Earning Authority: How to Create Content People Actually Want to Read (And Link To)
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Transcript of Earning Authority: How to Create Content People Actually Want to Read (And Link To)
Earning Authority: How To Create Content People Actually Want To Read (And Link To)
Erin Everhart SEO Manager, The Home Depot
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They say link building is dead
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“Links aren’t for driving traffic.”
via http://www.gsinc.co.uk/seo-food.html
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Anchor text overload
via http://moz.com
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Sidebar, footer, home page, sitewide?
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This is just hurting my head
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“Editorial links pass more value.”
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Enter the wave of crappy content
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And we beat that to death, too
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To old times, my friend
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Via http://www.imdb.com/
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Link building (and SEO) can’t die
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As long as people use search engines, SEO is alive and well. And SEO needs links.
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via Pew Research Center
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But it has changed
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Via http://www.girardbrewer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/new-coke-logo.jpg
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We know content is king
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“King Content” with no strategy
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It starts with your users, who actually are pretty cool people.
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Here’s your new engine! What car is this bad boy for?
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The Cutie-Patootie SX
Well, damn.
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Buyer personas
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Buyers buy
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Users use
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Surveys • Survey Monkey
• Hello Bar
• Pop ups
• Embeds
• Google Consumer Surveys
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Interviews
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But what do I ask them?
• When did you know you needed it? • Talk to me about your shopping process. • What was your timeline? • What are your pain points? • What were the top three things that ultimately helped you make your decision? • How do you use it? • Did you consider others? • How did you hear about it? • What did you do after buying?
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Keep in mind
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• Don’t only talk to your existing customers • Set expectations • Let them talk: Ask open-ended questions • Don’t be leading
• Bad: Is the feature helpful to you? • Good: Is the feature helpful or not helpful to you? Why or why not?
• Personalize the questions • Bad: What is the most important thing about this product? • Good: As a working mom, what do you look for most in this product?
• Ask questions they can actually answer • Bad: What did you eat for lunch most often in July? • Good: What did you eat for lunch the last 2 days?
• Try to get people’s opinions/emotions without directly asking them • Bad: How engaged are you with marketing copy? • Good: How frequently and what do you research before buying?
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Pay attention to the words they use
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Map to your buyer journey
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Awareness
Consideration
Decision
“I have a problem.”
“What’s out there to fix this problem?”
“I’m going to fix this problem.”
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That exact content may already exist
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Content Audit
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Step 1: Scrape your site Step 2: Analyze your content Step 3: Update it, promote it or delete it
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Got it. So, what about the content?
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You don’t have to create a lot of content.
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“Content is still king, but it doesn’t have to be king of just one thing.” @latrointhemist
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Don’t end your content’s life at a blog post
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Break it down to bite-sized pieces
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Expand it into a whitepaper or ebook
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Turn it into a webinar
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Via http://www.elearningonlinetrainingsoftware.com/
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Or better yet a Google Hangout
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Via http://gigaom.com/
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Remember: This isn’t a sales pitch
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Via http://www.travisberry.com/
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Promote your content, not your service
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Personalize it
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Make it available – everywhere
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Via http://www.mobileapptesting.com/
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Just give your users what they ask for
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Because then they’ll probably convert
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And that means more money for you
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Thank you!
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