How to Write a Great CCOT Essay on Advertising in Cultural History

How to Write a Great CCOT Essay on Advertising in Cultural History Writing a continuity and change-over-time (CCOT) essay is one of the more difficult writing tasks a student will face throughout his or her time in school. This difficulty is due to the technical nature as well as the amount of research needed to be done to accurately write a CCOT paper. A CCOT essay is one that intends to answer a question by comparing two time periods relating to subject with the aim of analyzing what has changed and what has not over a selected period of time. Here are some tips on how to write a great CCOT essay when challenged with such a task. Truly Understand What You Are Asked to Do The biggest hurdle most students face when writing a CCOT essay, is understanding the mission they have been given. Therefore, most students end up writing either an expository or argumentative essay which results in failure. So the tip here is to read the questions carefully asked and understand the requirements before putting pen to paper. When reading the question, here are some things to consider that will help you put things in the right perspective: What am I been asked to do? What are the keywords in this question? What area of the world am I analyzing? And What time periods should I analyze? Answering these questions set the right ambience needed to proceed to mapping out your writing strategy. Create a Strategy for your Essay Now that you have understood the task ahead of you, the next step is to create a strategy on how you intend to answer the important questions raised in the questionnaire. The first step to being organized is choosing a topic name. When writing about advertising in cultural history, a topic such as ‘Advertising Historical Context and its Growth over Time’ puts you in the right part to planning the body of your essay. Here are some tips to creating a good strategy: Choose your time periods to base your research on Research its role in history or research the historical role of advertising in relation to the chosen time period Research the technologies that had an impact on it Understand what changes had occurred to its role in the world as a result of evolving technology Research what concepts or practices remained similar even after these changes. Write your CCOT Essay Once you have defined a strategy, the next step is doing the actual writing work on the chosen topic. In this stage, it is important to focus on the structure you have aligned to serve you throughout your project. A CCOT essay still follows the traditional arrangement of using an introduction, an essay body and a concluding paragraph to discuss your findings. Proof Read your Essay The last step is proofreading what you have written not just for grammatical or syntax errors but to ascertain that you have followed the prescribed CCOT essay structure. Therefore, it is important to note if you have chosen a time period, discussed how things were during that time, identify and analyze factors that changed the status quo and also analyze what didn’t change even after change factors were integrated into certain approaches. Here we come to the end of these salient tips you can use to write a CCOT essay on advertising in cultural history. If in need of topic ideas, do not hesitate to check this helpful article covering 20 CCOT essay topics on advertising in cultural history. You can also find facts that will help you compare advertising time periods in this article 10 CCOT essay facts on advertising in cultural history.

How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm and Medic Update

How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm and Medic Update You already know that content marketing is a tough nut to crackeven if you’ve got the privilege of working with a team of people with a knack for words. There’s blog posts everywhere you turn in your Google Drive, research papers littering your desk, and website content planned for the next six months. But even after all that prep,  it’s still possible to sink to the bottom of Google’s search results. Just 9% of content  gets some form of organic traffic. And it’s pretty easy to fall into the 91% that doesn’tespecially when over 3 million blog posts  are being published every day. Pretty disheartening, right? It doesn’t have to be that way forever. In fact, you could earn pride of place in Google’s SERPs by focusing on one of their new algorithm features: The E-A-T update. Here’s how you can get in on the action. How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm Update by @elisedopson via @ Where It All Started: The â€Å"Medic† Update On Aug. 1, 2018, Google rolled out a new core algorithm update. That’s not groundbreaking newsthey release some kind of update several times a year, as explained by the internet gods themselves: As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.... - Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 12, 2018 But this one? It was pretty spectacular. And I don’t just mean the sheer size of itthe effects were devastating for some websites. Huge sites like LiveStrong, The Kitchn and Men’s Health lost thousands of organic visitors  overnight: I think a 50%+ drop in organic traffic is significant enough to call this update a pretty big deal. But if you had your spy goggles on while sieving through that data, you might’ve noticed a trend with the sites that took a hit. Data collected by Search Engine Round Table  found 41% of all sites affected by the update were in the healthcare nichehence why you might’ve heard the algorithm named the â€Å"medic update†. That’s not to say site owners who don’t fall into the healthcare category are safe though. In fact, eCommerce, business, technology and finance took a sizeable dent of the disaster share, too: E-A-T Guidelines, Explained If I’ve scared your socks off, I apologize. But the entire point of me talking about this is to show you how you don’t have to slip to the bottom of page 50 at the mercy of the medic update. In fact, you can use one of their revised ranking factors to your advantage with the content you’re creating. Part of the medic update consisted of Google’s guidelines to â€Å"create great content†. Here’s Google’s Public Search Liason, Danny Sullivan, explaining exactly that: We tell lots of things to do. Improve site speed. Consider secure. Etc. But that's not what this update was about. It's