A BrightEdger

M Posted 11 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

Share15, the industry’s leading brand-led digital conference, is only a few months away and begins on September 21, 2015 in San Francisco. In the run up to the event we’re connecting with many of the world’s leading brands and the speakers we’ve invited to Share insights into the market and tips on how to make the most of the Share experience. Last week BrightEdge caught up with Jesse Farley, online marketing strategist and SEO manager at Cabela’s, to discuss Share15 and what’s on Jesse’s agenda. Jesse’s work at Cabela’s involves reinforcing Cabela’s as the “World’s Foremost Source for the Outdoors” via earned & owned content marketing initiatives. Below are a few extracts from our conversation:

The Search Landscape

BrightEdge: How much has the search landscape changed over the last year?

JF: It has changed dramatically. It has moved from purely transactional to conversational and transactional.

BrightEdge: What has had the biggest impact for you and your team at Cabela’s?

JF: The biggest shift, is the move from just on-page SEO to more of a content marketing effort utilizing our owned and earned media initiatives, is around promoting our top-of-the-funnel content. For example: How-to guides, buyer’s guides and videos.

BrightEdge: How do you see the space evolving over the next year – what should marketers look out for?

JF: I think the space will continue to evolve in the same way as it is now with a focus on conversational over transactional. Marketers should keep an eye out on how they are communicating to their audience at all times.

BrightEdge: Can you offer any tips to the Share audience on adapting to rapid change in the market?

JF: My primary tip to Share attendees would be - Never forget that digital marketing is all about how people are consuming information and providing what is valueable to them. It is not about your version of value but THEIRS.

The Content Performance Marketing Shift

BrightEdge: How are you aligning your content and search optimization efforts?

JF: The team at Cabela’s has found that you can’t have one without the other! Content and search, both, work hand in hand as people consume information on more than just one website, we have leveraged our agency ClearVoice to identify, recruit, and onboard influencers/websites that will can get involved in the conversation.

BrightEdge: How critical is measurement of content in your organization?

JF: The measurement of content performance is extremely critical at Cabela’s! You have to measure what you doing. If you don’t…then you are doing nothing more than “spraying & praying” with regard to your content production and performance. Understanding the “value of a piece of content” is a hard question to answer so we leverage not only the BrightEdge platform.

BrightEdge: Can you tell readers a little more about your view on the convergence of content and digital marketing?

JF: Content is at the center of all digital marketing campaigns. Content can be syndicated for search, you can remarket with display for those who read that content, and content can be place on-site to improve SEO and quality score for paid search.

The Cabela’s partnership with BrightEdge

BrightEdge: Can you tell us more about how you use BrightEdge and how the platform helps you achieve your business objectives?

JF: Cabela’s use BrightEdge to identify, inform and validate our content marketing & our SEO efforts. I love the data and intelligence we get from the platform.

Cabela’s and Share15

BrightEdge: Why Share15 – why do you attend?

JF: I love to learn new things and that is what Share 15 is all about. The worlds top content, search and digital marketing minds speak at Share. With this level of thought leadership it helps get the brain juices flowing and cultivates a new class and community of digital marketing thought leaders.

BrightEdge: What are you most looking forward to?

JF: I am really looking forward to “talking shop” with other marketers at Share15, sharing insights and implementing new strategies on my return from the conference.

BrightEdge: What advice can you give Share attendees in order for them to make the most out of their Share15 experience?

JF: Take lots of notes & ask lots of questions. The opportunities to collaborate with so many of your peers at large brands, like at Share15, don’t come up often. Engage with the Share15 speakers and ask them questions that help take you and your company to the next level.

About Jesse Farley

Jesse has been in the online marketing space since 2000. Jesse has worked in all aspects of digital marketing including, Paid Search, SEO, Email, Display/Retargeting, Content Marketing, and advanced web analytics. Over the last 15 years he has worked with many Fortune 500 and up companies, such as T. Rowe Price where he led the Enterprise SEO & Content Strategies, US Airways, where he was responsible for the digital go-to-market strategy, BizRate, where he led content strategy and is now in charge of Cabela’s content marketing strategy both internally and externally as well as the SEO team. This year Jesse and team were responsible for a 30%-50% increase in NON-branded traffic at Cabela’s. In his spare time Jesse loves to snowboard and fish. Fun fact – Jesse caught the 3^rd largest Mahi in the World.

