SEO and Content Marketing with Wizard of Moz Rand Fishkin

Search engine optimization (SEO) has come a long way since the days of stuffing keywords and hoping for the best. Back then, it was too often used to bolster weak writing, to trick people into reading something that wasn’t worth their time.

Now, good SEO makes great content even better. We use the keywords people search for to make sure what we offer will have value—which, in turn, makes the content naturally keyword rich. Good SEO practices help people find valuable content. As such, SEO is an essential part of content marketing strategy.

Few marketers know more about the mysterious inner workings of search engine algorithms than Rand Fishkin. Rand and the team at Moz have been helping clients improve their inbound marketing for over a decade. In addition to serving clients, Rand shares his expertise with the marketing community on the Moz blog, particularly in his Whiteboard Friday series.

As Arthur C. Clarke said (sort of), “Sufficiently advanced SEO is indistinguishable from magic.” So it makes sense that Rand’s official job title is “The Wizard of Moz.”

As part of the The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Content Marketing, we asked Rand to share his thoughts on SEO’s role in content marketing strategy. Read on to learn which SEO skills all marketers should have, which opportunities marketers should capitalize on within the coming year, and more.

Ask the Expert with Wizard of Moz Rand Fishkin

LinkedIn: If you were starting a content marketing program from scratch, where would you begin?

Rand Fishkin: I'd work hard on getting to know my audience, studying my competition, and formulating a strategy around what would resonate before I ever took to the content creation itself. But, from that point, everything would be experimentation and evolution based on what I learn. Every audience and every platform are different. I suspect that, depending on how unique the new audience I was going after was from my current audience (of mostly marketers and tech folks), it might take me some serious time to get good at finding a sweet spot.

LinkedIn: In your eyes, what is the biggest difference between content marketing five years ago and content marketing today?

Rand: A lot has changed, but I think, more than anything else, the last five years have reduced loyalty and attention to almost unrecognizable levels. No one subscribes to just a few feeds or just a few accounts on social media. No one's messages have a shot at reaching 60 or 70% of their audience—even the audience that's opted in and said "I want to see what you're sharing." All of the social networks have substantially reduced reach. Email deliver-ability and open rates continue to shrink. RSS readers are barely alive anymore. Earning your audience's attention five years ago was relatively easy (or at least, much easier) if they'd already connected themselves to you. Today, that advantage is gone—a subscriber doesn't mean what it used to, and I doubt it ever will again.

Every new message you want to send will have to pierce the cacophony of noise that overwhelms us in the digital age.

LinkedIn: If you were tasked with hiring a content marketer, what is the #1 attribute you would be looking for?

Rand: Empathy. Great marketers have immense empathy for their audience. They can put themselves in their shoes, live their lives, feel what they feel, go where they go, and respond how they'd respond. That empathy comes out in content that resonates with your audience.

LinkedIn: In your opinion, what is the baseline of SEO skills content marketers need to have?

Rand: I think a content marketer actually needs more SEO skills than marketers in nearly any other position (with the obvious exception of SEO specialists themselves). That means understanding keyword research and how to do keyword targeting, how search engines generally rank pages, some of the technical aspects of SEO around indexation and crawling, how content on the same domain can boost that site's authority and ranking potential, etc. Given that content marketing isn't just about producing content, but about earning traffic to it as well, SEO should be a cornerstone of any content marketer's repertoire.

LinkedIn: What current SEO opportunities will content marketers be glad they acted upon two years from now?

Rand: First, better content > more content. This is one that's tough because A) many teams and managers and clients still want a certain number of pieces rather than aiming for fewer pieces of higher quality and B) quantity is how content marketers get their reps in—it's how we practice our art and get better at it.

The reason this matters so much is that engines are starting to learn which domains people prefer, to put those domains in front of them more and more. If you fall behind this curve, and a substantive portion of your content doesn't interest, excite, or engage visitors, you could quickly find yourself in a negative spiral of a feedback loop that lowers your aggregate rankings long term.

Second, schema and rich snippets. This one's obvious because it not only drives up clickthrough rates today, but is likely to have more and more influence and opportunity over time. If you get good at it now, you can expect a string of returns.

Finally, link outreach and link-earning content. Many of us keep hearing how link building is dead, and it's something I've said myself. But the need for links is not dead, and it doesn't even appear that links are getting less correlated with high rankings. So links are still something we need, but classic, old-school, manipulative and low-quality link building is diminished if not gone. Thus, we need to produce content that naturally earns links, and content that's likely to earn links once we do the right kinds of outreach. Then we need to do that outreach!

The best part is that if you get good at link earning and link outreach now, you'll rank and earn visibility and those links will compound and earn you more and more rankings over time.

Thanks to Rand for carving out time to talk with us. You can follow him @randfish and find more of his always awesome content on the Moz blog.

Content Marketing: 6 Steps to Building Your Editorial Calendar

I've seen content marketers in a state of paralysis, overwhelmed with the responsibility to create a constant stream of quality content. I get it. It's daunting to even get started because it’s not just about churning out blog posts, either; part of content creation is fitting each piece into an overall strategy. 

