Most of us have. There’s a deep sense of satisfaction watching the image slowly come together through tedious effort and clever tactics.
But for some, putting the puzzle can be frustrating. There might be one piece, just ONE piece, that’s missing from a section, and it can drive you mad looking for it.
Here’s the thing — content marketing can be a lot like a puzzle, with many pieces coming together to make something amazing.
Unfortunately, content marketers often get fixated on a single piece, leaving the rest of the puzzle unassembled. That piece is, very often, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO).”
SEO and content marketing are becoming two pieces to a puzzle in today’s friendly online marketing era. Yet, SEO as a separate piece has still earned more than its fair share of attention.
Frankly, it’s not hard to understand why.
Getting to the front page of a search engine like Google can seem like the make-or-break gauge of success for a piece of content.
But there’s a lot more to what makes a fantastic SEO and content marketing strategy, where you win with both Google and readers; and ignoring it will simply leave you with an incomplete puzzle.
A holistic approach to it all is what you need today in order to win.
A Holistic Approach: How SEO and Content Marketing Fit Together
Thankfully, there are definitive steps you can take to ensure a holistic approach to your SEO and content marketing strategy.
Here’s how:
1. Learn the Difference Between Advertising and Marketing
One major mistake marketers tend to make with their content is making it overly advertorial or salesy.
Sure, potential customers might stumble across your blog through a referral, or a backlink, or a search engine.
But if they’re looking for helpful information or a solution to their problem and all they find is an advertisement for your latest product or service, they’ll feel alienated right off the bat.
In fact, 28% of Americans actively seek to avoid advertisements online, according to Hubspot. And advertisers are the second most hated group online, only falling behind criminals and hackers. Yup.
If your content becomes perceived as a sneaky advertisement, you might quickly find your brand being seen in a light you never intended.
It doesn’t matter how great your SEO is if you’re creating content that is entirely self-serving. Truly great content will help to inform and assist the reader, rather than cajole them into a conversion.
The positive impression a reader engaging with your content will have a far greater impact than merely a sales pitch alone.
Customers who feel serviced and satisfied will willfully engage with more of your content, explore your brand in greater depth, and even recommend you to others.
And here’s the best part — all these efforts to ensure your content benefits a potential customer will pay dividends in SEO.
It’s Not Just About Keywords Anymore
It’s not just about keywords anymore. There’s a lot more to building a comprehensive SEO strategy.
Among the most effective methods to increase search engine visibility is generating quality backlinks from other sites.
And, simply put, no one is going to link back to an advertisement.
People link back to valuable, easy-to-understand, hyper-relevant content. If you break out of the mindset of needing to convert every reader with a sales pitch tucked in every piece of content, you’ll find your SEO improving in tandem with your conversions.
2. Write Exceptional, Meaty, Evergreen Content for Your SEO and Content Marketing Campaigns
How long does it take to put together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle?
No matter how good you are, it’s a time consuming process — and effective content creation is no different.
Anyone can whip up a stubby blog a couple hundred words long stuffed with the requisite keywords.
As a matter of fact, many are already doing it. It’s a super bad habit, and a perfect example of a strategy focused purely on SEO and not on content.
There’s evidence to back this up, too. Neil Patel of Quicksprout found that posts he made over 1500 words received 68% more tweets and 22% more Facebook likes than shorter posts. That’s a massive boost for a more thorough article.
Even if you have good intentions about informing your audience, if it’s not well-researched and relevant, it won’t appeal to readers. In content marketing, it’s not the thought that counts — it’s the product.
With that said, it’s important to dig deep into your subject matter to create content that’s so thorough, readers will frequently return to you for their information.
Speaking of information, that’s the other thing you’re going to have to consider.
What kind of information do you intend to share? It can seem daunting to break new ground, especially in fields that are written about with extreme frequency (here’s looking at you, content marketing.)
Thus, it can be a bit tempting to jump on current events and tie your content to that. Trending hashtag? Next blog post. Viral challenge? Gotta upload a branded video.
