There’s no better time of the year to sit down and assess your yearly SEO strategy than January. Quite simply, the earlier, the better. You need to put structures in place for your own content strategy and offsite link building as soon as possible. Otherwise you’re probably going to spend another year, working on various SEO techniques on an ad hoc basis, seeing fluctuating results and never really being able to establish what’s worked and what hasn’t.
Obviously with the freshness update in mind, lots of people are going to be spending time focussing on their own content strategies and making their own content as good as it can possibly be. Rightly so, as your very best content should always be placed on your own website to cement your position as an industry expert. However, the sensible SEO professionals out there know that if you dedicate too much time to one aspect of SEO, you’ll lose out when those next algorithm updates undoubtedly hone in on an aspect of SEO which you’ve dedicated less time to.
One thing we do know is that as well as actual domain authority, Google looks set to continue to give additional rewards to those gaining links from on topic websites. A topical authority metric is yet to be established, but if you find an on topic site with high domain authority, you’re on the right track.
Here are five ways at finding on topic sites for whatever link building methods you should choose to undertaken.
Google Operators
Get familiar with Google operators as they are the quickest and easiest way to start finding on topic websites. The information on Google operators is freely available and is your fast track to finding relevanmt niche specific websites. Simple searches using searches such as inurl:”write-for-us” or intitle:”guest blogging” combined with keywords will enable you to find blogs or sites that are open to guest blogging. The more you become familiar with Google operators, the more likely you are to find innovative footprints which will enable you to identify on topic sites for a variety of link building techniques.
Top 10 Lists
Top 10 lists are a great way to start the snowball effect in finding the best websites in a particular industry. Generally those sites featured in top 10 lists are likely to have pretty good domain metrics too. Top 10 lists can be found easily through a simple Google search or again if you begin to use Google operators you may be able to find more specific Top 10 lists. From here you can contact these sites directly but also take a look at their backlinks profile and see who is linking to them. This way you’re likely to find a whole bunch of other industry related sites. Take a look at those websites and continue this process and you’ll end up with a huge list of on topic sites ready to filter by your specifications.
Author Footprints
We all know that blogging platforms exist for SEO linkbuilding methods and to bridge the gap between site owners and bloggers and you can take advantage of this in a pretty clever way. There are a couple of ways in which you can find an author profile or their footprint but here are two that work pretty well. The first is to go into a blogging platform such as MyBlogGuest, filter by your specific industry and then use a scraping tool to take all of the blog owners usernames. You can then perform a Google search for something such as ‘allintext:” and see other activity those site owners are engaged in.
The second method is to keep track of other high profile guest bloggers that you know of within your industry, track their movements online and then acquire the very same leads. Again, most guest bloggers use the same username across a variety of sites or their own name within an author bio. You can therefore perform a Google search with this information, track down any of their leads and acquire links from these sites for yourself.
Twitter Lists
Firstly you can perform a Google search query using a mix of operators to find the best lists. This can be done by using the query “site: twitter.com inurl:lists “your keyword here””. You’ll then be gifted a list of urls which link to Twitter lists. What you really want from these lists is the username of those followed by these lists. These are likely to be experts/bloggers in your field that you can then go away are repeat the ‘author footprints’ process to find sites they are regular using or link building from. Alternatively you can manually go through the Twitter lists and find direct links to websites from the user’s Twitter profiles.
Competitor Analysis
Of course one of the best ways in finding on topic sites for link building activity is to break down your competitors back link profiles. You might find that some of your competitor links are auto approve (such as guestbook links or comment links) in which case you can plug your own gaps by acquiring the same links as them straight away. You’ll also quickly be able to spot any high authority sites they are receiving links from and you’ll be able to manually visit these links and check to see whether they are topical sites which you feel you can get a link from. Do this for your top 10 competitors and you’ll soon establish a healthy on topic resource of sites for you to use on a regular basis.
