Matt's presentation on building an ecosystem of content that maintains visibility in social and organic search channels

1. Content Strategy Applied 2013
An Evolved Approach to Site
Architecture and Healthy Ecosystems
Matt Hobbs
Senior Content Strategist
at National Builder Supply
@heymatthobbs
#evolve13

2. An thoughtful approach to building an
ecosystem of valuable online content…
…that’s stays visible in today’s evolving
inbound marketing channels.
What you’ll hear today

3. From the trenches
http://0.tqn.com/d/history1900s/1/0/M/3/wwi15.gif

4. 1. Build a clearly defined site architecture to meet your
communication objectives
2. Develop insight-driven content to fill out that
structure
3. Go the extra mile to build relationships
–
–
With end users on social channels
With search engines
4. Some sweet resources
What we’ll cover in this session. Sound good?

5. Building a foundation
Site structure and information
architecture

6. Does the content and language on your
site provide valuable context for users?
Choosing your words wisely

7. How to win
Set a content strategy to
meet your objectives.
Apply honest logic to
describe that content.
Choosing your words wisely
http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/sp12/cse130-a/static/spock_logic.jpg

8. What kinds of content will help create a
positive, valuable experience?
Example: Sam’s Spice Company

9. How do all of your
content pieces fit
together?
Or: which aisles should contain which products?
http://teachwithclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/puzzle-pieces.bmp

10. How to win
Assign categories and sub-categories.
Use keyword research tools and perform test searches to
understand how search engines categorize that same
information.
Information Architecture: How your words fit together

11. How your words fit together

12. How your words fit together

13. Can spiders easily crawl and
digest your site’s content?
Is your site crawler-friendly?
http://www.techiemania.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/google-bot.jpg

14. How to win
Hide the confusing parts (faceted navigation).
Highlight important parts (breadcrumbs,
selection pages).
Is your site crawler-friendly?
http://www.techiemania.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/google-bot.jpg

15. Does your site have
consistent, readable URLs?
Clean, readable URL structure
http://doblelol.com/uploads/1/cartoon-cat-clip-art-vector-online-royalty-free-public-funny.jpg

16. How to win
Use the logical extensions of core keywords.
Establish “speaking URLs.”
Samspice.com/shop/caribbean-spices/jerk-seasoning
Clean, readable URL structure

17. Unsexy SEO Checklist (abridged)
Clearly-defined information architecture

Unique, valuable content

“Speaking” URLs

Smart use of NOFOLLOW tags, ROBOTS.TXT

Clean sitemap submission

Title, description, and alt tags

Blocking and tackling

18. “Technical SEO is more
important, not less.”
Adam Audette (Rimm Kaufman Group) MozCon 2013

19. Filling out your structure
Building content users will
appreciate and share

20. If you can validate your hunches with datadriven consumer insights,
you can be confident your content will
resonate with your audience.
Hunch + Data = Great Content

21. Where our team finds consumer insights

22. Where else?
• Listening tools
(Lithium, Radian6)
• Blog comments
• Social comments
Cold toilet seat woes (social insights from Twitter)

23. Take Google search volume data with a grain of salt. These are
trends (not hard and fast).
– This shouldn’t be a big issue if you’re only using this as a gut check
Validating hunches with keyword data

24. Where we “cultivate and grow our insights” - The Insight Farm

25. A few insights, hand-picked from the farm

26. Creating content from consumer insights
A few examples

27. How to bring attention to a $700 luxury toilet seat

28. Insight: “Two toned cabinets are everywhere on Pinterest.”

29. The article ended up ranking pretty well, too

30. vs
Get aggressive on testing content delivery (UX)
Leverage Google On-Page analytics to fuel AB testing

31. Valuable social interactions
Building relationships with
consumers

32. A bit of history
http://media.komonews.com/images/120630_johann_strauss_jr_660.jpg

33. Our first giveaway entry form on NBS.com

34. A slicker, more elegant way to give our followers cool stuff

35. Viral style marketing
“Silver Bullet” content

36. Practical
Half Way
Essential
Landing Pages
Buyer Guides
How To’s
Delightful
Luxury
Trend Articles
Editorials
What I mean by “Silver Bullet”
Web Comics
Infographics
Harlem Shake

37. “What Your Toilet Says About You”

38. The Good
– Big opportunity for social buzz (“flavor of the day”)
– Backlink opportunities (for being awesome)
The Bad
– Requires extra time and resources to produce
– If you’re making this stuff, you’re not solving problems
The Good and Bad of Silver Bullet

39. Now listen here. Don’t you go
spending one minute on “Silver
Bullet” content until you’ve built a
foundation of meaningful content.
You tell ‘em, Morgan
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/images-5/morgan-freeman-3.jpg

40. A growing necessity for brands to stay visible
Building relationships with
search engines

41. Authoritative entities will be the only survivors
Search engines are getting
better at burying nonsense.

42. The days of Wild West SEO are pretty much over.
http://www.twentysteps.com/matt-cutts-the-enforcer/

43. Play where the search engines want you to play

44. The future of SEO
Structured data

45. Easily digestible meta data on a website…
…that enables crawlers to identify and understand the
information on a site…
…and index / scrape that information appropriately.
What is structured data?

46. Benefits of Structured Data
– Direct communication of information (easy for
crawlers to understand what’s what)
– Eye catching, richer listings on the SERP
Why does structured data matter?

47. Structured data highlighter (Google Webmaster Tools)

48. Hey there, little kitty cat
http://allmyroads.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/but_why_trollcat.jpeg

49. Only the chosen few will survive
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html

50. Paid Ads to help you find
treatment
Quick explanation from a
credible source
More usable SERPs

51. Paid ads to help you
find tickets
“About” info (and Google+?!?)
What is COPD image?
-break down annotations
on PLAs, paid, content
scrape
WHO DAT! (sorry… but not really)

52. Why bother clicking
onto The Weather
Channel or Weather
Underground?
Do a search. Get “the answer.” Do another search.

53. Valuable information > a list of 10 links

54. What do all of these examples have
in common?
Structured data from credible, healthy ecosystems

55. Superior
User
Experience
Structured
Data
An ecosystem of content to fuel inbound marketing

56. VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

57. Almost done here…
Wrapping up

58. Structure and information architecture is
essential if you want people to find your
content through search channels.
Content built on behavioral insights will gain
more traction in the social world.
Once your foundation and structure are set,
layer Silver Bullet content into your mix.
What we covered this morning (30,000 feet)

59. Superior UX and structured data is the future
of tactical SEO, which is really just marketing.
Go the extra mile to build a relationship with
users AND search engines (Trusted Stores,
Google+).
What we covered this morning (30,000 feet)

60. Don’t invite people over for BBQ if you haven’t cleaned the bathroom
http://themeathouseblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/istock_000020227730medium.jpg

61. 1. Keep your thumb on the changes. Remain calm.
2. Play your game
–
–
Build a structurally-sound ecosystem of valuable content
and experiences
Live in a world of solving human problems and find ways
to add value through web experiences
Keep the wheel steady. Steady as she goes…

62. HobbsCSA.tumblr.com
Want to nerd out on Technical SEO?

63. Thanks y’all!
Any questions?
Feel free to connect with me on Twitter:
@HeyMattHobbs
#evolve13