There’s just one problem — this type of content has a short shelf-life and won’t have the long-term impact it could.
That’s why you need to build a foundation of “evergreen” content for your marketing strategy.
Evergreen content involves creating pieces that are relevant for as long as possible (ideally forever, but things do change and need to be updated.)
When you develop a marketing strategy, consider developing content that won’t become outdated anytime soon. This means it can continue to draw views, shares and backlinks well after its publication, giving you a long-term SEO boost as a consequence.
In the long run, your dedication to creating long-lasting and meaningful content will result in a wealth of engaging and relevant material that will drive readership years after it is written.
This doesn’t mean you have to completely ignore current events — quite the opposite. Making your content relevant to the experiences of your viewers is essential.
It’s just important to remember that this can’t be the keystone of your strategy. With a careful application of topical material on a foundation of evergreen content, you’ll remain relevant now and far down the line.
3. Engage With Your Community
Have you ever tried putting together a whole puzzle on your own? Like many activities, it is one that’s faster, easier and more fun with friends.
With all your energy focused on attracting readers to your website, you may forget that good content marketing is more than a one-way conversation.
Sure, you have an amazing product that you know everyone will love if they would only give you the time of day, but with so many companies out there competing for customer attention, your message could easily be drowned out by all the noise.
Waiting for Google to rank your content well may be one way to get people to come to your site and share your message, but actually encouraging your community to engage with your brand adds the personal touch that keeps them coming back.
The best way to determine if you’re striking a chord among your audience is to talk to them yourself. You can do this by leveraging social media to gather their feedback on a new product or idea.
Even more important than seeking validation from Google by chasing high page ranks, is the confirmation from your customers that your content is fulfilling their needs.
By listening to and engaging with your readers, not only will you demonstrate that you truly care about their opinions, but their feedback could also help you continually improve your product.
Your community can also be used for cross-promoting great content. It is a common practice for content writers to reach out to other writers to help promote their material.
Proactively reaching out to others allows you to share content to people who may not have viewed it otherwise. Even better, if they like what you’ve written, they will often add it as a link on their website — driving even more traffic to your content (and benefiting that ever important SEO.)
You can return the favor by linking to others’ content that is relevant to your readers. Your readers will thank you for introducing them to helpful information.
Even in the digital age, it is still important to foster an authentic connection with your community.
This way, not only will readers come to your website, they’ll also stay.
4. Words Are Good, Rich Media is Even Better
There’s another part of the content marketing puzzle you may have not considered — especially if you’ve been extremely focused on SEO.
Rich media like images, slideshares, videos and infographics all have amazing potential to engage and inform your audience.
But what does this SlideShare have to do with “SEO?”
Again, think holistic…
Remember why you create content in the first place.
It’s about more than a series of tricks and gimmicks to get you to rank well on Google, it actually exists to provide a service — or at the very least entertainment.
With media-rich content like videos and infographics, your audience will be able to have a diverse, multi-sense engagement with your brand, elevating their experience beyond just reading another blog.
Here’s some fast facts about user engagement with videos, courtesy of Hubspot:
After watching a video, 64% of viewers are more likely to buy a product online
92% of mobile video viewers share videos they’ve seen with others
Video in an email leads to a 200-300% increase in click through rate
And because of this, over 87% of companies are including video in their content strategy. It’s clearly striking a chord.
“But what about the SEO?!” a frazzled marketer might reply. “Great visual content is all well and good, but what use is it if no one sees it?”
A valid question, and here’s the answer — media rich content is the most shared, receives the best backlinks and is the easiest to promote. That means it’s great for SEO, just without all the hassle.
Are you beginning to see a trend here?
Great Content Means Great SEO
If you’ve made it to this point, you’ve probably begun to realize the point I’m getting at.
The puzzle you’re trying to put together is one that attempts to drive engagement with your online brand. SEO is an important piece of that.
