Search Engine Optimization

The number one complaint/concern I hear from my SEO clients when it comes to content marketing is that they don’t know what to write about. The number two complaint/concern is, even if they do have a list of topics ready to go, no one on their staff has the time to commit to a heavy content marketing campaign. To both of those I say, “Oh yes you do!” Content marketing isn’t nearly as hard as most site owners think it is, even if looking at a 6 month editorial calendar can be a little intimidating.

An easy to solution to your content marketing woes is content recycling.

Content recycling (or repackaging) is when you take a piece of content, say a new product page on your website, and repurpose it to fit different platforms. Unlike article spinning, you are not taking the same piece of content and submitting it to dozens of places without changing anything other than a few keywords. Content recycling involves rewriting/reformatting the content so it is unique, but holds onto the same key points and message as the original piece of content.

Here are a few ways you can recycle your old content:

Turn “Top Ten Ways to X” posts into 10 unique posts.
Each of those bullet points can probably be expanded upon in a post of their own. A strong business blog needs to be consistently updated with fresh content to keep both the search engines and your readers interested. You could be sitting on dozens of potential blog posts when you start digging into your lists!

Turn presentations into webinars.
Remember that PowerPoint presentation you gave at an industry conference in the summer? Why not use it as the backbone of your company’s winter webinar? Provided that the information is still relevant, use it to your advantage and save yourself the trouble of preparing a new webinar on the same topic.

Embed videos into blog posts.
The search engine spiders can’t watch a video in the same way a person can. And if you are only posting your company’s videos to video sharing sites like YouTube you are missing out on a huge segment of your audience. You probably get far more visitors to your blog than you do your YouTube channel, right? Take your latest video and embed it into a blog post for your loyal readers to see. Write a brief description or full transcript so the search engines can “read” your video as well to get added SEO benefit.

Add press releases to your website
Create a company news section on your website and post tweaked versions of the online press releases you send out through paid PR distribution websites. It’s news about your company, which is great for branded keyword searches, and can help drive traffic to your site. Why let the distribution site get all the visitors?

Every month my company attends the Boston SEO Meetup, a Meetup event for local SEO and internet marketing professionals, business owners and anyone else interested in learning more about SEO. At November’s event, founder Dave Matson spent a few minutes talking to the group about some of the challenges he has writing content for his clients, criminal defense attorneys. He explained that it’s hard to get people excited and wanting to share a blog post about DUIs, but that doesn’t mean he can’t find creative ways to incorporate trending topics into his content marketing and still have it accurately reflect your brand.]

He recently wrote a blog post that talked about what Occupy protestors should do in case they were arrested during a protest. It got picked up by some of the bigger Occupy Facebook pages and received 1,000 Likes in the process! He explained that the information was pretty basic, but that it was repackaged for the right audience at the right time. Dave found a way to create content that would get people’s attention and was still in line with their brand.

Content marketing isn’t as hard as you think it is!

The number one problem most of my clients (and a lot of businesses in general) have with content marketing is that they don’t think they don’t have anything to say. First off, if you’re not passionate about the industry you’re in, it might be time to find a new job! Secondly, there are fascinating aspects about every industry that the right audience is eager to hear more about. Many of us know our industry inside and out and we forget that our audience isn’t privy to that same insider information. What you consider common knowledge might be a eureka moment for one of your readers.

A lot of B2B marketers understand the value of a strong content marketing campaign, but don’t think their products/services are as glamorous as some B2C products. Sure, it may be more fun to blog about expensive cars or designer handbags, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to make a blog about personal finance more interesting. Just look at what Mint did! You don’t even have to step that far outside of your niche to create engaging content that will not only help you connect with your audience and build your online brand, but that you’ll actually enjoy writing.

If you are really stuck for blog topic ideas, check out this content marketing topics post over on the Brick Blog.

It’s not enough to get someone to read one of your blog posts once. If you really want your blog to succeed in the long term you want them to keep coming back! Aside from creating great content on a consistent basis (which is a must of any business blog) here are 4 tips for building a stronger rapport with your blog readers.

1. Share the comment love.
Even if they were just doing it for the link (although we all hope it’s really just because they love our blog), everyone who leaves a comment on your blog posts took a few minutes of their day to do so. Repay the favor and leave a comment or two on some of their blog posts. I can’t say I know many bloggers who don’t like seeing new comments! That kind of back-and-forth commenting is a great way to build a real relationship with your readers.

2. Invite top commenters to become guest writers.
If someone has been a regular reader and commenter on your blog for years, why not invite them to become a guest writer for your blog? Everyone is always on the lookout for new places they can post their content and fuel their own content marketing campaign. Plus, you get to benefit from their experience in your industry, provide a new point of view to your readers and maybe even attract new readers who are loyal fans of your guest author’s blog.