Share15 – Join the digital marketing community

This year Share15 is even bigger and better with over 60 speakers from an envious collection of the world’s leading brands. In fact, no other conference compares to Share with regard to

1. Concentration of quality brands and thought leaders at Share15
2. Focus on delivery of insights and actionable takeaways
3. Zero tolerance on sales pitches
4. Attendee profiles across search, content and digital marketing

Space is limited, so register now to avoid disappointment. #Share15 @brightedge

Andy Betts

M Posted 11 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

Did you know that you can leverage content and SEO for public relations (PR) in several ways? In this post, we’ll discuss how SEO practices, including quality content, works in tandem with public relations by combating negative queries and reviews, building your brand online and managing your reputation.

Search Engines + Reputation

There’s no question that reputation management and search engines go hand-in-hand. In fact, reputation management has been the center of many “take-down” requests for Google search results that claim to damage the reputation of both individuals and businesses. A high-profile 2013 lawsuit in a French court, reported at Search Engine Watch proved to be a landmark case in search and reputation management. It involved compromising pictures allegedly of Max Mosley, former president of Formula One racing, engaged in acts with prostitutes According to Reuters, the court ruled that Google was to “remove and cease, for a period of five years beginning two months after this decision, the appearance of nine images.”

SEO + Reputation Management

Although brands today are dealing with far less traumatic reputation management issues than Mosely, they still need to pay attention to their brands online. Take bad reviews as an example. Just one way SEO practices can help with reputation management when faced with bad reviews online for queries related to your brand is to put out a steady stream of quality content for any queries that may demand it. Building your brand through creating authoritative content: what’s better reputation management than ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) with useful content for a query? The more your quality insights surface for search queries, the more authoritative and credible your brand is online. This is a long-term SEO content strategy, and could take up to a year to be effective, according to this article by Samantha Wanner over at SEER Interactive.

Wanner suggests creating and building “assets that are more authoritative in rank to slowly detrude” negative reviews and search listings. Among some of the good tips she recommends, take note of: • Creating a blog. • Building links to a positive news story, review or blog post that emphasizes your brand. • Build and cross-link your company’s social media profiles. • Upload any presentations to SlideShare, titling it using the exact match keywords for which any negative reviews are ranking. She further suggests – as many SEO practioners do – that you monitor your brand’s reputation.

SEO + Traditional Public Relations

With Google’s emphasis on quality content, publis relations SEO has become intertwined, as SEO and PR teams often share joint goals: spearheading brand visibility being the ultimate one, as John Rampton recently discussed at Forbes. Creating valuable content that established, reputable sites and publishers vouch for by linking to your site has become the cornerstone of brand building online. And while some of the big PR firms today merely dabble in social media with “one-off” announcements, the smarter PR companies “get it,” says Julie Liesse in Advertising Age’s “The PR Factor 2010.” Part of PR firms “getting” social media management is by partnering with SEO professionals that create great organic content for their search strategies.

Some PR firms are now often hired to help manage a brand’s social media, and by joining forces with SEO practitioners, they have compelling organic content in the form of blog posts and articles to share on their client’s social accounts. Thanks to Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing for the image above that eloquently highlights how to break down silos. For more on these ideas, check out this post.

I did on the evolution of the content marketing system at Relevance.com. SEO can further boost PR efforts towards brand visibility with well-optimized social media profiles that will show up in search engine results pages (SERPs), notably Google+ and LinkedIn (Facebook and Twitter have little to no organic reach). Tips for optimizing your brand’s LinkedIn profile are shared by Jim Yu at Marketing Land, here, while SEO for Google+ profiles is discussed by Kristi Hines at Search Engine Watch. An informed SEO content strategy also provides your PR team with the “right stuff” for initiatives like getting out a particular brand message, as well as helping to get the word out about an event.

One example is the content we featured right here on the blog leading up the BrightEdge Share14 conference, which featured interviews and tips from speakers ahead of the event. Stay tuned for something similar with next year’s Share15  event. And it’s future is destined to grow as mutual goals of brand building, messaging and reputation management converge. What do you think? Tell us about it below!