But when it’s conceptualized as something other than just a piece and becomes the main focus of content marketers, it becomes less effective. Because great content, by its very nature, means great SEO.
It’s tough breaking out of the old mindset, one which placed an enormous importance on keywords (which no longer have nearly the impact they used to.)
How best to rank on search engines is a dynamic and ever-changing process, and to keep up, you have to be able to adapt.
There’s this idea that you have to futz around with code, and tags, and text with every piece of content you create in order for it to rank.
While that certainly won’t hurt, simply creating content your audience wants to engage with will work much more effectively.
Conclusion: Content is Powerful
Content has the amazing potential to build a trusting, engaged audience.
By being informative without being advertorial, by making deep, well-researched content, and incorporating media-rich content into your strategy you’ll be putting together a far more comprehensive puzzle than just focusing on SEO alone.
And in today’s search-engine climate, that’s what works.
Did you miss #ContentWritingChat this week? There’s no need to worry, my friend. We have you covered with a recap of our latest chat (and it’s a good one). Go ahead and dive into our recap and brush up on your SEO skills with this week’s tips!
#ContentWritingChat June 21 2016 Recap: The Basics of Optimizing Your Content Correctly for Search Engines
For this week’s chat, our guest host was Sherry Bonelli. Sherry is an expert digital marketer (hailing back from 1998), the founder of Early Bird Digital Marketing, and has been featured on the TODAY Show, CNN, ABC. She joined us to share her tips on optimizing your written online content for search engines.
Q1: What are the basics copywriters should know about SEO?
You don’t have to be an SEO expert to optimize your online content. If you’re a natural writer, knowing the basics will just refine your existing skills to help you create fantastic content that Google will love. Check out these tips from the chat:
A1: Everyone can learn enough SEO basics to make a difference! Don’t overthink it. #ContentWritingChat
Don’t forget that everyone can learn the basics of SEO and even small optimizations can make a difference.
As Sherry said, the title of your content and its description will get the attention of potential readers. Make sure you’re using the right keywords to rank higher and attract your ideal reader.
A1. Even a basic understanding of the language people use to talk about your industry will help your writing. #contentwritingchat
Great advice from Kristen! Understand the language people use within your industry. You need to get inside their heads to choose the keywords they’ll be searching for.
A1. Write for the audience- talk like you’re talking to a real person. Keywords matter but are second to utility. #ContentWritingChat
Make sure you know how to do keyword research. To find the ideal keywords for your content, you’ll need to know how to research them effectively and which tools you should use.
A1. Copywriters should know why SEO matters, what keywords are and how to use them effectively. #contentwritingchat
Cheryl said to focus on using the right keywords for your content and in your titles and headings. Don’t forget to tag your images with the appropriate keywords as well. This is a step that’s easy to overlook!
Sarah from ThinkSEM said you don’t need to optimize all of your content. Ultimately, it depends what the content is for. Certain pages on your site don’t necessarily need to rank.
A2) Only optimize what is relevant. Such as our “about” or “contact us” page may not be relevant. #contentwritingchat
Michael said you should optimize all of your content. He also said the optimization process starts before you even begin writing. You have to conduct research, select keywords, and more.
A2 Short answer. NO. I’ve written stories and “rants”, no keywords messing up my focus. Shared 100x more than SEO pieces #ContentWritingChat
Sherry said keyword density isn’t looked at so much anymore. She also said to make sure you’re not guilty of keyword stuffing. If you’re having trouble with your keyword, she suggested reaching for the thesaurus. You can find synonyms to use in your content.
A3. Your keywords should be present, but focus on engaging content first & foremost. #contentwritingchat
Ray’s advice was to make sure you’re not stuffing your content with keywords. It’s not good for your readers and the search engines won’t like it either. Instead, focus on providing valuable content for your reader.
Don’t forget that Google will show you what people have been searching. All you have to do is start typing for suggestions to appear. She also said that you want to find content that’s being searched for, but doesn’t have too much competition.
