SEO: Arnie Kuenn, President, Vertical Measures. The Intersection of Content Marketing and SEO: Despite what some might say, this is not a “build it and they will come” environment. Learn how to optimize your content for search.

1. www.verticalmeasures.com
THE INTERSECTION OF
CONTENT MARKETING AND SEO
Arnie Kuenn
President, Vertical Measures
@ArnieK #WACVBTechSummit
“8 Steps to Discovering & Creating Content Your Market Will Love”

2. ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER…
• President of Vertical Measures –
A Search, Social & Content Marketing Agency
• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute &
Online Marketing Institute
• Been an Internet marketer longer than Google
has existed.

4. “CONTENT MARKETING”

5. CONTENT MARKETING - THE TOP PRIORITY

6. WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
• Content marketing is the art of providing relevant,
valuable content to your customers without selling or
interrupting them.
• Instead of pitching your products or services, you are
delivering information that makes your prospects
more informed before they buy.
• If you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable
information to your prospects, they ultimately reward
you with their business and loyalty.

7. THIS IS NOT A 30 DAY R.O.I.
BUT THE LONG-TERM PAYOFFS
CAN BE HUGE

12. ACHIEVING SUCCESS IS CONTINUOUS,
PLANNED OUT PROCESS

13. SOME FACTS
of all consumers use search
prior to making a purchase
Source: GroupM
of searchers conduct non-
branded queries
of buyers click on organic
links vs the sponsored ads

14. WHAT ARE WE SEARCHING FOR?

15. WE ARE BECOMING BETTER AT SEARCHING
• The general trend is that people who are searching for 2
or 3 word phrases is decreasing, while people who are
searching for 4, 5, or even 8 word phrases is increasing.
– 4-word searches = 14.89% (previously was 12.83%)
– 5-word searches = 8.68% (previously was 5.64%)
– 6-word searches = 4.65% (previously was 2.32%)
– 7-word searches = 2.49% (previously was 0.98%)
– 8-word searches = 3.43% (no one did 8-word searches in 2004!)
Research by Hitwise

16. LONG TAIL IS THE KEY!

17. START WITH RESEARCH
http://www.verticalmeasures.com/content/content-brainstorming-tools-for-2013/

18. KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS

19. MORE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
Google Keyword Suggest
Relate Searches

20. MORE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
YouTube Related Searches

22. More than 410
questions about “visit
the grand canyon”
(exact match).
More than 3,400
using broad match!

23. Long tail searches
are the key to
success!

24. LIST ALL CONTENT IDEAS IN A SPREADSHEET

25. PUT TOGETHER AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

28. BENEFITS OF A BLOG
• Gives you a vehicle to post
new content
• Allows for internal linking
• Keeps the search engines
coming back – have 434%
more indexed pages*
• Have 2X as many backlinks*
• Your site gets 55% more
traffic*
• You have 79% more Twitter
followers*
Source: *Hubspot

30. HOW SEARCH WORKS

31. SEARCH OPTIMIZATION ELEMENTS

32. SEARCH RESULTS – WEB PAGE CONNECTION
Webpage File NameWebpage Title Tag
Meta Description

33. UNIVERSAL SEARCH RESULTS
70+% of all search results

34. HOW TO OPTIMIZE IMAGES
• Image files should be compressed as much as
reasonably possible to reduce file size. Smaller files
mean faster site load speeds. JPGs generally offer
the best balance of file size & quality.
• Use relevant keywords in image filenames,
separated by dashes (not underscores). Instead of
"DL000031.jpg", use something like "red-sports-
car.jpg"
• Make sure <img> tags have their "alt" and "title"
attributes defined with descriptive, concise, keyword-
related text. Do not stuff <img> attributes.
• Context matters. Google looks at content placed
around the image, like titles and captions, for context
about your image.
• Be sure to include images in your sitemap. The
XML tags provide additional opportunities to define
an image's title, caption, and even geographic
location.

35. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEOS
• Specific, Compelling Title –Would you click on “Our
Company” or “V00023.mov?” neither will your audience.
• Tags –This is where you can help your video appear in
the “Suggested” or “Similar” videos section. Don’t be
dishonest, but if there are pop culture or social media
references in the video, tag them accordingly.
• Description - Say as much as you can in the first
sentence or two, because many video sites will hide the
bulk of your description. Include at least one link placed
at the start of the description – with http://.
• Video Quality / Resolution – Shoot, edit and export the
video in the highest quality available on the devices and
software you use. The online video audience is very
forgiving of skill level, but a low resolution video can
make it difficult to see what is going on.
• Thumbnail Image – If it’s an organically made video
(not planned), pick the most visually compelling of the
options they give you.

36. HOW TO APPEAR IN GOOGLE NEWS
• Need to submit your URL to Google first
• Article URLs must be:
–Unique
–Permanent
–Display a three-digit number
• To see if a site is already included in
Google News, type [ site:url.com ], into the
search box and click "Search News."
• http://support.google.com/news/publisher/

37. DO YOU HAVE A GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGE?

38. +1 BUTTON: OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESSES

39. SHARING NEW CONTENT CAN BE VERY SIMPLE

41. BUILD LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT
• Identify low hanging fruit
– Internal links
– Fix 404, 500 and 302 errors
– Guest blog posts or articles
– Blog & forum participation
– Where you have relationships
– Local partners & listings
– Competitive research for similar content
• The best links:
– Are from trusted sites
– Have varied anchor text
– Are from many different, relevant websites
– Determined editorially

43. MEASURE!
• Measure for successes…
and failures
• Check your rankings,
traffic, conversions and
other key metrics
• Focus on the strategies
that are providing the best
ROI and keep rolling out
the content

44. HOW ABOUT A RECAP?

45. CUSTOM TRAINING PROGRAM?
• 1 year content marketing training &
coaching program
• Beta – looking for 3 organizations to
work with us at highly discounted
pricing

46. BOOK RAFFLE TIME!

47. Contact: 888-476-1881
www.VerticalMeasures.com
More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!