Home » SEO

Category: SEO

Content Marketing 2019: How To Stay Ahead Of The Curve

ContentCoup.com
October 31, 2018

High-quality content has been the catalyst behind all successful digital marketing campaigns in the last decade. That trend is not going to change anytime soon.

An April 2018 study by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) found that 73% of B2B marketers ranked blogs as the most effective tool for generating interest and growing their brands. E-books and podcasts tied for second as early stage content that guides consumers through the sales funnel.

A blog full of high-quality content, combined with a social media strategy to help disseminate said content, are characteristics of successful, profitable companies. These firms are increasing their content marketing marketing budgets in 2019 to ensure continued prosperity and growth.

Content must provide real value not only to get noticed by search engines, but also to build and maintain that ever-important trust factor with your audience. Consistently educating, entertaining, and/or engaging consumers with high-quality content leads to higher conversion and retention rates in both the short and long terms.

The new year is fast approaching, giving marketing departments and small businesses the opportunity to evaluate their content marketing efforts and make the necessary adjustments. Here are a few things to keep in mind to maximize returns on content marketing in 2019.

Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters

People are searching the internet differently in 2018-19 than they did in 2008-09. Google recognized this trend and as a result, changed its search algorithms to accommodate this ubiquitous behavior.

Gone are the days of stuffing your yoga blog with keywords like “yoga pants,” yoga mats,” and other related phrases in hopes of ranking high in search engines. Alexa, Siri, and other voice-recognition applications have given consumers more freedom. Robotic search terms like “sushi restaurant” have been replaced by more conversational phrases like “where should I get sushi tonight?” Bloggers and SEO personnel are incorporating these long-tail keywords into their overall strategies and driving more organic traffic. The idea is to naturally incorporate said terms into content without it looking spammy and forced. This strategy results in higher organic reach despite Google devoting more first-page results space to paid ads and its Knowledge Graph content.

Data analytics firm Ahrefs performed a study on 1.9 billion search queries. It found that over 29% of said keywords that got 10,000+ monthly searches contained three or more words.

In other words, content creators have more flexibility and creative freedom when incorporating keywords. They are no longer beholden to saturated keywords that everyone else is already using. Topic clusters and pillar pages address this phenomenon and keep your company blog and website optimized for maximum organic (free) reach.

Pillar pages are blog posts or web pages that addresses a broad (saturated) keyword or topic. This content is long – typically 2,000 words or more – but does not get into great detail about subtopics. A fantasy football advice website, for instance, has a pillar page called “Winning Draft Strategy.” This article has a 300-word intro, then five headers break down draft specifics.

The first header is “Know Your Scoring System.” This section informs readers that standard fantasy football leagues award four points for touchdown passes, six points for rushing and receiving touchdowns, and zero points per reception. Most draft cheat sheets are based on standard scoring rules. Load up on running backs and wide receivers in the first three rounds and wait for your quarterback and tight ends later in these standard leagues.

A PPR (points per reception) fantasy football league awards one point (or some variation thereof) to a player every time he catches the football. A separate blog post entitled “PPR draft strategy” is linked within the pillar content to further explain the nuances of PPR. Running backs who catch a lot of passes out of the backfield and high-volume wide receivers are ranked far higher in PPR leagues than standard leagues.

There are 6-point passing TD leagues. Another separate blog post is created and linked within the pillar that explains how quarterbacks are far more valuable in these leagues and your rankings should be adjusted accordingly. Some other cluster content pages for this pillar include “Return Yardage League Draft Strategy,” “Individual Defense Player (IDP) Draft Strategy,” and “Keeper League Draft Strategy.”

This model, assuming you are producing high-quality, premium content, not only helps more pages on your site rank in Google and other search engines, but organizes your website so users can easily find what they are looking for.

People Trust Reputable Content, Not Ads

Traditional ads by Google, Facebook, and other platforms have the potential to reach a lot of people. But all reach is not created equal, particularly when it comes to intrusive ad campaigns.

Market research firm eMarketer estimated that 25% of internet users employed ad blockers in 2016. The firm said that number increased to 30% in 2018. Laptop users are far more likely than smartphone users to employ ad blocking, mostly because there are less options for ad blocking on mobile devices. Younger consumers are also far more likely than their older counterparts to employ ad blocking technology. This is not to imply that traditional ads are completely obsolete. But those expensive campaigns are not even reaching 30% of your target audience at a given time.

