The barbie look

Search Engine Optimization. Three words that often intimidate new marketers and small business owners. SEO can seem like a storming sea of uncertainty. Because it’s always changing, today’s best SEO practices could very well be out of date a few short months from now. To make things even more challenging, no one knows the results of their SEO efforts right away. It takes time, commitment, and a lot of patience. No one SEO template can be applied to all companies, and there are certainly no shortcuts. However, SEO is important. When it’s done right, it works. Ranking #1 on Google (or better yet, ranking #0,) will give you advantages over your competitors. Ask any business who’s benefiting from their SEO efforts, and they’re sure to tell you that their blood, sweat, and tears were all worth it. Editor Note: to learn more about how to use SEO for growth, check out this Marketing Nerds episode with John Jantsch and Kelsey Jones: Your browser does not support … [Read more...] about Want to Strengthen Your SEO Skills? Look to These 12 Experts

Ever wonder how successful blogs got their start? What did they do right? What tactics and content types worked the best, and which didn’t work at all? For this installment of the “Origin Stories of Powerful Blogs,” I spoke with Matthew Barby, digital and content strategist at Wyatt International. I’ve been a big fan of Matthew Barby’s writing on various online marketing topics, and love his incredibly detailed posts about his process for his food blog, Pescetarian Kitchen. I asked Matthew to share how they got started, and what worked as they were getting the blog off the ground. He offered some great insight in his answers below: 1. What were your general measures of success for the blog? The blog is still in its infancy, but we hit 50K visits per month within the first year of going live, we have a Facebook following of around 5.5K, and an email subscriber list of around 5K. 2. What was the main objective for the blog? To be honest, my partner and I … [Read more...] about How Pescetarian Kitchen Drives 50K Visits Per Month

In 2016, I consumed more marketing material than I ever have. While the internet is packed with some truly awful content, it’s home to some real beauties as well. This post is intended to highlight some of the best things I read over the last year which, if you haven’t seen already, definitely need to be added to your reading list. My favorite posts are always those that inspire action and provide suggestions that you can take away and use yourself, and I guarantee that if you consume everything here and act on just a few of the tips, you’ll be a better marketer for it. So, without further ado… Starting with a recent post, this study from Matthew Barby is an incredibly useful insight into what’s required to rank well. It’s always nice to have some recent data that looks into ranking factors, and this post provides just that in incredible depth. Complete Guide to Keyword Research for SEO An extremely comprehensive guide to keyword research that … [Read more...] about 59 Marketing Posts You Probably Missed in 2016 (and Need to Read)

Google’s ease of use and convenience of relevant answers extends not just to queries, but also to products and services we look to buy. Whenever a shopper thinks “search,” Google is undoubtedly the first thing that comes to mind. As a result, there is little competition, and the other search engines have a really tough act to follow. These search engines could exist within other websites and apps, as well as in the form of “site search” in e-commerce stores. And it has not stopped retailers to step up their game and present some brilliant site-search functionality to the discerning customer of today. Let’s visit a few strategies they’re using to nudge their visitors that bit closer to conversion. 1. Location Matters: Ask Any High Street Retailer Yes, it’s easiest to begin with the big daddy of e-commerce, Amazon. Easy, not because they’re the first site that come to mind when one thinks “e-commerce,” but because they get … [Read more...] about 7 Website Search Hacks to Ace E-Commerce Conversions

Not every piece of content ends up ranking well in the search engines. Over 2.5 million blog posts are published every day and I’d imagine that 90% of those get next to no traffic to them at all. I’ve previously worked on big content campaigns where it just hasn’t gone as planned. The natural reaction of most companies is to tear down what they’ve created and start again. This is just answering the problem with more volume. I’m here to say to those people who you’re doing it wrong. The Decision to ‘Reoptimize’ One thing to bear in mind is that it usually takes a while for your content to rank well for a specific keyword you’re targeting in the search engines. This is particularly relevant if you’re going out a highly competitive keyword. I spent a lot of time analyzing the content on the HubSpot blog to see how long it takes us to start really bringing through organic traffic for a post once it’s published. I found that … [Read more...] about 3 Ways to Reoptimize Underperforming Content