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Content marketing can be very effective in increasing traffic, generating leads, enabling sales – and contributing to SEO. So how can businesses use it to improve their search rankings? When done well, content marketing can contribute to boosting a site’s position in search rankings.R Although this may not seem like the most obvious benefit to a successful content marketing strategy, it’s an effect that no business can ignore. Here’s how to take advantage of your site’s content to rank higher in the SERPs.
Repurposing is a common best practice among the most effective content creators: you can be much more efficient and prolific if you take a single idea and turn it 15 different ways rather than trying to come up with 15 brand new ideas. Ideas are super hard to come by, and when you get a great one you have to grab on with both hands and squeeze as much value out of it as you can. If you’re not sure what I mean by “repurposing,” think of it as taking a great idea and building off it to create something completely new. Kind of like IKEA Hacking, but for marketers. Repurposing comes in three different flavors: - atomization, which is breaking a single asset up into smaller pieces; - aggregation, which is pulling smaller pieces together into larger long-form assets; and - amplification, which is using the themes & messages of your core content to create related pieces that build the strength of your brand’s connection to the idea/topic overall. We’ll dive into each option separately so you can think about which method or methods makes sense for your content mix and marketing team....
Search is the #1 driver of traffic to content web pages, beating social media by more than 300%. According to an experiment conducted by the Groupon marketing team, 60% of direct traffic is actually organic search traffic.
These statistics are pretty exciting, right?
But what if you’re unable to rank highly in Google’s results? Does it mean that you have no hope of generating organic traffic from it? You’ll learn the truth about search engine optimization in this article.
How was I able to rank in Google’s top 10 results for several high-volume keywords? Well, it didn’t happen overnight. I’ve been actively blogging since 2007....
Before you start reading, I want to say that I am not an analytics expert per se, but a strategic SEO and digital marketing consultant. On the other hand, in my daily work of auditing and designing holistic digital marketing strategies, I deal a lot with Analytics in order to understand my clients' gaps and opportunities.
For that reason, what you are going to read isn't an "ultimate guide," but instead my personal and practical guide to content and its metrics, filled with links to useful resources that helped me solving the big contents' metric mystery. I happily expect to see your ideas in the comments....
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I could get them a No. 1 Google ranking for a specific non-branded, hyper-competitive keyword, I would be rich. If I had a dollar for the number of times the people asking me that question actually had the content to warrant such a listing, I would be poor.
Many digital marketing folks, especially in enterprise B2B companies, don't quite understand the relationship between content and SEO. It's long been said in SEO circles that content is king. However, some SEO folks would argue that links or social engagement is king, and that content is the primary driver of links and social success. There are valid arguments on all sides of that meaningless debate, but the point that often gets lost is that creating the best user experience for the vast majority of people searching for a specific keyword is probably what's going to get you ranked consistently for that keyword.
A content strategy that supports that bigger vision is typically different than the customer-focused strategies most B2B companies use. Many people over the years have told me, "Our company is the market leader for this term! We should be No. 1!" That is often true for products or services that are relevant to the keyword phrase they are targeting. It is true that brand recognition - and certainly the links that typically accompany successful brands - make it more likely that a company will rank well for relevant terms, but the fact remains that brand authority is not always enough to guarantee a top ranking for a particular keyword....
But then, this begs the question: if Matt and Google have stuck a fork in one of the most used and effective method of link building — guest blogging, what other link building tactic could replace it? Infographics.
Heck, they even generate more backlinks than most other link building tactics on the Web.“…these visual content pieces are generating more backlinks than any other form of content I publish, which—in the long run—helps increase my search engine rankings and overall readership numbers.” says Neil Patel — Renowned Internet marketer.
Top content marketing influencer, Jeff Bullas, also mirrors Neil’s idea in his post on 9 awesome reasons to use infographics in content marketing...
