Ranking in the top of Google is the dream of every brand with a blog and every SEO expert.
Why do we care so much?
Because reaching the top of Google is like winning a gold medal in the Content Olympics. ?
With a few perks thrown in. More traffic? Yours. More clicks in the SERP? Yours. More qualified leads coming in? Yep, that too.
Positions #1, 2, or 3 on a given search engine results page (SERP), on average, get over 54% of the clicks from that page’s overall traffic.
Considering the average click-through rate for paid search is 1.91% across all industries… well…
(Tell me again why you’re bothering with paid search?)
Knowing how to get to the top of Google (for free, without paying a cent for ads) doesn’t qualify as information that’s simply “nice to have.”
Instead, in this dog-eat-dog world of content shock and bro marketing and dying ads…
In an internet era where more than 70% of all human traffic online now originates from a search engine… It’s essential.
Ready to learn how to improve your Google search results, AND repeat that success over and over?
This is what it takes. ⬇️ Bonus: Download your free ebook checklist we created on today’s topic.
How to Increase Your Google Rankings: Table of Contents
How to Rank in the Top of Google: Content is Key
1. Quality Over Quantity in Content Really Matters
2. Content Consistency Wins the Day
3. Content Doesn’t Rank in the Top of Google Without Relevancy and Usefulness
How to Rank in the Top of Google: 3 More Important Factors
1. Quick Site Speed and Page Load Times (Under 3 Seconds)
2. Good Internal Linking Practices
3. Excellent Usability
Wrapping Up: How to Rank in the Top of Google Every Time
[bctt tweet=”We dream of ranking top 1 in Google — but how is that possible? @JuliaEMcCoy shares how you can get your content to the top of Google with real case studies + a bonus FREEBIE checklist ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Rank in the Top of Google: Content is Key
Content is one of the key factors that drive search rankings. In a nutshell, it’s about quality, consistency, and relevancy.
1. Quality Over Quantity Really Matters
Want to know how to rank higher on Google? Prioritize content of the highest caliber.
From the direction Google itself has given about what quality content looks like, we know:
Quality content is relevant to what the target reader is searching. It’s the answer they’re looking for when they type in a question or keyword phrase.
Quality content is easy to read and easy to understand for the target audience. (That doesn’t mean the content is simple. It means it’s well-written, well-formatted, and well-researched. It means the content is written to the level of whatever audience it’s meant for.)
Quality content serves a purpose. It teaches, informs, entertains, or guides the reader.
So, if you have a ton of blogs that don’t quite hit the mark for this level of quality, you’re not going to rank as well as a competitor with fewer blogs who absolutely NAILS this definition of quality with every single post.
To further demonstrate how & why quality matters, let’s dive into a case study.
Case Study: Content Hacker
Content Hacker is my new site, launched on June 28, 2019 – less than two months from writing this ebook/blog post.
The site is basically a newborn baby, but… we already have a top 10 spot in the rankings.
Three months later, right before I published this piece of content, I checked again. As of early September, we’re ranking for a total of 2,500 keywords, bringing in 345+ organic visitors. This amount goes up weekly. Just four weeks ago, we were at 85 keywords present!
How did we do it? By focusing on content quality > quantity.
We only have 11 blogs and 14 pages total published on the site. However, the average word count for all of our blogs is 4,500. Our longest blog clocks in at 5,000 words.
[bctt tweet=”.@JuliaEMcCoy grew @content_hackers from nothing to more than 2,500+ keyword rankings in Google in less than three months. ? How? She focused on content quality, not quantity, with just 11 5,000w mega-blog guides.” username=”ExpWriters”]
Before creation, I spent days on ideation. I picked out focus keywords like ergonomic home office, remote freelance writing jobs, and wrote mega-blog outline complete with synonymous keywords.
Guess what we’re starting to rank for in Google, with this brand new site? Each one of our mega-blogs are starting to rank for their focus keywords in Google.
Content works, guys.
But you have to do it right.
Each of our mega, 5,000-word blog guides are deeply researched, thoroughly outlined, takes days (or even weeks!) to write, and includes plenty of supporting images, facts, graphs, GIFs – you name it.
It’s no coincidence that the keywords we’re winning are within those ultra-long-form guides. Our steady growth on Content Hacker is mainly thanks to quality content.
Just look at that solid, upward-trending line from our SEMrush trackings for proof:
2. Consistency Wins the Day
Here’s the thing:
You can’t just depend on one factor to buoy your content to the top of Google because the search engine doesn’t look at one factor – it looks at many.
That’s why consistency, along with quality, is so important when it comes to content.
You can’t publish an exceptional blog once and let the rest slide. Let me say it louder, for the people in the back: Every. Single. Content. Piece. Must. Be. Exceptional.
Think of it this way: Each content piece is like a building block. They stack on top of each other, one by one, to create a wall. That wall represents your reputation and authority.
Do you want a strong, towering, solid wall that will stand up to storms? Then you can’t add even ONE weak brick to the structure because it will undermine the strength of the whole.
Every single brick needs to be strong on its own. Every single content piece needs to be consistently good for better results in the rankings. Let’s look at another case study to demonstrate what I mean.
Case Study: Express Writers
At Express Writers, our growth over time is due to the one-two punch of quality + consistency.
Check out how our growth shot up and kept a steady pace after I implemented a commitment to those two factors as part of our content strategy:
Currently:
99% of our prospects come to our agency through Google search.
We rank for over 23,000
We get 90K organic visitors coming in per month.
We have earned over $4.5 million in sales from over 5,000
It’s all thanks in part to one fact: We have NEVER missed our goal of publishing one blog post per week for eight years.
That’s right. For eight years, we have managed to publish at least once every week. That’s 416 straight weeks where we had a post researched, outlined, written, designed, edited, and ready to go.
The consistency part of the equation has always been there for us. When I finally added a commitment to quality around 2016-2017, we took off. More than that, we keep growing. Take a look at our keyword positions from December 2018:
504 keywords ranking in the top 3 positions in the SERPs.
1,024 keywords ranking in spots #4-10.
Now look at the data from August 2019:
In just eight months, 30keywords climbed into the top 3 of Google.
