Tag Archives: Content marketing

Monday Must-Reads

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By: iCopywriter Blogger Alex Dalenberg

OK, iCopyInsiders, it’s all business this Monday. We’ve pulled together some pretty serious SEO reads for you to dig into this week.

Ah, who am I kidding? Before we begin, here is a cat watching the snowfall during the big blizzard the Northeast had over the weekend. And here is a snowy pup. Hat tip to Buzzfeed (who else?).

Also, watch a cool time-lapse video of the snowfall in Connecticut.

With that out of the way, we can move on to the weekly avalanche of search and marketing resources.

1. Auto blog Jalopnik reports that the big car dealers are turning to SEO to move vehicles off their lots. But not everybody agrees on whether this is a good strategy or not, at least in terms of the specifics of the auto industry.

Vine. Twitter's New Venture...

 

 

2. Only 2 percent of Web users have signed up for a Vine account, but that doesn’t mean brands aren’t rushing to make use of the micro-video sharing site. SmartBlog has a handy guide for using Vine for content marketing.

On a personal note, I enjoy Vine – and I’ve written as much on this site – but I would like to see a more robust user base. My gut says that Vine will continue to grow, but it may take some time.

 

3. Via Search Engine Watch, online newsrooms are finally getting savvy to SEO, but the secret is in synergy between the PR types and the SEO team. Not to belabor the point, but good content leads to hits.

4. Seems like I’m seeing more of these mega tip sheets on the blog circuit these days. Here is one from HubSpot: 101 ways to make people hate your marketing. Worth a skim. Don’t annoy people, basically.

5. Lest you forget that Google Author Rank is shaking up the online search scene, here is CopyBlogger arguing that the late, great gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson would have been a huge fan.

Photo Credit: vine.co/blog

 

 

 

 

Monday Must-Reads: New Year’s Eve Edition

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By: iCopywriter Blogger Alex Dalenberg

As Bill Murray once said in Ghostbusters 2 – the best or worst New Year’s film ever made, depending on whether you are 13 years old or 30 – “Happy New Year!”

While you’re sitting around waiting for the ball to drop, or to be fashionably late to that big New Year’s gala, here is this week’s roundup of SEO reads and other interesting links.

1. Solid advice from Search Engine Watch – which you should bookmark anyway – detailing how 2013 will be the year of marketing integration.

2. This article from tech blog The Next Web is perhaps more appropriate for a FreakyFriday post. Chinese search firm Baidu is testing a facial recognition search engine.

3. If it hasn’t already, 2013 is going to be the year your business gets cozy with content marketing. Here’s a good piece from Mashable about how SEO fits into the content marketing equation.

4. If you’re making New Year’s resolutions, Forbes has some tips for you on how to be more successful.

5. And, as you fill up the Web with all that great business content, make sure you’re thinking about who actually owns it. As The New York Times points out, confusion abounds.

SEO Guru Blog – Part II: SEO-Cubed: Three Suggestions from Three Search Engine Gurus

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Last week at iCopyInsider we featured the first part of an interview we did with some of the fantastic project managers we work with.

We grilled them about all-things-copywriting and SEO to get their take on how businesses should approach the sometimes-daunting task of staying found on the Internet. They dropped a lot of knowledge, far more than we could fit into one post; so today we bring you the second installment.

To refresh, here is your expert panel of SEO gurus:

Fumi Matsubara, Director of Account Services at Geary LSF Group

http://LSFinteractive.com

http://Gearyi.com

http://GearyLSF.com

Miguel Salcido, CEO of Organic Media Group

http://organicseoconsultant.com/

http://organicmediagroup.org/

Jenna Allison, Account Services Manager at Geary LSF Group

http://LSFinteractive.com

http://Gearyi.com

http://GearyLSF.com

And here is each of our guru’s answers to the following question:

“What are the top three suggestions you can give clients who want to improve their ranking?

Fumi Matsubara

1. Develop strong, sound site architecture. Improve title tags that are not just keyword rich, but also with call to action to help with your click through rate.

2. Make sure your website is mobile compatible. This way you can broaden customer base and provide a quality user experience.

3. Invest time and resources in a good content marketing strategy.

Miguel Salcido

1. Be dedicated. Put aside enough budget for at least 6 to 12 months and let it ride. Basically, you need commit to SEO and see it through without getting antsy.

2. Create great content and continuously create new content. The more content that you have, the more traffic. It’s pretty simple.

3. Promote your content. Your content is the gift that keeps on giving. You should be proud to promote it.

Jenna Allison

1. Make it easy for Google to read and understand your site. Make sure that any content on your site pages is organic and natural, and update any title/meta tag descriptions for those pages.

2. Don’t over optimize. Several years ago, it was common practice to “stuff” keywords into your content. This is no good now. The way you should look at doing any content on your pages or for link building is to create conversational content. Don’t write something that wouldn’t make sense if you were having a conversation with somebody in front of you. Google is smart enough to understand what you are doing if you use too many keywords in one space.

3. Think quality over quantity when it comes to link building. This is one of the keys to creating authority for your site as well as boosting search rankings. Make sure that you aren’t overdoing it though. A few years ago it was OK to syndicate content over thousands of different blog farms. Now, Google is actually devaluing and penalizing those sites because it isn’t natural. You want to create content with links that are going to be beneficial to the reader/user: this is Google’s main objective when it feeds you a search results page.

Check out iCopywriter for YOUR online content needs

 

 

4 Ways Content Marketing Keeps Customers On Your Site Longer

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By: iCopywriter Blogger Kimberly Crossland
Your website is your storefront on the Internet. And just like a brick-and-mortar store, you want to keep prospective customers in your store as long as possible. The more time your customers spend on your website, the higher the chances are that they will make a purchase.

Content marketing has taken the digital marketing world by storm for good reason. One of the most effective ways to keep your customers engaged with your brand online for longer is content. The more valuable information you can provide, the longer you will keep your prospects and customers engaged, and the more likely they are to ultimately perform the action you are driving them to do.

The following are four ways you can improve your website to keep customers staying for longer.

1.     Break up content on multiple pages – If you have a long blog posts or information-rich articles, break them up onto multiple pages. This will get your reader to click to other pages on your site to continue reading and encourage them to continue engagement with your brand even after they are finished with the blog post or article they are reading.
2.     Recommend further reading – Once a blog post or article is finished, recommend further readings that are similar to the content your reader just consumed. This will not only keep them on your website, but show that you have more expertise as a brand and thereby establish you as an industry leader in your field.
3.     Link keywords internally – Throughout your content, link keywords to other articles or blog posts that you provide on your site. Linking internally can drive customers to other content that you have developed and keep them engaged.
4.     Embed interactive features – To make content more dynamic, add videos or slideshows. This will keep your customers on pages for longer. A recent study by research firm Ooyala states that approximately 40% of viewers who tune in to online videos on computers or laptops, do so for as long as 6 minutes. This percentage goes up with videos on tablets and smartphones as well. This is a significant amount of time to keep customers on your website and improve their experience.

A combination of informative written material, driving customers to other content, linking internally, and adding dynamic features to your site will keep your customers on your website. This increases the likelihood of social sharing, as well as the chances that they will purchase from your company when they are ready.

What else have you done to keep customers on your site for longer?

Have you checked out iCopywriter lately?

Photo credit: Creativestock