In the last B2B Content Marketing benchmarks, nearly half of those with stagnant programs said content creation was a major factor. Which makes sense. I get questions from marketers who ask me, "where do I even start?" Or claim, "we just don't have enough content." 

Let's conquer this together. 

It all starts with an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a tool you and your team can use to map out content for the entire year. Building out your calendar naturally focuses your strategy, ensuring that you have the right mix of content types, the right topics covered, and enough content for each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Now that you know where to start, here’s just 6 steps to building out your editorial calendar that I guarantee we relieve any paralyzed marketers. 

1. Find Your Topics

First things first -- it's your job to identify the most relevant topics for your audience. You’re looking for the sweet spot where your audience’s needs and your brand’s expertise overlap. But don't lock yourself in a room and stare at a blank whiteboard. Act like an investigative reporter and hit the streets, if you will, to understand what resonates most with your audience. 

• The Field: What are the conversations they're having with prospects -- what are their pain points, what keeps them up at night?
• Buyer Personas: Assuming you have these already, use these as a catalyst to understanding what's important to them. 
• Social Media: What content topics and thought leaders are your audience engaging with the most?
• Keyword Research: Leverage Google Adwords to understand the key phrases around your brand's expertise, their search volume and competitiveness. 
• Forums: Find where your audience goes to get answers and consume content. 

Basically, anywhere your customers are talking is a place your brand can listen. All of these sources will help identify the broad topics that will shape your calendar.

2. Audit Existing Content

When marketers tell me, "we just don't have enough content" for a content strategy, I quickly dismiss their argument. Sure, if you're literally launching your business today, chances are you don't have much content. But in most cases, your marketing team has been sending emails, promoting eBooks and whitepapers and publishing blogs for some time now -- perhaps just not at the always-on pace and volume of an effective content strategy.

So start your quest for sourcing more content by auditing the work you have already spent resources creating. Once you have your topics in place based on your research conducted in step 1, check your back catalog for content that fits. 

I always say if you have a 20 page eBook, you can squeeze 20 blogs from it. Or if you have just 5 blogs on a similar topic, you have an eBook. If you want to test me, find me on LinkedIn -- happy to prove my theory. 

Dig into your Big Rock assets and slice and dice. Look for older blog posts that still have value but are due for a makeover and re-launch. Find successful email content and convert into a blog. Turn webinars into Q&A blogs and presentations into SlideShare decks.

Odds are even your most popular content last year still didn’t reach your entire potential audience. So don’t be shy about adding new value and republishing.

3. Plan Content throughout the Buyer’s Journey

Once you have identified some re-purposed content that can act as tent poles to your calendar, it's now time to work on the gaps. Make sure each piece is targeted at a specific stage of the buyer’s journey, and aim for a healthy mix of early and late stage content.

Many marketers focus their content on the late stages, because perception is that this content is contributing more directly to revenue. But without a healthy proportion of early-stage content, you won’t be building an audience for the late-stage stuff -- a cart before the horse issue, if you will. 

For help turning your topics into blog posts, try HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator, or Portent’s Content Idea Generator.

4. Set Your Cadence

Is it better to publish daily, three times a week, once a fortnight? Plenty of research has been conducted to find the perfect publishing cadence. But I'm sorry to say, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The one thing we do know is that consistency is far more important than frequency.

So as you plan your calendar, plan to publish as frequently as you can reliably create high-quality content. Your audience may prefer short-form content every day or more substantial pieces weekly. Use your best-performing pieces from the past year, as well as your current capacity, to set a sustainable cadence.

5. Fill in Your Blanks

Now it’s time to actually fill out your calendar. This is the fun part because you start to really see your content strategy come alive. Start with your broad topics, then fill each of your content slots with related posts from your existing content and your idea generation sessions. Aim for a mix of content types for variety, and make sure to vary the stage of the buyer’s journey.

A few recurring series can help fill out the calendar, and can give your audience something to look forward to every month. For example, on the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog we do a Marketing Book Worth a Look and Millennial Minute each month, and a Trending Content roundup weekly.

It’s also a good idea to leave an open slot or two each month for timely posts, new turkey slices, guest posts, or news jacking—anything that would add value but is hard to plan in advance.

6. Adjust As Needed

Once your calendar is complete, it can guide you throughout the year. But don’t carve it in stone—it should be a living document, evolving and iterating. Evaluate how each piece of content performs, and use that data to make strategic tweaks to the calendar. The focus should always be on what is resonating with your audience, not what you planned six months ago.

Creating a year’s worth of content is a hefty challenge for marketers. Start with a quarter or just the next two months. Leverage your research to generate broad themes and then build out secondary and tertiary topics based on those broad themes. Add existing content, recurring series, and a few wild cards, and you will find your calendar starting to fill up in no time.

