The Veg-O-Matic Approach to Smart SEO Writing – Heather Lloyd
Heather Lloyd-Martin is a 20-year marketing veteran and recognized author. She is President and CEO of SuccessWorks, a marketing firm providing search engine optimized copywriting
Once upon a time it was all about your website. The pressure now to constantly create and share content is immense. It’s a huge challenge. 92% of surveyed marketers said content is a very effective SEO tactic, but also the most challenging (Marketing Sherpa).
We get to learned helplessness. Don’t know what to do next or how to keep up. Worry about missed opportunities. What, Google+? Another social network? Sigh. Here’s how to stay sane: Strategically repurpose your content. “Slice and dice” your content to redistribute it across networks.
One piece of content can have multiple benefits.
- New search positions
- Lead gen
- Awareness building
- Conversation starting
- Support of other marketing initiatives
It’s about being in front of prospects when they have a question or need.
Some ways of redistributing content:
- White paper/eBook can become a blog series, tweet stats from it, post a fact from it on FB or Google+, turn it into videos
- Same can be done with blog posts, sales pages, case studies, etc.
To stay sane, develop process. Establish your conversion goals: what do you want your content to do? Establish your social media marketing mix (decide which networks are most important for you).
Standard procedure:
- Pull tweets and posts from existing content
- Post at least 5 times a day or more
- Most posts are informational, not promotional
- Tidbit: Pulling tweet snippets from older posts brings them back to life.
- Customize posts for each network.
- Turn popular posts into downloadable white paper that becomes a lead gen incentive.
- Turn video posts into a “how to” guide
- Turn old blog posts into an eBook.
- Update old blog posts: Michael Gray (Graywolf) “Blog Less: Update More“
- If you get a lot of the same questions over and over, create an FAQ resource.
- Repurpose blog content into a regular newsletter
The biggest key to success? Planning in advance. Document your old material so you can plan where, when, and how to repurpose it.
Content: Who Elected it King? – David Waterman
David Waterman (@SEOwaterman) of TheSearchAgency
Just creating content doesn’t make it king. “I didn’t vote for you!” (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
“How Not to be Taunted by the French”
You must have a plan
- Think beyond the blog: What is the objective of your content creation? Who is the target? How will the brand tie into the content?
- Identify your content concepts: what is the tone? what is unique about it? Who will write it? What is my name? What is my quest? What is my favorite color?
Give your content a true home
Do you create a separate category for this new content? What on-going tech resources are needed to support this content? Is our website a silly place? If so, in some cases, it makes sense to blog on a separate domain.
Call out the conversion path
What do you want readers to do? What are your KPI’s? Does the content actually hinder conversions?
Optimize
Title tags and other onsite SEO factors are still important!
Does my content have meta data? Did I do keyword resaerch to match user intent? Am I trying to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring?
Conclusion: Just because some watery tart gives you a sword doesn’t mean your content is king!
