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Content Marketing: 5 Predictions for 2013

December 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Crystal Ball2012 was quite a year for SEO and content marketing. We saw Google make sweeping algorithm changes that affected a large number of sites. Some sites suffered from these changes, while others thrived.

Since Google shows no signs of slowing down their efforts to keep search engines working and keep content creators honest, we can likely expect quite a few more changes in the coming year. In that vein, check out our top five predictions for content marketing in 2013.

1. Increased emphasis on content expertise

While we can expect to see continued emphasis on, as Google’s Matt Cutts would say, “great content,” we will likely also see a move toward content with authority. Web content creators will be expected to show their credentials more and more.

While this might strike fear in the hearts of those who produce content for a wide variety of clients, what it should do is encourage content marketers to learn more about the products we are marketing so that we can successfully address relevant topics from a place of authority. At SEOA we already utilize a number of writers with field-specific experience and education for our content marketing. For companies that take this approach, 2013 may simply mean making those credentials public and putting faces with the names.

2. More robust content

This one is more of a continuation of a trend. We’ve been ramping up the quality of website copy for years as an industry, in order to keep up with Google’s expectations. In 2013, we’ll produce lengthier guides and more e-books, in an effort to create a one-stop-shop for searchers.

3. Increased emphasis on personality and voice

This one links back to prediction number one. We are learning more and more through the use of social media that customers want to connect with businesses on a personal level, to feel as though they are dealing with real people and not faceless companies.

Content marketers and the businesses we represent will begin to move toward a more personal approach, and content marketing will need to rise to the occasion by building a cohesive voice and personality for each individual client.

4. More mobile content

More and more users every day are accessing the internet primarily through smart phones and other mobile devices. Content marketers and SEOs that do not make the effort to create mobile-friendly content may risk falling by the wayside.

This doesn’t just mean using a mobile subdomain, either. We need to make it easy for users to comment on blogs from any device, and avoid discouraging participation at all costs.

Mobile content also means giving visitors plenty of shorter sounds bytes interspersed with more robust pieces, so that visitors have something they can consume easily while in line or in waiting rooms. Variety and versatility will be the key to attracting and retaining the growing mobile crowd.

5. The fall of repurposed content

One thing we see with every Google update is an increase in the seeming perceptiveness of these algorithms. Repurposed content is becoming easier to detect, and search engines are becoming more adept at identifying the original producer of the content and giving due credit. Some content marketers are going to need to step up their games and start producing truly original copy.

Content marketing in 2013: Time to step up our game . . . yes, again

At SEO Advantage, we’ve seen more SEOs than we’d like complaining about search engine changes instead of being willing to adapt. That attitude is not only counter-productive, but it displays a lack of passion for the internet from some of its most prolific content creators.

The most successful content marketers in 2013 and beyond will be those who have a true love of all things internet, and who spend a significant amount of their personal time participating in online communities or conducting research for personal interest. These are the content creators who possess both intellectual curiosity and a great respect for what a valuable resource the internet provides.

Remember what it was like to want to learn about something before the internet? Having to scour the card catalogs at the library or, in some cases, just go around not knowing what you wanted to know? If you do, then you are a step ahead of content creators who get annoyed when asked to create honest, quality copy. You understand how the internet revolutionized the entirety of society, and you have a vested interest in protecting it.

What do you think about our predictions? Agree? Disagree? Have a prediction of your own?

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, SEO Advantage Tagged With: , ,

Some Thoughts about Keywords

November 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Confused man black and whiteAnyone with a cursory knowledge about search engine optimization and web copywriting understands the importance of keywords. These terms are what searchers in Google, Bing and elsewhere use to locate products, services or answers to their questions.

If you’re working to build your business’ position in the search engines, you’ve likely come across countless articles and blogs touting the importance of having these keywords in your copy, metatags, header tags and elsewhere.

The constant demand to include important key phrases in copy though can, in a way, become a distraction from producing the clearest message possible. Web writers, many of which are inexperienced, can become too focused on including a sufficient number of keywords in copy they’re preparing.

This can of course lead to a situation where the keywords can become “diluted” or even make your copy sound unnatural. If taken to the extreme (a.k.a. “keyword stuffing), it can lead to disastrous penalties.

In the early days of search engine optimization, the name of the game was keywords, completely. Simply insert phrases you’re targeting all over the place – plenty in your copy, and many more in image-alt tags, meta tags, title tags and elsewhere.

