Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Week 6 on Link Marketing, Content Marketing and Strategies for Developing Search Presence through Content

1. MKT 420
Week 6

2. Agenda
• Content Marketing
• Content and Search
• Linking and Link Marketing

3. Content and Links
• Content=Visibility and reputation online
• Links=Higher search ranking
• Don’t seem connected but really are. Why?

4. Links
• Google looks at links as an editorial endorsement
• Means the content is trusted and discovered
independently of search
• Wants search to reinforce (an vice versa) user
discovery of content); If something is heavily linked
to it must be good. Search engines confirm this by
giving the page a higher rank

5. Page Rank
• Product name for Google’s original search algorithm
• PageRank is still a part of the Google algorithm that
deals with search
• Mysterious, complicated and difficult to understand
but bottom line is clear: The more links you have
from trusted, reliable domains the better off your
rank will be but…
• Google is very clear about the potential negative
impact of the practice of buying links (even from
trusted sources)

6. So where does this leave
us?
• Links are important for ranking highly on organic
search
• Quality, unpaid links that show connectedness to
other websites are key
• In other words, some links have value and some do
not

7. Valued Links--Direction
• Valued links can be outbound or inbound
• Outbound makes the page more worthwhile
because it directs users to other valuable content
• Inbound means your content is valued and others
• Either way the preference is for links that are anchor
text not images or video. Why?

8. Valued Links--Relevance
• Links that come from or go to related topics are
much more valuable
• A link for a restaurant to a food blog and vice versa
is more valuable than a link to a blog about car
• Both have value but the ones that are related in
terms of content are the most beneficial

9. Valued Links--Authority
• Links to and from content with higher authority are
valued
• Information value chain
• Authoritativeness is measured by trust rankings
• Many SEO practitioners avoid links from trusted,
highly authoritative sites because they think the
competition limits their visibility which is precisely
why they are so valuable!

10. Valued Links--Trust
• Links to websites that have low trust are a negative
search rank indicator!
• Trust is complex but usually tied to a site’s ranking
in terms of credibility measured by popularity and
other referring TLD’s

11. Link Value—Other
Factors
• Diversity of source (the type of source linking)—
Search engines like links from a lot of different
things and website types
• Time (new or old?)—Search engines prefer older
links as well as how fast the links appeared (link
velocity—a bunch of links all at once is a red flag!)
• Link placement (prefer links in prominent places)
• TLD’s--.edu and .gov most valued

12. Link Marketing
• Managing links can literally be a full time job—they
are that important!
• Links are oftentimes kept in a database and
evaluated over time by SEO managers
• The idea is to consistently and constantly build your
links

13. So links are
important…
• How do you get them?

14. Acquiring links
• Buy them
• Reciprocal linking between sites
• Emotional content
• Valuable content
• Business relationship
• The last three are most important and should form
the basis of your content strategy

15. Content creates links
• Content marketing is the key to creating links
• Content can be part of the website or a subdomain
that contains deep content (blog) either is valuable

16. Link campaigns=Content
Campaigns
• What content can be added that will foster a belief
that your site is entertaining, a trusted information
source?
• Content is highly tied to reputation so it should be
tied to mission/vision (makes it more authentic)
• When will it be published (content calendar) and
what will it contain? Timeliness and relevance are
keystone concepts in content marketing

17. Content marketing is not
a quick fix
• Takes time
• Requires persistence
• Enormous amount of effort in building original
content

18. Important role of social
media

19. What is content?
• Content is a huge universe
• Images, memes, videos, blog posts, articles,
pictures, infographics, curated information,
data/statistics, how to’s, quizzes, listicles, product
reviews, etc etc.

20. Content building
strategies
• In house
• User generated
• Guest posts
• Social media
• Syndicated (purchased or licensed content)
• Viral content (this is the top goal of many
businesses especially new ones)

21. Credibility or Creativity?
• Key to content marketing is creativity and or
credibility
• SMEs—What will be so useful in terms of expert
advice that people will share?
• What will creatively capture people’s imaginations
and compel them to share?

22. Product reviews and
discussions
• Huge source of links
• The more people talk about your products or
services online the more links you will develop
• Mostly organic; Not much you can do beyond
encourage people to review and rate you and
lurking on discussions

23. Identify sources of links
• Look at competitors (Moz, Majestic, SEMrush)
• Brainstorm who will link to you based upon
relevance

24. Content Audit
• Look at content currently on your site
• What’s useful?
• Missing?

25. Develop an editorial
strategy
• Audience
• Budget
• Calendar
• Campaigns

26. Campaign Types
• Guest posting
• Viral campaign (video, story, image or meme)
• User-generated
• Syndicated/purchased
• In-house
• Social media