SEO + Content Marketing Best Practices

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Content Marketing + SEO - Best Practices.

An SEO view of content…
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+Webris | hello@webris.org | Ryan Stewart | http://webris.org
USER BOTS
Historically…

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USERBOTS
2016 and beyond…

The 2 sides of ranking.
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RANK
CRAWL
Step 1: Search engines have to first be
able to find and crawl a webpage to
understand what it is truly about.
Step 2: From there, search engines need
to understand the ranking signals of a
page and how popular and rank-worthy it
truly is.
In
general,
most
of
your
webpages
will
be

crawled,
but
only
a
few
will
actually
rank.

Influencing rankings.
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Putting keywords on a page will only get you
indexed – rankings comes from inbound links,
social activity and online PR.
It’s difficult to generate an online buzz with
sales type content. For that reason, great
content is a cornerstone for SEO.
There are 4 pieces to content SEO:
1.  Keyword planning / idea
generation
2.  Content creation
3.  Content optimization
4.  Content distribution

Content should be focused on keywords that generate a high volume of searches. This not
only ensures traffic potential, but interest level as well.
Keywords that people are searching for (primary and secondary)
Ø  Example primary: SAT Guide
Ø  Example secondary:
Ø  SAT prep study guide
Ø  SAT prep PDF
Ø  SAT Guide 2016 exam
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Find keyword search volume.
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Google Keyword Research Tool - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Build on your keyword list with suggestions.
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Google Keyword Research Tool - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Let Google do the work for you.
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Dig into industry and topical trends.
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Google Trends – www.google.com/trends

Listen to the web.
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Mention - https://mention.com/en/

Listen to the web.
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Google Alerts – www.google.com/alerts

Listen to the web.
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Quora – https://www.quora.com

Find keywords with lower competition.
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Moz Keyword Difﬁculty Tool - https://moz.com/researchtools/keyword-difﬁculty
A large part of Google’s
algorithm pulls from overall
trust and authority of a
website. The higher the
trust + authority, the higher
a site will rank.
Axiom operates in a highly
competitive field, often
competing against high
authority university sites
and Wikipedia.
They key to success is
finding keywords that align
with Axiom’s business
goals and have lower
competition in the SERPs. Look for scores less than 50% (the lower the better)

Mapping keywords to your website.
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Example 1:

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Example 2:

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Example 3:

Creating the right type of content.
Content comes in various forms – each has their own benefit in regards to SEO.
Short
form
Long form QA/
Glossary
Infographic Image
gallery
Video Guide

Understand your keyword’s landscape before creating.
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Branded
knowledge graph
result
Results from
Google images
Results from local
listings
Results from
ofﬁcial sites (with
rating, directions,
and site link
snippets)

Most importantly, cater to your audience.
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Stacey Robinson is a stay at home mother in Concord, MA. She currently has 3 children
(12, 14 and 17) all of whom attend Concord High School. She’s very active in the
community and her children’s education.
CUSTOMER NEEDS
•  What are her top priorities?
PAIN POINTS
•  What keeps her up at night?
YOUR TURN
•  How can we alleviate Stacey’s pain points?
•  How can we effectively reach her?
•  How can we be of service to her (without selling)?
Creating content that your customers need. How can you help?

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3. Content optimization.

Making a page SEO friendly.
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Elements a page must contain:
•  Title tag (should contain the page’s primary keywords towards the beginning and be less than 65
characters long, including spaces)
•  Meta description tag (should contain the page’s primary and secondary keywords and entice the
reader to want to click onto the page. Typically done by a call-to-action at the end. Also the
description should be less than 165 characters, including spaces)
•  Keywords in URL separated by hyphens
•  An H1/H2 tag (the H1 should contain the page’s primary keyword and the H2 should contain a
secondary keyword)

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Elements a page should also contain:
•  Social metadata:
•  Facebook OpenGraph - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph
•  Twitter Cards - https://dev.twitter.com/cards/overview
•  Google+ Snippet - https://developers.google.com/+/web/snippet/
•  Keyword anchor text – look for the blue links on this page as an example:
http://www.hufﬁngtonpost.com/2015/02/02/super-bowl-ratings-2015-patriots-seahawks-
_n_6594520.html?utm_hp_ref=sports&ir=Sports
•  Images/videos with alt attributes and keyword-rich titles – this is a code change to the way
images and videos are embedded onto a page.

