SEO + Content Marketing Best Practices

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Content Marketing + SEO - Best Practices.

An SEO view of content…

+ +Webris | [email protected] | Ryan Stewart | http://webris.org

USER BOTS

Historically…



USERBOTS

2016 and beyond…

The 2 sides of ranking.


RANK

CRAWL

Step 1: Search engines have to first be able to find and crawl a webpage to understand what it is truly about.

Step 2: From there, search engines need to understand the ranking signals of a page and how popular and rank-worthy it truly is.

In general, most of your webpages will be crawled, but only a few will actually rank.

Influencing rankings.


Putting keywords on a page will only get you indexed – rankings comes from inbound links, social activity and online PR. It’s difficult to generate an online buzz with sales type content. For that reason, great content is a cornerstone for SEO. There are 4 pieces to content SEO:

1.  Keyword planning / idea

generation 2.  Content creation 3.  Content optimization 4.  Content distribution

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1. Keyword planning.


Content should be focused on keywords that generate a high volume of searches. This not

only ensures traffic potential, but interest level as well.

Keywords that people are searching for (primary and secondary)

Ø  Example primary: SAT Guide

Ø  Example secondary: Ø  SAT prep study guide

Ø  SAT prep PDF

Ø  SAT Guide 2016 exam


Find keyword search volume.


Google Keyword Research Tool - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Build on your keyword list with suggestions.


Google Keyword Research Tool - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Let Google do the work for you.


Dig into industry and topical trends.


Google Trends – www.google.com/trends

Listen to the web.


Mention - https://mention.com/en/

Listen to the web.


Google Alerts – www.google.com/alerts

Listen to the web.


Quora – https://www.quora.com

Find keywords with lower competition.


Moz Keyword Difficulty Tool - https://moz.com/researchtools/keyword-difficulty

A large part of Google’s algorithm pulls from overall trust and authority of a website. The higher the trust + authority, the higher a site will rank. Axiom operates in a highly competitive field, often competing against high authority university sites and Wikipedia. They key to success is finding keywords that align with Axiom’s business goals and have lower competition in the SERPs. Look for scores less than 50% (the lower the better)

Mapping keywords to your website.


Example 1:



Example 2:



Example 3:

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2. Content creation.

Creating the right type of content.

Content comes in various forms – each has their own benefit in regards to SEO.

Short form

Long form QA/Glossary

Infographic Image gallery

Video Guide

Understand your keyword’s landscape before creating.


Branded knowledge graph

result

Results from Google images

Results from local listings

Results from official sites (with rating, directions,

and site link snippets)

Most importantly, cater to your audience.


Stacey Robinson is a stay at home mother in Concord, MA. She currently has 3 children (12, 14 and 17) all of whom attend Concord High School. She’s very active in the community and her children’s education. CUSTOMER NEEDS •  What are her top priorities?

PAIN POINTS •  What keeps her up at night?

YOUR TURN •  How can we alleviate Stacey’s pain points? •  How can we effectively reach her? •  How can we be of service to her (without selling)?

Creating content that your customers need. How can you help?

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3. Content optimization.

Making a page SEO friendly.


Elements a page must contain: •  Title tag (should contain the page’s primary keywords towards the beginning and be less than 65

characters long, including spaces)

•  Meta description tag (should contain the page’s primary and secondary keywords and entice the

reader to want to click onto the page. Typically done by a call-to-action at the end. Also the

description should be less than 165 characters, including spaces)

•  Keywords in URL separated by hyphens

•  An H1/H2 tag (the H1 should contain the page’s primary keyword and the H2 should contain a

secondary keyword)



Elements a page should also contain: •  Social metadata:

•  Facebook OpenGraph - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph

•  Twitter Cards - https://dev.twitter.com/cards/overview

•  Google+ Snippet - https://developers.google.com/+/web/snippet/

•  Keyword anchor text – look for the blue links on this page as an example:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/super-bowl-ratings-2015-patriots-seahawks-

_n_6594520.html?utm_hp_ref=sports&ir=Sports

•  Images/videos with alt attributes and keyword-rich titles – this is a code change to the way

images and videos are embedded onto a page.



