how to panda-proof your seo content
DESCRIPTION
Like it or not, we are all content marketers. Approximately 12 percent of U.S. sites were "slapped" by Google's Panda update for having thin, low-quality content. This presentation from SMX East 2011 discusses strategies that in-house and freelance online copywriters can use to create "Panda-proofed" content, and how to develop content that can be re-purposed across different mediums like LInkedIn, Twitter and Google+.TRANSCRIPT
SMX East 2011
Panda-proof your content
How to create quality content without going insane
Like it or not, we are all content marketers
Marketing people are going to need to become more like content engineers. They’re going to have to be responsible for the content.
- Rand Schulman, founder of the Web Analytics Association.
57 percent of blog marketers say they have acquired new customers via their content.
- Brafton
Fifty-two percent of blog readers say blog content has factored into the critical moment they decided to buy.
- Charles Black, President, Technorati
Some see the Panda update as a slap...
But really, it’s all about emphasizing “quality content.”
Pre-Panda, folks focused on the search engines - and forgot about their readers
Create content “for the search engines” was the war cry...
...But the engines don’t pay your bills. Your customers do.
We all know what quality content is..
To paraphrase...
“Quality content is hard to define, but I know it when I see it.”
Potter Stewart
And we want to create it...but we don’t know how to start...
92 percent of surveyed marketers say that content creation is “very” or “somewhat” effective as an SEO tactic...
But it’s the most difficult to implement...
The solution? View your content as parts of a whole
Create an editorial calendar that makes it easy to “slice and dice” your content and repurpose it for different mediums.
Quality content allows you to do this easily.
Stop asking “what does Google want?”
Instead, focus on what your customers/readers want to know.
Develop content around...
Keyphrase research: What are your customers interested in reading?
Customer questions: What are some frequently asked questions that you can answer?
Sales funnel: What content do you need to inform prospects about your products or services throughout the sales cycle?
What stories can you tell about your product or service?
Strategically repurpose your content across different mediums
White paper/Ebook Blog post Sales pages/ case studies
- Create a blog series based on the white paper.
- Tweet a stat and link back to the white paper.
- Post a fact on your Facebook page or Google +
- Pull out excerpt for an enewsletter
- Tweet something from the post, and link back to it.
- Aggregate related blog posts and turn them into an ebook.
- Create a video that links back to the blog post.
- Post on LinkedIn/FB and start a discussion.
- Have video testimonials? Share them on FB or Google +.
- Tweet something from the case study and link back.
Keep track of your content assets with an editorial calendar
When you create a plan, content creation becomes much easier.
Action steps...what you can do now. Yes. Now.1. Evaluate your current content assets. Consider what you can repurpose. You may have more content to work with than you think!
2. Get everyone on the same page about SEO content. This could be a quick discussion - or an in-house training. Consider what works best for your team.
3. After researching topics, develop an editorial calendar. Assign the monthly content to your in-house team or outsource.
4. Watchdog the quality. Even post-Panda, some folks are confused about how to approach SEO writing - so their content may not pass the print test.
5. Have fun with content development. It’s the only opportunity you have to tell a story, showcase your company and convert like crazy - so leverage it!
“Furthermore, the content used in my newsletter is repurposed into 66 Internet Marketing categories at the Web Digest For Marketers website. This is done for SEO purposes. At the time of this writing, Yahoo! shows more than 2,000 inbound links.
These links help boost traffic to my website, which, in turn, results in more new subscribers. More new subscribers are apt to click on those whitepaper and webinar offers from my advertisers, which also appear on my website.
Call this a virtuous circle of content marketing.”
Larry Chase from Web Digest for Marketers says...
Questions? Here’s how to reach me
Heather Lloyd-MartinCEO, SuccessWorks
Twitter: @heatherlloyd