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

How to design a site that get backlinks and, more importantly, traffic

Content Performance Marketing requires you to develop content that can target organic demand, that your audience readily consumes, has on-page optimization, and get backlinks.

There are two main reasons you want to get backlinks to your site: page rank and traffic. In the SEO industry we have been more concerned with the former, but now is a good time to recalibrate how we orient our efforts to page-building efforts and performance. On May 5, 2014 Matt Cutts released a video that described that backlinks will become “a little” less important over time because they have determined that “people care about the quality of the content on that particular page” and “Google is getting better and better at understanding actual language.” We can also surmise that it is harder to game quality content than it is to get backlinks and therefore will become a better measure of worthiness as a destination to send traffic to.

When people link to your website they provide you with a lift in SEO. Google looks closely at how many people link to content as a way to gauge how helpful the site is and whether it answers people’s questions and provides them with value. The search engine operates on the premise that when quality sites link to another site that website can also be trusted, but as its ability to understand language, meaning and intent evolve, it will shift weight away from backlinks.

Reputable websites that produce the quality backlinks you want for your site are most interested in keeping their readers engaged and providing them with value. Linking to a website can be likened to giving the site a nod of approval. The link says that this information can be trusted, so people generally are careful about where they link. Professionals want to link to other quality websites that they know will treat their readers to the same level of value that they receive on the initial site.

If you want to get backlinks to your website, you need to understand these needs and make sure that your website is equipped to be that professional page that has the answers for readers. When others see that your site is worth visiting, you will have a link-friendly site that can improve your SEO and reputation. Check out this post to get some backlink building ideas you could do in a day.

The Importance of Design to Get Backlinks

For people who arrive on your website, the first thing they are going to notice is the page load speed and the second is the design and UI. People will form an opinion about websites in two tenths of a second, and the simpler and more logical the design, the better impression the site will have on visitors. Google co-published a study demonstrating that sites with the least complexity and designs that mirror what customers expect rank the highest for likability. Make sure that the design is visually appealing and it is easy for people to navigate your pages and find information about your brand.

Flashy advertisements can be particularly detrimental for the beauty of the site. Readers will struggle to remain focused on the content on your page when they are continually distracted by blaring advertisements on the side.

Similarly, if there are any graphics on the websites, they should fit well with the information on the page and not disrupt the flow of the content. High-quality images and graphics can be enormous assets to written content, articles with images receive 94 percent more views, but if the images draw attention away from the written content, they may reduce your chance to get backlinks.

The layout of the page also addresses the ease of navigation. People do not like to click or scroll excessively. You want to avoid forcing your visitors to click from page to page unnecessarily whenever possible. This means that you do not design articles that require people to click to see pages 2/3/4 of the article.

The Value of the Content Itself to Get Backlinks

Quality content will be what brings people to your site and first entices them to link back to you. People do not want to link back to posts that are weak and lack substance or direction. Writing the type of content that people will link to requires three criteria:

• understanding your buyer personas
• educating your personas on topics that interest them
• writing regularly

When trying to develop content that your buyer personas will be interested in, begin by looking at your own FAQs. Consider the questions that people ask you when they first enter your office. Think about news related to your industry and your opinion on the stories. Use information that can help your personas educate themselves.

The articles should not be thin and only retell information that can be found on thousands of other pages on the internet. You should work to include your own expertise and experience through the tone, depth of the content, and the information you provide. When you get backlinks to content, it's because the person found the content helpful and believe that others will as well, so write with this intent in mind. Keep the writing clear, concise, and informative.

Some keys to organically popular and linkable content include:

1. Useful information
2. Entertaining content
3. Fresh, current, timely
4. Original information based on unique findings or research

Good content also incorporates appropriate on-page SEO:

1. Naturally incorporate keywords in the prose and anchor text
2. Scannable writing with headlines, subheadlines, bullets, and lists that use the H1 and the H2 tags
3. Promoting articles on social media to boost traffic and reach and recorded social signals to indicate topical trending

This will make it easier for people to discover your content and the value you offer.