A4: Think, how would my audience ask the question? Then, Write the answer using the terms used in the question. #contentwritingchat
Ray knows it’s important to consider your audience in this situation. He said to think about how your audience would ask a question to help in choosing the right keywords.
A4: By getting to know your audience through research & communication. They are the key to the right content keywords. #contentwritingchat
Similarly, you should spend time getting to know your audience. By doing some research and communicating with your target market, you’ll get to know their preferences and interests. This will help in choosing the keywords that will get you results.
Sarah also said you need to figure out how your audience is talking about a specific topic. Use the words and phrases they’re using because that’s what they’ll search with.
@ExpWriters A4: Write the awesome content first! Analyze your content for common keywords, then OPTIMIZE accordingly! #contentwritingchat
Julia said to figure out what your audience is talking about. Use BuzzSumo to see what topics are popular at the moment. Keyword tools such as SEMrush and KW Finder are great as well.
Again, it all goes back to your audience. Know what they’re searching for so you can choose your keywords accordingly.
Q5: What tools do you use to help with SEO?
There are a ton of great SEO tools out there and it can be hard to choose just one to use. In fact, many people use multiple tools to help them out. Here are some tool recommendations to try:
Amalia likes to use tools such as Yoast, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and Moz.
Q6: Which SEO experts do you follow to stay updated on Google standards?
Because Google does change the standards from time to time, it’s important to stay updated with what’s going on. There are plenty of SEO experts you can follow online to help you stay up to date.
Julia had quite a few suggestions to offer. Do you follow any of these people?
Q7: How can we handle the updates Google made to meta content standards?
Google recently made some updates to their meta content standards. If you haven’t heard about this, make sure you reader our blog post on it: https://staging.expresswriters.com/new-meta-content-length
Q7: Hard to keep up with google! Follow experts and learn from their mistakes. #ContentWritingChat
Kristen is spot on with her answer. Don’t alter the core message or readability of your content for SEO. Providing quality to your audience is always the most important thing. Never sacrifice that.
Sarah knows there are quite a few “don’ts” when it comes to SEO. She said to avoid keyword stuffing, over-linking, and writing just for keywords/SEO. Avoid being spammy.
A8 Biggest one: NEVER focus only on keywords. Worst road you could go down. The anti of good online content. #ContentWritingChat
As Julia said, you should never focus solely on keywords. It’s more important to focus on creating high-quality content.
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
P.S.Interested to learn how Julia created our chat from scratch and how I manage it? Check out our episode on The Write Podcast posted this week, where Julia and I discuss everything entailed in launching/running a Twitter chat!
Did you miss our #ContentWritingChat this week? If you did, you missed a great chat! However, there’s no need to feel left out because we have a round-up of some of the tweets from Tuesday’s chat. Get caught up on our session and learn more about SEO and great content!
#ContentWritingChat May 10 2016 Recap: How to Kill it in SEO Rankings with Great Content
Q1: What are the basics of SEO every online writer should know?
Many people are intimidated by SEO, but it doesn’t have to be hard. You just need to start with the basics! Here are some things every online writer needs to know when it comes to optimizing content:
A1b) Where are your competitors beating you, and how can you make a play for their rank? Can you? Should you? #ContentWritingChat
Great answers from Jenn! She says you need to know how to research, but you should also keep an eye on your competitors. In what areas are they beating you? How can you improve? Use that to your advantage!
A1: They need to know how to research keywords and how to include them properly in a title and article. #contentwritingchat
A1. How to search for keywords. Long-tail keywords are your friend. #ContentWritingChat
— Brittany Brander (@BrittanyBrander) May 10, 2016
One thing you absolutely need to know: How to research keywords. If you want to optimize your posts, you need to make sure you’re choosing the best keywords for your content. And yes, those long-tail keywords are your friend!