Another 193 keywords made their way into positions 4-10 (which is nothing to sneeze at – ALL of these are on the first page!)
Another 355 are still gradually climbing and have moved into the second-page territory in positions 11-20.
Last but not least, an astonishing 2,749 keywordsstarted ranking. They’re not in the top of Google yet, but given time, we’ll probably see plenty of them move upward, too.
We see a similar trend when we examine our backlink data and referring domains using Ahrefs. The middle graph, in particular, shows that slow-yet-steady incline I’ve been talking about this whole time:
Steady, constant, upward-trending growth.
That’s what consistency helps you achieve. It’s a major part of how to rank in the top of Google.
Don’t get me wrong, though – it requires a major, CRAZY amount of investment of not necessarily dollars, but time and effort. For the Write Blog content alone, I lead a team of < 5 content creators and a designer to produce what you see here every week. Each blog has a lead time of about two weeks.
But – the investment pays off in dividends. It amounts to daily, qualified leads coming in on autopilot.
It’s worth every penny, every drop of sweat, and every tear shed.
3. Content Doesn’t Rank in the Top of Google Without Relevancy and Usefulness
The final major content factors you need to rank higher on Google?
Content that’s topically relevant to your target audience and useful for their needs.
Even if you post amazing, wow-worthy blogs consistently, they won’t rank well unless they relate to the target reader and are topically on-point.
What do I mean by that?
Your blog topics should cover information that’s important to your target audience.
Depending on the length you want the end result to be, you need to either drill-down into your subject or provide a broader overview.
For an example of a blog that’s topically off the mark, look at this post from CNET:
It’s about 700-800 words, but it’s all over the place. Within a few paragraphs, the author covers composting, lawn care, smart technology for gardeners, and gardening for the apartment-bound.
Huh? Who is the author actually writing to, here? Each of these topics could make a great 800-word post taken by themselves. Plus, they could all be targeted to different people: apartment-dwellers, the eco-conscious, tech junkies, and busy homeowners.
Instead, they’re all included in a post that seems disjointed and, ultimately, unhelpful for a specific user coming to this blog with a specific gardening question.
Pop quiz: Where do you think this blog is currently ranking in Google? (Hint: It’s a well-written, optimized post on a well-known website. It’s accurate and well-formatted. The only issues: It’s scattered, provides a broad array of information vs. diving deep into one topic, and doesn’t quite jive with the user intent of a person searching for “gardening tips.”)
I’ll give you a few seconds to come up with a guess.
…
…
Give up? ? It’s on page 3.
The takeaway: Relevancy and usefulness matter if you want to rank in the top of Google.
To show you a successful example, let’s look at FreshCap Mushrooms, an EW client. *cue case study*
Case Study: FreshCap Mushrooms (EW Client)
FreshCap Mushrooms is a brand on a mission to change people’s lives with the power of mushrooms. They specialize in educating people on how mushrooms are grown, and how functional mushrooms can be used to improve health and wellness, and sell an array of mushroom extracts and powders in their shop.
Positioning themselves through fact-based educational content serves as a great way for FreshCap to differentiate from the other mushroom extract producers, and helps them build authority in the niche.
Needless to say, their blog is a huge part of their online presence. This is where they do the brunt of their teaching on the subject of mushrooms plus related health + wellness topics.
Once this brand committed to consistency and quality in their blog posts on topics relevant to their target audience, they have seen a lot of success that continues to grow. They now have 14K organic keyword positions on Google.
See that noticeable upward curve at the end of the graph? That’s when their content strategy really started making an impact.
That’s the power of relevant, useful, high-qualitycontent. Remember, this is content with the following attributes:
It addresses the user’s needs. When they’re typing the target keyword into a Google search, the user most likely has a question or problem to solve, or a pain point they want to alleviate. The content helps them do it.
It’s in-depth. Each piece of content focuses on ONE topic (or topic facet) and explores that subject fully.
It serves a purpose. The purpose can be to entertain, inform, or teach your readers – it’s up to you to determine the goal. Whatever you do, make sure it serves a purpose for the audience.
[bctt tweet=”.@JuliaEMcCoy says it’s worth remembering that CONTENT is the key to rank in the top of Google. Prioritize your content’s quality over quantity, consistency, and relevancy and usefulness. ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Rank in the Top of Google: 3 More Important Factors
The “how to rank in the top of Google” question isn’t solely answered with content. Along with exceptional blogs, articles, and the like, you also need some supporting website factors in place.
Don’t neglect any of these – they’re all equally important to build the reputation of your site (and thus your content).
1. Quick Site Speed and Page Load Times
Want to rank? A laggy site may kill your chances.
If your pages take eons to load, well, nobody has time for that. ⏳
As you know, waiting for a slow page to load is like watching paint dry. We’re nearing 2020 – we expect speed!
According to Think with Google, as page load time slows down, bounce rate increases.
If your page takes over 5 seconds to load, the likelihood your visitor will immediately bounce increases by over 100%.
Yikes. That person will never become a lead. And, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Google isn’t into that, either.
Faster website = better user experience = better rankings.
To speed up your website, check out this guide from Moz with best-practices.
2. Good Internal Linking Practices
Along with consistently good content and a speedy site, the structure of your pages matters for getting your website to the top of Google.
Think of this factor as the overall organization of your site pages. Are they cluttered, haphazard, and difficult to navigate? Or do they seamlessly link to each other?
When your site structure is on-point, Google search bots can:
Crawl and index your domain and content more easily
Understand the relationships between pages, including:
Which pages are more important/less important in the grand scheme of things
Which pages are topically related
Here’s a good example of a clean, organized site structure (also called site architecture) from Single Grain:
The concept of good site structure applies to internal links in your blog content, too. When you link to your other, relevant content pieces inside a blog post, you:
Help Google make connections between them
Help your readers get additional, related information on whatever topic they’re perusing
Helpful is good. Aim to be helpful as you structure your site links between pages, and your rankings will improve, too. Think of this as a foundational aspect of how to rank in the top of Google.
3. Excellent Usability
If you’ve been reading the Write Blog for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me mention the concept of usability before. It means your website shouldn’t be merely beautiful to look at – it should ALSO be beautiful to use for better Google rankings.