Poorly optimized content does not perform well in search engines. This can be detrimental to brand equity as other websites can infringe on branded queries and steal traffic intended for your site.



Proper markups help search engines understand content:

<h1>What are GMOs?<h1>

FRONT-‐END OF CONTENT BACK-‐END OF CONTENT

<h2>What does GMO mean?<h2>



Images on a page should also contain: 1.  A properly named 2.  An alt attribute that describes the image



Moz Keyword Grader: https://moz.com/researchtools/on-page-grader

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4. Content promotion.

Getting a page to rank.


Ranking a page takes more creating content with the right keywords. This might get you indexed, but not ranked. Ranking a page takes significant off page signals. Tweets, +1’s, Shares and links to content are the top signals Google looks for. Ideally, these signals happen naturally. You post a piece of content, send it through owned channels (social + email) and fans amplify it. That’s not always the case. Sometimes, generating these signals takes significant effort on the part of the publisher.

Relevance Authority +

What determines relevance? •  URL Structure •  Title of page •  Keyword contained in

content •  Relevant images/media

BASICS of what ranks a page:

What determines authority? •  Number of links

pointing at site •  Number of links

pointing at page •  Quality links pointing at

site •  Quality links pointing at

page •  Social media signals

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Social signals. The majority of web activity takes places on sites like Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. If your links aren't being posted on these sites, it’s hard for Google see your site as relevant.

There are thousands of highly active social media groups and web forums related to farming. While these participants may not be your direct customers, they server as potential amplifiers, influencers and ambassadors of the brand. Getting your content in these groups pushes highly relevant social signals to your site, honest feedback and potential amplification (shares, links, etc). Examples of engaged communities can be found on: •  Google+ •  Facebook •  Reddit •  Pinterest •  Web forums



Links. Links are still the #1 factor Google looks at when ranking pages. When one site links to your content, it tells Google that your site has something worth seeing. Ideally, links come from:

1.  Relevant sites (i.e. Education sites not ESPN) 2.  High authority (DA) sites

Some link strategies include:

1.  Targeted link outreach 2.  Blogger outreach 3.  Guest blogging 4.  Press release 5.  Broken link building 6.  Resource page outreach

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Resources.

Putting it all together.


Planning

q  STEP 1 – Research keyword topic

q  STEP 2 – Pick top keyword to focus on (primary and secondary) – have multiple options

q  STEP 3 – Narrow down based off of difficulty

q  STEP 4 – Determine the best type and amount of content you will need to rank (search Google)

q  STEP 5 – Determine resources and time you have available to meet this objective

Writing

q  STEP 6 – Begin writing and producing content

q  STEP 7 – Write a custom title and meta description tag (titles <65 characters/descriptions <165). In

general, your title will likely be the title of your article/blog post, and your description will be a catchy

165 character or less description of the page that attempts to catch the readers attention and entice a

click onto the desired page.



Spot-checking

q  STEP 8 – Ensure the URL uses the right keywords

q  STEP 9 – Ensure page properly links to other pages

q  STEP 10 – Spot-check all SEO best practices

Publishing

q  STEP 11 – Review tracking is accurate and publish article

Optimizing (post–publish)

q  STEP 12 – Check the “targeting” of the page using the keyword grader tool

q  STEP 13 – Check the ranking of the page using the ranking tool



Keyword Research (find search volumes, competitiveness, and trends): •  Google Keyword Research Tool – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

•  Google Trends – www.google.com/trends

•  Ubersuggest – www.ubersuggest.org

•  SEM Rush – www.semrush.com

Link and Social Research (just add the URL of the page you want to check):

•  Moz Open Site Explorer – https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

Check rankings for a particular keyword

•  Moz Rank Tracker (200 limit per day) - https://moz.com/researchtools/rank-tracker

SEO + Content Marketing Best Practices

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