Just a few years ago, articles about SEO consisted almost entirely of advice on how to carry out the day-to-day technical aspects of keyword research, on-site optimization and link building. And while these elements are certainly still necessary, their importance has declined and changed quite significantly.Instead, marketers must create quality, long form content and use SEO as just one of many content amplification strategies.
This article will walk you through the elements of SEO that are still important for content marketing success in 2015....
There’s a bit of confusion over SEO and content marketing. The confusion comes over how SEO and content marketing fit together. Do they fit together? Are they at odds with each other? If so, is it possible to force them together?
In a previous post, I explained why SEO and content marketing are like PB&J. They go together. They just fit. They work well together.
Now, I want to share exactly why that is — why SEO is actually all about content marketing, and vice versa.
I believe that content marketing is in no danger of dying—at least not anytime soon, and certainly not before 2016. While the rapid growth of content marketing is similar to that of a temporary fad, the fundamental principles behind content marketing are anything but short-term. Content marketing is all about providing value to your customers and building a reputation, and those principles are never going to fade in importance.
The types of content that provide the most value and the steps necessary to achieve visibility for that content are going to change, and because of that, content marketing will change.
Overabundance Issues
One of the biggest problems content marketing is going to face in the next year is overabundance. Because content marketing is universally acclaimed as a high-efficiency customer engagement strategy, almost every business with an online presence is using it....
Google Webspam leader Matt Cutts is one of the most influential SEO advice sources. Before he took a voluntary temporary leave last July, he spent over 10 years giving detailed, precise, and sometimes lengthy explanations to many questions that businesses were asking. He recorded more than 500 videos to share his answers. So how can you sift through all that great counsel and find the ones valuable to you?
Click Consult created TheShortCutts.com, developing a brief summary of each video (sometimes just one word) and categorizing all of the videos, which makes it easy to search for topics. Over 50 videos fall under the website-content category and more than 30 address related aspects, so I decided to do that sifting for you and choose seven of the best to help as you plan your website content strategy....
Have you ever wondered why some types of content generate lots of search traffic and others don’t?
I too was wondering about that, so I started to look for patterns and analyze competing blogs. What I found was interesting – so interesting that I decided to create an infographic to illustrate my findings.
If you want to generate more organic traffic from your content marketing efforts, follow the steps in the infographic below.
I’m going to discuss content marketing strategy as it relates to search engine optimization. A lot of businesses get this wrong by focusing too tightly on the sales parts of the marketing funnel.
With SEO, You Need Authority In organic search, you cannot buy visibility with cash. Instead, the working currencies are authority and relevance. Authority comes from links and social media sharing. Here lies the catch: while you can bond money and keywords together in paid search, links and keywords possess little relationship to each other. In fact, your top converting organic keywords may also be your least link-worthy.
It’s not as easy as SEO-optimizing pages of content for your best PPC keywords. Without authority your content isn’t going to rank.
Understanding Authority When it comes to organic search, there are two types of authority: page and domain. Page authority comes from links pointing at a document....
Domain authority or site wide authority is an aggregate of page authority...
If you want to know what will Google penalize you for or how to tell if your site has received a Google penalty then this is the perfect post for you. Read on!...
In keeping with Google’s commitment to providing a great search experience, it has recently released a new upgrade called Hummingbird. Hummingbird is Google’s largest search algorithm upgrade since 2001.Whereas Penguin and Panda were like new parts to make the existing “engine” run more smoothly,
Hummingbird is more like a new engine. It allows users to enjoy a more natural, “human” search experience. But, according to this article on Forbes.com, Hummingbird has no effect on SEO.
What Actions Does Google Penalize For?
So what will Google penalize you for? There are many rules and possible infractions, and a comprehensive answer to this question is way beyond the scope of this article. But we will cover a few of the basic violations you’ll want to be aware of. Avoid these to reduce the likelihood you’ll get penalized in the first place....