What do I mean by that?
Think of some tool or object in your life you love using. Maybe it’s your fancy coffee maker, or your iPad, or the new tech gadget you just bought. It can be as simple as your favorite pen or a specific website.
If you love using something, that object is probably extremely usable. The same goes for websites. The ones you love using will more than likely check the boxes for the principles of good usability, which contribute to a beautiful user experience. The Daily Egg sums them up like this:
Availability and accessibility – This just means the website works and you can access it. (For people with disabilities like hearing or vision impairment, not every site is usable on this basic level unless the brand, company, or designer addresses their needs.)
Clarity – The “how” and “why” of the website are clear – you know what it’s “for” just by looking at it. It’s not confusing to use.
Learnability – You don’t need instructions to use the website. It uses familiar concepts like different colors for links, larger text for headings, and a highly visible area containing the main navigation, for instance.
Credibility – The website is trustworthy. It includes markers of authenticity like an about page, correct spelling and grammar, a logo, contact information, reviews, testimonials, or credentials.
Relevancy – The site owners know their target users and cater their content so it’s relevant to this group. The website addresses the needs and problems of those users.
A great example of an exceptionally usable website is Airbnb.
It’s fast, responsive, and effortless to use because Airbnb knows exactly why you visit them: You want to find a rental for your next trip to a specific city.
Once you enter some broad details, you’re taken to pages that narrow down your search successively:
It’s all easy and intuitive. You don’t have to think too hard about how to find the rental that suits your needs – you just do.
THAT is the essence of a usable website: When its expected function performs as expected, and you’re able to complete your desired task without any effort.
To learn more about usability and how to make your site as user-friendly as possible, check out this overview from the Interaction Design Foundation and this usability testing guide from Hotjar.
[bctt tweet=”Don’t forget these 3 other important factors to rank at the top of Google: quick site speed and page load times, good internal links, and excellent usability. @JuliaEMcCoy explains how to achieve all three (+ free checklist!). ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Wrapping Up: How to Rank in the Top of Google Every Time
If you want to know how to improve your Google search ranking, go back to basics.
Look hard and deep at three things:
Your content
Your reader
Your website
Learn what your ideal reader wants, needs, or craves from your content. In your content, provide those answers exceptionally and consistently. On your website, help your reader do what they came to do with as few roadblocks as possible.
Finally, make the process you implemented to rank in the top of Google repeatable. Build a workflow. Build a team. Make it happen.
You can do this. I believe in you. ?
We’re going to cover three of my favorite, most-used content creation tools to help you in the ideation stage.
Ideation is arguably one of the most important stages in your content creation process.
Back in 2016, after five years of creating content and hundreds of blogs created, I realized a lot of my content was falling flat. I decided to stand back and get more strategic about it.
Basically, once you have a source of never-ending ideas that come from REAL places, like your customer pain points or relevant keyword research, you map each topic to a clear goal.
Ask yourself and your team creating this content, Can I rank in Google? Can I build sales and connections? Can I build my brand name in the industry? If you can’t map it to a goal, you put the topic in the trash can.
So what I’ll talk about in the next few minutes are tools to give you sources for content ideas and inspiration to create better content day in, day out.
Tool #1: Mangools’ KWFinder
70.6% of all traffic on the web today starts with a Google search (Backlinko & Sparktoro). 71% of B2B buyers are reading 3-5 blogs in their buying journey (The Economist Group), and the ROA on ad funnels as low as .6x (Ad Strategist).
It’s worth your time to research and write around keywords that you can compete for and win a ranking for in Google.
[bctt tweet=”70.6% of all traffic on the web today starts with a Google search. Stat from @backlinko and @sparktoro #SEO #contentmarketing ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Let’s say we’re looking up a keyword related to “how to blog.”
Here’s what that looks like in KWFinder:
The #1 factor you need is relevancy when looking up the right keyword. Once you know these are keywords your ideal prospect is actually searching, run them through Mangools’ KWFinder to hunt for a keyword you can actually rank for. Then, you want to find “easy to rank for” keywords. So, right away, how to blog is out. It’s hard, and I’d have to go up against sites like neilpatel.com, which has a super high DA. But right below it we have how to become a blogger, which scores as 43, or possible. Since these scores change all the time, you’d want to create content on this keyword and publish it within 15 or 20 days. I would recommend a 3,000w guide on the topic.
Once you have a focus keyword to pull in synonymous keywords to help you structure a great article, use Google’s Searches Related to. Use these in your subheaders and throughout your content.
Tool #2: BuzzSumo
It’s important to look through a content analysis tool for insights on trending topics, and BuzzSumo is one of the best out there. You can use it in a few ones. For one, search your own domain to see your most-shared content. This will give you topic umbrella ideas to write more content under. For example, our top-shared post is a thought-leadership blog I wrote on how to find your “content differentiation factor,” a unique concept I came up with. Interesting! So, I could write a follow-up post with more current insights and new details on that topic.
You can also use BuzzSumo if you’re writing guest blogs to scout out for your publication’s most-shared pieces. Chances are, they’ll be more likely to accept a topic with proof that a similar topic to yours was extremely popular on their site. Just don’t copy topics. Take inspiration from them, but use your own data/slant/opinion on the topic.
Finally, use the Topic Explorer to identify topics in your industry that could be worth writing on.
Content Marketing World 2019 was another incredible event in Cleveland, with nearly 4,000 content marketers in attendance, terrific keynotes and sessions, and amazing conversations.
Oh, and the best conference swag.
(I admit to being the attendee that got in line four times to win a sloth for my five-year-old. The fourth time in line, I ran into a Write Blog reader from Belgium, who said that our blog was one of only two that she reads because of how comprehensive each post I publish is. What an absolute delight to hug and talk to her! Bonus: We both won a sloth for our littles, and I even picked up one of two last stuffed narwhals from another booth!)
It was an amazing week. I took Jessica, our Client Specialist from Express Writers, with me; and this year, I had the honor of going for the first time as a speaker. My session, co-presented with Jason Schemmel, was A Masterclass on Creating and Publishing Authority-Building SEO Blogs. I’ve gone to CMWorld three times so far, and this was my first year as a speaker.
