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Why is content marketing so important?
of buyers view 4 or more pieces of content when
making a considered purchase70%
71% of buyers trust brands that provide useful info
without trying to sell something
Because the buyer says so…
more leads generated by B2B companies that
create content
67%
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Write For Your Audience
• You are creating content for your customers
and prospects.
• If you base your marketing decisions on what
is best for your customers, you will likely rank
well in the search engines.
• If you try and game the system to rank, you
will eventually fail
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Develop the Searcher Profile/Persona
Who is the searcher? Who would be
looking for this information? Someone
who…
• Is looking for a general category of
information?
• Is looking for a specific solution?
• Has one of your products and needs
help?
• Is a college student writing a
research paper?
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Define the Searcher’s Mindset
Why are they searching?
They want to …
• Purchase a product or
solution
• Learn about a product or
solution
• Solve a specific problem
• Understand a product
category
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Develop Initial Keyword List
Compile a definitive list of keywords or phrases
that customers should find your content with:
• Analyze existing search engine referrals
• Research external keyword databases
• Review internal site search logs
• Ask customers how they would find a
specific product or category
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Keyword Mapping
Map your important keywords to pages on your
site:
• Look at each page in your site – what
words do you think each is relevant for?
• Now look again at the pages – are you
actually using these words?
• Try searching your own site for these
words. If you can't find them, search
engines won't.
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TIP: Use Google to search your site
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Don’t Ignore the Long Tail
• Higher conversion rates and better quality
traffic
• Long tail keywords are less competitive
• Long tail search helps you rank for difficult
terms.
• 70% of search traffic is from long tail search
terms
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Writing for SEO
• Choose 1 keyword phrase that is targeted for each page.
• Include each keyword phrase 3-4 times each within your copy — more if it
makes sense.
• If your text sounds awkward to you, slice your keyword phrase usage or
use synonyms.
• Use the exact term – “symptoms of diabetes" is not the same as
“diabetes symptoms"
• Don’t over optimize. Use natural language to communicate your
message (synonyms, varying word order, etc.)
• Longer copy provides a better opportunity for keyword placement that
sounds good and allows you to provide more information to you visitors.
• Page length should be dictated by the message you want to communicate,
but 300 words is a good minimum target. 1000+ words is better.
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Put Keywords in…
• Title Tag
• URL
• Headlines and sub-headlines (H1
& H2 tags)
• Call to action links (hyperlinks)
• Main body text copy, top to
bottom
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SEO copywriting helps your writing be more specific.
It’s just changing how we “see” and write copy!
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
45
5
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Make Your Search Listing Compelling
• Optimize the search results listing
• Crafted from the Title and Description
• It doesn’t matter how high you rank if
nobody clicks on your listing
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Responsive Web Design
• Google’s recommended way to code for mobile
• One HTML code for the page regardless of the device
accessing it
• Presentation changes based on the browser displaying the
page.
• Desktop and mobile content on a single URL
• Easier for users to interact with, share, & link to
• Google can discover your content more efficiently.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/06/recommendations-for-building-smartphone.html
Don’t ignore the long tail. It is great to rank for major industry terms, but these are often extremely competitive. Long tail terms (5-7 words) are usually less competitive and are often better quality. For example, you don’t know much about someone that searches for “computer”, but you know exactly what someone that searches for “where do I buy a gaming computer in San Francisco, CA” is looking for.
The average searcher spends less than 6 seconds on the SERP before taking an action. They glance through the titles to see what looks most relevant to them and then read the description to make sure they are likely to find relevant content if they click through. Use the SEO audit and pay attention to the SERP preview at the top. This is what a searcher will see in the results. Make sure it is compelling!