Google’s AMP: Designed for Speeding up the Web by Changing How It Works

Google's announcement at Oct 7, 2015 about the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP), which "aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile website" or, alternatively, fragments the Internet by not fully supporting the very standards the web is built upon - depending on your point of view. As well as that announcement they have launched the AMP Project Website (which I discuss in more detail below). So is it a good and necessary step forward or a massively step backwards?

In August 02, 2016, Google announced Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) would be moving beyond “Top Stories” into the main organic mobile search results. Today, AMP officially rolls out broadly in mobile search.

In this article I'll explain what is google AMP, How AMP Works, it's advantages & it's impact on google search results.

So, What's Google AMP?

Publishers are cooling on Facebook Instant Articles & Apple News, they’re becoming hot and heavy with Google AMP, the search engine giant’s answer to Instant Articles.

In February, 2016, Google rolled out AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, on mobile search results in Google News. Publishers scrambled to adopt Google’s open-source code on their pages because search still drives close to 40 percent of referral traffic overall, and they know that as their audiences shift to mobile, having fast mobile pages can only help them get surfaced by Google’s algorithm.

AMP's kind of  projects like the Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News.

So, let's talk about how this might actually show up in search results. So first of all, what we know at the moment AMP is  looking like it's mobile only. It's showing up as a carousel above the regular blue links, typically for news-related terms, because most of this is focused on obviously reading contents. The people who've rolled this out first have been mostly news & advertisement publishers Washington Post, USA Today Network, Gizmodo, WIRED, Slate Magazine, plista, Relay Media, etc. So you search for a news-related term. You can see this carousel of swipe-able images above the blue links. Click on one of those, it opens super fast, that's the whole point, and then you can swipe to another AMP page across the way.

Benefits of Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Speed Matters Most and Instant Loading is the Ideal Expectation. Research has shown higher bounce rates associated with slower-loading web pages. Using the AMP format will make it far more compelling for people to consume and engage with much more content.

AMP HTML is a way to build web pages for static content that render with reliable, fast performance. It is Google and Twitter's attempt to make really fast mobile pages. At its essence, it's basically a stripped-down form of HTML, a diet HTML if you will.

How Does AMP HTML work?

The AMP format is supported by a wide variety of platforms, including Google Search. If a web page listed in Google's search results has a valid AMP version website, Search may direct mobile users to the cached AMP.

All of Google Webmaster guidelines for making a site Google-friendly also apply to AMP. This article covers additional recommendations to help you and your website users take advantage of AMP's benefits. Here's a the summary:

Design: Create web pages according to the AMP specification.

Discovery: Make your AMP discoverable.

Validation: Test that your page is written in valid AMP HTML.

Structured data: Mark up your content with structured data.

Status: Monitor your AMP report on Search Console for errors.

But What About Advertisements?

Although JavaScript is mostly forbidden on AMP sites, there are some loopholes that allow publishers to include advertise, analytics, and other pieces of JavaScript on an AMP page.

AMP includes a special analytics tag that allows publishers and advertisers to send data to pre-screened analytics providers such as Adobe, Chartbeat, and Parse.ly. This is handled by a single JavaScript file instead of a separate script for each analytics provider. That file is loaded from Google’s own servers, which can speed things up considerably for pages that use multiple analytics providers. Ads work in a similar way.

The AMP Project vets analytics servers based on performance, security, and privacy, so some of the worst offenders may be screened out. But those who want to use analytics code or other pieces of JavaScript library that haven’t been pre-approved can also use the <amp-iframeiframe> tag.

The <amp-iframeiframe> tag, similar to the traditional HTML version of the <iframe> tag, allows publishers and advertisers to add blurbs of JavaScript hosted on their own websites, but there are some restrictions too. Code inserted into iFrames won’t have access to all the data that a script inserted directly into a traditional page does. AMP always loading the page’s core content before any <amp-iframeiframe> content in order to keep <amp-iframeiframe>s from slowing down pages. And when AMP pages are hosted on Google’s servers, the pages are pre-rendered, so that they still load quickly.

These workarounds enable more freedom for publishers and advertisers, but it also means there’s still room for them to serve invasive scripts to readers. Improved performance won’t always mean improved security, and privacy. It also means more of the web will be shaped by Giant like Google & Twitter.

AMP Supported Browsers?

In general AMP supports the 2 latest versions of major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and Opera. AMP support desktop, phone, tablet and the web view version of these respective browsers.

Beyond that, the core AMP library and built-in elements should aim for very wide browser support and accept fixes for all browsers with market share greater than 1 percent.

In particular, Google try to maintain "it might not be perfect but isn't broken"-support for the Android 4.0 system browser and Chrome 28+ on phones.

How AMP works in Mobile Device?

Google has published a great tutorial on how to create your first AMP page. We will go through a quick rundown on what is involved and what you need to know. It is important to know how AMP works in SERPs. In most cases, Google will only serve AMP pages to mobile devices. However, Google does not penalize users who have AMP-only pages (i.e. no additional HTML desktop version) such as the ampproject itself. Google has a preview up but you can emulate it from your desktop using Chrome DevTools.

