This document discusses using social media and SEO strategies to justify investments in content marketing. It argues that social media can help drive SEO by promoting new content and building links. The document provides tips for content strategies, including identifying influencers, analyzing competitors' content, creating shareable content, and using a content roadmap. It emphasizes that content should be integrated with other marketing activities and fulfill real information needs rather than just pursuing metrics like followers.

1. Using SEO to Justify
Investment in Social
by Patrick Altoft

2. What I will be talking about
Deciding what content to publish
• Integrating with current activity
• Market research
• Brainstorming
Promoting content
• Outreach
• Using social media
Content strategy

3. Why SEO & social?
Brands understand PPC and are willing to invest
SEO is far more profitable than PPC but more of a risk, brands still willing to invest
Social is hard to measure & less profitable with lower chance of success (depending on
the industry) – so how do we get brands to invest?
The answer is that social helps drive SEO.

4. Doing Real Stuff
Would you do this if it didn’t help
with SEO?
When you release a new page or
piece of content would your MD or
PR department tweet about it?
Would they tweet a link built by your
SEO team?
If not then you probably shouldn’t
be doing it
SEO has to be integral to marketing

5. Real Company Stuff
http://b3.io/10ZXMjy

6. Influencers
Find key influencers & review
what they are talking about each
week
Follow via Twitter lists
Use data to decide what content
would be popular with them

7. What do they link to?
Analyse the past few months posts from the
top 10 blogs in the sector you want to target
& see what they link to
If they never cover infographics then don’t
use that as your strategy
All sectors are different
Don’t aim too high initially

8. Get social
Make something
users will love
Encourage them
to share
*This is the Twitter Analytics
interface for verified users

9. Social SEO is not about fans & followers
It’s about engagement

10. Tweeting

11. Sharing

12. Think About the Future
Google has a history of devaluing every type of link that was created for SEO purposes
• Directory links
• Press release syndication
• Article syndication
• Blatant paid links
• Wordpress theme links
• Advertorials
• And many more
Unless the links you build are part of your overall marketing & communications strategy
they will only work for a limited amount of time

13. Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis has
become pretty much
useless in the last 12
months.
Most of your competitors
links probably look terrible
Maybe they disavowed
them?
Analyse content that
was widely shared &
linked instead

14. Competing
If you don’t have a better site, don’t expect to rank higher. Build links
people can’t replicate rather than just copying competitors
http://www.rosshudgens.com/authority-bloat/

15. How It Works For Vue Cinemas
Constant communication and a weekly update with
PR and Social agencies for Vue results in top quality
content and links from trusted established resources
which are relevant to their target audience.
Radio Times
78 retweets
179 Facebook interactions
Link from high authority site
Domain Authority: 74

16. Success
Often success is about finding one
or two high profile people to share
content & it will virally grow
www.slideshare.net/mikejeffs/

17. What Google Wants
The goal of many of our ranking changes is to help searchers find sites that provide a great
user experience and fulfil their information needs.
Matt Cutts
Our strategy therefore is to create a better search result for our clients than their
competitors.
This can be split into two simple to understand factors:
• Creating more authority & being a better/more reputable company
• Making better landing pages, specifically your primary pages

18. http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing/

19. Content Strategy
Our Data Insights team analysed visits across one of the UK’s largest
retail ecommerce websites and found that users who engaged with a
piece of content such as an article, forum thread or video on the site
before reaching a product or category page were 5 times more valuable
than users who arrived directly on a product or category page.
Users who engage with quality content place more trust in the brand so
convert at a higher rate, purchase more products and have a greater
tendency to make repeat purchases
Increasing brand trust, improving conversion rates and encouraging
larger sale values are all vital elements of any digital marketing campaign

20. Content Audit
Document
• Typography
• Readability
• Spelling/grammar
• Shareability
• Keyword use
• Copyscape report on
stolen content
• Social media shares
Shareable Content
• Brainstorming
• Competitor Analysis
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors
Informative
Content
• Research Q&A on
Yahoo Answers,
Quora, Facebook,
Twitter
• Search for questions
in Analytics data &
keyword tool data
• Gap Analysis of
current content
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors etc
User Generated
Content
• Reviews –
implementation,
incentivisation etc
• Q&A section or Q&A
on product pages etc
• Forums, blog
comments, guest
blog posts, in-depth
content reviews
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors etc
Site Structure
• Where does content
need to go (blog or
Q&A etc)
• How should the
sections be
structured
• Design & UI
• Interlinking between
sections
• Examples &
screenshots from
competitors
Content Roadmap
Document
• Monthly or weekly
content plan
• Special events &
calendar
• Blog calendar
• PR calendar
Content Strategy Framework

21. Use Your Assets to Build Authority
Moneysupermarket.com
releases an annual Home
Insurance Monitor report
detailing which towns in the UK
are most likely to be burgled,
common accidents, premiums
etc
With data from 3.3m quotes this
could be amazing
It’s in a PDF – big missed
opportunity

22. Quora for Content Ideas
Use Q&A sites to drive content
strategy:
• Quora
• Yahoo Answers
• Also filters in Analytics to find
questions

23. Patrick@branded3.com and twitter.com/patrickaltoft
Questions?