My favorite talk at CMWorld this year, hands-down, was Joe Pulizzi’s keynote, MKTG2030. I also took away some insights from a few private parties I was invited to attend, one of which was hosted by LinkedIn, and from listening and watching on the Expo Hall. Here are my Content Marketing World 2019 insights.
Joe Pulizzi’s MKTG 2030: 7 Laws of Content Marketing (& Other Takeaways from Content Marketing World
I don’t know if you’ve already guessed or noticed this, but I am a major fan of the “godfather” of our industry, Joe Pulizzi.
He tells it like it is, is incredibly insightful in content marketing, and to boot, he’s 100% genuine, kind, and authentic as a person. Seriously, you can’t find anyone more “down-to-earth” than Joe. He embodies good content marketing. It’s no wonder that it has become a yearly tradition of mine to get a picture with him.
I also have a running joke with CMI staff.
How do I make it to one of the top retweeted/favorited tweets for the #CMWorld hashtag on Twitter? I just tweet Joe.
It’s true. That’s what I did last year, and my tweet had over a hundred likes. The same thing happened again this year. ?
“The #1 reason content fails is not because of strategy, consistency, value, patience… it’s because someone internally has no clue what you’re doing.” @JoePulizzi#CMWorld
???????? ? ? pic.twitter.com/QPmiwCgsvr
— Julia McCoy | ? #CMWorld Speaker ‘19 (@JuliaEMcCoy) September 4, 2019
MKTG 2030: 7 Laws of Content Marketing
Joe Pulizzi’s keynote kicking off CMWorld on Tuesday, September 3 was titled MKTG 2030. Inside, he covered what he called the “7 Laws of Marketing:”
Law #1: The Law of They Have No Clue What You’re Doing
The #1 reason content fails is not because of strategy, consistency, value, patience… it’s because someone internally has no clue what you’re doing. This rings true for me in so many ways.
I had to turn away a Content Hacker client (my elite new consulting agency/personal brand) recently because of this very fact. They had no clue regarding high-ROI, valuable content. They massacred the hook I’d carefully compiled and trampled over every recommendation I made.
I’ve seen this happen repeatedly in our industry. It’s sad.
The answer, Joe says, is to sell internally to the executives budgeting for content. These people should be the focus of your “selling.” We need to turn the tables, Joe said, and be the ones marketing the worth of content to executives.
Joe is in love with Buzzfeed. They’ve achieved $130M in revenue in household appliances, and in 2019, their goal is $260M in revenue from Tasty appliances at Target and in other stores. By 2020, half a billion in revenue will be produced in non-media revenue by Buzzfeed. They are a #contentmarketing champion to learn from, Joe says.
Joe also talked about Cleveland Clinic, which publishes Health Essentials, generating revenue through research, advertising, syndication, and sponsorship.
There are multiple ways to drive revenue once you build a loyal audience. The most innovative brands drive five, six revenue lines through content.
[bctt tweet=”By 2020, half a billion in revenue will be produced in non-media revenue by @Buzzfeed. They are a #contentmarketing champion to learn from, @JoePulizzi says. Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s #CMWorld recap” username=”ExpWriters”]
[bctt tweet=”There are multiple ways to drive revenue once you build a loyal audience, @JoePulizzi says. The most innovative brands drive five, six revenue lines through content. #CMWorld #CMWorld19 recap by @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Law #3: The Failed Start-up Law
Joe says that it’s much wiser and also less risky to buy an existing audience than to build from scratch yourself. (If you know our story, you know we’ve been working for eight years to build ours. Building a strong audience and presence from scratch hasn’t been easy!)
For example, hardware maker Raspberry Pi recently bought two magazines from a company called Dennis Publishing. Smart move.
Law #4: The Law of Ryan Seacrest
I found this meme that emphasized every single point Joe was making:
Joe says he comes home and tries to relax to a show, and every time he turns on a show, there is Ryan Seacrest. It’s getting old. What the heck is Ryan doing, hosting shows he has no business hosting? As in standing in for Regis on Live with Kelly and Regis, and appearing again in a few hours hosting American Idol. Joe says he can’t enjoy cable TV without seeing a constant stream of Ryan Seacrest.
Well, as content marketers, Joe said we’re making the common error of trying to be Ryan Seacrest. We want to do all the things, but no one is doing them well enough. ?
The way to succeed is by focusing on one or two things. Pulizzi brought up the example of MailChimp Presents. While beautiful, he predicts it will fail. Why? We must do one thing great as content creators.
At the Content Marketing Institute, Pulizzi spent 27 months focused completely and only on creating a world-leading content marketing blog. Only after they built an audience did they launch a magazine, conference and other branches.
[bctt tweet=”We want to do all the things, but no one is doing them well enough. ? The way to succeed is by focusing on one or two things. Avoid becoming the Ryan Seacrest of content. – @JoePulizzi #CMWorld #recap @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Here at Express Writers, we’ve been focused on blogging every week for eight years. (See our blogging case study.) I have been saying no more to more yeses these days so we can keep up our quality commitment.
Law #5: The Law of the Content One-Night Stand
How do you marry your customer, Joe says, versus leaving them feeling like they’ve had a one-night stand?
You should leave notes. You should offer loving, valuable content — long before the sale is attempted.
It’s time for us to STOP doing content flings. STOP pushing content campaigns. (Joe says they’re of the devil. ?)
Instead of simply pushing content to attract leads, try to have a goal of getting married to your customers. Think about ongoing content experiences, not one-time campaigns.
[bctt tweet=”How do you marry your customer, @JoePulizzi says, versus leave them feeling like they’ve had a one night stand? You leave notes. You offer loving, valuable content — long before the sale is attempted. #CMWorld #recap @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Law #6: The Law of Cyprus
Back in 2013, depositors actually bailed out the Bank of Cyprus, causing 47.5% of their savings to disappear.
Pulizzi used this in reference to today’s major social platforms, saying that marketers need to prepare for the demise of social media as we know it.
Due to Twitter banning of state-run accounts, the algorithm changes, and social media platforms’ interests in developing their own original content, our content will not be seen on social media.
Social media is a rented real estate. Want to have a more permanent presence? Think email marketing. Email, print and good old-fashioned content are making a comeback (this dovetailed nicely into my authority content session the next day).