AMP Page Specialty:

• Allows only asynchronous scripts
• All CSS must be inlined
• Styles are limited to 50KB
• External resources like images must state their size in HTML
• All Javascript must be out of critical path
• No user written Javascript is allowed, only AMP supported
• Fonts must be loaded with a link tag or a CSS @font-face rule

AMP Impact on the Google SERPs

Simply put, AMP will affect huge in search engine optimization. After all, Google is committed to pushing mobile-first index in which mobile-friendly websites received a rankings boost. The difference here, however, is that AMP is not a ranking factor; at least it isn’t one as of now. This was confirmed in a Google+ Hangout with Google Webmaster trend analyst John Mueller.

AMP will affect in Google SEO in regards to impressions, clicks, user experience, and of course, website speed. Speed is a crucial factor to ranking well on Google and the company reported last year that, “29 percent of Smartphone users will immediately switch to another site or app if it doesn’t satisfy their needs,” and that “. . .of those who switch, 70 percent do so because of lagging load times.”

Yet no matter if AMP is a current organic ranking signal or not, the chances of it becoming one are relatively high as a Google's January 20, 2016 Announcement, which delved into the ad experience on AMP stated that, “We can’t emphasize enough that this is just the start,” and that Google is, “. . .invested for the long term.” With how heavily Google underlined the importance of mobile-friendliness with Mobilegeddon, it would come as no surprise if Google one day made AMP a ranking factor as well; possibly even as soon as its mobile update this May.

Do you think Google will make AMP compliance a ranking factor? I don’t know if Google will make AMP a ranking factor or not but AMP will be a real headache for publishers, that is certain. In order to keep up and not lose positions they will be forced to learn everything about Google AMP.

SEO Your AMP Pages?

By having an AMP version of your post or page you don’t want to get dinged for duplicate content, so Google requires that you use the canonical tag when linking to pages.

Google will automatically detect AMP pages on your site as your original page is served with a header tag directing Googlebot to your AMP page.

What Can You Do To Prepare?

There's two things. Firstly, you want to be able to start building AMP pages for your site, and you want to make sure that those pages are valid, because as we said, it's like a diet version of HTML, but it's very, very strict on how you build the HTML. The tags have to be in certain orders and certain places. You can't use certain things. And if you do any of that, your AMP page is invalid and they probably won't be using it.

There are several ways available to validate an AMP document. They will all produce the exact same result, so use whichever one suits your development style the most.

Chrome Developer Console:

To validate your AMP pages, you can use a tool that's built into Chrome. So if you open the developer tools in Chrome, there's a system there — and you can look it up on the AMP project website — where you can actually go to a page and you can ask it to validate, "Is this an AMP page," and it will tell you any problems with that page.

Web Interface:

There's also a Web Interface available at validator.ampproject.org. This interface shows errors displayed inline alongside the HTML source of the page. The interface is an interactive editor: changes to the html source result in interactive revalidation.

Chrome:Browser Extension:
The AMP Validator can be accessed directly from your browser's toolbar using a browser extension. As you browse, it will automatically validate each AMP page visited and gives a visual indication of the validity of the page as a colored icon.

Summery: Want to Convert your site to Google AMP? Contact Us Today & we'll get back to you.

Content marketing planning and effective marketing tactics in 2015 [Infographic]

In 2015, it seems that content marketing still reigns supreme when it comes to the most commercially important digital marketing trend. Yet according to following infographic, the biggest challenge content marketers face is measuring content effectiveness, while an overwhelming 56% of marketers don’t have a content marketing strategy!

So, what is the latest Content marketing planning and effective marketing tactics in 2015? Check out this infographic created by Jane Hunt, along with her team at JBH Marketing to summarize the key issues and give examples of what's working and what isn't.

Beginner's Guide: Common Mistakes in Content Marketing

There are many mistakes that marketers make with content marketing. They too often equate clicks and traffic and downloads as buying signals, which they can be. But they can also turn into nothing if you haven't attracted your ideal customer with the right motivations.

In my experience, here are the critical mistakes that content marketers makes:

No Content Marketing Strategy:

Content marketing only works if it fulfills actual business goals, whether that’s more customers, a larger email list, or more search engine traffic. What are your business goals for your marketing, and specifically, your content marketing? What’s your strategy to achieve those goals? Is your content marketing following suit?

Not Using an Editorial Calendar:

Do you take a few moments to Google how to come up with topics and wonder just how people keep their ideas together? They make an editorial calendar! Once a person as come up with topics, they can implement them into a calendar for the month, half of the year or the whole year. This can help keep a campaign on track, and make sure you are getting some awesome success from your content.

Duplicate Content Issue:

Duplicate content is a trap many beginners fall into because it is just so easy! You write up some great content, feel that it is perfect, and wham-bam, you have all you need, right? Unfortunately, no. You cannot have duplicate content if you want to rank on search engine. That is one of the biggest no-no’s, yet one of the easiest traps to fall into. Train your brain to say, “Danger, Will Robinson” when you even consider using duplicate content.

