Over the past few weeks, I've been reviewing optimization work performed by my team as well as many of our client's competitors. I've been studying the quality of the optimization work performed, both as a measure of comparison, and to simply get a feel for what other people are doing that perhaps we are not. What I found was pretty eye opening. In many cases, as I peruse through the text and code, I can hardly tell where any "optimization" has occurred. It's like knowing that surgery was performed but not being able to see the scar. Yet in some instances the on-page optimization looked like surgery performed by Leatherface of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This is what I call "SEO Bloat". SEO bloat happens when one or more of the following things occur: using keyword density as a measure continuously adding keywords into page, attempting to push rankings up having too many hands in the pot (copywriter, seo, manager, etc.), all tweaking text for their purposes no one keeping an eye … [Read more...] about How to Prevent SEO Bloat from Overcrowding Your Marketing Campaign
Evaluating marketing campaigns
How to use social proof in your marketing campaign
When most people try to develop a marketing campaign, they focus on making a sale to potential users. Sometimes, that sale is literal, such as getting a user to buy a product; other times, it’s figurative, such as persuading a user to fill out a contact form or merely convince them that your brand is an authority in your industry. Today’s users are sharp, and naturally distrustful of brands — especially in traditional advertising messages. Accordingly, brands need an alternative way to persuade users, and one of the best modern tools for this is social proof. What is ‘social proof?’ Social proof is a general term that refers to any piece of evidence from the peers of your intended audience that verifies some element of your argument. For example, it could be a word of praise from a past consumer that reinforces a claim you made about your products. Why is social proof so important? Social proof lends power to your marketing campaign in a number of ways: … [Read more...] about How to use social proof in your marketing campaign
25 Questions To Ask When Executing B2B Content Marketing Campaigns
With the new year upon us, search engine marketers are focused on putting the foundation together for campaign execution throughout 2013. Central among the strategies meant to deliver B2B SEO results will be content marketing. Just in time for preparation in the new year, MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute launched their 2013 B2B Content Marketing Report, looking at budgets, benchmarks, and trends to watch for with B2B content marketing. As I reviewed the report, a few key takeaways were important to me, as it pertains to B2B SEO programs we’re launching this year. After a recap of those takeaways, I’ve included my suggested checklist of questions to ask at every stage of a content marketing campaign. Content Marketing Tactics Employed Establishing Performance Metrics Evaluating Content Effectiveness Only 36% of B2B marketers surveyed felt that their content marketing tactics were at least “effective” last year. Only 6% of the overall total … [Read more...] about 25 Questions To Ask When Executing B2B Content Marketing Campaigns
Chapter 2: How to Develop a Successful Content Marketing Campaign
Content marketing is a multi-faceted endeavor, and as such, running a successful campaign requires a well-thought out approach and a strategic execution of your plan. Many layers go into a great content marketing campaign, and in order to get the most out of your efforts, you must pay close attention to each and every detail so you are able to make appropriate adjustments along the way. In this section, I will break down the different aspects of a successful content marketing campaign and coach you through the process of setting up your own. There are a lot of marketers who, before they even get started, approach content marketing from the wrong perspective. Many marketers seem to believe “if you build it they will come”, but with so much noise and competition online, that’s simply not the case anymore. You can’t expect people to just stumble onto your content or site and forge a meaningful relationship with your brand. Thus, the all-important first step of … [Read more...] about Chapter 2: How to Develop a Successful Content Marketing Campaign
Five tools to help you build a content-focused SEO campaign
While SEO has become an involuntary function of marketing for all sorts of businesses, ranging from professional service firms to enterprise solutions providers, a lot of companies today are still struggling to integrate SEO successfully into their digital marketing efforts. Over the past decade, SEO has become an extremely viable marketing outlet that results in more qualified leads and ultimately, more customers. It has been widely reported that SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate while traditional or outbound marketing efforts such as print advertising and direct mail, only have a close rate of 1.7%. So what does it take to put together a strong SEO campaign? It’s by no means a walk in the park, but it’s also not rocket science. Many small businesses are afraid that SEO will take up a lot of time and money without leading to quality outcomes. While you most likely will not see big results overnight, there are many resources out there to push you in the right direction. … [Read more...] about Five tools to help you build a content-focused SEO campaign