How to Totally Revamp Your Content Strategy Without Losing Your Mind

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BY KAUSHAL THAKKAR

If your current content marketing simply isn’t getting the results you want, it may be time to rethink your strategy.

Great content can be the defining factor that sets your business apart from competitors, but it can certainly be hard to find and create. Even the best marketing teams seem to struggle with the creation process.

Most marketing experts will agree that creating unique and valuable content is one of the most challenging tasks on their to-do list. One of the reasons why this is often so difficult is due to the high demand for consistently high-performing content in terms of engagement and quality. Fifty-one percent of marketing teams publish content every single day, which puts a lot of pressure on their writers to constantly come up with fresh ideas.

Chances are, even if your team is extremely talented, they have struggled with coming up with great new content over and over again. If your current content marketing isn’t driving in the numbers you’d like to see, or your team’s stream of ideas seems to have run dry, it may be time to rethink things.

Conduct a Thorough SEO Audit

Creating content is more than just writing about something interesting or trending; it also needs to increase your brand’s online visibility and boost its searchability. Knowing the keywords and terms that your audience tends to include in search engine queries is essential for coming up with relevant content topics. But, if your writers are unaware of the optimal keywords to use, it could hurt the effectiveness of their work.

Conducting an SEO audit is a great starting point because it not only shows your team the current status of the keywords your website content is utilizing, but it can also identify new ranking opportunities. It’s a good idea to partner with an SEO agency to conduct this audit and analysis because they will be able to offer unbiased advice and recommendations based on thorough research and expertise.

Try New Content Mediums

Switching things up with your content can mean more than just writing about new subjects; it may be quite effective to totally revamp your content style by trying a totally different medium. Visual content like videos and infographics tend to receive higher engagement rates with audiences than traditional blog posts, but one of the latest content trends that many businesses can benefit from is vlogging and podcasting.

Vlogging (video blogging) is highly engaging because it gives your content a face and a personality through the people sharing it. This type of content is also fairly easy to produce, depending on the type of format you wish to use. It can be as simple as sitting a few of your marketing leaders down in front of a camera and filming them discuss a particular subject or reading off the highlights of a previously published piece. Podcasting has also been on the rise and is becoming quite a popular way to quickly consume content during commutes or downtime.

Look for Missed Niche Audiences

When it comes to targeting audiences, small can often be better. Honing in on the niche segments within your business’s audience is important for increasing engagement and building important connections with your customers.

If your team’s content has been falling flat or engagement rates are simply not where they need to be, it may be time to reassess your audience niches. Your customer’s preferences and interests can change and shift over time, and there may be new niche groups that have formed since your last analysis. Be sure to regularly reexamine audience data and observe shifts and changes in important demographic areas — such as age groups, locations or overall interests. Finding these new audiences can help your content team come up with new topic ideas that speak to these niche segments and strengthen the engagement rates with these small yet mighty groups.

Experiment and Track

Trying out something totally new and changing the traditional approach that you’ve always followed may be just what your team needs for inspiration. For instance, your marketing team may want to give employee advocacy a try and encourage the entire workplace to share their thoughts and experiences on the business’s content outlets and social media pages.

The important thing here is to actually give things a shot and give them enough time to determine whether or not it actually works. Just because your first video content piece doesn’t receive a lot of views doesn’t mean that it was a total bust. It takes time to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and your team will find ways to adjust and improve their efforts overtime. However, it is still important to constantly track important metrics, such as engagement rates, audience reach, and conversion percentages to see if there is an upward trend.

Check Out a Competing Brand’s Content

While you obviously want to be extremely careful not to copy your competition, there is no harm in using their content strategies as inspiration. If there is a competing brand that really resonates well with an audience that is similar to your own, encourage your content marketing team to identify patterns in their strategies that seem to be working. On the flip side, your team may also benefit from checking out struggling brands and seeing what content approaches they should avoid.

A stagnant content strategy simply cannot support a growing business. Keeping things fresh and exciting is certainly a challenge, but staying inspired and finding ways to switch things up can help your marketing team create better and more engaging content on a consistent basis.