Monitor success

As you work to get backlinks and traffic to your page, use a technology like the BrightEdge StoryBuilder to build a Backlinks Report to track your overall progress. The powerful technology will enable you visualize the backlink data from every perspective. The image below breaks out links by product line. It will be helpful for you to see how your site is ranking and if your efforts to get backlinks are having the desired impact. You can use this information to enhance your future efforts and build a well-connected site that serves your business well.

Encouraging people to link to a website, however, requires making sure that the site is valuable, professional, and inviting from the content on the page to the design and appearance. By optimizing the quality of content on the site, however, you can help to create a page that is link- friendly and can help build your traffic and brand’s impact.

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

In 2014 Econsultancy reported that 79 percent of UK companies had implemented marketing demand generation strategies that year. That represents a year-over-year growth of 25 percent. In the United States, the numbers were even slightly higher with an estimated 85 percent adoption rate.

This new form of marketing has changed the way companies approach advertising in the digital era. It has taken marketing from an outbound, interruptive process to an interactive engagement process. Customers can access the information they seek when they want it without having it displayed when they have no interest.

Marketing demand generation continues to grow because marketers have found it incredibly effective. The UK marketers surveyed by Econsultancy reported that 43 percent had already experienced a positive ROI from marketing demand generation. Social media, which is integral to the marketing process, was also reported as the top lead source for these companies.

Companies today that take the initiative to move into the world of marketing demand generation find it to be productive and a worthwhile investment. Understanding what makes marketing so valuable is key to leveraging these strategies effectively and efficiently.

Why is marketing demand generation so effective?

It is not traditional advertising

Customers now ignore traditional outbound marketing at increasing rates. According to a survey quoted by Marketing Charts:

• 82 percent of people ignore advertisements they see online
• 37 percent of people ignore advertisements they see on television
• 36 percent of people ignore advertisements they hear on the radio.

In general, customers have grown tired of being interrupted with advertisements as they attempt to go about their lives, whether it is surfing the internet, watching TV, or listening to music. For companies to be successful despite a significant portion of their audience tuning them out completely, they must be able to understand their customers’ needs and produce effective marketing that addresses this need. This is the value of marketing demand generation.

Customers control of marketing experience

The advent of the internet and its ability to put information at people’s fingertips means that the customer has gained more control of the buying experience. They are no longer dependent upon companies and brands to contact them and provide them with information about new potential products. Instead, they are the ones to initiate the search for information.

In 2012, an estimated 61 percent of people looked up information online about major purchases before heading to the store. By 2013 that number had reached 81 percent.

Marketing gives brands the positioning they need to take advantage of these statistics. With marketing demand generation, brands seek to anticipate the needs of consumers and produce content that will answer their inquiries and draw them towards the brands. The companies that can accurately predict what their potential customers will be looking for and produce high quality content that is search engine friendly are the ones that will benefit the most from inbound marketing.

Technology such as the BrightEdge Data Cube can help companies focus on content that speaks particularly well to their customers. They can analyze the keywords, topic, rich media and types of content that are attracting the most attention on their own site and on competitors’ sites, helping them improve their marketing strategy.

Positions brands to build relationships

Customers today have demonstrated their genuine interest in building a relationship with the companies with which they do business. This relationship and the customer experience are crucial for building brand loyalty and creating a positive reputation. It costs 6-7 time more to find a new customer than to retain an existing one. Seventy percent of buying experiences are also directly impacted by how the customer feels they are being treated.

Inbound marketing offers a perfect platform for building this type of productive relationship. With high quality content and answering questions and concerns, companies can demonstrate their commitment to their customers. To better understand the marketing demand generation roles, see this quick overview.

Content can be used to guide customers through the buyer’s journey. When one company consistently answers the queries put forth by page visitors, those visitors come to inherently trust the brand. As they prepare to make a purchase, they will automatically turn to the brands upon which they have come to depend.

Marketing demand generation encourages brands to produce content and marketing strategies to guide customers towards a decision. Going from blog posts answering questions to white papers that detail the advantages of one brand over another can help cement the relationship between the customer and company, produce a sale, and build loyalty.

Marketing demand generation has produced incredible responses in brands around the world. Ninety three percent of buying cycles start with an online search, which means that marketing demand generation gives companies the tools they need to reach these people. It has helped to drive its growth and is something all marketers should examine and expand as they prepare plans for the upcoming quarter and fiscal year.