[bctt tweet=”Marketers need to prepare for the demise of social media as we know it. @JoePulizzi #CMWorld ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Law #7: The Marketing Pushover Law
This was my favorite law of all Joe has given because it hit home.
Pulizzi says marketers are too nice — guess why? Because of how frequently we say “yes.”
Joe says that if we know what we’re doing and have done the work, research, and effort, we are in a position to say no. We just need to actually say “no” more.
He asked the audience real-time to say “NO” to a question. The question: “Can you launch a video to go along with the podcast?” We all said no, but not loudly enough, so Pulizzi made us say no one more time. ??
Start saying no. Stick by it if your life depends on it. Say no as often as you can, Joe said.
I plan on it, Joe.
[bctt tweet=”Start saying no to all the ‘content things’ you’re requested to do. Stick by it if your life depends on it. Say no as often as you can, @JoePulizzi says. #CMWorld #CMWorld19 ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Takeaways from A Masterclass on Creating and Publishing Authority-Building SEO Blogs
I co-presented my session at Content Marketing World 2019 with a very dear friend I’ve known for years now — Jason Schemmel, content marketer, podcaster, and Twitch streamer/social media consultant. His gift is layman-talk when it comes to the nitty-gritty of content, combined with an engaging personality, energy and comedic wit. The perfect complement to my tactical, practical strategy side.
Our session was A Masterclass on Creating and Publishing Authority-Building SEO Blogs. I worked for over six months on the content and design (with the help of my amazing content team at Express Writers, of course).
What I didn’t expect — the crowd that showed up for our session! We had a packed room for our Lunch & Learn Thursday session, a 45-minute talk. CMI staff had to turn people away due to a fire code hazard. We hated hearing that people were told they couldn’t come in the room, and I’m hoping as I apply to speak at CMW 2020, they’ll give us a bigger room!
Session attendees said they knew me from Twitter, were book readers of mine, blog readers, and there were a few that had just bought my book from the CMW pop-up bookstore that morning. So utterly cool!
Here’s what we talked about.
Are you creating content that’s adding to the noise?
Or are you publishing content that brings real growth?
I defined growth-focused content as content that brings real, tangible website growth. With growth-focused content, you’ll have clear sources of traffic, your traffic goes up, and you’ll have an increase in both conversations and sales.
Then, I discussed today’s leading source of traffic.
Did you know over 70% of traffic on the internet originates from a search?
[bctt tweet=”Over 70% of traffic on the internet originates from a search. @JuliaEMcCoy @JasonSchemmel #authoritycontentmasterclass #CMWorld” username=”ExpWriters”]
Also, the ROA on ads is extremely low — it went from 11.8x to .6x ROA across 2016 to 2018 (Ad Strategist study). 71% of B2B buyers are reading blogs during their buying journeys. What’s more, SEO leads are hot. MarketingSherpa has found the average conversion rates on organic traffic for traffic-to-leads across industries is 16%. We’re seeing 14-16% consistently in our agency, Express Writers.
Then, we shared three very different and inspiring stories of success through content:
Amanda Todorovich, the Senior Director of Health Content for Cleveland Clinic, has led their site to more than 7 million inbound visitors a month. Over 40 experts contribute regularly, and they publish 3-5 articles per day. #boom
Michael Pozdnev, the creator behind iwannabeablogger.com, has earned 12-15,000 page views monthly with a lifetime amount of just five epic blog posts.
My story: I’m a college dropout, and started Express Writers back in 2011 with nothing more than $75. Today, we’re a $4.5M in lifetime sales content agency that has served 5,000 clients. I shared that in eight years, we’ve never taken a vacation from content. We publish a post on the Write Blog every single week, without fail. That is the reason for 90,000 – 100,000 visitors/month we’ve acquired by now. If we were to pay for our traffic in a PPC ad campaign, it would cost $90k/month!
[bctt tweet=”.@amandatodo has helped build a presence for @ClevelandClinic of 7+ million visitors/mo. Just one sub-domain ranks for 3+ million keywords. ? More in @JuliaEMcCoy & @JasonSchemmel’s #authoritycontentmasterclass #CMWorld 2019″ username=”ExpWriters”]
[bctt tweet=”.@MPozdnev of iwannabeablogger.com has earned 12-15,000 page views monthly with a lifetime amount of just 5 epic blog posts. ? His story in @JuliaEMcCoy and @JasonSchemmel’s #authoritycontentmasterclass #CMWorld 2019″ username=”ExpWriters”]
Commitments to High-Quality Content Creation
I shared a few of the commitments we’ve had to high-quality content that have helped us power through next levels with traffic, trust, and conversations. We never use stock imagery, we have a core name and theme (Write Blog, SEO/content marketing/writing tips and trends, with 5-6 max content creators involved), and we’ve remained consistent, never once taking a vacation from our content.
Ideation is Your Most Important Step if You Want Real Content Results
I shared a story: I spent the first four out of eight years of content marketing creating content that fell flat quite often. It wasn’t until 2016 when I got strategic about the ideation phase that we started seeing real results through content. (See my blog post with more on that story here.)
If attendees took only one thing away, it would be that authority-building content starts with a profitable idea.
How do you have these profitable ideas?
I shared my three-bucket topic goal-mapping concept that I teach in my book, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing, and the accompanying course:
For us, we have unending ideas that flow from these two sources:
Keyword research: I use Mangools’ KWFinder and SEMrush to find keywords that our competitors or big publications in our industry haven’t cornered yet. I’m constantly studying keyword terms that we can go after by publishing long-form blogs around those focus keywords.
Customer pain points: We’re always listening to our customers’ pain points. I read the chat logs on our site between Jessica and our prospects, and see what pain points they express around content that we haven’t answered on the Write Blog yet.
Next, we map those ideas to a clear goal. Can we achieve a top 5 Google keyword position with our piece? Can we build sales and connections potentially later down the road? Will it grow our name in the industry? If we can’t answer yes, we trash the content topic. As simple as that, and we have profitable content week in, week out!
Our second main point was how to create authority-building blogs. I covered the 5-point structure of a well-written, long-form, authority-building blog post, which I’ve been teaching for a while in my course.