A1: The basics are keyword focus, heading tags, meta descriptions, and relevance. What’s trending? What value is added? #ContentWritingChat
Ryan said you need to know which keywords to focus on, how to use heading tags, and how to include meta descriptions. More importantly, you need to make sure your content and the chosen keywords are relevant. Are you adding value to your audience?
A1) Also – how to prioritise between topics/terms and determine potential value. Learn tools like @semrush & @moz#ContentWritingChat
Amel brings up a great point when it comes to placement of keywords. The days of keyword stuffing are long gone, my friends. (It was never cool anyway!) You should work your keywords into your content in a way that sounds natural, not spammy.
Q2: How can you gain better rankings in Google’s search results through good content?
Optimizing your posts for search engines is about more than just keywords, meta descriptions, etc. You always need to focus on providing good content first and foremost. Google loves good content and so do your readers!
— Eliza David, Author (@elizadwrites) May 10, 2016
Eliza knows how important it is to keep your audience in mind when creating. What do your readers want to see? How can you help them and add value? Your analytics are a great place to see which posts get the most traffic, which keywords your audience is searching, and more. Create more of what they want!
A2: Consistency in you messaging while strategically using words that target KW you want to increase rankings against. #ContentWritingChat
A friendly reminder from these three chatters: If you create good, valuable content, your audience will want to share it! Focus on providing quality content every single time.
Q3: What are some don’ts to avoid when it comes to SEO?
There are some things you should avoid when it comes to SEO, otherwise you risk being penalized by Google and turning off your readers.
Debi and Varun are spot-on with their answers! Write for humans, not search engines. Providing great content for your readers should always be your number one priority.
Sarah said to ditch the tactics that used to rank content 5+ years ago. Things change and you need to keep up with the latest SEO tips. She also said not to buy links or do any kind of keyword stuffing. These things are not okay!
Badal said to make sure it sounds natural. That’s key!
A3. Imagine reading “hiking gear essentials” 30 times in a post. No thanks. #ContentWritingChat
— Brittany Brander (@BrittanyBrander) May 10, 2016
We agree that would be pretty annoying, Brittany!
Q4: How do you choose the right keywords to use in your content?
Choosing the right keywords is essential if you want your content to rank higher in search results. Here are some tips to help you select the right ones:
Odds are, your audience is already using the exact keywords you should incorporate into your content. One great way to find out is by checking your analytics. Which keywords are people searching to find your website? Which keywords are they using when searching keywords while on your site?
A4) Use analytics to know where PPC traffic is coming from. Increase SEO there to shift dollars to other PPC needs. #ContentWritingChat
Sarah suggested figuring out what has already resonated with your audience. Which posts of yours are they sharing and linking to? Which posts are getting them to convert?
A5) Don’t reinvent the wheel. What types of content have you seen success with? Can you direct it toward your SEO goals? #ContentWritingChat
Jenn had the same idea as Sarah. Take a look at your previous content and see what you’ve had success with. A quick look into your analytics will reveal what your most popular posts are in terms of traffic.
A great tip from David: engage with your audience! When you take the time to talk to your audience and get to know them, you can better understand their needs. What are their problems and how can you help through your content?
Another great tip is to answer your audience’s questions with your content. Are you often getting asked the same questions? Address them in a blog post. Keep an eye on the questions they ask through your comments section, emails, and social media.
Amalia suggested using social media as a way to build natural connections with your audience. Make sure you’re taking the time to engage with others and have conversations with them.
A7: Social media plays a huge part. The more shares, eyes, traffic & backlinks, the better SEO results. #ContentWritingChat
And don’t forget those Twitter chats! They’re a great place to learn, right? 😉
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing.
If you missed this week’s #ContentWritingChat, you’re in luck! We have rounded-up some of the best tweets from our chat on Tuesday, February 9th at 10 AM CST. Ready to dive in and learn more about SEO? Keep reading!
#ContentWritingChat February 9 2016 Recap: SEO in 2016 and Beyond with Jeff Deutsch
Jeff is super knowledgeable in SEO. He joined our chat to share his expertise on the best SEO practices you should be using. We were so excited to have him joining us!
