5 SEO FACTORS FOR CONTENT MARKETERS

1. High Quality Content

There is absolutely no substitute for high quality content. Gone are the days of throwing together keyword-dense blog posts, pointing a few internal links at them, and getting floods of search engine traffic.

SEO in 2013 is all about providing information that people are hungry for, and presenting it in an engaging, interactive way.

We’re seeing a trend towards longer, more information-rich blog posts. Find out what information people are looking for, and do your best to give a detailed, definitive answer, or a thoughtful, unique perspective on the topic.

Generating good quality content:

Plan ahead using an editorial calendar. If you know you’re going to be writing about something next week, you can start mulling over the topic today. Great ideas sometimes need time to settle and refine themselves.

See what topics are hot in your industry or niche. Keep up to date on popular blogs to see what topics are trending, and what gaps you may be able to fill.

Take a topic and dissect it. There’s a time and a place for ‘big picture’ posts, but many of the most successful pieces are detailed ‘how to’ type posts on very specific topics.

Research. Commit some time before you start writing to researching the topic chosen. Find out what industry experts think about the topic, and what the main streams of thought are.

2. Sharable Content

This should be a natural extension of producing high quality content. If your content is truly valuable, it is more likely to be shared, retweeted, and +1’d. How often your content is liked, shared, and mentioned is likely to play heavily in search rankings in the future. Although there’s still some debate about how important it is for current rankings, making sure your content is ‘share-worthy’ is always a good idea regardless.
Make it as easy as possible for your readers to share, like or retweet your content by including social share buttons at the end of each and every post.

3. SEO Basics

Some content marketers are moving away from implementing even basic SEO strategies, assuming that their excellent content will be good enough to achieve high rankings. And while good content truly is irreplaceable -- now more than ever -- don’t make the mistake of completely dismissing SEO in favor of content marketing.

Optimize your posts to the best of your ability. Include keywords that accurately describe or depict your content, use a descriptive title tag and subheadings, and accurately name and tag your images.

Have an accurate and current XML sitemap in place. Make sure Google is able to crawl each and every page and post on your site.

Make sure your site loads quickly.Load speed is definitely a factor in current search rankings, and is likely to become even more important in the future.

Do keyword research to make sure you’re writing what people are wanting. Keyword research is (and always has been) about figuring out what people are actually looking for. What’s the point in writing something no one’s ever going to care about? Before you write, find out not only what people are searching for, but what words or phrases they’re using when they search for it.

4. Google Authorship

The author was able to get his image displayed with his url, this is what’s known as Google Authorship, and although the jury’s still out in terms of it’s value for search engine rankings, many suspect it will be important for rankings in the future. There’s even a discussion on the concept of Author Rank whereby, the credibility of the author plays a role in how well your page ranks on Google.

In the meantime, there’s no doubt that having an image next to your posts is good for click through rate and building an immediate sense of familiarity and personability.

5. Diversified Links

Don’t rely on any one source of links to your site. It’s hard to imagine a time when external links won’t be important for search engine rankings; links are the foundation on which the web is built. Links act as recommendations to your business from third parties, and plays a key role in determining your company’s credibility and authority online.

Branching out and getting backlinks using multiple methods lowers your risks, and increases your chances of long term success. Pursue multiple high-quality link-building strategies, like guest posting, social sharing/links, content syndication, infographics, and testimonials.

Set up Ecommerce tracking

E commerce Tracking is available for both web and app properties but must first be enabled in an account profile.
A qualified developer should then complete additional technical set up following the detailed instructions in the Developer Guide for your specific environment (see below).
No Ecommerce data appears in your reports until you set up Ecommerce Tracking.

Enable E commerce tracking

1. Click Admin at the top of any screen in Analytics.
2. Use the menu in the Profile column to select the profile you want.
3. Click Profile Settings.
4. Under the E-Commerce Settings section, select Yes, an E-Commerce Site/App.
5. Click Apply.

Additional considerations for web properties
Before you set Ecommerce Tracking for a web property, first determine if you also need cross-domain tracking.
If you use a third-party shopping cart, or track transactions across separate domains, follow the instructions on Cross-domain tracking before modifying the tracking code for setting up Ecommerce transactions. If your shopping cart software and Ecommerce site are on the same domain, you do not need cross-domain tracking.