Then, Jason and I asked the room: “Who enjoys learning from examples?” A ton of heads nodded and several faces lit up. So, I proceeded to deconstruct one of the best blogs on the planet — SmartBlogger. I broke down one of Jon Morrow’s posts specifically, How to Become a Freelance Writer. It is epic, from top to tail.
I read the “hook,” which was Jon’s fantasy-land opener featuring a picturesque story about watching the waves on the beach as “you” write, martini in hand. In less than 100w, he painted the ideal scenario for his readers, who were looking to earn a living writing. I shared how he avoids clickbait and makes the story come true with an impactful industry statistic in the next subheader — the worth of the industry is over $400 billion! So, you can obviously earn a great living if you learn this skill he’s talking about.
From Jon’s post, we also shared with attendees how you can’t ever put too many subheaders into long-form content. Worried about attention span? Get past that by creating readable content, which you can do by structuring with clear points – subheaders. H2s and H3s make your content extremely scannable. Scannable content is readable content!
Next, I covered the “where” of publishing authority-building content.
Where do you publish your best, authority-building content? Your own real estate, first and foremost. I teach this concept because you want to publish your best content in a place where no one can take away from you – the algorithms, platform changes, won’t affect you.
[bctt tweet=”Where do you publish your best, authority-building content? Your own real estate, first and foremost. Post your best content in a place where no one can take away from you. @JuliaEMcCoy #authoritycontentmasterclass #CMWorld ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Think of the other channels, like social media, guest blogging, and those solo guest appearances, as roads to your content house. You need to pave them, have a good presence on those roads, but your best content should be on your content house. Perform keyword research to pull in the right prospects and audience, and serve them great content.
Need help researching the right keywords? That’s an art form I’ve trained our Content Strategists in. We look for relevant, low-competition keywords. See our Keyword Research service here.
Consistency is Key
I shared how important consistency in content is. We’ve never missed a week of publishing content, in eight years, at the Write Blog.
In Joe Pulizzi’s keynote, we heard that it takes 21 months now to see content success on average. Joe and his team spent 27 months on blogging before moving on to anything else when building Content Marketing Institute from scratch. Sexy Vs. Not-So-Sexy Content
Jason and I had fun with this example I pulled from my vast bank of content pieces. Guess which piece brought in a lead? A blog that earned less than 40 shares, or a LinkedIn four-second video I posted of me facepalming myself, with a rant about how tired I was of getting solicited on LinkedIn DMs that earned over 80,000 views, 1000+ likes, 250+ comments in a matter of a few days?
You guessed it. The blog that had less than 40 shares brought in an ideal lead that purchased at over $1,000.
I shared why this content work: it was trust-building content. You don’t want to create content with a goal of making sales, you want to create content that is good, as Henry Rollins so aptly said during his CMWorld keynote.
Jason backed this up with an example from 2019 CMWorld keynote speaker, Scott Stratten, who was absolutely amazing to listen to from the main stage this year.
[bctt tweet=”Going viral is wonderful. It’s the goal of every piece of content your brand makes. But it needs to move the right needle. If it’s not increasing sales/sign-ups for you, it’s just vanity. @unmarketing featured on @JuliaEMcCoy’s @JasonSchemmel’s #authoritybuildingmasterclass #CMWorld” username=”ExpWriters”]
Then, I covered a quick recap of the best content tools I use every day and recommend: SEMRush, Mangools’ KWFinder, Ahrefs, and AMI’s Headline Analyzer.
Next, I discussed how I believe the sales funnel is an antiquated concept that was invented in 1924 and doesn’t reflect or explain our customers’ buying journey well… at all. I discussed a new concept I came up with after studying the buying journeys of literally thousands of customers. I drew this concept out late last year (2018) with my kid’s Crayola marker and called it The Marketing Lifecycle.
Content doesn’t work if you get pushy with the prospects reading it. Let them make their own journey, I explain. Stop “funneling” your leads off, and pushing them through “stages.” (Similar to Joe Pulizzi’s point about how one-off content campaigns are of the devil. ?Just don’t do them.)
Many heads were nodding at this one.
Finally, we discussed how to get that coveted executive buy-in for your long-form content creation efforts: convince and convert by upgrading your own knowledge, taking courses and reading books on the topic, and using powerful statistics to show and prove that a long-term, consistent approach to content does in fact work.
I wish we could have covered all the Q&A we started receiving from people lining up to talk to us afterwards. There was one attendee that I wish I could have answered better — in hindsight, the advice I gave her was hard to understand! I was describing to her that the best way to get synonymous keywords is by entering your focus keyword in Google and scrolling to the bottom and looking at Google’s related keywords. Using Google’s suggestions for related terms will make sure that your content stays semantically search-friendly. You can find these by doing this:
Also, after our session, CMI didn’t have our takeaway sheets out and ready for attendees to grab. I was really sad about that! Luckily, they were able to find the sheets (in a box under a table in our room, go figure), and put them out in front of the Expo Hall. In case you were an attendee that missed one, here’s what the takeaway sheets looked like. Download as a PDF.
3 Content Takeaways from On-The-Floor Content Marketing World Conversations
This year, as a speaker, I was invited to some exclusive parties — one hosted by Content Marketing Institute, another hosted by LinkedIn. Both were amazing!
I had some awesome conversations with a variety of amazing people. I also listened and watched as I walked the Expo Hall where thousands of top-level executives and marketers were hanging out. Here are the takeaways I had from these conversations.
1. Incredible Content is Tough to Scale. Settle for Quality. Budget Comes in Secondary to Quality
“I will pay you anything if you can create AMAZING content for me. But I’m not so sure you can. Can you?” This summarizes what I took away from the conversations I had this year with prospects at CMWorld.
You can’t churn out 50, 100 posts at once and expect them to be amazing.
Amazing content is what brands and marketers are looking for. Nothing less — because anything less won’t work anymore. Brands don’t care about the price. They care about the quality. Everything comes secondary to that. If it’s not amazing, they don’t want it.
I’m taking this and putting it into practice in the services and writing levels we offer here at Express Writers. My mission has always been to hire the best writing talent, and I will continue to do so. We won’t be the cheapest, nor will we offer incredibly fast turnarounds — for a reason. Quality will always come first.
