7 Ways To Boost Your Traffic With SEO And Content Marketing

1. 7 Ways to Boost Your Trafﬁc with SEOand Content Marketing By Colin Pang

2. What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy to help your website rank highly on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

3. Good SEO = Good Organic Search Results Paid Ads Good SEO helps you rank high on Organic Search Results What a typical Search Engine Result Page (SERP) looks like: Organic Search Results

4. Your Organic Search Results Matter Source: http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/ Google Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) History Mar 2015 Top ranked organic search results à High click-through rate (CTR) For example,200,000 people search for “men’s watches” Position #1 on desktop search,you get 25.84% X 200,000 = 51,680 visitors CTR: 25.84%

5. Your Organic Search Results Matter Source: http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/ Google Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) History Mar 2015 CTR: 2.85% CTR dramatically drops for lower ranked search engine results à Low web trafﬁc Position #6 to #10 on desktop search,you get 10 times lesser trafﬁc: 5700 visitors

6. That’s why SEO is important Source: http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/ Google Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) History Mar 2015 With excellent SEO practices… you can achieve 10X more trafﬁc CTR: 25.84% CTR: 2.85%

7. SEO Karate by Happy Marketer

8. On the other hand,what is Source: http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ctrstudy/ Content Marketing

9. What is Content Marketing? Content Marketing is a digital marketing strategy that entails the creation and distribution of relevant,valuable, unique and consistent content to acquire and retain customers.

10. Why is Content Marketing Important? Brand Awareness Web Trafﬁc User Engagement Generate/Nurture Leads

11. SEO & Content Marketing Work Hand-in-Hand SEO Content Marketing

12. #1 Identify the right Keywords

13. #1 -KEYWORDS Find the keywords that people search for when they are looking for something related to your brand or product offering,and ensure that your website is optimized with such keywords.

14. #1 -KEYWORDS Some free ways to identify keywords

15. #1 -KEYWORDS Google AdWords Keyword Planner Google’s FREE Keyword Planner tool lets you ﬁnd new keywords based on many criteria that include •  Product Category •  Targeting (location,language,search channel,negative keywords) •  Date Range

16. #1 -KEYWORDS Google AdWords Keyword Planner Identify keywords to target based on •  Average monthly searches •  Competition Google AdWords Keyword Planner

17. #1 -KEYWORDS Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels > Organic Traffic and you will see Primary Dimension as “keywords” Track your current site with Google Analytics Review the top organic keywords that are driving traffic to your website. Optimize well-performing keywords (based on traffic,low bounce rate,high average session duration) to rank higher in search

18. #1 -KEYWORDS Use Google Trends as a complement to AdWords Keyword Planner. You can compare the level of interest among potential target phrases and customize it based on various ﬁlters •  Geography •  Time Duration •  Categories •  Search Type Allows you to see any upward or downward trend and plan what prospective keywords to target accordingly.

19. #2 Understand the cumulative power of Long-Tail Keywords

20. #2 Long-tail Keywords What are they? •  Longer and more speciﬁc keyword phrases •  Often less competitive to rank •  Often draws better quality trafﬁc & higher conversion rates Long-Tail Keywords

21. #2 Long-tail Keywords Why it makes sense to target long-tail keywords

22. #2 Long-tail Keywords Why it makes sense to target long-tail keywords

23. #2 Long-tail Keywords Some ways to ﬁnd long-tail keywords Google Autocomplete

24. #3 Optimize your Website Architecture & Technical Issues

25. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues Even if you have the best content on your site,if your site is structured in a way that search engines cannot crawl and ﬁnd your content, you won’t appear on search results.

26. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  URL Structure Ensure it is easy for users and search engines to understand Good Practices •  Use words in URL •  Straightforward •  Meaningful •  Simple directory structure •  Try to include the keyword you are targeting in the URL structure •  Try to match URLs to titles

27. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  URL Structure Ensure it is easy for users and search engines to understand Bad Examples to Avoid •  Use dynamic parameters (www.example.com/asd?id=123) •  Too long (www.example.com/this-is-a-terribly-long-example-of-a-url-structure.html) •  Too many folders (www.example.com/region/country/destination/route/ﬂight.html)

28. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  Create Sitemaps One for users One for search engine Create a XML sitemap so that search engines can easily navigate your site and hence,show your site in search results. *VERY IMPORTANT FOR SEO* Create a simple sitemap page that shows a hierarchical listing of pages on your site for visitors to see.

29. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  Is your site mobile-optimized? “More than half of searches on Google (100 billion monthly searches) now happen on mobile” Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/8/9480779/google-search-mobile-vs-desktop-2015 Amit Singhal Google’s Senior VP of Search,October 2015

30. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  Best practices for mobile-optimization RESPONSIVE DESIGN

31. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues •  Best practices for mobile-optimization •  Don’t block CSS, JavaScript •  Legible font sizes •  Use HTML5 and avoid plugins,especially Flash or Java •  Titles and Meta descriptions should be short and sweet •  Optimize for local search

32. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues Fast,free way to check if your site is mobile-friendly or not https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

33. #3 Architecture & Technical Issues Lots more await you in the technical world of SEO i.e.canonicalization,301 redirects, robot.txt,etc For more in-depth information and how-to-dos, check out these resources: •  Moz Technical Site Audit Checklist •  Google’s SEO Starter Guide

