grow your hosting business with search & content marketing: 8 steps

Grow Your Business with Search & Content Marketing: 8 Steps

ARNIE KUENN, PRESIDENT, VERTICAL MEASURES - @ARNIEK

About Your Presenter…

• President of Vertical Measures in Phoenix, AZ• Founder and past President of the Arizona Interactive

Marketing Association (AZIMA)• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute• Author of Accelerate! Move Your Business Forward Through

the Convergence of Search, Social and Content Marketing

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Google Panda Update

• Biggest Google Algorithm update in years!• 100% Algorithmic, No Manual Changes• Clobbered Content Farms & Article Sites• Even YOUR website could be affected if you

have pages with weak content• More Coming with Respect to Cleaning Up

Spam on the Web (IMO)

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

“Sites with original content such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on, will move up.”

– Matt Cutts & Amit Singhal (WSJ – 2/28/11)

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Companies Are Getting It!

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#1 Develop Your Strategy

• Why are you creating the content you are creating? • Who is your audience and who are you?• What will you measure? What does success look like?

What is different a year from now?• Where do you plan to publish your content?• When & how will you develop your content? (Calendar!)

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#2 Keyword & Market Research

• Brainstorm for keyword phrases your customers use when searching (low cost hosting service)

• Use your research to build targeted content • Think long-tail!• Try tools like:

– Google keyword suggest & instant search– Google Adwords keyword tool– Bing’s Commercial Intent

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Online Market Research

• Check trending topics on Twitter, Yahoo and MSN• Look at answer sites like Yahoo Answers, Quora,

Facebook or LinkedIn• Check Google’s Discussions in search• Check sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Mixx. • Use OpenSiteExplorer.org to see what your competitors

are doing that is working!

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Long Tail is the Key!

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Identify Types of Content to be Created

• Your research determines what types of content your audience prefers and consumes.

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Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#3 Create Great Content

5,473 backlinks from 54 unique domains, 88,000 views

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Brainstorm for Powerful Ideas

• Who should be involved?– Customers, Staff, Friends, Events

• What should we create?– Content that builds trust– Content that educates– Customer generated content– Other people’s content– Content that converts

• And remember, customers don’t care about YOU!

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Examples

20,000 back links from 500 domains

22,132 backlinks from 259 domains

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Benefits of an On-Site 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*

*Hubspot

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How Often Should We Post?

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Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#4 Must Optimize Your Content

• Content is found through social media and search engines – so optimize it!

• Web pages, News, Local, Images & Videos1. Links pointing to your content2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)4. Image alt text tags 5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)6. URL structure (short & include KW’s)7. Page load times

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/sharing-advice-from-our-london-site.html

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#5 Promote Your Content• Understand who your

customer is and where they are online.

• Conduct PR and blogger pitches

• Develop relationships & build partnerships

• People share your ideas, link to your content.

• Those references and citations will help with rankings

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#6 Distribute or Repurpose Content

• RSS feeds• Email Campaigns• Article Syndication• Web 2.0 Sites• Social Media Sites• Video, Photo, Presentation & Podcasts sites• These links will help your rankings!

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#7 Build Links to Your Content

• Identify low hanging fruit– Internal links– Blog & forum participation

• Targeted Links via…– Competitive research for similar content– Use search operators to find opportunities

• Ask your clients & suppliers for links!– Offer t-shirts, gift cards, discounts, etc. – Or even a good old fashion reciprocal link

• When all else is equal, links win!

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

#8 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

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Results Like This…

19 out of top 25 landing pages

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All 8 Steps Matter

When all the links in the chain work together, just as in a bicycle chain,

the net effect is acceleration!

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Available on Amazon

Additional Resources

• SEO Educational Videos:– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-tutorial-videos/

• Internet Marketing & Related Webinars:– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars/

• How-To Books– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/store

Twitter: @ArnieK #HostingCon

Thank You!

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@VerticalMeasure

Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

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