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20 SEO Experts & Resources You Should Be Following Today

June 19, 2024May 14, 2015 by Adam Oakley

If you want to learn to do something well, one of the best ways is to follow the leaders. This is as true in SEO as it is in any other industry. Luckily, the modern digital marketing world is filled with a huge assortment of SEO experts who are ripe with valuable information. Here’s a breakdown of the top influencers you should be following. 20 SEO Experts Every Content Marketer Should Follow Whether you’re a new marketer or an experienced professional just looking for some ways to improve your approach, these 20 SEO experts have lots to teach you: 1. Rand Fishkin: @randfish The self-proclaimed “Wizard of Moz,” Fishkin is the founder of Moz and one of the foremost SEO experts on the web. Fishkin and his team conduct regular “Whiteboard Friday” sessions about the ins and outs of SEO and content marketing, and are some of the web’s biggest leaders in quality content. 2. Neil Patel: @neilpatel Neil Patel is the founder of CrazyEgg, Hello Bar, Quick Sprout, and KISSmetrics. If you need advice on how to grow your online business, he’s the top person to follow. Considered one of the best analytics experts in the world of digital marketing, Neil Patel is also a columnist for Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and the Huffington Post. 3. Danny Sullivan: @dannysullivan The Founding Editor of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, Danny Sullivan is the go-to expert when it comes to solving SEO problems. He is also the Chief Content Officer of Third Door Media and has been an active member of the search marketing and search engine world since 1996, way before SEO was a as big as it is today. For more Danny Sullivan, visit his personal blog, where he shares interesting information on a variety of topics related to Google and SEO. 4. Barry Schwartz: @rustybrick Barry Schwartz is a reputable SEO expert, editor of Search Engine Roundtable, and the President and CEO of New York-based web service firm RustyBrick, Inc. A self-defined “Search Geek,” Schwartz knows a thing or two about search engine marketing, and stands out as a leader in his field. 5. Joe Pulizzi: @JoePulizzi Joe Pulizzi is a Content Marketing Evangelist and the founder of Content Marketing Institute, which puts on the largest in-person content marketing event on the globe – Content Marketing World. He has written four books, including Epic Content Marketing. 6. Eric Enge: @stonetemple If you’re inspired by active people who are natural multitaskers, you will love Eric Enge, the “Digital Marketing Excellence Practitioner,” from Stone Temple Consulting. For more than three decades, he has reinvented himself as a passionate speaker, talk show host, author and entrepreneur. Declared the 24th most influential individual in the content marketing sector, Eric firmly believes that passion is the key factor in success. 7. Ann Handley: @MarketingProfs Ann Handley is the Head of Content at Marketing Profs. She’s also the author of the bestseller Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content. Known as a first-class speaker, author and content creator, she does a great job of “Waging a war on mediocrity” in online content. 8. Henneke Duistermaat: @HennekeD The UK-based business writing coach and “irreverent marketer” is a regular contributor at Copyblogger, and a trusted source for anyone who wants to learn to streamline and enhance their content marketing. 9. John Doherty: @dohertyjf A professional marketer, entrepreneur, and startup advisor, John Doherty is the Founder GetCredo, an organization that helps companies find the right agencies to work with. 10. Ann Smarty: @seosmarty Ann Smarty is the founder of MyBlogU and the Brand Manager at NinjasMarketing. She’s a fantastic source for all things modern SEO, and offers great, minute-to-minute insight into the industry. 10 Top Resources to Follow (Guest Blogs, Search Engine News, & More) Now that you’re familiar with the top ten SEO influencers, it’s time to consider the best SEO resources out there. These organizations, firms, and companies are sources of quality content and insider information: 1. Social Media Today: @socialmedia2day In case you are looking for a way to develop your own content strategy and explore social networks, look toward Social Media Today. Showcasing a cutting-edge mix of technology and data, and social business news, tips, and marketing advice, Social Media Today is one of the primary leaders in the world of social media marketing. 2. Marketing Land: @Marketingland If you want to become a part of dynamic search marketing landscape, you’ll want to check out the weekly recaps from Marketing Land. One of the most respectable sources of fresh information, stats, and how-to guides. Marketing Land offers information on everything from mobile marketing to retail marketing, and covers all the aspects an SEO-savvy marketer should consider when developing a first campaign. 3. Search Engine Journal: @sejournal If you’re interested in a trustworthy source focused on things like paid search, social media, content marketing, SEO, and search engines, then Search Engine Journal is a great pick for you. Featuring daily doses of well-written, informative, and engaging content, Search Engine Journal is your one-stop shop for search news. 4. Search Engine Land: @sengineland Still can’t tell the difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? If that’s the case, Search Engine Land is your go-to source. Designed to share the most comprehensive reports, webcasts, and white papers, Search Engine Journal is your source for breaking news and PPC and SEO analysis. 5. SEMRush Blog For people who want to learn more about online marketing, keyword research, social media, SEO and PPC without having to read hundreds of pages, there’s the SEMRush Blog. SEMrush represents an amazingly complete source of inspiration. This blog delivers a full picture of modern SEO and marketing in a way even beginners can understand. 5. Hubspot Blog The Hubspot Blog focuses on delivering quality marketing, sales, and agency content in a convenient package. With more than 2 million monthly visitors, this source is widely regarded as one of the most trustworthy on the web, and consistently ranks … Read more