Not Using Keyword Research: 

Content marketing and search engine optimization complement each other; each technique should inform the other. Don’t get too far ahead in your content planning (or even write a headline) without pulling out your favorite keyword research tool. Confirm that what you want to create is something people actually want.

This is easier than you’d think. There’s a terrific free plugin to make your keyword research a snap: Try the free version of Inbound Writer. It includes a competitiveness measurement, too, so you can make the most of long-tail keywords.

Know about Your Audience:

You Don’t Know Who Your Audience is or are Writing for One Type of Person. Another mistake beginners make is not knowing who their audience is or only writing for one specific type of person. You need to do audience research to learn about who your clientele and readers will be. In addition, you need to make sure you write to a broader type of person to get the most reach. You will quickly lose readers if you aren’t writing for everyone as best as possible. Don’t worry, this blog will show a few ways to write for a broader audience!

Not Publishing Enough Content:

Another major pitfall for beginners is when it comes to content creation. Sometimes people will create a website and have some decent content, but they don’t publish or create enough. This makes their website stale and can drive people away. On the other side, oversaturation of created content can chase people away just as quickly because it comes across as spam and not genuine. Try to find the perfect middle spot for your business and website.

Not Deliver The Right Mix of Content:

This is a massive mistake that many beginners make. Why are multiple content formats important? Because we all will consume content in different ways when we get on a website or social channel. Some people enjoy infographics whereas others prefer in-depth articles. Others prefer memes and many enjoy seeing photos with their social media posts. Videos, podcasts, photos, blogs, and other formats are vital because they will reach different types of people and broaden your reach.

Copy Editing:

An area many beginners need help in is editing their content. Some people simply write and post without reading it. However, you might be one who goes over your copy over and over to catch mistakes. This is great, but the chances are very high that you will miss something in your proofreading. This is why having a copy editor is vital to all businesses. They can catch the small typos you look over and they are simply another set of professional eyes that can look over your piece to make sure it is the best it possibly can be.

Website Navigation:

Website Navigation is a major part of proper website design and is even important to SEO. However, another major pitfall for the newbie content marketer is not making a website easy to navigate. Create a web page that your clients can easily navigate by following a few simple steps and listening to client feedback. This will help improve the traffic to your site and could be what starts making you some incredible revenue. Know, How to Fix Common Mobile Content and Usability Issues.

Not Using Meta Tags or Writing Them Poorly:

Another mistake that can really hurt your content is not using your meta tags by leaving them blank or using them poorly. When you write these tags, it will help improve your ranking and make it a link people want to click on. Use those tags and use them well!

No Call to Action:

This is yet another way to make sure you execute your strategy. What do you want people to do after they’ve viewed your content? Buy something? Sign up for something? Share something? Decide what you want them to do, and then make it as easy as possible for them to do it.

Not Measuring Your Analytics with Google Analytics:

Analytics are a vital part of content marketing because they can show you want content is successful and what is failing at bringing people in or converting them to leads. A great way to measure your analytics is using Google Analytics, which can help you find out just how well you are ranking. It will also show you the basics that will help you improve your content. Read How To Automate Your Google Analytics Reporting.

Not Using Social Media or Using it Incorrectly:

Many businesses can get themselves set up and follow some basic guidelines for SEO and successful content. However, many of them don’t utilize a great way to get their content out there and bring in new people through social media. It is important to all businesses, brands, and individuals because it can act as a form of networking and will help bring in great clicks for your business. Make sure, when you are using social media, that you follow some basic hacks to get the most out of it! Tips to Manage Your Social Media Efforts.

Not Promoting your Content Enough:

You can’t just build it and expect them to come… even if you invite them via email and Twitter and Facebook. Aim to spend at least (at the very least) a third as much time and money promoting your content as your spent creating it. Read More About How to promote your blog posts?

Avoid these mistakes and you will be ahead of the game. Read a lot, re-read your older stuff, rewrite, ask why, look for assumptions, question, question, question. Good luck! The world seriously could use some better content marketing.

How to Run Content Marketing With Success in 2015

To design an excellent content strategy, the most important thing (and which very few do), without a doubt, is to start by establishing “where we are headed”. In other words, our goals.

I have been working specifically with content marketing for the past 10 years and if there is something we have learned during this time, is that the difference between those that succeed and those that fail is NOT based on the quantity of resources they are able to invest (money/budget). It is in the clarity in which they define “why” they want to engage in content marketing.

In this article, we would like to share 3 objectives that, in our opinion, are essential and also universal, and can be used by any company in any industry. As an example, we’ll take the case of Boosted, a battery-powered skateboards manufacturer.

First Objective: Product Information

The first and perhaps the most intuitive and familiar goal of a content strategy, is to make your product known. You need to allow potential customers to obtain a greater knowledge of your products. Everything from: “How is it built?,” “How is it used?,” to: “Where can I buy it?”.

For this first objective, content such as “The differences between Boosted’s 3 models,”  “Advantages of using Boosted to commute to work,” and “Boosted’s policies of use and returns” are some of the most common examples.