34. #4 Create and Distribute Compelling Content

35. #4 Compelling Content Use the A-I-D-A approach

36. #4 Compelling Content Awareness Interest Desire Action

37. Awareness Interest Desire Action #4 Compelling Content Ensure that your audience is aware of you by being on all the platforms they are on: •  Search Engines •  SEO-Optimized Website and Blog •  Social media channels •  Uniﬁed marketing strategy across channels to ensure that you are on the top-of-mind

38. #4 Compelling Content Awareness Interest Desire Action Stir up interest and cause them to click on the content shared on the various channels •  Identify WHO is your target audience •  Create different customer personas based on their demographics and interests •  Appeal to them with catchy headlines •  Surprise •  Questions •  Curiosity •  Negatives •  How-to

39. #4 Compelling Content Awareness Interest Desire Action *KILLER TIP* Headline Analyzer http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer Write awesome headlines for blog posts and email subject lines to drive social shares, trafﬁc and SEO value.

40. #4 Compelling Content Awareness Interest Desire Action Generate desire among users to make them take action (e.g.follow your site,purchase product) •  Offer quality content •  Inspiration •  Empathy •  Utility •  Produce content on a consistent basis •  Make it interactive,i.e.infographics,video •  Testimonials

41. Awareness Interest Desire Action #4 Compelling Content Get them to take action (i.e.follow,share,sign up,purchase) •  Visible follow & share buttons •  Good landing page optimization •  Master the art of the call-to-action •  Copywriting •  Positioning on page •  Imagery pairing and Visual elements •  Do A/B testing

42. #4 Compelling Content Two killer content marketing strategies are shared in the later slides #6 Newsjacking #7 Skyscraper Technique

43. #5 Blog Regularly

44. #5 Blog Marketers who prioritized blogging are 13Xmore likely to achieve positive ROI Source: HubSpot State of Inbound,2014

45. #5 Blog Long-Term Impact Source: HubSpot

46. #5 Blog Don’t forget to Guest Blog

47. #5 Blog Beneﬁts of Guest Blogging 1.Establish Yourself as an Industry Authority 2.Increase Exposure and Trafﬁc to your website 3.Build Backlinks to your website,that further boost your SEO performance

48. #6 Newsjacking

49. #6 Newsjacking “Newsjacking is the process of injecting your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time,in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.”

50. #6 Newsjacking

51. #6 Newsjacking Keep abreast with the latest news •  Identify what type of news you want to newsjack •  Set up Google Alerts •  Follow real-time industry news or experts on social media,especially Twitter,Facebook and YouTube •  Subscribe to RSS feeds

52. #6 Newsjacking Killer Tip: Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts

53. #6 Newsjacking And when an opportunity arises, •  Speed is key •  Create relevant content around the news,but with a unique twist that draws interest •  Be careful about controversial topics

54. #6 Newsjacking Best combined with social media Case Study: Oreo News Opportunity: 8.32pm,Feb 3th 2015 Power blackout at Super Bowl XLVII Game Real-time Newsjacking Oreo’s Twitter account tweeted this at 8.48pm Viral Response Tweeted 10,000 times within one hour à  Dominated mind share of customers à  Boosted brand reputation à  Positive effect on web trafﬁc

55. Skyscraper technique #7 Note: The Skyscraper technique was originally coined up by Brian Dean of BACKLINKO fame and has since gained popularity http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique

56. What is the Skyscraper Technique? Find content that’s proven to perform well in your niche,i.e.“the tallest skyscraper” and slap 20 stories to the top of it.

57. #7 Skyscraper Technique Step 1: Find link-worthy content Step 3: Reach out to the right people Step 2: Make the content better http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique

58. #7 Skyscraper Technique Step 1: Find link-worthy content Link-worthy content is content that other websites will want to link to because it’s valuable and relevant.In other words, ﬁnd content that is proven to be so awesome that many people are linking to it. Free Tools: •  Moz Open Site Explorer https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ •  Topsy http://topsy.com/ •  Buzzsumo http://www.buzzsumo.com

59. #7 Skyscraper Technique Open Site Explorer (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) Type in a website that generates many links from their content Make sure to select“Top Pages”

60. #7 Skyscraper Technique Open Site Explorer (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) Look for content with at least 25 linking root domains

61. #7 Skyscraper Technique Step 1: Find link-worthy content Buzzsumo (www.buzzsumo.com) You can select the type of content Type in any keyword to quickly ﬁnd any content in any industry

62. #7 Skyscraper Technique Details •  Longer lists •  More in-depth information •  Well-researched case studies Up-to-Date •  Spruce it up with the latest information Design •  More visually appealing •  Images and Infographics Step 2: Make the content better “Creating epic content is the key in getting outstanding results from the Skyscraper technique”

63. #7 Skyscraper Technique •  Develop a list of RIGHT prospects •  in the same niche •  interested in your content topic •  linked an article to that topic •  Email Outreach •  Craft your pitch/email template and how they can beneﬁt from linking to your content •  Actively promote Step 3: Reach out to the right people Even if you have epic content,it doesn’t matter unless people read it.The last step is the most important as you need to actively promote your content.

64. These are just a few of a whole arsenal of digital marketing techniques…

65. Author: Colin Pang http://linkedin.com/in/djpang @djpang Need help with SEO or content marketing? Write to us at hello@happymarketer.com or visit us at www.happymarketer.com