital marketing has evolved over the years. Advertising has become more interactive and engaging. Businesses need to leverage digital marketing tools to connect with their potential customers. Traditional marketing methods are no longer enough. Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global economy, and businesses have to go online to survive.

The list is divided into 5 sections which will cover:

• SEO
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

9 SEO Friendly Content Writing Tips to Outrank Your Competition

This article was written by Alison Lillie. The article discusses the top nine tactics that you can use to outrank your competitors in the search engine result pages. You can incorporate the listed tactics into your website and get your content optimized for both search engines and your target audience.

Learn About the Three Core Web Vitals: LCP, FID, & CLS

Google announced that a new ranking factor to be rolled out in May 2021; page experience. As Google has continuously focused on improving user experience and encouraged website owners to do the same, it’s going to play a bigger role in 2021. Google also introduced new metrics that revolve around user experience and added them to Google Search Console recently; The Core Web Vital which consists of LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).

Yoast has published this article and it was written by their strategic content specialist, Edwin Toonen. If you’re serious about retaining your search rankings in 2021, you might want to check out this article and get to know everything about Core Web Vitals. The documents published by Google can be slightly technical and hard to consume. This article is simple and easy to understand. Just give it a try reading it!

Five SEO Content Types to Grow Your Business Through 2020

This article was written by Jim Yu, the founder, and CEO of BrightEdge. The article was published on Search Engine Watch. In this article, you will learn the top five content types that you can integrate with your current content marketing efforts and scale your business growth.

According to Yu, you need to focus on written content, visual content like images, infographics and illustrations, video content, audio content, and interactive content like online courses and webinars.

The content that ranks and encourages people to engage is not the ones optimized for search but the ones that start with search. You need to understand your target audience and just get the right content type in front of them. And that’s why it’s important to focus more on strategic content planning with the use of data to produce content that fits each stage of your sales funnel.

8 On-Page Optimization That Google Hates

This article was written by Kristen M. Vaughn. On-page Optimization has evolved over the years and some still practising outdated techniques. In this article, the author has listed the outdated on-page SEO techniques you should avoid at all costs. These are the techniques you should avoid:

• Keyword Stuffing
• Optimizing for Desktop Alone
• Targeting Keyword for Traffic, Not Intent
• Unnatural Internal Linking
• Unique page for Every Keyword Variation
• Spammy Footers
• Cloaking
• Content Swapping

Ultimate Guide to Surfer Onsite Optimization in 2021

This amazing guide was written by Matt Diggity. As on-page optimization plays a vital role in ranking and attracting visitors to stay longer on your website, you need to make sure to get it right.

Surfer is an SEO tool that can accelerate your on-page optimization process. In this article, you will learn how to utilize the tool to create valuable content and rank for the right keywords relevant to your niche.

Note: Surfer is a paid tool that was launched in 2017. The tool has helped many websites to accelerate their on-page optimization tasks and assisted in developing high-value content.

Why Google Search Console & Google Analytics Data Never Matches

The article was written by Michael King, the founder and managing director of iPullRank. The data disparity between Google Search Console and Google Analytics has been a debate for years now.

In this article, you will find the reasons behind the difference in data between those tools. This article will help you realize the importance of Google Analytics and Google Search Console and how you can use them to grow your organic traffic.

Keyword Research Tips: How to Build Keyword Universe Through Data

This article was written by Rebecca Gill, founder of Web Savvy Marketing. Keywords are essential for SEO and that’s what people are using to search for your products and services.

This article points out the importance of identifying the right keywords and emphasizes long-tail keywords. The author also listed the top 20 best keyword research tools and resources to help business owners like you be efficient with the keyword research process.

Google: Duplicate Content is Not A Negative Ranking Factor

This article was written by Matt Southern. Recently, Google’s John Mueller has clarified the misconception of duplicate content and said that it’s not a negative ranking factor.

This article will help you clear your misunderstanding about duplicate content. In recent years, many experts have indicated that duplicate content hurts your search engine rankings and penalizes your site in certain scenarios.