As Jeff and our CEO, Julia, pointed out, SEO is about optimizing your content for search engines. You want Google to view your content as relevant and authoritative in order to rank higher in search results.
Jeff also gives us a very important reminder about making sure you’re writing for humans. Google’s algorithms keep getting better and better and you want to keep up – and this is a key way.
Kavita mentioned the importance of keywords in her answer. Make sure you’re selecting the right keywords for your content. Use keywords that people are actually searching for so you can reach them. Include keywords in your post title, throughout your content, and in the alt tags for your images.
Don’t forget to think beyond keywords, too. Netvantage brings up a great point about making sure your website is optimized. Google favors websites that are mobile-friendly and have quick loading times.
If it wasn’t already obvious by the answers from Jeff, Kavita, and Netvantage Marketing, picking the right keywords is essential! You want to target the keywords your audience is actually searching, otherwise you cannot expect them to find your content. Kavita added a great tip which is to make sure you’re including your focus keyword in your post title, throughout the post itself, and in the alt tags for your images. Very important!
However, don’t forget to think beyond keywords. Netvantage Marketing reminds us the importance of having an optimized website. Google favors websites that are mobile-friendly and ranks them higher in search results. You also want to have faster page-loading times because that’s a good thing to Google!
Follow the advice from Jeff and Ryan and make sure all of your content is relevant and authoritative. High-quality content is key first and foremost!
Try asking yourself Jeff’s question the next time you’re writing, “Would an expert on this subject link to this?” If not, you might want to step it up!
Jeff and Julia provided great answers for this question! Storytelling is important for building a connection between you and your reader. That kind of connection is memorable to your readers and is going to make them want to share your work.
Focus on building a stronger relationship with your readers to grow your brand.
To naturally earn links for SEO, focus on providing quality content for your audience. When you create valuable content for your audience, they’ll want to share it. As Jeff pointed out, be known as “that guy” or “that woman” within your niche. Position yourself as an authority figure for whatever it is you do. Become to go-to person everyone knows and trusts.
Andrew also reminds us that while great content can earn links on its own, promotion is important. Don’t forget to spread the word about what you’ve created.
Jeff offers a great tip here! If you have a piece that you want major influencers in your niche to see, contact them! It may seem scary, but it’s worthwhile to just put yourself out there. You never know who might be willing to share your work so it’s worth a shot!
Michael mentioned the importance of connecting with your audience. Building that relationship with them is key because they’ll be more likely to share your content when you do.
Don’t forget the hashtags, too! Use the hashtags you known your target market is using so they will be more likely to discover your work. It’s a simple way to reach new people.
Don’t fall for any of those bad or outdated SEO practices! Take Michael’s advice and ditch the robotic copy. Focus on writing great content and working your keywords in naturally. No keyword stuffing either because you don’t want Google to think you’re spam.
Julia offers a great point when she said you should think about your reader. Your reader comes first so make sure you’re providing them with valuable content they’ll love. When you do, they’ll keep coming back for more.
The other day, I was poking around in my favorite SEO analytic software of choice, SEMrush, checking on our rankings. My team at Express Writers has a Guru subscription there that allows us to see detailed analytics of our site–and I mean detailed. We see a ton of keyword position data down to the most recent keyword ranking change of our site in Google, as of just an hour ago. (If you haven’t already, go check out SEMrush here.)
Well, a couple days ago I was doing my biweekly SEO audit of all of our keyword positions and pulling keyword data for new content. I was shocked to see that the positions changes mapped a huge spike: as of October 28, 302 new keyword gains. In 24 hours. And our traffic had spiked up to the most I’d ever seen: 1,251 people on one day.
What Exactly Are We Doing In Google?
Let me give you a little look at exactly how we’re getting and maintaining our positions with Google before I delve into the recent major keyword growth.