Article source: https://www.business.com/articles/revamp-content-marketing-strategy/

What Are Pillar Pages & How They Impact Content Marketing & SEO

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When it comes to growing your organic visibility and position, your company as an industry, or topic thought, quality content is a must. While blogging and page optimization is very beneficial, there is one popular strategy, when executed correctly, that can take your game to a whole new level. They are called “Pillar Pages.”

The idea of a pillar page, or what I’ve always called a core page, is to increase your topic authority by creating an in-depth piece of content that covers as many aspects of that specific topic as possible. Brian Dean has been using the strategy with great success for years. To see an example of one of his pages click here.

As you see on this page, there is a ton of content, broken into multiple sections (chapters). But the idea is to give as much information as you can around a topic to show your authority to your users and the search engines.

Pieces of content like this don’t just happen. They take a lot of time and careful planning and execution. Check out the video below to learn more.

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Over the last couple of years, or maybe a year and a half or so, HubSpot has been pushing something known as pillar page. HubSpot is an inbound marketing software used to get everything that you need to do to achieve high-level inbound marketing under one roof. Now, they’ve been pushing pillar pages for one main reason. Google is focused on topic authority. This is nothing new. This is something that we’ve known about for quite some time. They’ve been really gearing towards this in order to better understand user intent and to deliver the content that a user is expecting, that’s actually going to answer their questions.

What’s the difference between topics and keyword?

Topics you can think of as the meta-category. The top category. The big thought. We can have a topic like SEO. Let’s say we have this topic. Now, this is our big idea. This is something that we want to be known for, something that we want to do. Underneath this, we are going to have things like local SEO, or things like search marketing. We’re going to have things like Google. These are all keywords and terms that are now related to this meta topic, this main topic.

In Google, when they’re looking for authority figures on ideas, they want to know that you’re a topic expert. Yes, you want to be a niche expert as well and maybe this is going to be your focus over here. Then, there’s going to be subcategories under there. What they’re looking for, is do you know what you’re talking about. One of the ways that they do that, is they look at the content. They look to see whether or not that your keywords and the content that you’re writing about matches the topic authority of what you’re talking about.

Where does a pillar page fit into all of this?

Since Hummingbird was released and Google began to focus more on topics and more on relational search or search that’s more contextual, we have been focusing our SEO strategies on our services pages, on what we would call our core page, which is the exact same thing as a pillar page. These are pages that prove your topic authority and help the user better understand. A pillar page is not really a high-level piece of content. It’s more in that consideration, more in that middle of the buyer’s page. It’s going to add a lot more context. It’s also going to help that user take the next step into building that relationship with you.

What you want to do is have these pages on your site that display topic authority and then you want to build relationships between those pages and other related pieces of content. Again, let’s take a look at how this strategy works.

If you’ve got a website, you’ve got a number of pages. Right? You’ve got your home page, about, services, and content. Underneath your services pages, you’re going to have probably what you’re known for. I’m just going to use what we do as an example because it’s going to be easier for me and I hope it still makes sense to you. We’ve got SEO, we’ve got inbound, and we’ll also say analytics.

Now, we can treat either our services pages as core pages, or we can build a separate pillar page. What a pillar page would be, would be something like you’ve probably seen like the Ultimate Guide to SEO. What this guide is going to be is a really in-depth piece of content that covers everything about SEO from on page, off page, maybe some backlinks, maybe we’ll talk about the technical side, maybe we’ll talk about schema, maybe we’ll talk about local, Google, ranking factors. We’re really going to just create this really comprehensive piece of content that’s going to be this guide that lets our users know everything that they need to know about SEO. In that, we’re going to have these different sections that really show our authority. Each under these sections is going to have very targeted terms in them, like on page SEO, link building, Google algorithm, Google analytics, local SEO, ranking factor. All these other terms that are related to SEO, which we’ll want this page to rank for, is terms related to what is SEO. How does SEO work? You know, a guide to SEO. Those are the things we want searchers to find us for. So, we start creating all this content.

It doesn’t just stop there. We don’t just create this one page. Now, we’ve got to take this page and build relationships between our site, because we’re going to be doing this with each one of our core pages here. Then, Google now wants to see relationship. Just because you have this big giant piece of content and some links in it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to rank. I think that’s a lot of disconnection sometimes. We assume that, hey, as long as I build a lot of content, people are going to naturally rank to it, put links to it, and they’re going to like it. If you don’t put the work behind your content, and you don’t build the right linking, internally linking structure as well as building backlinks, you’re not going to get the visibility you want, which is why a lot of people get frustrated with pillar page campaigns or any other link building and content marketing campaigns. It is because they haven’t taken the extra effort to make sure one; they’ve added the context within their website and two; they’ve gotten outside sites to link to them as well.