Add the Ecommerce tracking code

For details on how to set up Ecommerce tracking, follow the instructions in the Developer Guide for your specific environment:

• Website tracking: Universal Analytics (analytics.js) or classic Google Analytics (ga.js)
  You must use the same method as your collection snippet.
• Mobile app tracking: Android apps or iOS apps

 

Link Building, SEO

The Coming Penguin Update: Should You Reevaluate Your Link Building Strategy?

A couple weeks back, Google’s head of web spam Matt Cutts said that there will be a massive update to Penguin sometime this year, and that he expects it to be one of the most talked-about updates this year. So strap in and buckle up, if you haven’t been adjusting your strategy, there’s a good chance you’ll be in for a bumpy ride.

What Can We Expect From the Update?

I don’t want to play fortune teller here, so I’m not going to speculate too much about individual aspects of the coming update. Instead, I’ll remind you of the things that Penguin has targeted in the past:

•    Too many exact match anchor text links
•     Too much focus on anchor text in general
•     Anything that could be considered “black hat”
•     Links from “low quality” sources
•     Links that are “unnatural” (They were created manually or algorithmically, not editorially.)
•     Any participation in link schemes like link trading, buying, and so on
•     Links created using duplicate content
•     Links from web directories, article directories, and social bookmarking sites
•     Links designed to manipulate PageRank
•     Links from automated content, and content that doesn’t serve the end user

I have a hunch that if I just state these examples without any explanation, that a lot of you are going to get hung up on the details. So, to be clear, Penguin is designed to target manipulative links. It’s not so much a question of what type of link you’re acquiring as how you’re acquiring it.

There are three tiers of links, and, if the new Penguin update accomplishes what it’s supposed to, these are the results you can expect from them.

1.     Editorial links: links that you had little or no direct influence over, that were created simply because your content, tools, and community are worth talking about. These links are air-tight and will almost certainly never lose their value.
2.     Promotional links: links that you created manually through guest posts, collaboration, and outreach. These links are okay and can be great if they also help build exposure, referral traffic, and reputation for your brand. They are most useful as a way of building exposure that leads to secondary links. If the quality is questionable, they may lose value, but it is unlikely that they will actually count against you.
3.     Spam/manipulative links: links you have full control over and that exist strictly to boost search engine rankings. These links are high risk and are very likely to lose their value. In some circumstances they will actually count against you.

Source : http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-coming-penguin-update-should-you-reevaluate-your-link-building-strategy/62074/

 

8 Steps to Guest Blogging Artistry for Free Links

Why guest blog?

• Quality back links.
• Free traffic to your site.
• Exposure.
• Building authority in your niche.
• Building reciprocal relationships with influences in your industry.

Step1: Target Relevant Blogs:

Start off with a Google search for industry/theme/keyword-related blogs and refine the query by adding in a keyword like “guest blog” and “submit a post”.

 

Step 2: Determining a Blog's value:

 

                         Once the mechanical metrics are covered, use your human eye to determine the blog’s value:

• Do they have an About section?
• How frequently do they post?
• Is their content consistent?
• Are people commenting on blog posts?

 Step 3: Reach Out With A Personalized Message:

                      Give some background information on what you do so that they have an idea of who they’re connecting with.

Step 4: Have a Unique Value Proposition:

                   The most influential factor in your outreach approach will be showing them what they and their readers will get out of your guest post.Ask about their readers and target your article toward the audience.

Step 5: Follow the Guest Post Requirements:

                          Investigate the guest post requirements to minimize the amount of back and forth correspondences between you and your target blog.

Step 7: Offer Awesome Content:

                          Create unique, link-worthy and relevant content that is suitable to the target blog’s audience.

Step 7: Get A Contextualized Link:

                           Links in content are much better than in author bios.

Step 8:Build Relationships:

In order to get to the A-list blogs, you have to first make a name for yourself in the B and C properties that are moving up. It’s good for your name and brand to target the up-and-coming blogs because once they expand, and you’ve maintained a reciprocal relationship with them, you open yourself up to many opportunities to write for them on a consistent basis. You can also get them to post on your site, nurturing that two-way relationship.