broad. And respectfully, I think telling people there's no particular thing to "fix" is indeed helpful. It means, hopefully, they think more broadly... - Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018 Not really helpful, right? Especially if you’re already creating great content. (Which, spoiler alert: You should be.) But an interesting part of that whitepaper was Google’s focus on E-A-T content. Those guidelines refer to how Google measures the quality of a page. It stands for: Expertise: How knowledgeable is the site owner on the subject matter? Authoritativeness: How credible is the website publishing this content? Trustworthiness: How trustworthy is the website publishing this? Google’s aim has always, and will always, be to show the best, highest-quality results for any search term you could think of. Searchers want to see the best content that satisfies our user intent. If that’s to view information, you’ve got no chance of ranking highly if you’re not factoring E-A-T guidelines into your content marketing strategy. Recommended Reading: The Most Massive SEO Copywriting Guide That Will Make Your Traffic Soar How to Create E-A-T Rich Content Ready to make a dent in the SERPs and start creating content that Google (and your audience) love? Here are the four sections you really need to focus on: 1. Optimize Author Bio and â€Å"About† Pages Let’s start by focusing on the â€Å"E† section of this new algorithm update: Expertise. You need to be showing that everyone contributing to your website is an expert on the topic at handwhether that’s B2B content marketing or dog walking. Why? Because going back to Google’s aim, they want to give searchers the highest quality information. Let’s use an example. If you’re searching for information on the best time to post on social media, which of these would you be more satisfied with? A site ran by a budget social media agency. A site ran by a social media expert, who’s also a keynote speaker and has 10,000+ Twitter followers. I’ll bet you pick option is B. That’d be Google’s preference, too, purely because they’re more trustworthy and have more expertise than option A. The easiest way to showcase your expertise is to optimize two key pages on your website: Author Bio Pages You already know that many CMS create pages, such as author bio pages, automatically. I’m not here to teach you how to suck eggs. But you might not realize you’re able to edit these automatically-generated author pages, and build on the expertise section of Google’s E-A-T guidelineswhile maximising your search visibility. Author bios are a great place to start because Google’s quality guidelines  say: â€Å"Websites or pages without any beneficial purpose, including pages that are created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform or deceive users, should receive the Lowest rating.† So, for each person with an author page on your website, ask yourself: Are they social influencers? Do they run popular blogs? Have they won awards? Have they spoken at industry conferences? Have they worked with/written for prestigious companies? If you can answer â€Å"yes† to either one, share the details in their author bio pageor ask contributing writers to craft their own professional bio  before you publish their content. Here’s a fantastic example on Search Engine Journal: Along with setting herself apart from other contributors, Julia’s bio shows she’s an expert in her industry. She runs an almost 100-person strong team, served thousands of clients, been named as a top 30 content marketer, written a book, hosted a podcast, and published a course. Pretty impressive, right? Since author bio pages that rarely offer any value, your target audience see content that’s published by someone with experience, knowledge and expertise (like Julia) when you’re optimizing them. Show them you’ve got it on offer! Recommended Reading: Your Ultimate Content Marketer's Guide to Keyword Research About Pages Take the â€Å"show your expertise† game a step further by optimizing the ‘about’ page of your website. This isn’t person-specific; it’s a full rundown of your company and lets your audience get to know the people behind the brand. You could answer questions like: What experts are on your team? Have you won (or been nominated for) awards for your work? Why should someone pick your business over a competitor? Just take a peek at this infographic from the About page on Avalaunch Media’s site  for inspiration: 102 years of digital marketing experience is pretty impressiveas is the long list of logos of sites they’ve been featured in, and the number of events their team have spoken at. Fancy putting this infographic-style About page into action for your own site? Remember to add some supporting text. Google isn’t smart enough to understand images (yet), so make sure you’re giving their search engine spiders  text they can read and rank. Recommended Reading: SEO Content Strategy: How to Make Your Traffic Soar by 594% 2. Purge (and Redirect) Poorly-Performing Content If you’re creating content on a consistent basis, you might think you’re acing this whole â€Å"content marketing† thing. Truth is: You’re only acing it if the content you’re pushing is getting resultswhether that’s direct traffic, social shares, or conversions. If your content isn’t getting any of that, it’s hindering you, not helping you. The E-A-T algorithm means site owners need to create a site-wide content plan with high-performing content. How can you an expert in your industry if 90% of your content doesn’t perform well? Enter: Content pruning. A fancy word for removing your old content, and redirecting usersand Google spidersto something better. Jimmy Daly, Content Manager at Animalz, told me how QuickBooks pruned their poorly-performing content  and grew search traffic by 44% year-on-year: â€Å"QuickBooks SEO lead Will Waggoner merged pageview data with conversion data to help him decide which pages to prune. He made sure to ignore new content that hadn't been around long enough to rank or assist in conversions. He generated a list of pages that received less than 100 pageviews in the last six months and had not assisted in any conversions. Then, he made a plan for each URL. Some would be redirected to an article on a similar topic and some would be redirected to the blog home page. Lastly, Will confirmed that the sitemap would update automatically. Once confirmed, he put the redirects in place. Traffic was up 20% in a few weeks. By the time peak season rolled around, QuickBooks' content was getting 44% more traffic than the previous year. Will points out that removing content doesn't guarantee increased traffic. He recommends improving navigation to make content more accessible and refreshing old content first. Each piece of content represents a significant investment of time and money- delete it only when you've exhausted other options.