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For the last couple of years we have heard nothing but declarations of the importance of content marketing, and that it really needs to be the driving force behind our SEO campaigns. 'Content is King', remember? Well you will find no disagreement from me, however just because content rules all that doesn't mean that all content was created equally or that every single bit of it is worth doing. So do yourself - and your marketing budget - a favour and stop wasting your time with these three outdated content marketing tactics....
Anything that you post on social media (article links, pictures, videos – everything) is essentially a part of your content, much like the written words in this article. Like any other content, your social media posts absolutely need to be of high quality and provide value to your audience. This is the first and most important thing that you need to keep in mind.
To make all your posts crystal clear for search engines, try to make use of semantic markup every time you share something on social. Semantic markup is the name for putting a HTML tag on your content (like a description for articles or alt-text for images/pictures) that tells search engines what exactly your content is about.
Use a clear, catchy description and mix in a few keywords here and there. For example if your post is about making pancakes and includes a pancake image, you can use something like “Ever wondered how to make the most delicious pancakes at home in just an hour?” and make sure you pay attention to the image’s alt-text, which should read something like “the most delicious pancake recipe”....
Google itself is one of the best tools at an SEO’s disposal.
However, not everyone knows how to use it effectively. There are dozens of search operators and tools that you can use to find virtually anything you’re looking for, but you need to know how to use them.
In this post, I’m going to show you 9 Google search operators that you should know and use on a regular basis.
I’ll show you some tactics that could be helpful for, but if you combine all these operators, they could be used for thousands of useful purposes. Don’t be afraid to be creative....
SEO and content marketing are still not one and the same. However, they’re much more similar to each other today than what they were last decade. For much of this decade the search algorithms allowed for a “build it and they will come” environment for content marketers. In some ways, social media networks did, too. Both HubSpot and Moz reaped the benefits of this over the years. This made content marketers feel like SEOs and SEOs that created content for real consumers feel like content marketers.
Over the last five years the cat’s been let out of the bag. It’s no longer a secret that content marketing can drive copious amounts of traffic to a brand’s website. That’s one of the major reasons why the amount of content on the Internet is supposed to grow by 500% in the year 2020.
A lot of that growth in content can likely be attributed to the thought leadership of brands like Moz, HubSpot and CMI. However, in an era of 500% more content it becomes much more difficult for content to stand out, regardless of the channel (search, social, email, etc.).
Add to that, social media networks and search engines aren’t built to serve up that much content today. With social algorithms purposefully reducing organic visibility and only 10 organic positions on the first page of most search engines, how are brands supposed to stand out?
The age of “build it and they will come” is over for many major industry verticals. This conundrum has further pushed the two circles in the Venn diagram above further together....
Google's algorithms are better-focused than ever, according to a new study from Searchmetrics.
In its fourth annual Google ranking factors study, the enterprise platform looked at the top 30 search results for 10,000 keywords and 300,000 websites on Google. According to Marcus Tober, founder and chief technology officer at Searchmetrics, the findings simply confirm the current trends.
"Understanding user intention and creating unique, relevant content is more vital than ever before," Tober says. "It is also visible that backlinks are continuing to decrease in relevance. Looking ahead, as the proportion of search queries from mobile devices continues to grow, it will be interesting to see what effect this has on the rankings.
"Some factors Searchmetrics saw positively affecting the rankings include mobile-friendliness; social signals, such as Facebook likes and Tweets; and backlinks, though the latter will likely decrease in importance. The study focuses on three other main areas...
You’ve weathered Mobileggedon. You’re confident that your website and blog will look great on mobile devices and that Google’s algorithm change won’t hurt your search listings.
Congrats! You’ve survived this skirmish ... but it's not going to be the last. The algorithm change is evidence Google knows it has to surface websites that painlessly get users what they need at the time that they need it.