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Poorly optimized content
does not perform well in
search engines.
This can be detrimental to
brand equity as other
websites can infringe on
branded queries and steal
traffic intended for your site.

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Proper markups help search engines understand content:
<h1>What
are
GMOs?
<h1>

FRONT-‐END
OF
CONTENT
BACK-‐END
OF
CONTENT

<h2>What
does
GMO
mean?<h2>

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Images on a page should also contain:
1.  A properly named
2.  An alt attribute that describes the image

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Moz Keyword Grader: https://moz.com/researchtools/on-page-grader

Getting a page to rank.
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Ranking a page takes more creating
content with the right keywords. This
might get you indexed, but not ranked.
Ranking a page takes signiﬁcant off
page signals. Tweets, +1’s, Shares and
links to content are the top signals
Google looks for.
Ideally, these signals happen naturally.
You post a piece of content, send it
through owned channels (social + email)
and fans amplify it.
That’s not always the case. Sometimes,
generating these signals takes
signiﬁcant effort on the part of the
publisher.
Relevance Authority+

What determines
relevance?
•  URL Structure
•  Title of page
•  Keyword contained in
content
•  Relevant images/media
BASICS
of
what
ranks
a
page:

What determines
authority?
•  Number of links
pointing at site
•  Number of links
pointing at page
•  Quality links pointing at
site
•  Quality links pointing at
page
•  Social media signals
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Social signals.
The majority of web activity takes places on sites like Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. If your links
aren't being posted on these sites, it’s hard for Google see your site as relevant.
There are thousands of highly active social media groups and web forums
related to farming. While these participants may not be your direct
customers, they server as potential amplifiers, influencers and ambassadors of
the brand.
Getting your content in these groups pushes highly relevant social signals to
your site, honest feedback and potential amplification (shares, links, etc).
Examples of engaged communities can be found on:
•  Google+
•  Facebook
•  Reddit
•  Pinterest
•  Web forums

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Links.
Links are still the #1 factor Google looks at when ranking pages. When one site links to your content, it
tells Google that your site has something worth seeing. Ideally, links come from:
1.  Relevant sites (i.e. Education sites not ESPN)
2.  High authority (DA) sites
Some link strategies include:
1.  Targeted link outreach
2.  Blogger outreach
3.  Guest blogging
4.  Press release
5.  Broken link building
6.  Resource page outreach

Putting it all together.
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Planning
q  STEP 1 – Research keyword topic
q  STEP 2 – Pick top keyword to focus on (primary and secondary) – have multiple options
q  STEP 3 – Narrow down based off of difﬁculty
q  STEP 4 – Determine the best type and amount of content you will need to rank (search Google)
q  STEP 5 – Determine resources and time you have available to meet this objective
Writing
q  STEP 6 – Begin writing and producing content
q  STEP 7 – Write a custom title and meta description tag (titles <65 characters/descriptions <165). In
general, your title will likely be the title of your article/blog post, and your description will be a catchy
165 character or less description of the page that attempts to catch the readers attention and entice a
click onto the desired page.

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Spot-checking
q  STEP 8 – Ensure the URL uses the right keywords
q  STEP 9 – Ensure page properly links to other pages
q  STEP 10 – Spot-check all SEO best practices
Publishing
q  STEP 11 – Review tracking is accurate and publish article
Optimizing (post–publish)
q  STEP 12 – Check the “targeting” of the page using the keyword grader tool
q  STEP 13 – Check the ranking of the page using the ranking tool

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Keyword Research (ﬁnd search volumes, competitiveness, and trends):
•  Google Keyword Research Tool – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
•  Google Trends – www.google.com/trends
•  Ubersuggest – www.ubersuggest.org
•  SEM Rush – www.semrush.com
Link and Social Research (just add the URL of the page you want to check):
•  Moz Open Site Explorer – https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/
Check rankings for a particular keyword
•  Moz Rank Tracker (200 limit per day) - https://moz.com/researchtools/rank-tracker

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