1. Content
We write and publish about 3-4 blogs on our site a week, ranging from 1,000-3,000 words each. So since 2011, we have 642 blogs published on our Wordpress site (this one makes 643):
This isn’t counting the hundreds of guest blogs I’ve placed on places like SiteProNews, Search Engine Journal, Social Media Examiner, and more.
Also, we have about 50-80 website pages, maybe 400-800 words each.
2. Traffic
So, with that insight into just how much we publish, now it’s time to see what the results are. We have some serious organic traffic. I’ve never placed a Google paid ad in all my four years of business; and never will. I believe in great content brainstorming, writing and publishing, and it is what is keeping us strong. And sometimes just this process can take me 40 hours a week. It isn’t easy, but it is thoroughly worth it.
SEMrush puts our traffic at a value of $6,800 (what we would pay if we were paying for ad clicks). We have 3,000 keywords indexed in Google, with over 100 in the top 5 positions of Google. We’re outranking a large number of our competitors in the content creation niche.
Let’s look at the graph on the right a little deeper:
Whoa!
This month we have the most site traffic we’ve ever had, with 1,251 people visiting in a single day the first week of November.
3. How We Gained 300+ Rankings In One Day
Here’s what I saw that stopped me in my tracks the other day. I clicked on Position Changes under Organic Research, in SEMrush:
See that? 302 new rankings in a single day!
Clicking on what was “new,” some of these showed we were position 11 for “modern copywriter,” #3 for “copywriting companies”, and #19 for “website content”:
The orange bar below showed we’d lost 200 keywords. But clicking on that, I saw they were mostly unrelated keywords—like “express for her,” “sprinkles icing,” and more.
Except for a few pivotal ones we’d lost a few positions on (looks like I need to refresh some old SEO content), the “lost” weren’t too bad.
How The Heck Did We Get 300+ Keywords In One Day?
I have a couple theories.
First, Google RankBrain is out. It came out two days before our rankings showed a major spike. Read my blog on RankBrain here. RankBrain is an AI system that basically could be replacing Google’s old way of doing its algorithm, and it exposed 15% of the web that Google hadn’t shed light on before. I’m sure RankBrain is showing a lot more website owners rankings they didn’t know they ever had.
RankBrain means we’ll all be able to see a whopping 15% more in analytics and positions online that our sites and content are ranking for—all the more reason to start publishing great content!
Secondly, Google has still been rolling out Panda, AND, topical trust flow has recently been making big waves (it’s replacing PageRank and focuses on reporting relevant content in higher rankings). Topical trust flow weight could be mostly likely why we lost our unrelated rankings, too. All this is probably tied into the quality of the RankBrain AI.
Lastly, we’ve been working hard on our content. Over the past month, I’ve revamped and improved our blogging and content publishing quality.
Here are just a few of the changes:
SEO audit of our blogs (I just corrected 35 “bad SEO” blogs, rewrote their meta descriptions and edited the copy, over the last 3 weeks, and took them to green SEO on the Yoast plugin)
More SEO research and keyword planningwith SEMrush for each post
Heavier research and analyzing of topics and what goes into each post
Custom drawings and illustrations, like this one, for many of our posts
At least one infographic written, designed and published per month
Re-purposing of infographics into SlideShares, RSS content to pull guest traffic
Email marketing bi-weekly that sends a blog roundup to our subscriber list
We Know What It Takes To Help You
To end this post, I’d like to emphasize that any one of our clients can see these results. We’re not only writers with pens over here. My team not only writes great SEO optimized content, but we plan it, too—and we use SEMrush! Our team includes strategists that map out monthly editorial calendars for our clients, audit websites to remove anything that could be hurting websites, and similar services.
We’ve seen content success truly happen for us – this post proves that – and we know exactly what it takes to get even a brand new website client onboard with publishing great content that gets both the eye of a reader and Google (albeit if Google, a robotic eye).
If you’re ready to get serious about content and thus, your rankings and readers, check out our Content Shop!
How long does it take to put together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle?