20 Tips For Becoming An SEO Writing Superstar

June 19, 2024September 22, 2014 by Adam Oakley

They say that SEO writing is hard. They say there’s too much to learn. That, unless you really dedicate yourself, you’ll never make it. Plus, Google changes their algorithms so often that you’ll have to relearn everything anyhow, right? The truth is, the fundamentals of good SEO writing do not change. What it takes to write engaging copy that reaches your real readers and SEO rankings is completely learnable. And, while you’ll certainly need to put in the time and work to succeed, becoming an SEO writing superstar isn’t out of reach, especially if you’re already some kind of writing-slash-tech nerd. We’ve put together a list of 20 tips to help. 1. Keep Your Content Audience-Centric This is something that I talk about over and over again throughout my blog posts. And for good reason. Because if you’re not creating audience-centric content, it will be near impossible to become an SEO writing superstar. But, what exactly is audience-centric content? This visual provides a solid representation of what it is and isn’t: Image Source Hopefully you already have a pretty good idea of who your target audience is and what type of content they want. If you don’t, I strongly encourage you to develop a target persona so you can better identify and reach your audience. Takeaway: Identify your audience and ALWAYS create audience-centric content catered to what they want to hear about. 2. Target Long Tail Keywords Keywords obviously play a pivotal role in SEO success. But, as more and more content is being created, it’s becoming almost impossible to rank for common, one-word keywords. Fortunately, as long as you’re creating great content, there are still plenty of long-tail keywords that you can target and rank for. Want to know the best part? Long-tail keywords significantly outperform other keywords when it comes to conversion rates. As you begin performing keyword research for content, work to identify long-tail keywords that support the topics that your audience wants to hear about. While there are dozens of strategies you can use to find them, the below resources should give you a solid head start: Our Guide – Your Nutshell Guide: How to Find Killer SEO Keywords for Your Online Content Brian Dean – How to Find Long Tail Keywords Shout Me Loud – 6 Awesome Tools to Find Long-Tail Keywords in Any Niche Takeaway: Build your content around long-tail keywords that offer less competition and higher conversion rates. 3. Stick With Long Form In the world of SEO writing, quality trumps quantity. For this reason, it’s highly recommended that you stick with long form for most, if not all, of the articles you produce for your blog. Why? Well, the statistics show us why. Take a look at this study from serpIQ outlining the average content length of top ten results in Google: As you can see, the longer the content is, the better it performs in SERPs. And while we are recommending long form content, that doesn’t mean that you can just stuff your articles with fluff and expect strong results. You still need to create great content that’s well researched, well written, and that follows SEO best practices. In the end, when you’re making the decision to commit to long form, you’re also making the decision to commit to quality throughout. Takeaway: For best results in search engines, commit to producing well-researched long form articles. 4. Make a Plan As Benjamin Franklin once said: “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” And while Franklin probably wasn’t talking about SEO writing when he said this, it certainly holds true with content creation. Planning in content creation essentially comes down to doing proper research and putting together a strong outline. And while that may sound time consuming, it doesn’t have to be. For a great resource on how to do this, check out CoSchedule’s post outlining the 10-Minute, 10-Step Solution for the Best Blog Outline. Not only does their article lay out everything you need to create an outline, but it also shows you how to do it in the most efficient way possible. Takeaway: Develop an efficient process for creating strong outlines. 5. Get Good at Research To become truly great at SEO writing, you need to get good at research. Gary Bencivenga, a legendary copywriter with over 40 years experience, said that understanding the importance of research changed his career. As he went on to say: “It took me a while to realize that the best writers are the most tenacious researchers. Like miners, they dig, drill, dynamite, and chip until they have carloads of valuable ore. John Caples advised me once to gather seven times more interesting information than I could possibly use.” While I’m not advising that you spend ten hours researching for your next blog post, gathering as much information as possible is going to put you in the optimal position to create the best available content on your topic. And, if you’re looking to become an SEO writing superstar, that should be your goal. While searching via Google has made research a fairly fast and pain-free process, here’s a few other resources that could help: Google Scholar Books on the Topic Expert Interviews Industry Specific Magazines Takeaway: Commit to consistently developing your research skills and understand that research is key to any great piece of content. 6. Study the Competition As I mentioned in the last section, if you want to become an SEO writing superstar, your goal should be to create the best piece of content available on the topic you’re writing about. To do that, you have study the competition and find out what’s already out there. Fortunately, Google makes this process easy. Let’s say, for example, that I wanted to create a blog post about ‘how to create an about page’. When I type that into Google, the results look like this: From here, I’ll sift through and take notes on each article on the first page of the rankings to … Read more