As Google’s algorithms became more sophisticated though, they began to cull pages that only provided a bunch of keywords and no real value to readers. From Google’s perspective, people would eventually quit using their search engine if they didn’t find good information.

While many of the keyword techniques we’ve written about (…see below) are indeed valid and should be considered, keywords should in fact take lower priority in many cases, especially when you’re writing content for a blog.

If a page is high up in your site – like a product/service landing page or an alternative homepage – you should be more mindful of the keywords you’re targeting and ensure they’re weaved in your copy and headlines in a “natural” way.

For blog and other site content like knowledge center articles, you can be a little more relaxed about keywords.

First of all, there are literally thousands of “long-tail” keywords (…phrases that are 4+ words) people may use to search for information related to your industry. Take a look at this Google search for “filming an interview” and see who’s #1. When we wrote this post, it was never our intention to rank high for this term.

Rather, we wrote it to provide insight into how a site owner/business/content developer can film a good interview to put on their website. The keyword “filming an interview” was more an afterthought.

So what’s the moral of all of this?

Focus first on providing content that’s clear and offers value!!

Unless you’re writing the page specifically for the purpose of targeting certain phrase(s) (…like a product/service landing page), it’s okay to not focus so much on keywords.

That’s not to say keywords are not important, they are. Developing blog and other knowledge-based content though is a long-term project, one where results will come gradually. As search engines place higher importance on the value your content is offering, the number of keywords you have in your content will not be weighted as much.

Related Posts

Understanding the Intent of Search Queries – EMI vs. EMQ

Latent Semantic Indexing – A New Way to Look at Copy

11 Steps to Increasing Keyword Saturation while Maintaining Valuable Content

Penguin Update Targets Link Schemes and Low-Quality Content

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Filming an Interview Online – A Primer

October 4, 2012 by

As we were breathing new life into our post on filming an interview, it became apparent that we didn’t mention anything about interviewing online rather than in-person. All of our tips included in 9 Steps to Properly Filming an Interview consisted of how you should set up and conduct your interview in-person.

Even though filming interviews through an online video chat service like Skype were around when we first discussed this topic, the method has grown tremendously in the intervening 2 years.

Many websites, and even more traditional news outlets, are increasingly using web video to obtain top-quality content. Not only are costs much less, the ease of capturing a video chat conversation means you can film top-quality interviews much faster. Employers are also increasingly using video chat to conduct job interviews.

So how can I use Skype or another video chat service to get great video content for my website?

From just the interview perspective, much of the process is the same as if you were conducting the interview in-person.

Be sure you send questions ahead of time to ensure the interviewee has a full understanding of what you’ll be discussing. Take a few moments before the interview begins to sort of break the ice and make sure both of you are properly centered on the camera.

But filming your interview through an online video chat service like Skype though does require some special consideration – as seen in this discussion on web-based interviews from the Wall Street Journal.


 

First is technology – since you’re dealing with technology, it’s important you connect with a friend with video chat capability a few days before your interview to make sure all of your equipment is working properly.

Technical issues like connectivity are important as well but in some ways, out of your control. Be sure your interviewee has the necessary upload speed to handle the interview. Upload speed is a much more important factor than download speed. On the day of, there’s really not much you can do in the event a connection gets broken. The best you can do is pick the interview back up once things are working again and make edits after the fact.

Next, when you’re both sitting down for the interview, test audio before filming to ensure the video you capture can be easily understood by your audience.

Another consideration, which is pretty big in fact, is eye contact.

With an online interview, both you and the interviewee will appear on your monitor. Cameras are typically affixed to the top of your monitor whether you’re using a laptop or desktop machine. It’s vitally important you maintain eye contact with your camera throughout the entire interview!!

This will, one, make your audience feel like you’re engaging with them and not simply looking down at your screen. Having both faces on your screen can be distracting to say the least, which is why it’s helpful for some to cover their monitors with a sheet of paper during the interview.

Backlighting is another consideration you’ll need to take into account. Make sure both you and the interviewee have plenty of light – ideally, the camera needs light from both in front of and behind your face to make both participants appear properly. If you’re in a room without much light, consider putting a lamp in front of and behind you to give your face the light it needs to appear properly in the interview.

Next is background…which is important regardless of whether you film an interview online or in-person.