What is SEO Content? How to Write Content That Ranks

This article was written by Joshua Hardwick of Ahrefs. In this article, you will learn everything about SEO content and the fundamentals of creating content that ranks on Google. Although there are many contents out there that talk about the exact topic, this article stands out from others.

You will learn how to find a proven topic to publish your content on your website.

Social Media Marketing

15 Social Media Marketing Examples to Inspire You in 2021

This article was published in Influencer Marketing Hub. Most business owners have a misconception that social media marketing is about posting content regularly on their social media pages. It’s more than that.

That’s why some brands are doing better than others. It’s all about getting the right content for the right audience at the right time. You don’t have to publish social media posts on daily basis.

In this article, you will find the most successful social media marketing examples and how their social media postings resonate with their target audience.

How Social Media Marketers Are Using AI to Improve Their Performance

This article was published in Growth Hackers. It discusses how AI is helping social marketers to save time and money, optimize social media content and help brands to understand their target audience and industry.

There are many aspects of social media marketing that can be easily improved by leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence). But, completely depending on AI is not something that works for businesses.

Social media marketers should be careful in choosing the right technology that can save their time and money strategically.  

TikTok For Business: Why Marketers Should Consider TikTok

This article was written by Michael Stelzner, founder, and CEO of Social Media Examiner. TikTok is making a huge impact in the social media space and helping brands to reach a huge audience with interactive content. Even if you’re just starting, TikTok is one of the best social media platforms to start with.

As other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are moving towards paid options with a huge decline in organic reach, TikTok has the advantage in organic reach. Moreover, TikTok has a global audience of 800 million people today and the numbers are growing steadily.

Learn how you can create TikTok content and drive traffic to your brand.

How to Convert More Prospects on Social Media: A 5-Step Plan

This amazing article was written by Laura Farkas. This article focused on helping businesses especially the ones in consulting services to convert their prospects using social media.

Laura has laid out the important steps you need to follow to convert more prospects on social media. You can use this exact plan for other businesses as well with a little tweak to the plan depending on your target audience.

Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Algorithms

This article was written by Brent Barnhart. Apart from search engines, social media channels have algorithms that are constantly updated. However, social media algorithms sort and shows social media posts in a users’ feed based on relevancy.

You don’t have to completely understand the technical aspect of these algorithms. All you need to know is how it works and how you can rise above and reach your target audience the right way.

Is Instagram Reels Worth Pursuing? Pros and Cons for Marketers

This article was written by Laura Davis. Instagram Reels or TikTok? If you ever wondered whether Instagram Reels works better than Instagram Stories or TikTok, you got to read this article.

Instagram Reels is a new way of sharing 15-second videos on Instagram. It’s the new addition to Instagram content placement. Find out the advantages and disadvantages of Instagram Reels and determine whether incorporating Instagram Reels can help your brand.

How Brands Can Develop Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy in 2021

An insightful article was written by Arash Derakshan. As 2020 was not easy for every business, the incident gives some insights on how brands should build their winning social media strategy for 2021.

The author has shared a few ideas and suggestions on how you can position your brand for social media marketing success in 2021.

3 Kinds of Social Media Marketing You Shouldn’t Ignore

This article was written by Eric Butow. It’s an excerpt from the book; Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing which was also written by Eric Butow. The article lists down the 3 top social media marketing that brands should not ignore.

Take advantage of these strategies and develop a powerful social media marketing campaign that attracts your target audience.

Social Media Trends 2021: Optimize your Digital Strategy For Social Success

This article was written by Gabrielle Wright, the blog editor at Smart Insights. Social media marketing has become more important than ever in 2021 with huge changes in 2021.

In this article, the author has listed the top 6 social media trends that you need to be aware of to reach and convert more customers.

23 Ways to Easily Increase Instagram Engagement in 2021

This article was written by Adam Phillips. Still, having difficulties in increasing your Instagram followings and engagement? You need to bookmark this article.

With a new competitive challenger, TikTok slowly growing, Instagram remains as the top engaging social media channel. There are huge potentials with Instagram if you use the right strategies to market your products and services to your target audience.

Leverage the tips shared in this article and start growing your Instagram followings and engagements.