A 2018 report by digital marketing firm Bazaarvoice found that over 80% of buyers conduct online research about brands, products, and/or services before buying. That research includes reading reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms. Its still an effective strategy to flash a “50% off today” ad to trigger impulse buying based solely on savings. But consumers prefer to read about your products and/or services to determine why they should select your brand over a competitor.

Consistent publishing of high-quality content conveys authority in your industry and commitment to your consumers. The global marketplace means consumers have more choices today than at any other time in history. Brands that speak to their audiences in a transparent, honest, and useful way stand out in the minds of potential buyers.

The 2019 B2B Content Marketing Report by CMI found that 65% of the most successful content marketers have a documented strategy that is consistently followed and executed.

Companies and brands that are serious about capitalizing on content marketing must have a strategy with tangible goals and KPIs. A content calendar, social media schedule, and email marketing schedule are all essential elements. Brand loyalty is built when consumers expect new, quality content every week and receive just that. Bad reviews on Google and Yelp should be thoroughly and comprehensively addressed directly on said sites.  It may even be in your company’s best interest to write a separate blog post about certain reviews (good and bad) to address concerns in even greater detail.

Companies are expanding their content creation operations because it builds credibility and trust with their audiences. Conversion rates positively correlate with brand confidence and transparency. High-quality content is no longer an option in 2018-19. It is a necessity for companies wishing to compete in their respective industries.

Balance Long-Form and Short-Form Content

It’s no secret that Google and other search engines prioritize longer, in-depth content on search engine results pages (SERPs). Content marketers are well-aware of this trend. Average blog post length continues rising every year as the arms race for relevance shows no signs of slowing down.

Graph via Orbit Media.

The average word count for all first-page Google results was 1,890 in 2017, according to SEO firm Backlinko. But every topic and keyword combination does not need 2,000 words to get the point across. Content length and depth also depends on the audience. Generation X and Baby Boomers overwhelmingly prefer long-form content versus snippets. Millennials prefer shorter, more visual content.

The easiest way to balance these dueling demographics is to break content up into sections and provide “eye rest” with strategic photos and images. A 2,500 word blog post does not have to be a text-only, exhausting piece. Embed a few videos and even Tweets from relevant influencers. Every blog post also does not need to be highly-indexed on SERPS. Some posts simply expand on a social media post promoting some very specific event, product, or service. An aesthetically-pleasing, 300-word summary is more suitable in these instances.

Millennials also prefer infographics and video content over long-form pieces. There are numerous free infographic-building apps that are simple and easy to use. Videos do not need to be Hollywood-level productions to be effective marketing tools. A well-dressed, well-spoken individual looking into a camera and telling your audience what they need to hear versus making them read it, addresses the short attention span demographic and provides variety to your blog.

Expand Content Types

One of the most under-utilized and highly effective marketing tools of 2018-19 are e-books. These 30-50 page books contribute greatly to your brand’s overall perception, particularly when it comes to authenticity and trust.

The 2017 Consumer Content Report by Stackla found that 86% of consumers view brand authenticity and transparency as a major factor when determining whether or not to support brands. A study by public relations firm Cohn and Wolfe found that the top quality demanded of big brands is honesty about their products and services.

The 21st century consumer has better B.S. detectors than their predecessors because there is so much information to digest in a short period of time. Lazy, opportunist companies use tired, regurgitated marketing tactics that instantly raise caution flags. Authentic companies offer their audiences useful content that guides them through the buying process.

Branded e-books show audiences that you are committed to researching and sharing knowledge about your products and industry. A potential customer is far more inclined to choose an automotive technician who offered them a free e-book on DIY car maintenance versus the guy offering 10% off to come get the repair done today. E-books are also quintessential lead magnets. Consumers willingly provide their email addresses and other information in exchange for e-books about subjects that interest them.

Quizzes are another engaging lead magnet. There are several free apps that allow you to create quizzes and embed them directly on your website. Slideshows act as more condensed, visually-focused e-books.