Also, for SEO, at this first point you will be covering terminology from the brand name itself “Boosted”, to technical variations like “advantages of Boosted,” “parts for building a Boosted,” “requirements for riding a Boosted in public,” etc.

Second Objective: Mark the Problem

All great companies are successful because, at the end of the day, they are solving real, concrete problems of their potential customers, who pay to use their products. The second goal of your content strategy is to focus on the problem your product solves.

This gives us a wider range for creating content. For Boosted, that would mean: “Alternatives to using a car to commute to work,” “The 3 most ecological methods of transport that exist today,” or even “Why using a skateboard is better for our health than a bike.”

The audience reached with this type of content goes further than potential clients, and so, if we compare the conversion rate for this objective with the first we will find a significant decrease. However, by utilizing this method you will have the possibility of reaching people of influence, referrals, the media, and possible boosters for our company as well.

Concerning SEO, the advantage lies in targeting keywords that are broader and go beyond our product itself, specifically with information searches performed by Google users regarding the problem that we are solving, such as: “means of transportation that use batteries for getting around the city.”

Third Objective: Empower your Vision

The final objective is focused on the possibility of “viral” exponential growth in order to build brand awareness. This also means reaching an audience that is beyond our potential direct customers.

An example of this would be the creation of video content about: “Can a battery-powered skateboard move a car?”

The idea behind this last objective is to get the most out of social networks through the virality of what your product can obtain when used in exceptional/extreme situations and moments.

Although for this type of content you will probably see the lowest conversion rate from all the three options mentioned in this article, this is definitely an excellent way to reach people who will later have an influence on potential customers.

In regards to SEO this can also be greatly beneficial. Viral content attracts links, thus increasing your brand’s recognition when it comes to Google and all the other search engines merely by being mentioned.

The single mechanism for implementation

Knowing the “why” behind your content marketing strategy and your goals, it is time to get to work.

Here are my 4 implementation tips for those who wish to start working on their strategy today:

1. Exclusive to experts: What I want to say with this is that all your content needs to be developed by experts. Under no circumstances should your information be poor. There is already too much content in the web that is of poor quality, adding to that accomplishes nothing.

For our blog for example, those who built the product with their own hands, the creators, are the only ones who create content. If they do not have the time to do it, the best thing we found to be is to hire a writer who can observe what they do and what they want to communicate and share through a note/article.

2. Focused on the customers: You should never take for granted your customers. Every question, doubt, concern, inquiry, and suggestion that they have, represents an ideal launching pad for the creation of valuable content. If, for example, a customer wants to know who created the product and where the idea came from, then it is the ideal moment to create an interview with the founders and make known the values, mission, and vision of the company.

This is the best way to create evangelizers for your project that will help you grow more than you imagined in the long run.

3. Do not concentrate on text only: Even though search engines are mainly organized to index text, you should remember that the second largest search engine in the world is YouTube. Thus, creating videos and other formats for content becomes fundamental.

4. The key is patience: As I mentioned, content quality is of utmost importance. However, time is as well. For content marketing, time plays a determining role. It is not the same as hiring a TV ad or an announcement in Google Adwords, which take effect from one day to the next. With content we are talking about seeing results on an average of weeks or even months.

At that brings us to the great overlooked opportunity that content marketing brings – results that do not disappear from one day to the next (a paid announcement, once it is no longer paid, ceases to exist). Effective content will last over time and will bring dividends even a year after being developed.

Content marketing is something organic that needs our patience and dedication.

Crucial Things SEO Marketers Need to Remember

Search engine optimization is vital to effective marketing online. So important that according to a studyconducted by the National Retail Foundation, search marketing was the most effective source of obtaining new customers for 85% of retailers in 2014. That’s a huge percentage of goals achieved thanks to SEOs. In order to keep results like these high, while maintaining sanity, it’s important to remind yourself of the following.

Mobile is Life

We all knew #Mobilegeddon was coming, it was only a matter of time. Just think for a second how many times a week you pull out your cell to search for the nearest thai restaurant, and then check their reviews, and then check-in on Facebook and Foursquare, and then search for the best ice cream shop… and so on.

Image Source: Smart Insights

Mobile is becoming a leading source for many websites, as it should, and is quickly exceeding desktop views. Last week, Google published a post stating mobile search surpassed desktop in over 10 different countries, US being one of them. With data like that it only makes sense that we stop looking back, and begin looking forward to the many opportunities mobile presents itself. Whether the next big update is #tabletgeddon or #idontknowyetgeddon, technology will continue to advance and Google will continue to enhance the search experience.

Mobile Tips:

• Make sure every bit of your website is responsive on both mobile and tablet. Test internally on coworker’s devices, as well as check outside the office under different IP addresses making sure there aren’t any broken links or loading issues.
• The site load speed needs to be faster than ever to keep the attention of mobile users. Mobile users are less patient than desktop users so don’t clog a site with large file sizes that take forever to load.
• Company newsletters need to be mobile-friendly, as well.
• Use mobile tracking for data and to test efforts.