But since many bloggers and journalists film online interviews in home offices, how the background appears can sometimes get missed. To ensure viewers maintain attention on you, make sure the background is uncluttered and doesn’t have anything that will draw attention (…like someone walking by!).

Besides a good video camera for your computer, a microphone and a video chat program like Skype, you also will need to consider how you will edit the video once it’s recorded. Fortunately, there are a variety of programs you can look at to help you cut out any parts you don’t like.

That’s pretty much it – as we said last week, the Google Panda and Penguin updates have made content an even more important component of a website’s rankings. Video content – be it an interview, tutorial or news story – can provide really good, original and informative content.

Being able to interview online too makes it much easier to connect with industry experts and others. Internet video chat is certainly revolutionizing how people communicate, and revolutionizing how news and information is obtained and delivered.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Understanding the Intent of Search Queries – EMI vs. EMQ

September 21, 2012 by

In the early days of search engine optimization, all a site owner or SEO pro had to do was to use the exact phrases people were searching for in their copy. Simply include “keyphrase” in your page’s URL, title, META tags and copy a sufficient number of times and your landing page would rank high.

As the Google algorithm has developed though, this exact phrase matching in your copy isn’t really necessary anymore. In fact, it can really hurt you if it’s overdone…no longer do you see pages with lots of keywords peppered in the copy at the top of the search results.

Rather than include the exact phrase several times in a page, sites who best match the intent of a search query are the ones seeing higher rankings in the search engines.

Google’s big algorithmic updates, namely Panda and Penguin, have changed the search landscape quite a bit.

Rather than matching keywords with a site query, raters and algorithms at the search giant now attempt to determine a user’s intent and then serve pages based around that intent. Pages simply stuffed with keywords are now labeled spam and subsequently dropped from the rankings…Google assumes no one intends to visit a page that’s simply stuffed with keywords and contains little to no real information.

Essentially, there are 3 different query types – action, informational and navigational.

For SEO purposes, action queries are by far the most important. These searches can be characterized as users wanting to “do” something, like “buy Ford widgets.” Informational queries on the other hand are for users wanting to “know” something (i.e. “what are Ford widgets”).

Therefore, the more a page can obviously match query intent by using all of a page’s semantic signals, the higher, over time, it will rank for that query.

(Semantic Index is a part of Google’s algorithm that determines what a site is about and how much it is supposedly about its given topic compared to other sites. In technical terms, these semantic “signals” include such things as the URL, Title Tags, META keywords, META description, BODY tag, IMG alt, internal/external links and external mentions/references.)

So how do I maximize these “signals” so Google properly ranks my page(s) according to a user’s intent?

This is where we get into what’s technically known as EMI and EMQ, or “exact match intent” and “exact match query.” The difference between the two can be summed up this way: new vs. old.

EMI essentially means you develop a page around communicating the “intent” of the page. Is it for informational purposes or action purposes? Determining what a specific page is about (i.e. information vs. action) will help you maximize its EMI.

To maximize your page’s EMI, one thing you can do is to provide info pages for info queries and action pages for action queries. If Google thinks a user is simply looking for information, they assume the user doesn’t want to be sold anything just yet. Therefore, if you try and “sell” to info users, you’re taking a big risk.

EMQ on the other hand, in terms of SEO, basically consists of the exact phrase you’re targeting. These should only be used in the URL of your page or the Title tag – BUT NOT BOTH. Exact Match Queries should be used sparingly in your copy text and backlinks. In fact, partial keywords are okay in this case since Google can most likely determine a user’s attempt in relation to your page.

The important lesson – one we’ve often repeated here at SEO-e – is to write for humans and not search engines.

We feel that Google’s updates over the last couple of years have dramatically changed how we should approach web content. While keywords are a fundamental part of a site’s attributes (i.e. URL, META tags, copy, etc.), they don’t necessarily need to be obvious.

Check out some of our prior posts below on keywords and ways you can harness them for maximum benefit.

Related Posts

11 Steps to Increasing Keyword Saturation while Maintaining Valuable Content

Latent Semantic Indexing and Keywords – A New Way to Look at Copy

Penguin Update Targets Link Schemes and Low-Quality Content

Google Panda Update Causes Some Sites to Lose Traffic, Revenues

 

 

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fixing the 15 Most Common Business Blogging Mistakes – Part II

September 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last week, we explored some common business blogging mistakes as outlined in this ebook from Hubspot… 15 Business Blogging Mistakes – And Easy Fixes. There simply was too much information for just one post.