Quality Over Quantity

There are several easy ways to get your website de-indexed from Google and destroy any chance of becoming a thought leader in your respective industry.

Google algorithms easily identify and de-index hastily-created spam content stuffed full of keywords in hopes of ranking high organically. Another way to get de-indexed is by using so-called “free hosting.” There is no such thing as free hosting. These companies bombard your website with ads, making for a horrible user experience. Spammy comments also get you dinged by Google. Make certain to either moderate your comments sections in real-time or do end-of-day QA.

Content creation is time-consuming and is best done by professionals who understand SEO, brand voice, and authenticity in writing. Don’t publish new content just to say you published new content. Everything on a company website should provide value, and present your company as authentic. Google’s quality guidelines are clear: focus on content, not keywords. Google is in the business of answering questions and does so by ranking the best content related to the instant query.

High-quality content gets shared by users. It tells great stories that get re-told on social media. Your company has the opportunity to take the lead on subject matters related to your industry. All it takes is commitment to quality content, consistency, and the desire to succeed. Everything else will take care of itself.

Content Coup is your one-stop shop for all things content. Our professional, in-demand writer and editor has over 15 years experience working in-house at some of the world’s most respected content marketing agencies and has an independent journalist and content marketer. We specialize in on-page web content, blog posts, white papers, business plans, e-books, and everything SEO.

Contact us today with your ideas and questions. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

 

 

 

Size matters: search engines, readers favor long-form content

(updated 8:42 PST) — The quantity vs. quality debate is perpetual in the worlds of digital marketing and SEO. But there’s one fact that cannot be denied when it comes to blogging: frequent publishing on company websites increases the chances of acquiring new customers.

All blog content is not created equal however. Its difficult to determine how many blog posts are published everyday in the world. WordPress powers 26% of the internet and holds a 59% market share for content management systems, according to W3 Techs. WordPress users publish 84 million new posts per month, or about 2.8 million per day and over one billion per year.

I’ve personally written well over 2,000 content marketing blog posts for various companies in the last seven years. At least 90% of them were between 550-800 words. The question “what would you say is a good average word count for a blog post” on Quora has a top answer that suggests 750 words is “ideal.” The next two answers say “500-750 words” and “300-400 words” respectively. Hubspot’s 2016 State of Inbound Marketing report found that roughly 80% of company blog posts are less than 1,000 words.

Publishing frequently on your company blog positively correlates with the number of leads that turn into paying customers, as referenced above. Quick, simple blog posts fill the quantity aspect of company blogging. But all those short posts are clumped together with billions of others trying to get recognition from Google and potential customers. Blog content requires more depth (i.e. more words) to stand out from the crowd and to establish your company as an industry authority.

Long-form content is king with Google

A 2012 study by serpIQ analyzed 20,000-plus keywords and found some telling trends regarding search engine rankings. The top five results for the keywords averaged over 2,300 words, and all of the top 10 results averaged over 2,000 words.

The age of domains also played a role in search rankings, with 55% of the top three results being on websites that were at least 10-years-old.  A more recent analysis by Hubspot found that blog posts between 2,250 and 2,500 words got five times more organic traffic than posts with 1,000 words or less.

Aesthetics are important too

Longer is better for SEO, but not necessarily for lead conversions. A 2013 experiment by MECLABS managing director Flint McGlaughlin ran a series of tests on lead conversions when readers are presented long-form versus shorter content. A key finding was that content presentation – the way its displayed on screen – played a role in conversion rates. When it came to landing pages, fewer words resulted in higher conversions for a company that offered free psychological evaluations.

Shorter copy was also effective for company landing pages asking for email addresses for subscriptions and to get discounts on certain products. But long copy was more effective when readers were asked to make more difficult decisions. A second test measuring conversions for a mental health and addiction center found that longer copy with the call-to-action at the bottom of the page had a conversion rate of 2.48% vs. .78% for the control (shorter, clumpier) copy: a 220% difference.

Dr. McGlaughlin concluded that decreased friction (anxiety) related to the decision, increased lead conversions.

Sequential, comprehensive , descriptive content soothed and supplemented the mental effort. Long-form copy for the mental health facility created a value proposition in the beginning and continued to carefully build trust and explain to readers the benefits all the way until the call-to-action. A decision to add your email address to a newsletter list is much easier than deciding whether to have a mental health facility contact you. Shorter copy is effective for lower anxiety decisions; while detailed, sequential copy works best for more complex, expensive buying decisions.