Organic is King

Just over half of website traffic for the top industries come from organic search results. This gives hope to the diehard SEOs who have been tracking SERPS since day one and to small business owners who don’t have large Adwords budgets. Organic as a leading traffic source is what every SEO strives to achieve and as long as SEO is performed correctly, content is engaging, and checks and balances are performed, it is achievable.

Organic Tips:

• Stop spammy the cyberworld with irrelevant requests. Instead, ceate real relationships with industry leaders and partners.
• Optimize page titles and descriptions with the type of keywords that make users want to click.
• Create compelling content that people actually want to share.
• Avoid trying to trick Google and learn to just respect the internet gods.

Image Source: Search Engine Land

What Keywords Really Mean

Keywords used to mean stuffing. Unfortunately, to some they still do. Long, LONG gone are the days of inserting keywords into as many places on one page as possible and here are the days of quality content. Although most SEOs are aware of the switch and how to properly use keywords, they’re still not working in harmony with their content team to develop SEO-friendly and engaging content.

In a test performed by Google, synonyms affect 70 percent of user searches across the more than 100 languages. Based on that analysis, for every 50 queries only one bad synonym appeared. That means using that same set of keywords over and over again isn’t doing anything except creating an unreadable experience for the user. Google continues to use keywords to identify what your website represents and the message each page is trying to portray, but overstuffing content with a surplus of keywords will only hurt the user experience and rankings.

Thanks to the Hummingbird update, Google is smart enough to know which synonyms match a page’s message and better understand exactly what a user is looking for without needing 20 of the same keywords.

Keyword Tips

• Research what people are searching for using question and answer sites like Quora.
• Add to the conversation with keywords, instead of trying to start a new conversation.
• Use 2-3 words as keyword phrases to help decrease bidding prices and increase competitiveness.
• Create several different keyword lists and update them frequently using keyword research data.

Things Will Keep Changing

Change can be scary, especially when your career depends on its success. As an SEO you have to adapt quickly to whatever the next algorithm change or update is. It’s essential to pay attention and follow industry blogs filled with updates before they’re released and tips for surviving the changes.

Here are a few great SEO blogs to follow:

• The Google Blog
• Search Engine Land
• HubSpot
• AuthorityLabs
• SEMrush

Don’t Be Afraid to Start Over

It’s easy to get wrapped up in todos and forget about the bigger picture. Every marketer, whether an SEO or a Social Media Guru, is marketing to a specific audience with a specific goal in mind. If the current strategy you’re working on isn’t helping you achieve that goal, drop it. The idea of restrategizing your SEO plan is completely overwhelming, but not effectively improving yours or your client’s rankings and goals is even worse.

Stay Up to Date with Tools

You can never have too many tools, unless you’re a marketer. With thousands of tools available for online marketers, it can be difficult to sift through the quality versus quantity of tools you need to accomplish your SEO tasks. A company can end up spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars dissecting their perfect set of tools. Along the way they’ve not only invested marketing dollars, but several man-hours testing a program.

AuthorityLabs is one of those handy one-stop-shop tools that makes it easy to monitor what you need as an SEO.

• Track competitor domains side by side with your own sites to gain valuable competitive insights.
• Daily rank checking is provided on all accounts to give you the best opportunity to react to changes in the search results.
• Track search results at the city or postal code level for the most accurate and granular reporting available.
• Easily add domains or pages to be tracked from any country and language offered by Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Marketers & SEOs Are The Same Person

Ever feel like you wear a million hats to work? That’s because you do. Online marketers are required to have knowledge in multiple realms of marketing, from basic SEO to posting on Facebook. We all have specialties that we perform best in, but usually end up overlapping with content, social, and SEO.

As stressful as this is, it’s a positive thing that benefits our companies and clients when we combine multiple skills. An SEO is not just a data driven nerd behind a computer (don’t hate me SEOs), but a quality marketer with the same business goals as you in mind.

Crucial Things Content Marketers Need to Remember

Content is queen, and always will be. So, how do we survive it’s evolution over time? How can content marketers be ahead of the game, while maintaining sanity and avoiding writers block? Each content marketer needs to have a solid strategy and set of rules to go by. Yet, according to Forbes only 32 percent of content marketers actually believe they’re executing an effective strategy. Let’s change that percentage and better content marketing for all with these helpful reminders and rules to live by.

Rethink What Content Really Is

The idea of content marketing is much larger than blog posts and email newsletters. Infographics, videos, memes, and visual imagery has expanded the variety of content that marketers have to work with. Depending upon the audience and goals, different content will help you reach different goals. For example, infographics can help with link building and memes can help with engagement. Avoid sticking with just one content type and expand your content horizons.

Image Source: SEO Resource Guide

Understand The Difference Between Semantic Search and Keyword Stuffing

What the heck is semantic search? Techopedia has a fancy definition for the term:

Semantic Search is a data searching technique in a which a search query aims to not only find keywords, but to determine the intent and contextual meaning of the the words a person is using for search.