Let’s talk a little bit about how that all flows together. So, you’ve created this pillar page and you’ve created this really in-depth piece of content that you want to ultimately drive your users to. A pillar page’s goal isn’t to move people to a blog, it’s to move people deeper into that page and hopefully take some action. This can be your pillar page.

Now, what you want to do is start driving traffic or start to show relationships to it. Again, let’s say this one is about SEO again. Now, I might have a blog article that is an SEO how to. I want to add an internal link from this SEO how to into the pillar page. Maybe I’ve got one on local SEO. Again, I want to add an internal link to that. I also maybe have one on backlinks. I want to add an internal link back to that. What this is doing is starting to create a web. Go figure, right? Where Google is able to crawl our sites and begin to see the relationship. Not just the content on this page, but that we also have other authoritative pieces of content on our website. Now, what we also need to do is take these pages and, if appropriate, interlink them where it makes sense. Again, we’re showing that relationship. We also want to find high-quality third-party sites that we can build relationships with that can also build backlinks to these pages. That’s HQ for high-quality.

That is going to raise the visibility of these blog pages. The authority of these blog pages, which then is going to pass that authority to the pillar page as well. Alone, this pillar page should be attracting tons of links as well. If it is a really good piece of content and it’s being marketed well and distributed well, it’s going to increase in value which in return has the potential to increase the value of all your other content.

This really starts to work in a very cyclical way and it needs to all be integrated to each other. You can’t just put one page up and spend a lot of time creating this content and hope that people are going to find it and link to it. You may have people on social. Great. Push it out to social. Use it in your newsletter, but make sure you’re doing the other things. Make sure that the technical side of it is done right, that the content is well written, that it’s easy to read, that it’s digestible, that it’s contextual, and then make sure that you have the links in place.

This is a critical piece of this strategy to make it work. A lot of people don’t do it because it’s hard and it does take time. It takes a lot of organization and understanding what are these types of sites that you should be linking to. Not all links are created equal. You can spend a lot of time and a lot of money buying or going after bad links that are actually going to do the opposite of what you want the strategy to do for you. Make sure that you take the time to not just identify what you want to create that core pillar page about, but what are the other assets you have that you can interlink and begin to build this web. What resources can you build outside of that? Maybe you can do some guest posting, get some resource pages, maybe you find some high-quality niche communities in LinkedIn, or some other places, where you can begin to build in some of these links and these other assets and traffic that are going to build the…

Read more at https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/shelley-media-arts/what-are-pillar-pages-how-they-impact-content-marketing-seo-02093803

Retailers: What You Need to Know About SEO

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BY KRYSTINA MORGAN | Independent Retailer

If you are looking for a specific product and want to know more before buying it, what do you do? Most people turn to Google for answers, either looking at product reviews from other customers or the product descriptions themselves to see if it has everything they need. As a retailer, wouldn’t you rather be the first link to a product that people see once they do a search?

81 percent of shoppers will do online research before they buy a product, according to a Shopify article. They are actively searching for solutions, and you want to land in their search results. This method of increasing website traffic and business goals is called search engine optimization (SEO). Through this process of configuring and promoting websites so they have increased visibility in Google and other search engine result pages, independent retailers will have not only more online sales but more in-store foot traffic as well.

“If you look at what’s going on in larger trends, more dollars are being spent online every year,” Chris Rogers, CEO and founder of Colorado SEO Pros, said. “It has a huge impact on the retail industry.” Colorado SEO Pros is a boutique SEO agency providing a suite of inbound marketing services for small and mid-sized organizations.  More and more customers, especially millennials, are comfortable purchasing online rather than in store, and it’s a new trend that many retailers have caught on to and are constantly working to better their online shopping experience.

71 percent of consumers will click on a link from the first page of results, according to Shopify. This means that ranking well in search engine results can make the difference between getting traffic to your site and missing out on potential buyers. The goal of SEO is to send signals to search engines that show the value and relevance of a particular website, according to Shopify.