Constants in ever-changing Google algorithm

Its disingenuous for anyone not working in one of Google’s 68 office locations to claim expertise regarding the company’s search algorithm. Google literally makes changes to its algorithm everyday and rarely provides specifics as to what the changes entailed. Granted most of the changes are small tweaks that likely won’t negatively effect the current SERP (search engine results page) rankings of your blog. But you don’t have to be a mathematics and computer science nerd to understand Google’s ultimate goal.

For those unfamiliar, Google’s search algorithm is the sequence of calculations performed to determine hierarchy of search results for long-tail and single keywords. There have been several major updates to the algorithm in the last seven years. The Panda update (also known as the “Farmer update” to SEO folks) in February of 2011 was the first one to hit spammy, shallow websites hard. All those formerly high-ranking articles written by college students for $.01 per word were removed from first page results. Some of the reasons included, but were not limited to, grammatical and factual errors, one-sided opinion pieces, keyword stuffing and randomness of topics not relevant to the website itself.

The Penguin update in February 2012 took things a step further. It dinged websites that used blackhat SEO techniques to push themselves up Google rankings. A common SEO practice before Penguin was paying established websites to place links to your site in already-existing blog posts that ranked highly for certain keywords. The unnatural authority and credibility gained by these backlinks were considered violations of Google’s terms, resulting in numerous websites being de-indexed for varying amounts of time.

Google Hummingbird went live sometime in August of 2013. It was a complete overhaul of the old algorithm instead of just updating a few things. The general understanding is that Hummingbird wanted to better understand what exactly users were trying to find. Language recognition via verbal queries on smartphones, along with long-tail keywords becoming more common, motivated Google to understand the context of words instead of just knowing all possible synonyms.  Amit Singhal, former senior vice president of Google, told reporters at the official unveiling of Hummingbird in September 2013 that the new algorithm made it possible to find what you’re looking for without exact keywords. Search queries were getting longer and more ambiguous, and Hummingbird accommodated this new phenomenon.

Several more updates, including Pigeon, RankBrain and Possum, have been publicly acknowledged by Google since Hummingbird. These updates mostly focused on providing better localized searches, artificial intelligence to better understand user behavior, and diversity of results based on user location. “Fred,” launched in March of this year, is the most recent, confirmed update to Google’s algorithm. Google has not provided many specifics as to how Fred affects SERPs. But early tests have shown websites with low-quality content and posts meant solely to generate revenue are being dinged hard.

Though search algorithms are complicated to understand, there is a common theme with all Google updates. Seven years ago when I transitioned from broadcast and print journalism to content marketing, there was a lot to learn. Despite the continual algorithmic changes to search engines since 2010, one thing has remained constant as far as Google favorability: content quality.

I wrote an article in August of 2010 entitled “Eleventh Amendment is Unconstitutional; Must be Repealed” for an obscure, anti-government website. It took a few weeks. But the post quickly became the #1 result for the keywords “Eleventh Amendment Unconstitutional.” If you search those same keywords right now in Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo!, that article is still #1 seven years later. It’s placed over well-respected articles by Cornell University, University of California-Berkeley and Justia. Why? Its very factual, has videos and diagrams, and is published on a website that covers that type of subject matter (relevance). It also has 1,557 words (not the traditional 550-800) and the domain is nine years old.

“Don’t count characters. Make your characters count.” Barry Feldman.

There are several considerations when deciding how long a blog post should be. Promoting your company’s forthcoming Memorial Day sale doesn’t require more than 550 words. But answering the question “how to buy and use bitcoins” likely requires a minimum of 2,000 words plus a lot of reassurance within the content to ease anxiety about a complicated subject matter.

A general rule of thumb for writers is to simply write until you’re finished. Predetermined, forced word counts lead to fluffy, empty copy that neither Google nor your readers will appreciate. Long-form content is favored by search engines and is shared more often on social media. Frequent publishing of blogs is also favored by Google and readers. A mix of content is best for overall effectiveness. If you’re publishing five times per week (as all companies should be doing), at least one of your post should be more than 1,200 words.