In basic terms, this means understanding what a person is actually searching for, despite their spelling errors and misplaced commas. It’s giving a user search results that they were looking for, but didn’t know exactly how to ask.

Keyword stuffing on the other hand is an effort to match these semantic search terms and place such terms inside content, whether or not it makes sense to do so. Google refers to this as an attempt to manipulate a site’s rankings. To make matters even worse, keyword stuffing creates a negative user experience, ultimately hindering the content and it’s chances of being shared.

Somewhere in the middle between semantic search and keyword stuffing is a happy place for content marketers. Create content that people are searching for, without irrelevant keyword stuffing. Naturally write content that converts by answering questions that are already being asked.

Optimize Content

If you’re blog/website is WordPress based, there are several different plug-ins to assist with optimizing each page, especially each blog post. With over 3,500 reviews and a 4.7 rating, SEO Yoast is a great plug-in to help add SEO to your content. Giving bots the information they need you can add keywords, title tags, image descriptions, metas, and more. For basic content optimization, follow these steps:

• Insert your keyword in the heading and subhead. The content’s heading needs to be captivating, as well as include a primary keyword, informing both the reader and Google what the content is about. Don’t forget your header tags!
• Include meta tags and descriptions. In 150-160 characters, summarize what the content is about, including your primary keyword. This is your opportunity to entice readers to click on your link in search engines, giving searchers a solid reason to click on your link.
  <head>
  <meta name=”description” content=”This is an example of a meta description. This will often show up in search results.”>
  </head>
• A/B test different headlines. Some headlines perform better than others and the best ones are the hardest to create. The recipe to a perfect headline is hidden somewhere deep in the Caribbean, only a small few of us will actually ever find it. Draft 2-3 different headlines that captivate, and summarize, and test them with your audience.

Dont Phoget Hoe 2 Rite

• Grammar nazis are everywhere. Writing in a hurry, it can be easy to forget an apostrophe here or an oxford comma there. Take your time to know your grammar and it’s proper punctuation. Reread your content until you’re blue in the face, and then pass it along to someone else for proof reading. Your coworkers won’t mind.
• Bullet points are your friend. We no longer have time to read lengthy paragraphs and run-on sentences. Summarize your main points using bullets to help keep the reader’s attention, while giving them the most important information.
• No One Likes a Lengthy Marvin. If your analytics tells you people are spending anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes on your 1,500 word blog post, it’s safe to assume you’re post is too long. Create your post lengths to satisfy your readers, not bore them with wordy content.

Sharing is Caring

Content doesn’t sell itself. Some of your best sharing assets are sitting next to you. Encourage coworkers and employees to share their own content, as well as each others, on their social media accounts. Using your employees and coworkers to leverage sharing can help increase virality, views, and ultimately website clicks.

Image Source: Buffer Social

What Makes Great Content

Great content is difficult to come by nowadays. Just about anyone has the ability to create a social media page or website and start publishing content. What separates the good from the bad?

• Do the readers have a reason to share? Sharing is caring, especially with content. No one creates content with intentions for it to just sit in the cyberworld, seen by no eyes or bots. Content marketers put so much of their heart and soul into developing great content. They want it to be read by many, and hopefully influence impactful decisions. In order for that to happen, you must give readers what they want, thought-provoking content they can share with friends, family and coworkers.
• Are you answering anyone’s questions? People want answers, that’s why we search online, call a friend, or ask a family member when we have a question we don’t know the answer to. Not only do we crave other people’s opinions, but insist on their explanations and expertise. A retail associate at H&M has a better chance of answering a question about what kind of bathing suit to buy this summer, over asking the department manager at Home Depot. Emphasize your specific expertise through publishing thought-provoking content. Research what kind of questions are being asked and answer them, using your own experience, knowledge, and research.
• Does your content tell a story, or give an explanation? How-tos make great content pieces and are easily shared. Step 1, step 2, and step 3 are all vital steps to painting your cabinet with chevron stripes, but what story can you add with the steps? Do chevron stripes remind you of your Grandpa’s old convertible that had red apple stripes alongside the bed? Readers want a story to be relatable and humanized, as much as they want the steps.

Write To Your Demographic, Not For

Only 13% of adults are reading at a proficient reading level. If you’re a high level writer, kudos, and your readers may be closer to a third grade reading level (sad, but true), are you reaching them? Adjust your content to suit their needs and understanding. Use Readability-Score to discover how complex your content is and if your readers will be able to comprehend the message.

Tools Are Your Friend

Content marketing tools like Quora and AuthorityLab’s now provided tool help inspire new ideas for content topics. Other tools like Buffer, MailChimp, and PRWeb help deliver your content to the right people. Manage all of your content marketing efforts with platforms like Trello, Wunderlist, and Evernote. Polish it off with writing tools Contently and Writers Access and be on your way to producing top notch content.

How do you stay a successful content marketer? Comment your best practices and favorite content marketing tools below!