Obviously with the freshness update in mind, lots of people are going to be spending time focussing on their own content strategies and making their own content as good as it can possibly be. Rightly so, as your very best content should always be placed on your own website to cement your position as an industry expert. However, the sensible SEO professionals out there know that if you dedicate too much time to one aspect of SEO, you’ll lose out when those next algorithm updates undoubtedly hone in on an aspect of SEO which you’ve dedicated less time to.
One thing we do know is that as well as actual domain authority, Google looks set to continue to give additional rewards to those gaining links from on topic websites. A topical authority metric is yet to be established, but if you find an on topic site with high domain authority, you’re on the right track.
Here are five ways at finding on topic sites for whatever link building methods you should choose to undertaken.
Google Operators
Get familiar with Google operators as they are the quickest and easiest way to start finding on topic websites. The information on Google operators is freely available and is your fast track to finding relevanmt niche specific websites. Simple searches using searches such as inurl:”write-for-us” or intitle:”guest blogging” combined with keywords will enable you to find blogs or sites that are open to guest blogging. The more you become familiar with Google operators, the more likely you are to find innovative footprints which will enable you to identify on topic sites for a variety of link building techniques.
Top 10 Lists
Top 10 lists are a great way to start the snowball effect in finding the best websites in a particular industry. Generally those sites featured in top 10 lists are likely to have pretty good domain metrics too. Top 10 lists can be found easily through a simple Google search or again if you begin to use Google operators you may be able to find more specific Top 10 lists. From here you can contact these sites directly but also take a look at their backlinks profile and see who is linking to them. This way you’re likely to find a whole bunch of other industry related sites. Take a look at those websites and continue this process and you’ll end up with a huge list of on topic sites ready to filter by your specifications.
Author Footprints
We all know that blogging platforms exist for SEO linkbuilding methods and to bridge the gap between site owners and bloggers and you can take advantage of this in a pretty clever way. There are a couple of ways in which you can find an author profile or their footprint but here are two that work pretty well. The first is to go into a blogging platform such as MyBlogGuest, filter by your specific industry and then use a scraping tool to take all of the blog owners usernames. You can then perform a Google search for something such as ‘allintext:” and see other activity those site owners are engaged in.
The second method is to keep track of other high profile guest bloggers that you know of within your industry, track their movements online and then acquire the very same leads. Again, most guest bloggers use the same username across a variety of sites or their own name within an author bio. You can therefore perform a Google search with this information, track down any of their leads and acquire links from these sites for yourself.
Twitter Lists
Firstly you can perform a Google search query using a mix of operators to find the best lists. This can be done by using the query “site: twitter.com inurl:lists “your keyword here””. You’ll then be gifted a list of urls which link to Twitter lists. What you really want from these lists is the username of those followed by these lists. These are likely to be experts/bloggers in your field that you can then go away are repeat the ‘author footprints’ process to find sites they are regular using or link building from. Alternatively you can manually go through the Twitter lists and find direct links to websites from the user’s Twitter profiles.
Competitor Analysis
Of course one of the best ways in finding on topic sites for link building activity is to break down your competitors back link profiles. You might find that some of your competitor links are auto approve (such as guestbook links or comment links) in which case you can plug your own gaps by acquiring the same links as them straight away. You’ll also quickly be able to spot any high authority sites they are receiving links from and you’ll be able to manually visit these links and check to see whether they are topical sites which you feel you can get a link from. Do this for your top 10 competitors and you’ll soon establish a healthy on topic resource of sites for you to use on a regular basis.
How to Write Content that Keeps Your Blog Readers Coming Back for More :
Content rules the web. From websites to white papers, videos, blogs and everything in between, content is what stands between you and the customer/prospect you are trying to reach.
First, if you are not doing anything at all to get your content to convert, you must start there.
However, if you have invested time and effort into your blog content but you are not getting the results you expect, it may be time to look at another important piece of the puzzle.
You can spend hours upon hours lamenting over techniques like great headlines, keywords, a winning introduction, professional images and product benefits, yet still fall flat. Though these techniques will improve your content, they may not be enough to take it to the next level.
Online marketers tend to get caught up in perfecting content and trying too hard to make it work.