Writing long-form content is a daunting task for non-professional scribes, but a necessity for SEO and lead nurturing. Turn your content needs over to professional writers with good track records. Inbound marketing (blogging) cost much less than all outbound channels and yields three times more leads per dollar. Now is the time to address your marketing strategy and reap the benefits of both long-form and traditional content.

Ready to start publishing long-form, high-quality content on your company blog? Check out our content packages and make sure to sign-up for our monthly newsletter in the left sidebar.

Facebook: the unnecessary nuisance for marketing departments

Facebook had 50 million active business pages as of December 2015, up from 40 million eight months earlier. Assuming sustained growth through today, there are upwards of 70 million active Facebook business pages in April 2017. It makes good business sense for small and medium-sized businesses to follow this trend when they glance at the numbers.

Facebook boasts an astounding 1.23 billion daily active users, and 1.86 billion monthly active users. Facebook is a theoretical must-have for all businesses due to the sheer number of potential customers that can be reached. Unfortunately great odds don’t necessarily translate to success.

Social media is an important part of all marketing strategies. Facebook marketing has taken on a life of its own in the last couple years. But the resources marketing departments are allocating to the world’s largest social network are better spent elsewhere.

Numbers perspective

Facebook’s 1.86 million active monthly users are nothing to sneeze at. That is a humongous potential profit pie for companies to explore. A more comprehensive look at the numbers tells a different story.

A vast majority of Facebook users, more than 85%, are located outside of the United States and Canada. China, the most populous country and fastest growing economy in the world after surpassing India last year, banned Facebook in 2009. Some Chinese people still access Facebook via VPN, but there’s no way of estimating how many.

Facebook’s first quarterly earnings report after its IPO in 2012 indicated that at least 8.7% of users were fake, meaning they were duplicates, “misclassified,” or “undesirable.” The company’s 2015 annual report put the number at about 7% fake accounts. Averaging those numbers out, upwards of 150 million Facebook profiles are fake.

Despite all the aforementioned, there are still millions of Facebook users who may be interested in your product or service. Now its just a matter of reaching them.

Facebook algorithm changes

Facebook Ads launched in November of 2007, with one of the features being that businesses could “build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences.” This was only 28 months after the company acquired the domain Facebook.com for $200,000, so business (fan) pages have been around for most of the social network’s existence. The way these pages operate has changed dramatically since then.

When business and fan pages started, administrators enjoyed very high organic reach with its followers. Facebook was the go-to platform for major brands and small businesses to build large followings and post unlimited promotional and customer relations content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) in May of 2012 immediately changed how the platform worked. The company now had shareholders to satisfy. Its entire philosophy changed almost overnight, and made many influential people angry in the process.

George Takei, the long-time Star Trek actor, noticed the change in June that year and posted a not-so-subtle note to his two million followers about it.

A Facebook employee responded to Takei, saying the company had not changed anything about the way posts were disseminated. Instead, according to the employee, Facebook made the user experience better by making the content they see more relevant. But Takei was not satisfied with the explanation, as he posted a very similar note several months later.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, talked about the changes to Facebook business pages in November of 2012. The team posted a promo for an upcoming game on Facebook assuming it would reach a large percentage of its 2.3 million followers at the time. The post only reached 27,000 of the Mavericks’ followers organically (or about 1.1%). Cuban tweeted his assessment of Facebook, along with a screenshot of Facebook demanding $3,000 for the Mavericks to reach about half of their followers (NOTE: the tweet has since been deleted).

A few days later Cuban expanded on his tweet in a Huffington Post article. He was not recommending companies leave Facebook, but that they de-emphasize it in favor of Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networks.

Post-IPO Facebook changed its news feed algorithm to reduce average organic reach by business pages to 16% of its followers, according to a 2014 white paper by Social@Ogilvy. Further, the more followers you had, the less your organic reach. By October of 2013, average organic reach dropped to 12%. Pages with more than 500,000 followers, however, dropped to an average of 4% organic reach. Four months later, in February 2014, average organic reach for all business pages dropped to 6.2%, and to 2.1% for pages with more than 500,000 followers. Facebook announced more changes to its algorithm in June of last year, leading to even lower organic reach.