[bctt tweet=”Amazing content is what brands and marketers are looking for. Nothing less — because anything less won’t work anymore. @JuliaEMcCoy #CMWorld #takeaways Read more: ” username=”ExpWriters”]
2. Niche, VALUABLE Content is The Future of Content
“But do you have a writer that can write on computer systems analyst topics with a fresh, engaging spin for our Canadian market in their 30s’?” These were the kinds of questions I got from executives that approached me, interested in working with us on content.
I was able to say yes to that particular niche request because we do happen to have writers that can effectively write in that niche and location.
That’s because I’m constantly headhunting. I add expert writers to our team at Express Writers myself, and I’m always on the hunt for amazing additional niche expert talent to add to our team. We add on average 15 new niche writers monthly out of probably close to 4-500 applicants.
3. Being Overly Salesy is a Major Turnoff (Duh)
In a world where the ROA of ads is as low as .6x, and 71% of buyers are reading 3-5 blogs… this is no surprise to me. I did some people-watching during a lunch break in the middle of the Expo Hall and saw executive after executive on the Expo Hall avoiding the actual ‘sales’ people. All they wanted was a good swag. They grabbed it and were gone. Very few people hung around for demos, booklets, sales meeting, etc.
Since CMWorld was acquired by UBM, almost every track is sponsored. This has put a slightly negative slant on what is otherwise a fantastic event. I overheard a few attendees complaining about how they felt ‘sold to’ when the session was over, and even worse, during the session. “Like I want your product right now! I want to learn.” I heard one attendee complaining to her friend. And these attendees were executives of big companies.
If you’re a vendor and you’re at a big marketing event, get toys that marketers can get as free swag and take home to their kids. These were the booths that were mobbed at CMWorld. Brilliant. I got a free sloth and a free narwhal. ? (I’m guilty of the attendee avoiding the salespeople, though; I can’t even tell you who the company was that gave me either. Oops.)
Content Marketing World 2019 in Pictures
A huge thanks to our amazing designer for this infographic!
That’s a Wrap, Content Marketing World 2019!
I’m already looking forward to the next Content Marketing World. Here’s till next year! ??
Your email is only as good as the words inside it.
It doesn’t matter how many fancy graphics or photos you have, whether your words are carefully branded with colors that match your logo, or how many emojis you used in the subject line.
Well-written email copy speaks for itself – it doesn’t need bells and whistles (although they ARE nice to have – they’re just not essential).
Email marketing, in general, has the potential to be 40x more effective than social media, according to a McKinsey & Company study.
But.
That’s only if the words in your email do their job.
I’m here with your back-to-basics guide on how to write email copy that is not only engaging and relevant to your readers, but actually gets results.
Sometimes, solid words and great flow is all you need. ✍
Ready to roll up your sleeves?
9 Steps on How How to Write Engaging Email Copy That Resonates with Your Audience: Table of Contents
1. Learn How to Write a Compelling Email Subject Line
2. Keep the Voice, Tone, and Style in Your Emails Consistent with Your Content (Be Uniquely You)
3. Don’t Worry Too Much About Length…
4. …But Don’t Blather – Get to the Point
5. Be Direct and Encourage Action Whenever Possible
6. Imagine Writing to One Person
7. Step into Their Shoes – Learn How to Write Relatable Email Copy
8. Always Write with a Goal in Mind for Your Email Copy
9. Include at Least ONE Call-to-Action
[bctt tweet=”How do you write #email copy that doesn’t need a crutch? (Read: Slick graphics, smooth design, flashy colors, or so many emojis it looks like hieroglyphics. ♀️ ) Find out in @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Write Email Copy That Works Without Any Gimmicks: 9 Steps
How do you write email copy that doesn’t need a crutch? (Read: Slick graphics, smooth design, flashy colors, or so many emojis it looks like hieroglyphics. ♀️ )
Answer:
Like this! Read on.
1. Learn How to Write a Compelling Email Subject Line
Your subject line is the key that unlocks your reader’s curiosity, interest, or excitement to read what you have to say. If you can evoke one of these emotions from your reader at this crucial point (and deliver within the actual email message itself), that’s a recipe for a winner.
Granted, that’s not saying it’s easy to write this kind of email subject line. It’s really hard.
But not impossible.
Use Commands or Questions
Since the aim of the subject line is both to inform your reader what the email is about and entice them to open it, why not just tell them what to do?
Commands use the power of suggestion to make your reader want to click.
For example, the subject line “Take the night off from cooking” in an email from a restaurant is more effective than “New seasonal menu!”
The first is a command. If you say that to most people, they’ll respond with “Okay, how?” Meanwhile, the second subject line will earn a “So what?” more often than not.
A question posed to your reader as your subject line works similarly, because it ignites curiosity, like in this subject line from Digital Marketer:
“Is this the hottest career in marketing?”
[bctt tweet=”A question posed to your reader as your subject line works well, because it ignites curiosity. #emailmarketingtips ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Plumb Your Vocabulary
A few strong, solid verbs and adjectives (and a couple of intriguing nouns) may mean the difference between your reader hitting “delete” or opening your message.
The right words encourage an emotional response and make your subject line stand out among the dozens of others crowding the average inbox.
For instance, in this to-the-point subject line, Sips by (a tea subscription box) uses two positively-associated words and the power of alliteration to make you want to click:
“Hacks for Happy Camping”
Simple, yet sweet. All it took were two strong words: “hacks” and “happy.”
Use an Email Subject Line Scoring Tool
If this all sounds like mumbo-jumbo to you, good news: Tools exist to help you create effective email subject lines.
I particularly love CoSchedule’s Email Subject Line Tester. It not only scores your subject line, but also explains exactly why it works and the components that make it strong. The more you use this tool, the more you’ll improve your subject line writing skills!
2. Keep the Voice, Tone, and Style in Your Emails Consistent with Your Content (Be Uniquely You)
Brand consistency across platforms is important for building trust and a good reputation with readers. That applies to your email copy, too.
Ideally, your email copy should reflect the brand voice you have established elsewhere. Any differences will jar your readers, not to mention make you seem less authentic and real.