3. Feature their blogs.
Here on the Search Engine Optimization Journal, I publish SEO News posts a few times a week highlighting some of my favorite Internet marketing related blogs I’ve recently come across. I found the information in them valuable, so I know my target audience will to. This kind of content curation is a good way to build a stronger rapport with your blog readers and give them a quick shout out. Try writing a similar recap post and link to some of your readers’ blogs that you enjoy.

4. Connect with them on social networks
I do my best to thank and follow everyone who retweets my blog posts (and I’m sorry if I accidentally missed someone!). I want readers to know that I appreciate them taking the time to read and share my content. Your readers don’t have to share/tweet/Like/post your content so take the time to thank those that do!

Your website is the lynchpin of all your online marketing efforts. It doesn’t matter how great your off-site link building campaign, social media marketing or content marketing campaigns are—without a great website based on great content to hold it all together your visitors are going to leave as quickly as they arrive. Your website has a matter of milliseconds to catch and hold someone’s attention, which means you better live up to their expectations and give them the information they want quickly! A few poorly designed content components and your site will struggle to keep visitors engaged.

Is your website making these content mistakes that can hurt your SEO?

1. No call-to-actions
Is no one filling out your contact form or signing up for your company newsletter? Have you tried asking them? Too often site owners worry about creating the perfect lead form, hoping to find the magic word count that will inspire thousands to fill it out. If you aren’t incorporating call-to-actions in your content, how will your visitors know what you want them to do? Ask and ye shall receive!

2. Too many ads
There is nothing wrong with trying to monetize your site, but please don’t stuff it with ads to the point where it looks like one giant classified. No one wants to read around a dozen ads when visiting your site to find one piece of information. It looks incredibly spammy, pushes your own branding below the fold and has a negative impact on the overall user-experience. Your content and messaging is much more important!

3. Unfocused content
Step 1: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Step 2: Tell them. Step 3: Tell them what you just told them. This classic approach to public speaking and presentation giving should also apply to your webpage content. Stick to as few main points as possible on each page of your site. You don’t want to overload your visitor with irrelevant information. Plus, since keyword research is conducted on a page-by-page basis, unfocused content means too many keywords. Don’t worry about hitting a word count; just get the message across as best as possible.

4. Thin content
On the flipside of unfocused content you also have to be wary of thin content. Are there any pages on your site that you can condense or consolidate so relevant information is all in the same place? You don’t want to make your visitors hunt for the information they need. It’s better to have a few well-written pages with flushed out ideas than a dozen pages with only a few sentences on them.

5. Stuffed with keywords
Rule one of content marketing—write for humans first! You never want to write for the search engines because chances are you’ll be guilty of over-optimizing your content, which includes keyword stuffing. While it’s important to optimize your content and target related keywords, you don’t want to overdo it and make your content unpleasant to read.

I came across this great post the other day on searchengineguide.com. Written by Stoney deGeyter, it’s 30+ SEO analogies that struck me as funny and yet so very true at the same time. I believe in having a sense of humor about your work and this post was right up my alley. One of my favorite analogies was this,

SEO is like a Michael Bay movie. It can look pretty, but if you’re just throwing a bunch of crap at your audience, they’ll just shrug and walk away.

I think Stoney hit the nail on the end with that one, especially when it comes to content marketing, a critical component of SEO.

Michael Bay isn’t a director known for his poignant and gut-wrenching plot lines or character development; he’s the guy you call when you want to blow stuff up. And while explosions can be incredibly entertaining, there isn’t much depth or value of them other than being fun to watch.

You do not want to pull a Michael Bay when it comes to your content marketing! Fluff and promotional content may look pretty, but it isn’t going to do any good for your brand or your audience in the long run.

Here are 3 rules you should follow to create great content that is both entertaining AND useful:

1. Strive to teach your reader something
It’s not about you, you brand or your products. Your content should focus on the reader and what they need. Do they have a question you can answer? Can you teach them something new? Is there a problem you can help them solve? Don’t just churn out content that shows off how great your products and services are; make sure you focus on what’s in it for your target audience.

2. Simple is good
Ever come across the phrase “too long, didn’t read” (also shown as TLDR) anywhere in the blogosphere? It means that the reader didn’t bother to read the entire post/article because it was too much to handle at once. You don’t want to throw pages and pages of text heavy content at your readers; most won’t take the time to get through it. Bullet points, lists, infographics and so forth—anything that can break up or condense you content into manageable chunks is useful for your content marketing. You don’t have to be afraid of the long article, but you don’t want to intimidate your readers either.

3. Keep it focused
Sometimes your content marketing cup runneth over and you’re brimming with ideas. Don’t throw them all down in the same piece of content, especially for your blog posts. Pick one idea and flush it out completely. It’s more valuable as a reader to get all the information about one thing than it is to get snippets from a dozen different ideas. By focusing your content on one main idea, you make it easier for your target audience to find the information they are looking for.