So we’re here to deliver the remaining 15 business blogging mistakes and things you can do to address them.  Continue reading for more, and download the ebook for more detailed information.

Common Blogging Mistake #9 – Rushing Blog Titles

It’s quite common in fact – you’re rushing to get content created for your blog and forget to develop a strong title. Headlines though are perhaps the most important part of any piece of content. It briefly, often times in only 2-3 words, describes what your page is about. Many, if not most visitors, scan this headline to determine if they want to read any further.

To spur interest and ensure the reader stays on the page, try and develop blog titles that are actionable, clear and definitive. Try and integrate an important keyword and keep it brief…you only have a few short seconds to capture someone’s attention.

Common Blogging Mistake #10 – Not Sourcing Content

Another common mistake business blogs make is not finding additional sources for content. While its great you’re showing your expertise through completely original content, it’s also easy to run out of ideas. Besides, your readers would welcome additional insights from other writers.

To help you diversify your blog’s content, you can consider guest posts for example. You could also serve as a content curator – meaning you aggregate relevant stories and videos into one place, which helps visitors find all relevant info in one easy to refer place. You can also encourage employee contributions. In fact, it’s better for a blog to have multiple authors.

Common Blogging Mistake #11 – Not Optimizing for Leads

It’s incredible the number of blog posts we come across that have no call-to-action whatsoever. If you’re not optimizing your blog with offers and a clear call-to-action, you’re missing out on a tremendously powerful lead generation tool. Therefore, be sure you include a clear CTA in all of your posts and consider permanent CTAs to the top or sidebar of your content.

Types of call-to-action can include: content-focused offers (i.e. free e-book, webinar) or product-focused offers (i.e. free 30-day trial). Review the e-book for more information on placement.

Common Blogging Mistake #12 – Not Sharing your Posts on Social Media

It’s easy to just write a post, put it online and then forget about it. Not sharing your content on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn means you’re leaving a large pool of readers out of the loop. To address this, share new content on your company’s social media profiles. Also, make it easy for your readers to share your posts with their online friends by including a social “share” button on each post.

Common Blogging Mistake #13 – Ignoring your Blog’s Analytics

While you’re just blazing away with new content, it’s easy to forget how to check to see how successful your blog actually is and whether your efforts are paying off. Not doing so means you could be doing something that turns your audience off for example. Carefully reviewing your blog’s visitor data can help you determine what kind of posts are the most popular, or the least popular.

Look at data like number of site visits, source of visits, bounce rates, inbound links, page views and keywords that brought in the most traffic to get an inside look at how your blog is working.

Common Blogging Mistake #14 – Not Testing Blog Elements

Meaning, you use the same methodology for every post you write – same design, same call-to-action, everything. Simply assuming what you do works isn’t the best way to approach your business blog. If you haven’t tested anything, how can you know what works and what doesn’t? Neglecting to test elements like your headline, call-to-action, design and subscription signup means you’re missing out on valuable data that can really help you improve your blog.

To combat this, simply use different types of titles – is it better to pose a question or do actionable titles work better? Does including a number (i.e. 15 Common Blogging Mistakes) generate more interest. You can also try a different call-to-action in each post – try different sizes, colors, placement, formatting and language to see what garners the most conversions.

Common Blogging Mistake #15 – Expecting Overnight Success

This is perhaps the most common, and persistent mistake in blogging. As the old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a night. Success takes time and requires a lot of effort. Unfortunately, many businesses start blogging and don’t see any significant results quickly…soon, the blog is abandoned altogether. The opportunity to build a new source of web traffic and leads is gone.

The important thing to remember is this – don’t give up. Realize it will take a good bit of time before you really start seeing a lot of new prospects and conversions from your blog. We don’t like to estimate a time frame since, but it will take up to a year to develop a resource that’s getting good, consistent traffic.

We certainly recommend checking out HubSpot’s e-book for more information. This post is mainly an overview of the common mistakes and what you can do to correct them. For more details on correcting these mistakes, we urge you to download the e-book.

From looking at this list, are there any of these 15 mistakes that grabbed your attention?

If you’ve taken any corrective measures, did you see additional traffic and engagement?

Feel free to share below using your Facebook login!

Related Posts

Link Building in the Post Penguin World – Guest Posting

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Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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