† Fancy following Will’s strategy? Here’s a quick summary of what you need to do to meet Google’s E-A-T algorithm: Identify poorly-performing pages with 100 page views in the past six months or pages that don’t generate conversions. (Use Google Analytics’ conversion paths  for this.) Improve those pages, or delete them. If redirected, redirect the old URL to the next, most-relevant page. For example: If you’ve deleted a page on content marketing tips, redirect it to a related blog post or your services page. Just like QuickBooks, you’ll see the impact in no timetrust me. 3. Take Control Over User-Generated Content (UGC) Opening your site to guest authors is a scalable way to increase your content output. But if you’re not keeping a close eye on the content being published, you’ve got no chance of catering to those E-A-T guidelines we’re working so hard to meet. It ties back into the point I made about deleting poorly performing content: Poor content will reduce your entire site’s credibilitywhether it was published by your marketing team, or not. Think about it: If you’re opening your site to contributors, you might get a ton of new content being published to your site every day. That’s great right? Not necessarily. Not all content is good content. Contributors might be publishing: Spun content Duplicate content Low-quality content Content that’s optimized for another keyword you’re already targeting elsewhere It’s better to have one strong piece of content, rather than five low-quality ones. That way, both Google and your audience are wowed by one pieceand you’re in with the chance of ranking higher naturally.   But opening your site to contributors, and allowing them to publish their own content, could make that harder. Caveat that by: Not giving contributors permission to publish without being reviewed by you, first. Creating a set of writing guidelines that all contributors must  stick to. does the latter. Just take a look at the â€Å"write for us† page: Notice how only the best writers squeeze through their process and end up having their writing published? (Including me 😇) You want to follow the same ethos and never sacrifice quality for quantity. Google wants to push sites with expertise, knowledge and trust to the top of the ranks. Vet your contributors and if they don’t meet the same E-A-T guidelines, don’t publish their stuff. It’s really that simple! 4. Build Strong Editorial Backlinks Ah, the one word that makes SEOs rejoice: Backlinks. Us content marketers already know these little hyperlinks play a huge role in any SEO strategy, but your content needs to act as a link-building machine if you want to benefit from this algorithm update. Why? Because links prove credibilitythat caters to the T part of the E-A-T algorithm: Trustworthiness. Site owners who’re dishing out backlinks want to point their audience in the way of incredible content. If they point to low-quality sites, it’s their reputation at stakeand their own rankings that will drop. That’s not gonna do them any favors. But site owners who run reputable, powerful websites want to send their audience in the way of great content. Not 500 words of spun content or content stuffed with your keyword in every paragraphhence why you need to create strong content, and build even stronger backlinks to get in Google’s good books. Follow Moz’s 10x framework, or Backlinko’s skyscraper technique, to build that content. Go above and beyond with your knowledge, educating your customers much better that anyone else can. Then once you’ve got a kick-ass piece of content that’s 10x better than your competition, do some outreach to spread the word. You could: Send the URL to other blogs you’ve linked-to (external linking is good for SEO) Ask influencers to take part and get them to share with their followers Build your own promotion network and ask those people to share your content with their network. (Slack is great for this!) Each of those tactics raises the number of eyeballs on your content. More eyeballs = more backlink opportunities. But if you fancy taking this a step further, go out of your way to ask  for backlinks. Several techniques exist for this, including: Broken link building: Identify a 404 error on your target website, and create a resource to replace it with. Send your URL as a replacement. Round-up/resource link building: Search popular round-up/resource pages in your industry, and reach out to the editor asking to get involved. Guest posting: Write another piece of supporting content and place it on a popular website, linking back to your original piece. Infographic link building: Create an infographic to support your content, and attempt to get it published on industry sites with a link to your content as credit. When you’re working through this section, remember that not every backlink is a good backlink. Good backlinks are contextual, and from authoritative sites with good SEO metrics. It’s a waste of time targeting sites with low Domain Authority, for example, since those won’t pass much ranking power through to your site. SEO powerhouses like HuffPost and Forbes, on the other hand, will! Ready to Ace Google’s E-A-T Algorithm? If you’re not focusing on creating content that’s written by experts, authoritative and from a trustworthy site, you’ll have a hard time on your journey to page one. But it’s easy to boost your organic search traffic when you’re creating what Google, and your target audience, are cravingjust like Marie Haynes did: YEAH! Got this incredible email today from a client for whom we did a site review and made a bunch of recommendations. Their main terms were on page 2 and 3. And now they're #2 for their most important keyword. Improved E-A-T, internal linking and much more. pic.twitter.com/Z7NeXVRtd8 - Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 27, 2018 Quality content + strong backlinks = better SEO rankings. And whether you’re just about to ramp-up content production or have a ton of existing content to update, the new E-A-T guidelines are going to get you there.