6 Emerging SEO Tactics for Content Marketers

Summary: As the beat quickens in the world of B2B SEO Tactics, we find new technologies like Apple’s SIRI voice search (“Find Local Plumber”, etc.), and PPC and Social Media become more important to SEO, knowing where to focus your SEO efforts is becoming essential.  I’ll cover some new trends, and give you some practical tips and tactics.  We include two SEO strategy videos, a WordPress how-to video covering SEO and other Content Marketing Tactics.

1) Apple’s SIRI Search Requires More Than a Website for SEO

Apple’s new voice activated SIRI search on iPhone (and soon the iPad) doesn’t much care if you have a website.  It counts, but you also have to have a lot of local citations in place for google reviews, at yelp, the BBB, and the local chamber — just about any relevant local business review site, so that SIRI thinks you are worthy (relevant).  This is mostly for B2B (“Find local plumber”, etc.), but for some B2B professionals too (“Find CPA”, “Find Law Firm”, etc.).

SEO Tactics for Content Marketers (local B2C):  Make sure you have a well presented Google “places for business“, and you are actively soliciting positive reviews (have a netbook or tablet on place for customers to write reviews).  Also… get on Yelp, and FourSquare when appropriate.

2) Smart PPC advertising with SEO equals a strong synergy for success…

PPC — Pay Per Click ads are becoming more essential alongside your SEO efforts.  Here are three reasons why:

1. You can learn some key insights for phrases that not only engage people… but for which they then visit your site and complete a desired business goal, like filling out a lead
2. Google recently reported that because of privacy concerns, it is going to stop showing key word referral data for visitors to your sites from logged in users for organic search, but not for PPC campaigns
3. When you are running an A/B test at your site to increase results, say you are checking which of two headlines on a contact page causes more visitors to send the firm, you can use PPC to send enough visitors quickly to that page to complete the test, and also make sure they are qualified visitors, more likely to be interested in your specific services and projects than random visitors.

Reference article: Integrating SEO & PPC: 3 Areas to Explore

3) What’s the true value of SEO work? (ranking #1 isn’t it)…

Is a first page organic search return valuable?  Yes.  But less so now that Google places maps on top of local search results (placing well on maps is more important in that case), and with other changes afoot.  So, how do you determine the true value of your SEO work?  Well, “long-tail” searching is more in play these days than ever, since other search modifications are causing prospects to type three to five words in their searches.  Look at the graph below:

You can get as far with less popular phrases (right side of graph) that convert well because visitors are qualified.

If you are chasing after the top single keywords for your business, you are in the green part of the chart at left, and spending a lot of green cold cash.  That’s where all the competition is, and that’s why it can take months to make an impact.  But look at the yellow area, and note it represents about the same about of area.  SEO translation:  when you go after a number of longer phrases by focusing on them in your business blog posts, you can do as well (and sometimes better) than becoming anal about popular terms.  Why?  You will spend less time and effort on them, but will still attract an equal amount of perhaps even more qualified traffic over time (keep on publishing). Read this article on “long tail links”.

SEO Tactics for Content Marketers – Tip:  You should also set up a custom Analytics reports that shows how well each blog post you write focused on a long-tail phrase persuades visitors to complete a desired outcome goal, like downloading a white paper.

4) FOCUS:  Let Yoast Coach You for WordPress SEO Tactics…

So how do you get ranked for those “long tail” key phrases?  Does SEO copywriting make your eyes cross, your head hurt, and frazzle both hemispheres of your brain?  No worries.  I just taught a “WordPress 201″ workshop at the Center for New Media in Langley, WA (lovely place on Whidbey Island — be sure to check into the excellent 2nd Annual Content Marketing Retreat coming up in January).  As I recommended to the students, you should take advantage of the excellent WordPress plugin for SEO by Yoast:

Above (click to enlarge), the Yoast plugin makes recommendations and coaches me on the "focus keyword" for this article — showing green for good practice items, and red where improvement is needed. Note the "Page Analysis" and "Advanced" tabs too. I have used several WordPress SEO plugins and this is by far the best.

And here’s a tutorial video that explains more about using the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin:

5) How do you know where to focus your SEO efforts?

Still not sure where to focus?  Google makes some very helpful videos… here’s a short one that explains their concept of “relevance” and “importance” when it comes to ranking your posts and pages:

6) Learn to identify “Actionable” Analytics

One of the reasons we do custom Analytics reports for clients is because there is so much data, charts and reports in your Analytics that you can literally lose several hours and not have a clue about what it means and what to do. The key is to identify metrics which give you clues for direct actions you can take right now. Some excellent examples are bounce rate, number of pages viewed (engagement), top content, keywords/phrases used to reach your site, referring sites… and a key performance indicator (KPI) for your ROI is what content persuaded visitors to perform a desired business goal, like filling out a lead form. Want to dive even deeper? Watch this excellent video by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz — another great NorthWest guru:

Contact us for a quote when you need focused SEO for Content Marketing and custom Actionable Analytics reports.