Content Marketing

11 Steps to Create a Content Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business

This article was written by Sharon Hurley Hall. The problem with businesses is that they don’t have documented content marketing strategy to grow their business. Even the latest research studies show that almost 63% of businesses don’t have documented systematic content marketing strategies.

You can use these effective 11 steps to create a content marketing strategy to grow your business in 2021.

5 B2B Content Marketing Examples You Can Copy

This article was written by Zontee Hou. For B2B businesses, content marketing can be highly valuable and relevant to your audience. Developing a strong content marketing strategy for B2B businesses can be lucrative.

In this article, you can find five B2B content marketing examples that understand their audience’s pain points and provide solutions to overcome their problems.

If You Want People to Actually See the Content You’re Creating, Follow These Steps

This article was written by Jeremy Moser. With millions of content being created every day, getting the eyes to your produced content can be hard. According to studies, 95% of all content online has zero backlinks and subsequently zero traffic.

So, are there any tactics that can help your content get in front of your potential customers?

In this article, you will learn how to get your content in front of your audience and encourage them to consume it.

100+ Content Marketing Predictions for 2021

This awesome article was written by Stephanie Stahl, general manager of Content Marketing Institute. It is the compilation of content marketing predictions by industry experts.

If you’re looking to stay updated with the trend changes in content marketing, make sure to bookmark this article and check out all the content marketing trends predicted.

17 Actionable Content Marketing Tips for More Traffic

This article was written by Brian Dean. This is a list of actionable content marketing strategies that you can apply to your content marketing efforts right away.

The author has claimed that he has used the same strategies to grow his blog to 304,265 monthly visits. If you want to get the best out of every piece of content you publish, try out the tips, techniques, and strategies discussed in this article.

The 10-Step Effective Content Marketing Campaign

This article was written by Robert W. Bly. This is an excerpt from The Content Marketing Handbook written by the same author. The 10 key steps to content marketing success is listed in this article.

If you’re starting your content marketing campaign from scratch, this article is one of the valuable resources you can use as a reference.

The 17 Best Content Marketing Books You Can Read Right Now

This article was written by Syed Balkhi, an award-winning entrepreneur. With hundreds of blog posts on the best business books to read, this is something different.

Content marketing is the fuel to your overall digital marketing success. Without content marketing, you will have difficulties in appearing in front of your audience and getting your brand recognized.

In this article, there are 17 books related to content marketing that can help you become a better marketer and entrepreneur.

How Long Should Blog Post Be? The ‘Truth” About Content-Length

This article was written by Joshua Hardwick of Ahrefs. This article emphasizes the content length. There is no fixed length for content. It depends on your audience and what kind of content you’re building for that audience.

If you’re writing a blog post, you want to cover the entire topic you’re writing about. Rather than writing generic content, you need to dive deep and provide valuable content for your audience.

In this article, the content length is explained in detail backed with data. They are extremely useful to justify the length of content that you should focus on.

Email Marketing

6 Reasons Why Having an Email Marketing List is Better Than Any Social Media

This article was written by Svetoslav Dimitrov. We all know that social media marketing is dominating the digital marketing space. And most businesses feel that sending traditional text-based emails is outdated. But little do you know that email marketing has the highest ROI compared to any digital marketing strategy.

In this article, the author has listed the top reason why having an email marketing list is better than any social media channel.

 Is Email Marketing Dead? No, But These Practices Are

This article was written by Kayla Carmicheal. As email marketing is a well-known communication medium used by almost everyone in this world, still businesses having difficulties in launching successful email marketing campaigns.

In this article, the author has listed the outdated practices that businesses should avoid if they want to improve their email marketing ROI.

7 Essential Steps to An Effective Email Marketing Campaign

The article was written by Beverly Davis. You’ve built a list of email subscribers from your website but are clueless about how to effectively run an email marketing campaign to convert those subscribers to paying customers.

This article will help you strategically create effective email marketing from scratch with the step-by-step guide.

9 Best Email Marketing Software Tools for Small Businesses

This article was written by Jessica Lunk. We understand that small businesses often have limited resources to invest in various digital marketing tools.

