Content Strategy

Andy Crestodina@crestodina

Wellspring Worldwide User Group Meeting 2013

“If you have more MONEY than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing.

If you have more BRAINS than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”

- Guy Kawasaki

Advertising Content Marketing

Interrupt, Distract Attract

Outbound Inbound

Paid Owned, Earned

Budget Brains

HypeHelp

How content works…

Search + Social + Email = Content Marketing

Where there’s traffic, there’s hope...

Traffic: Social, Email, Search

Source: Website Traffic Sources

“Achieve business goals by maximizing the impact of content.”

Content Strategists…

Source: Contentini

do they want to read?

What

Help your audience make a buying decision.

Obvious, right?

Your website is the mousetrap,

Your content is the cheese…

1. Keywords2. Q&A Sites3. Listening

Sources of Topics

Finding Topics: Google Suggest

Finding Topics: Ubersuggest

Source: Ubersuggest.org

Finding Topics: Google Keyword Tool

Finding Topics: Competitors’ Rank

Source: SpyFu.com

Finding Topics: Analytics

Finding Topics: Yahoo! Answers

Source: Yahoo! Answers

Finding Topics: Quora.com

Source: Quora.com

Finding Topics: Listening

1. Sales Team2. Customer Service Team3. Client Stories

Source: Deana Goldasich

Source: Periodic Table of Content

“Don’t think OF the market ….think AS the market”

Derek Halpern

Source: Ann Handley

Source: Ann Handley

…carefully

Choose Your Words

Source

• More formal• Longer (polysyllabic)• Fancy, proper

Examplesacquire, transmit, construct, resist, deposit, imitate, determined

Latinate Words

Anglo-Saxon Words

• Less formal • Short (often monosyllabic)• Forceful, direct

Examplesget, send, build, stop, put, mock, set

Choose your words

Choose your words

…but don’t dumb it down

Write like an 8th grader!

Source: NN Group

HOW GOOGLE WORKS

It’s simpler than you think.

Why do sites rank in search engines?

Source: Moz Search Ranking Factors 2013

Links = How trustworthy your site is

On-Page = How relevant the page is

Keyphrases = What the page is relevant to

SEO (over) simplified

1. Choosing Keywords

Keyphrases: 3 Criteria

Keywords and Trends

Resource: Google Keyword Tool, Google Trends

Google Keyword Tool Google Trends

Suggests phrases Up to 100 10

Search volume displayed as

Specific numbers Relative Trending

Geography US (local), world (global)

countries, states, metro

Search Volume

Resource: Google Keyword Tool

Search Trending

Resource: Google Trends

RegionalInterest

Resource: Google Trends

• Top Ranking sites are famous (wikipedia, etc.)

• Lots of AdWords ads

• Have title tags that begin with the keyphrase

Competition is high if…

What’s a <title> tag?

…and it’s the link in Google search results!

It appears above the address bar in your browser…

<title>Home</title>

Check Link Popularity

Resource: Open Site Explorer

Shortcut!

If your Domain Authority is…

Target keyphrases with monthly searches of…

less than 30 fewer than 100less than 50 fewer than 1000less than 70 fewer than 3000

• Local (change tactics/choose another phrase)

• Videos (opportunity?)

• Images

• Products

• News

Check for Universal Search Results

Text

Relevance

2. Using Keywords

On-Page SEO: 4 Parts

1. <title> Once at the beginning of the title

2. <h1> Once in the first header

3. Four to six times in the body of the page

4. In links to the page from other pages

Internal LinkingOpportunities!

Rank!

3. Link Popularity

Inbound Links, BacklinksA link from a website to your site.

Definitions

Link Popularity, Domain Authority, PageRankA measurement of credibility of a website, based on the number and credibility of sites that link to it.

Link BuildingThe act of improving the link popularity of a website to improve search engine rankings.

links are credibility

more links = more credibility

links from credible sites =much more credibility

many outgoing links =less credibility per link

It’s good when the link textIncludes the target keyword.

but if all the links include thetarget keyword, that’s bad.

Link Popularity and Domain Authority

Resource: Open Site Explorer

Domain Authority over time…

“Predicts a domain's ranking potential in search engines based on an algorithmic combination of all link metrics.”

Source: Moz

EXAMPLESRank is relevance!

The Spike and the Long Tail

Initial spike from email marketing and social promotion(one week)

20 to 40 visits per dayfrom organic search(months or years)

SEO: slow but powerful

Email List GrowthGrow your list fast

Before…

After…

1900% increase. Not bad!

Why it works

1.Prominence

2.Promise

3.Proof

GOOD

BAD

Numbers: Sent, Delivered, Opens and Clicks

Rates: Sent, Delivered, Opens and Clicks

Ready?Let’s make some content!

Source: Headline Hacks

More here: Headline Hacks

52 Headline Hacks

Do this tomorrow…1. Find a relevant topic

2. Research keyphrases, pick a phrase that

aligns with the topic

3. Write 500 words, use on-page SEO

4. Share it through social media

5. Send it as a newsletter

…then watch your Analytics jump!

Template &Tools

Thank you!

Andy Crestodina@crestodina

Wellspring Worldwide User Group Meeting 2013