Below are the three impediments to writing blog posts that work:
Perfectionist – Cut yourself some slack. You are not perfect and neither are your blog readers. Some of my best content came out of an attitude of transparency when I shared my weaknesses and struggles. I am not saying to share your deepest, darkest psychological hang-ups with your blog audience, but a little transparency can go a long way. Showing people your weaknesses will help them more than just force feeding them information.
Too Technical – Left-brained bloggers will often veer towards the more technical side of writing which can often be bland and uninteresting. Technical writing is appropriate for whitepapers and manuals, but not always the best choice for a blog.
Integrity – You may know you are a person of integrity, but your readers need time to scope you out and determine that for themselves. By following your heart more, you can reveal a more personal side to your readers which will make your content more interesting to read.
It takes a little bravery and courage to take a walk on the wild side and write from your heart. But, in the invisible world of the internet, the best content connects and jumps off the page. This dynamic is impossible with technical jargon and calculated prose.
Scratch the Rules
Sometimes it’s fun to throw away the rules and just go for it! Here is an exercise I want you to do for your next blog post.
Write a first draft purely out of an emotional response. Forget about headlines, grammar, keywords and images and just WRITE. Try to bypass your head and reach your heart.
1. Think about why you started your business (aside from money) and what you want to provide your customers/prospects.
2. Don’t write like you are writing to your blog audience. Write like you are sending a letter to a best friend to inform them of your business.
3. Find a way to get happy about what you are writing. If you are writing about drywall, this may be a little difficult, but if you can re-frame it into something that makes you excited, it will show in your writing.
4. Don’t get caught up in the details. Just stay connected to your heart and write.
Now, don’t post what you just wrote on your blog! Your post will need some editing but that first draft is important.
If you did this exercise correctly, you may find some interesting observations. You may re-connect with a desire to put your customers first. You may find new angles with which to introduce your products. You may realize that you have a lot more to say than you thought.
Now that you poured out your heart into your post, you can adjust it so it makes sense to your readers and is grammatically correct. Sometimes it’s helpful to leave the content for about a day and come back to it later. Fix the errors, add your keywords, but don’t take the energy and excitement out of the message.
First, if you are not doing anything at all to get your content to convert, you must start there.
However, if you have invested time and effort into your blog content but you are not getting the results you expect, it may be time to look at another important piece of the puzzle.
You can spend hours upon hours lamenting over techniques like great headlines, keywords, a winning introduction, professional images and product benefits, yet still fall flat. Though these techniques will improve your content, they may not be enough to take it to the next level.
Online marketers tend to get caught up in perfecting content and trying too hard to make it work.
Below are the three impediments to writing blog posts that work:
Perfectionist – Cut yourself some slack. You are not perfect and neither are your blog readers. Some of my best content came out of an attitude of transparency when I shared my weaknesses and struggles. I am not saying to share your deepest, darkest psychological hang-ups with your blog audience, but a little transparency can go a long way. Showing people your weaknesses will help them more than just force feeding them information.
Too Technical – Left-brained bloggers will often veer towards the more technical side of writing which can often be bland and uninteresting. Technical writing is appropriate for whitepapers and manuals, but not always the best choice for a blog.
Integrity – You may know you are a person of integrity, but your readers need time to scope you out and determine that for themselves. By following your heart more, you can reveal a more personal side to your readers which will make your content more interesting to read.
It takes a little bravery and courage to take a walk on the wild side and write from your heart. But, in the invisible world of the internet, the best content connects and jumps off the page. This dynamic is impossible with technical jargon and calculated prose.
Scratch the Rules
Sometimes it’s fun to throw away the rules and just go for it! Here is an exercise I want you to do for your next blog post.
Write a first draft purely out of an emotional response. Forget about headlines, grammar, keywords and images and just WRITE. Try to bypass your head and reach your heart.
1. Think about why you started your business (aside from money) and what you want to provide your customers/prospects.
2. Don’t write like you are writing to your blog audience. Write like you are sending a letter to a best friend to inform them of your business.