There are things you can do on Facebook to increase organic reach of followers. As Mr. Takei suggested above, tell followers to prioritize your posts. Today this is done a little differently than he described in his 2012 post.

Facebook Live broadcasts and videos published on the native Facebook video platform (versus externally-linked videos) tend to get more interactions. The algorithm also recognizes quality content, which uses factor such as word frequency, choice and count. Its just another reason why company blogs with high-quality content are such valuable assets.

The only way businesses truly reap the benefits of Facebook is by paying for it. We recently tested out paid advertising on Facebook for a clients’ business page that sells encrypted email service. We authorized Facebook to take $50 from the clients’ credit card to “boost” a post about online privacy in the wake of Senate Joint Resolution 34 being signed into law earlier this month. The campaign was supposed to run for four days. Facebook ultimately took $30 from the client’s credit card and ended the campaign after three days for whatever reason. The client just joined Facebook that week, so only had five followers before the boosted post, which ultimately reached 1,266 news feeds (60 organically), got 110 total engagements, and only ONE click on the actual link.

Some data is excluded due to confidentiality agreements.

At that rate, you’re paying about $30 per click-through to your actual website, even when the audience is targeted by demographics and user habits. A higher budget will help, but that money is better spent investing in your own website, particularly on publishing daily, high-quality blog content and growing your email list.

Social vs. professional network

When you log into Facebook, you expect to see embarrassing breakups, what people are having for breakfast and the new sweater somebody bought their dog. Its nothing short of cringe-worthy when the same type of stuff shows up on LinkedIn. Jerome Knyszewski was the first to publish an article on LinkedIn about this, and there have since been several iterations by others.

Facebook specifically states on its homepage that it is a social network that helps you “connect with friends.” LinkedIn specifically states on its company page that it exists to “[connect] the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

LinkedIn has a fraction of the active users of Facebook, with about 467 million registered users in 200 countries. The U.S. has the highest number of registered LinkedIn users by far with over 133 million. India comes in a distant second with 39 million. LinkedIn is the obvious priority for U.S.-based B2B companies’ social media investments. B2C companies have more opportunities to leverage Facebook in their favors, while LinkedIn provides a means of connecting with others in their respective industries.

The 2016 Hubspot “State of Inbound” marketing report proved two things: old school still works and investing in your own website instead of social media is smart. Whether sales teams increased or decreased in numbers, companies identified phone and email communications as the most successful channels for their salespeople to reach prospects.

Phone communications typically originated from email communications via prospects and leads contacting or subscribing to company blogs or websites. The report suggested that companies stop cold-calling and contact warm leads who responded to content on their websites. Growing your email list is thus more important than growing your number of Facebook followers.

Though there was no significant difference between Facebook and LinkedIn success rates for salespeople, the tiebreaker is organic reach. Last week on LinkedIn, I published an article on my personal account with only 225 connections. But as of publishing 110 people saw it, or about 49% of my followers. Further, big brands are using Twitter far more than they do all other social networks, according to Forrester Research.

Bottom line

If you’ve had a Facebook business page for years, and have over 1,000 followers, its unwise to just ditch it. Its best to learn more about your followers with Facebook Insights and try to figure out from the data the best approach to increase organic reach. Unless you’re willing to spend more money, time and effort to reach followers, its best to prioritize your own web properties.

A Facebook business page is good to have even if you don’t use it a lot. People may search for your company on the platform and find contact information. Even the largest, most successful brands in the world aren’t heavily active on Facebook because of the time and investment it takes to get even minimal returns. Coca Cola (102 million followers) and Starbucks (36 million followers) sometimes go weeks without posting anything, but they’re still on top of their respective industries. Both companies have very active blogs with great content.

All companies – small, medium and large; B2B and B2C – should have a Facebook page for SEO purposes and to have another means of communication with customers and leads. Investing a lot of time, money and effort into it takes away from investing in your own websites that you have 100% control over. Use Facebook to supplement your blogs and websites, not the other way around.

RELATED: How much should you pay for content marketing?

Are you ready to reap the benefits of publishing high-quality content on your company blog? Do you need to start a new blog from scratch? Read about Content Coup, check out pricing and contact us today. Cut out the middle man and join the revolution!