In this article, the author has included the factors you should consider when choosing the right email marketing tools. You can also look at the email marketing tools listed in this article that suits your budget.

5 Email Marketing Trends to Help You Plan 2021 Campaigns

This article was written by IIma, COO at Mailerlite. Like any other digital marketing channel, email marketing is constantly evolving as well. As people’s behaviour towards digital space is changing, it is important to be aware of that.

The pandemic has shifted the digital marketing strategies used by businesses. People were constantly connected to their email and studies show that the email sending volume increased by 45% in 2020.

This article has mentioned the top 5 email marketing trends and how to align your email marketing campaigns. Amazing insights were shared in this article.

4 Things You Should Change About Your Email Marketing

This article was written by Liviu Tanase, Founder & CEO of ZeroBounce. As more and more businesses are focused on understanding and implementing email marketing strategies, email marketing has performed better recently.

More people are spending time in their inboxes. Thanks to smartphones.  In this article, you will learn how to adapt to new changes in email marketing for greater success.

How to Use Predictive Analytics to Power Up Your Email Marketing

This article was published in Smart Insights. Predictive analytics for email marketing is not something new. It has been there for quite some time. If you want to make the right decisions with your email marketing campaigns, predictive analysis is the way to go.

In this article, you will get to know how to power up your email marketing strategy with predictive analysis.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

14 Conversion Rate Optimization Tips to Convert More Traffic

This article was written by Brett Farmiloe. Driving traffic to your website is great. But what’s the point if you’re unable to convince your visitors to purchase your products or services.

In this article, 14 small business leaders share their best tips to convert traffic over to a contact form (enquiries) or sales.

Will Conversion Rate Optimization Become a Part of Customer Journey Optimization? 28 Digital Marketing Experts Answer

This article was published by Andrada Vonhaz. Many companies think that CRO is just about fixing their site to provide a better user experience for the website visitors. CRO has more to offer. It’s a part of customer journey optimization.

In this article, 28 experts share their views on integrating CRO as a part of customer journey optimization.

The Top 5 CRO Mistakes Beginners Make and How to Prevent Them

This article was written by Kurt Phillip. If you’re a beginner, CRO is a complex process and you can easily lose your direction. The main goal of CRO is to identify why your traffic is not converting and make necessary changes to increase the conversion.

In this article, you can find the top 5 CRO mistakes that beginners make and the ways to prevent them.

What is Conversion Rate Optimization? A Quick Guide for Beginners

This article was written by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you’re a beginner and want to know more about conversion rate optimization (CRO), this article is one of the best resources to start with.

You will learn the basics of CRO and understand the benefits of CRO. Just take it slow and don’t rush into implementation. Understand the concept and make small changes to see the differences in the performance of your website conversion.

26 Conversion Rate Optimization Stats to Fuel Your Blog Strategy

This article was written by Ushabelle Bongo. Generating traffic is a technique to get your website or content in front of your audience. What matters the most is the ability of the content to convert that traffic into paying customers. And that’s where CRO comes in.

In this article, you will find the most important CRO stats you show know in improving the conversion rate of your blog.

15 Persuasive Copywriting Techniques That’ll Boost Conversions

This article was written by Darek Black. The main objective of any digital marketer is to increase customer acquisition. Traffic will remain as vanity metrics if you’re unable to convert them. But how to persuade your visitors and convert them?

In this article, you will explore 15 persuasive copywriting techniques that will help you engage with your leads and convert them into paying customers.

Why Conversion Rate Optimization Matters for Online Retailers

This article was written by Graham Charlton. Customer journeys are not easy as you think. Most of the time online customer journeys are imperfect and prevent shoppers from making a purchase. CRO often helps businesses to identify the problems encountered by online customers and fix them.

In this article, you will learn the most common methods used to improve the conversion of online retail stores. You can apply them to your online store as well.

These are the top digital marketing articles that you should read in 2021. We are aware there are hundreds to thousands of resources available online.

The resources listed in this article can help accelerate your digital marketing efforts in the right direction.

If you think I’ve missed out on some of the top digital marketing articles? Please share with us by commenting below.