Tag Archive for: content marketing

5 Content Marketing Myths That Need to Die

5 Content Marketing Myths That Need to Die

Content marketing relies on the Know-Like-Trust factor, and as anyone who’s ever been in any kind of relationship will attest, building trust is never easy. It takes a lifetime to build and a moment’s carelessness to destroy.

Myth 1: Content Marketing is Easy (Compared to Other Forms of Promotion)

Myth 2: Content Marketing Doesn’t Take Much Time

Myth 3: Content Marketing can be Automated – Set it and Forget it

Myth 4: Content Marketing is Inexpensive

Myth 5: Content Marketing can be Handled by the Intern

In 2013 content marketing has finally progressed from a buzzword to a legitimate mainstream marketing strategy , and we can expect more such validation in 2014. If you’re a brand thinking about investing in content marketing, don’t fall for any of these content marketing misconceptions. […]

The Chicken & The Egg

The Chicken & The Egg problem

I used to charge for building a website by the page, and invariably I would have the odd customer ask me to only build 1,2 or 3 pages. They would say something like: “I only want to invest in a few pages for now, and when I see some traffic (i.e. increase in sales) then I will be prepared to invest more to build out the rest of my website.”

Well there is a big flaw in that thinking. In order to draw the right traffic (visitors & prospects) to a website, the website must have a bunch of relevant content, which usually equates to much more than a few pages! So hence the chicken and egg conundrum – do you wait for traffic to build out your website, or build out your website and hope the traffic will come?

The art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is moving away from tricking Google (and Bing, Yahoo) into finding your site and it is becoming more about Content Marketing. This means that for a website to have a chance to be found it must have both relevant content (to the searcher) and a large amount of  content which both answers the questions the searcher has in mind and informs and directs them to take the next step.

Now, when building a website, I build a minimum of 6 pages and usually include and encourage a blog section – where I ask the customer to publish a fresh new article, at minimum – monthly. The search engines love websites that continually update and publish fresh new content and the more content you have on your website, the more traffic you will attract.

 

Why Content is the Beating Heart of Search - Search Engine Journal

Why Content is the Beating Heart of Search – Search Engine Journal

Content has been around since the start of search marketing. Even back in the days when SEO was based around spamming keywords and directories, content was always there, being churned and spun. The difference between now and then is that search marketing is no longer about the quantity of content that you can get onto the web to promote your keywords and anchor text, but the quality of your content and making sure that it positively represents your brand. Did you know that 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared every day?

Before you start writing content, it is crucial to make sure that you are not writing it just for the sake of placing keywords and getting links, but to offer new information or get them involved in your campaign and engaging with your brand.

There is almost no scenario now in the world of SEO where content is not at the forefront of rankings, whether it be for building natural links or placing keywords on onsite blog posts. It most certainly should not be ignored […]