Google doesn't want to send mobile users to websites that provide a frustrating browsing experience -- that would damage Google’s promise to its users to always deliver helpful, relevant content. But this algorithm change is not what marketers should be reacting to. It’s a signal of a much larger shift that’s afoot. It’s the canary emerging from the mine shouting, “Consumer behavior is changing! We must adapt!”
Building a mobile-friendly website is step one, but tweaking your website will not keep you ahead of consumers’ changing behavior and expectations. In short, you have to infuse your marketing strategy with a “mobile mindset.” Here's how....
Content marketing can be one of the most effective ways to generate and convert leads, but it’s only effective if you make well-informed improvements to your strategy over time.
And, of course, you can only make these types of improvements if you have the data needed to inform your decisions.
Effective content marketing is a synergy of two skillsets and you need to combine the science and data discipline of a scientist with the creative genes of an artist....
You know how you’ve been building links to your website for years, trying to get Google look upon it more favorably? Well, according to Google, you shouldn’t bother doing that.
Nearly an hour into a Google Webmaster Central Office Hours hangout on Friday, Google’s John Mueller was asked whether or not link building, in any way, is good for webmasters.
Mueller’s response (via Search Engine Roundtable) was, “That is a good question. In general, I’d try to avoid that. So that you are really sure that your content kind of stands on its own and make it possible for other people of course to link to your content. Make it easy, maybe, put a little widget on your page, if you like this, this is how you can link to it. Make sure that the URLs on your web site are easy to copy and paste. All of those things make it a little bit easier. We do use links as part of our algorithms but we use lots and lots of other factors as well. So only focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your web site that actually helps.” Emphasis added.
I’ve been building SEO-driven, Adsense/Affiliate monetized sites for 4 years now. I’ve been through every Panda update and Penguin update. I've survived a lot of them, but I've been absolutely crushed by some of them as well. If getting crushed is how you learn, then I've learned a lot.
I started out building hundreds of microniche sites with content as cheap as $3/500 word article, to creating sites that received thousands of FB, Twitter, Reddit, and Stumble upon shares - even though my goal was solely to drive organic search traffic.
One article got over 100,000 likes on Facebook and millions of visitors. It cost me $30 to outsource and I made no effort to optimize it for social.
I don’t claim to be a content creation expert, but I’ve picked up a thing or two over the years, and this is the guide to SEO content creation I wish I had when I started....
Any good marketer or business owner trying to leverage the Web to connect with more prospective customers knows that SEO is always changing. As the new year approaches, it’s a good idea to to study up on current and future marketing, advertising, and SEO trends.
Here’s what you need to know about SEO going into 2015
Reading “No, SEO isn’t dead,” or some form thereof, from the search pundits is almost as annoying as reading that it is dead from people who don’t know any better. But over a month ago, Google released its latest algorithm, Hummingbird, and that’s stirred the SEO pot just a bit.
What makes the announcement of this change last month so important is that this isn’t just an update, like Panda or Penguin. This is an actual algorithm change, and we haven’t seen one of those since 2010 when Google launched Caffeine. There haven’t been a lot of details released by Google, except to say that this latest change was designed to serve the way we search now, instead of the way we searched ten years ago.
So what does this mean for search? It’s means it’s evolving into another creature. This post serves as a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for the best Google Hummingbird information available on the web. We’ve curated news, blog posts, opinion pieces and more from industry experts and trusted resources, and broken it down for you into an easily absorbable digest...
Why do people visit your website? As Google updates its search algorithm again, what people search for matters, but the "why" becomes more important. Use these 8 tips to keep your content ranking after Google Hummingbird...
....So back to twerking. Good content can surprise and delight, even shock. But how will Hummingbird understand the relevance of that kind of content, and help your audience associate it with what your business does? A viral twerking clip might generate brand awareness. It might even prompt referral traffic or social shares. But the more important question is, if that content is on your website, will it influence Google rankings in the future?
To make sure your website content is armed to capture the Hummingbird in flight, consider these recommendations...
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Practical tips for better SEO from your content marketing.