Now that we have the specifics out of the way, Rogers has some tips to help retailers increase their revenue. “Have more information and user experience that’s relevant to the product,” Rogers said. “Give out more accurate information so people have a full understanding of the product from the advertisement and the product from your page.”

You need to give customers a reason to buy your product over one from another store. What they want to see when they click on your link is the product they are looking for, and not have to go through a million other things on your website to get to the product. A picture and a description, along with any other information, can go a long way. Don’t let your customers get sidetracked with something else if they can’t find what they are looking for right away.

“Make sure you have done complete research around that product so that you understand all the ways people are searching for it,” Rogers said.  “Include certain things about the brand and then create a strategy to use the keywords on the page in a way that creates a good user experience.”

Google is using an AI voice search algorithm where people can say exactly they are looking for and Google will do the search. This means you’re language needs to be natural, and let certain keywords be your guide. Simple and easy to navigate are two key principles to remember to keep the customer engaged on your site.

However you choose to move forward with implementing SEO basics, the results will likely be worth the effort. One of the biggest mistakes businesses can make, according to Rogers, is waiting until after you have your website built and launched to consider SEO. But have no fear! There is still hope. It is better to implement SEO than not have it, and a company like Colorado SEO Pros can help. So if you’re an indie retailer looking to get your website up and running, definitely consider SEO as a way to promote your store.

Article source: http://independentretailer.com/2018/07/01/retailers-what-you-need-to-know-about-seo/

Understanding today’s trends

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By Beth Bryant  (Originally published Jun 4, 2018) 

When people talk about marketing these days, you may hear them using various terms or “buzzwords” that refer to current trends such as “digital marketing,” “inbound marketing” or “search engine marketing.”

I’ve talked with companies who are somewhat bewildered and overwhelmed hearing about these marketing trends and the thought of trying to keep up with and execute them all. Some think the terms relate to entirely new categories of marketing, when in fact they simply relate to new strategies or approaches using the tools we’re already familiar with, such as our websites and social media.

The following are brief descriptions of many of today’s marketing trends and what they entail so you can determine which ones are worth exploring for your marketing program.

Digital marketing

Quite simply, digital marketing is using digital or online channels or technologies to reach and connect with your target audience, as it is primarily through online channels that people seek out information. I’m talking about your website and blog, of course, but also social media, email and mobile apps. Digital marketing encompasses online activities that will position your company, attract attention, drive traffic to your website and generate customer leads. These activities include online advertising (via display or banner ads or Google AdWords), conducting email campaigns, creating online content (e.g., valuable offers such as e-books and white papers), and conducting search engine optimization (SEO) for your website to ensure high rankings in search engine results. SEO involves tactics such as embedding keywords and links in your website content and having links from outside sites. Digital marketing also extends to and includes other forms of marketing described below, such as inbound marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing and content marketing.

Inbound marketing

As the name suggests, inbound marketing is focused on activities that will drive customers in your direction. As opposed to outbound marketing, which is focused on direct outreach to your audience, inbound marketing entails engaging customers or helping them find you and your website by providing relevant and valuable content through your blog, social media and conducting SEO activities that ensure this content is found in search engine results. Once customers have visited your website to download your content, the goal is to “convert” them to leads and “nurture” those leads by continuing to offer them valuable content – educational materials and helpful information that build trust, credibility and relationships that will ultimately lead to a sale when the customer is ready to buy. Inbound marketing integrates with and complements sales efforts to move prospective customers through the sales pipeline or “funnel.”

Search engine marketing (SEM)

Typically called just “search marketing,” SEM involves conducting SEO activities, but is mainly focused on executing what is called “paid search” – buying listings or advertising on search engines to help search engine visibility and drive traffic to your website. Each search engine offers Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Cost-Per-Click (CPC) options (e.g. Google AdWords). To do paid search ads effectively, you would want to test various keywords and offers in the ad to see what works best.

Social media marketing

You may have company pages set up on all the relevant social media sites, but do you have an action plan for capturing attention and driving traffic to your website through these sites? That’s what social media marketing is and it involves…Continue reading…

Article source: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20180604/understanding-todays-trends