Here we are again. The start of another rigorous week of inbound marketing and only five measly days to complete everything on our ambitious calendars. If you didn’t have time to catch the top content marketing blogs published last week, we’ve collected them all here for you in one post. It’s the easiest way to stay informed on the latest trends and thought leadership in content marketing. Be sure to share your thoughts on these top stories in the comments below!
7 Content Marketing Lessons Learned from Losing 225,418 Visitors a Month
By Neil Patel
The impetus for this blog post is the substantial loss of traffic experienced by the KISSmetrics blog. By substantial, I mean a 29% drop, which amounts to 225,418 visitors. According to Neil Patel, “some of the traffic drop is intentional, but some of it isn’t.” His post outlines 7 content marketing lessons learned from this drop in traffic. I must admit, a few of these points were completely new to me. If your traffic is suffering (or the mere thought of losing traffic keeps you awake at night) and you haven’t figured out why, you should set three minutes aside to read Neil’s lessons.
13 Essential Copywriting Tips to Help You Rank in Search in 2014 [Infographic]
By Sam Kusinitz
Keeping track of Google’s ranking factors is a tedious and seemingly endless task. Not only is Google extremely secretive about its ranking factors, the rules of the game change frequently. Most search engine optimizers and content marketers are accustomed to existing in a constant state of anxiety and fear when it comes to ranking in search. The only way to soothe your worries is to constantly make sure you’re adhering to Google’s current criteria. Sam Kusinitz has provided a very helpful piece of content that helps to keep your copywriting aligned with Google’s standards. Print it out and pin it to your board in the office. Better yet, share it on your blog, so your audience can learn from it too.
9 SEO Techniques to Dominate the Most Popular Methods of Content Discovery
By Neil Patel
The whole point of creating and publishing great content is for it to be found by those who need it most. The way people find great content is by using keywords and phrases on search engines like Google and Bing. Google is by far the front-runner of the two with “roughly 3.5 billion searches a day,” according to Neil Patel. With so many searches happening each day on ONE search engine, it’s critical to understand how people perform searches if you want your content to be easily discoverable. Neil explains three search types, along with tactics to dominate on search engine results pages. They are: navigational, informational, and transactional searches. Each search type reflects the users specific intent, so as long as you adopt Neil’s strategies, your content should be discovered no matter which type of search is used to find it. What I love about this blog is that Neil uses screenshots to show exactly how his tactics result in increased visibility in SERPs.
Why Your Site Gets Such Pitiful Traffic (and What to Do about It)
By Jon Morrow
Poor web traffic is the pits and popular sites aren’t built overnight. Those are two truths that are completely tied to one another. Now that we’ve confronted those two harsh realities head-on, it’s time to do something about it. Jon Morrow points to the rather large learning curve that plagues inbound marketing newbies as a major contributor to poor web traffic. So, if you are a) new to inbound and b) experiencing pitiful traffic, this blog holds immediate value for you.
Jon makes several interesting points that are easy for newcomers to get wrong, such as posting too much content or not spending enough time promoting content. With that said, this blog also serves as a great resource for anyone who wants a fresh take on why their site isn’t reaching traffic goals. While it’s written for amateur marketers, there’s a good chance a seasoned professional could experience the same hang-ups. It’s easy enough to get into a groove that’s undoing all your hard work. Something as simple as not spending time to promote via social media can greatly impact your web traffic. Lastly, just as the title suggests, Jon also explains what you can do to reverse this unfortunate situation.
Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
By Rand Fishkin
If you can’t tell by now, getting penalized by Google is a serious threat for inbound marketers. Now matter how hard you work to avoid it, the odds aren’t exactly in our favor. So we continue on creating unique, fresh content everyday and publishing strategically with the hopes that Google won’t slap our hands. Let’s ponder on what would happen if you were accused of violating Google’s quality guidelines. What would you do to clear up the violation if you didn’t actually violate anything? Not sure? Thankfully, someone else has dealt this situation and Rand Fishkin shared the situation last week.
Long story short: Moz contributor Scott Wyden received a warning from Google Webmaster Tools about a links violation on his site http://scottwyden.com. Rand contends that Scott did nothing wrong and his post outlines his case. It’s an interesting situation to watch unfold, so I encourage you to read this post AND the comments to hear what other marketing pros think. There are lots of lessons to be learned here.