3. Find a way to get happy about what you are writing. If you are writing about drywall, this may be a little difficult, but if you can re-frame it into something that makes you excited, it will show in your writing.
4. Don’t get caught up in the details. Just stay connected to your heart and write.
Now, don’t post what you just wrote on your blog! Your post will need some editing but that first draft is important.
If you did this exercise correctly, you may find some interesting observations. You may re-connect with a desire to put your customers first. You may find new angles with which to introduce your products. You may realize that you have a lot more to say than you thought.
Now that you poured out your heart into your post, you can adjust it so it makes sense to your readers and is grammatically correct. Sometimes it’s helpful to leave the content for about a day and come back to it later. Fix the errors, add your keywords, but don’t take the energy and excitement out of the message.
Why your Content Doesn’t Convert
Web pages, videos, articles, podcasts, blog posts—content is everywhere and with Google’s latest algorithm changes, valuable content is more important than ever.
Here’s the problem: Most businesses put out content without ever seeing a return on time and investment.
While there are some tricks and tips you can apply to your content, if you don’t have the following basic rules down, the best tips will not make a difference.
Here are my top 3 techniques to making the best of your content on the web. There are many more strategies you can implement (winning headlines, calls to action, etc.) but if you are not applying these foundational techniques, you will not experience the results you desire.
1. Quality over Quantity
What is the definition of quality content?
Quality content provides a “real” solution to the reader. It solves a problem and rates above similar content on the web.
Poor quality content offers the same information found all over the web. For articles or blogs, it centers on one or two sentences that are drawn out just to increase word count. Poor content also does not take the audience into consideration. Most likely, the author of this type of content is not concerned with the reader, but with meeting a certain quota for content distribution.
Most of the content you find on the web consists of poor quality content as defined above. This is the reason Google continually adjusts its algorithms to bring searchers the most valuable content when they query.
You can distribute hundreds of content pieces, but if not one is high quality, you could be wasting time and inhibiting profit potential. Every piece of content says “something” about your brand and should reflect your business values. High quality content like this evokes a response from the reader/viewer.
2. Stay Focused
Jack of all trades, master of nothing…
While there are those who knowingly put out poor content, there are others who honestly try to distribute quality content and do so in many different avenues, but the dots never seem to connect.
If you are a “one man show” and you cannot afford to hire a skilled content writer, it can be difficult to know where to begin and where to stop.
One person cannot take on more than a few tasks at a time. If so, quality suffers. You are better off investing more time into less content and making it valuable and of a higher quality, rather than trying to take on every content marketing strategy out there. Once your content converts, you can accomplish more by outsourcing and continuing to grow.
Jack of all trades, master of nothing…
While there are those who knowingly put out poor content, there are others who honestly try to distribute quality content and do so in many different avenues, but the dots never seem to connect.
If you are a “one man show” and you cannot afford to hire a skilled content writer, it can be difficult to know where to begin and where to stop.
One person cannot take on more than a few tasks at a time. If so, quality suffers. You are better off investing more time into less content and making it valuable and of a higher quality, rather than trying to take on every content marketing strategy out there. Once your content converts, you can accomplish more by outsourcing and continuing to grow.
3. Know Your Audience
What does quality content look like? In a nutshell, if you know your audience and their pain points and you solve them with your content, you will be successful.
Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done.
Knowing your audience is more than studying a particular demographic. If you are selling wedding dresses, your audience will most likely be females between the ages of 25 – 45. However, if you stop there, you are doing yourself an injustice.
Imagine you were a customer. What would your thoughts be? What problems would you have? What solutions would you need? What day to day issues would arise for a woman in this demographic?
Take time and research your audience and really try to understand who they are. By taking this more detailed approach, you will be able to identify their problems. Your content should be the SOLUTION.
2 comments:
Link building is the base of seo.link building gives back link to our site.without link building seo is value less.
SEO Company India
Very looooooooong... but good post I must say. what is your opinion about guest blogging? Is it still effective for getting high competition keywords like Copper Cups or Mule Mugs?? I want to know your expert opinion on this.
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