Real-world example: Way back in 2016, when I ventured into building my first courses, I hired a “marketing expert” team (read: ad funnel experts — oops).
One of their services was writing all my emails for the sequences to test for better conversion rates. I bit my lip reading phrases like, “I’m a leading influential expert, and I know what I’m doing.” A few of their copy segments ran in an A/B test, and my readers immediately saw a difference and pointed it out (one reader even said, “This is WAY too salesy, and not like you!”).
I strayed from my style, differentiation factor, and tone of voice in my content, which is usually zero B.S., zero fluff, direct, and practical. The new stuff wasn’t me, and the readers just knew.
Lesson learned. If you outsource some of your content and copy, don’t hire too many writers. Your style will get watered down. Instead, stick to one or two writers who know your voice inside-out, or ask the agency you hire to dedicate one writer to your content/copy, no matter where or how it appears online. This is a big factor for consistency.
A clear, distinct brand voice everywhere matters.
This example from email-writing master Ramit Sethi proves my point. His voice pops right away, and you feel connected to it because it’s consistent with the style of his written content everywhere else:
3. Don’t Worry Too Much About Length…
Unlike a clear and consistent brand voice across your emails, the length of your messages doesn’t matter that much when you’re learning how to write email copy.
I have seen bite-sized email copy and novel-length copy both perform well. It’s not the number of words you use – it’s the quality and content of those words that matter.
Take, for instance, one of my most successful emails that did amazingly well with my list. I wrote this after getting inspired listening to someone in my industry share how “DIY” content marketing didn’t work for them:
If you think that looks like a lot of text for one email, you’re not entirely wrong. This email is almost 800 words, and there are no bells or whistles.
BUT. There is a TON of value packed in there:
I tell a personal story relevant to my audience’s interests.
I include facts, stats, and data.
I use bullet points, bold text, and short paragraphs so it’s easy to read.
I provide both “how” and “why” this topic matters to the reader.
That leads us to my next point. Length doesn’t necessarily matter…
4. …But Don’t Blather – Get to the Point
Again, there is no fluff in that successful email. No useless details, no beating around the bush, no B.S.-ing.
If this email went off-topic or into irrelevant details (like unrelated stats or repetitive wording), it wouldn’t have worked.
Need a clear example of fluffy writing? Look at this introduction. The two paragraphs below say the exact same thing, just worded in different ways.
Notice how your eyes start to glaze over when you hit that second sentence?
We get it: Americans eat a lot of junk. You could easily combine these two paragraphs and keep that main idea intact. This is the epitome of fluffy, useless writing.
Bottom line: Get to the point, and don’t repeat yourself uselessly in your email copy. Make every word count. (If you need a little help with that, check out our guide to writing clear sentences.)
5. Be Direct and Encourage Action Whenever Possible
Getting to the point isn’t just about zero fluff. It’s also about being direct with your readers and encouraging them to act on what you’re saying at every chance.
For a great example, let’s return to that Sips by email. I’ve underlined all the places where they used actionable, direct language to inspire you to check out their blog:
Have you noticed a trend? Most of these sentences begin with a command: “Remind yourself,” “try out this recipe,” “you’ll be wanting s’more” – the language is both punny and direct for maximum impact.
Here’s the end of the email, where we see more of the same:
They’re directly talking to you, the reader. They address you, use commands, and include plenty of opportunities for you to complete the desired action (clicking the links to check out their blog).
6. Imagine Writing to One Person
Here’s a trick for how to write email copy that’s more direct:
Imagine writing your message to a single person. Imagine them sitting in the room with you and what you would say – then write it.
This works particularly well if you already have an audience persona nailed down. Pull it out, examine the traits that define your ideal target reader, and write directly to that person, empathizing with their pain points, fears, goals, and triumphs.
7. Step into Their Shoes – Learn How to Write Relatable Email Copy
Writing relatable, relevant emails isn’t that hard if you know how to step into your persona’s shoes.
Take it one step further – don’t just imagine writing to that person, pretend you ARE that person.
As that consumer, what do you need to hear from a brand to pique your interest, pull you in, and make you care?
Let’s look at an example. Take this rather “blah” email subject line from The Container Store:
“25% OFF All Elfa, Shelving & More!”
The discount is front and center, but other than that, there’s nothing here to entice me as the consumer. I don’t know what “Elfa” is, and as far as shelving – what kind of shelving? Closets? Kitchen? Bathroom?
Why should I care?
This email fails because it doesn’t relate the subject of the message to me and my interests or problems. I don’t care about a discount unless it helps me save on something I need or want.
What if the subject, instead, read:
25% off closet shelving to organize your life
Nixing just a few words and substituting others completely changes this subject. It relates the point of the email (alerting me to a discount in-store) to a real problem I want to solve.
That’s a HUGE difference.
8. Always Write with a Goal in Mind for Your Email Copy
What do you hope to gain with the email marketing you’re about to send?
What is the goal, the purpose?
Are you:
Trying to get more eyes on your latest blog?
Building brand awareness?
Sharing brand updates or important info?
Encouraging a lead to buy?
Whatever your goal, have it firmly in mind before you compose your email copy. This gives your writing purpose and can even help you avoid fluff and filler.
Plus, outlining a goal helps you track and measure the success of your email copy. For instance, did that email promoting your new blog lead to lots of clicks and traffic? Have lots of leads converted on that sales email?
Once you see how you’re doing, you can change tactics, improve, and test new email techniques to find your sweet spot.
9. Include at Least ONE Call-to-Action
Once you’ve nailed tricks and techniques for how to write email copy that performs, you need to capitalize on it all.
Your readers are ready to act on the information you provided in your email. Do they have the means to do that?
The call-to-action (CTA) gives them the chance. If you don’t include at least one in your email copy, you’re wasting your time.
The CTA is the command that tells the reader what to do next after they have ingested the information in your email. E.g., If you want them to check out your blog, use that as your CTA and include a blog link. If you want them to buy something, link the product and tell them to “buy now!”
Let’s return to Ramit Sethi for a fantastic example of this in action. In this email selling his Zero to Launch course, he includes not one, not two, not three, but FOUR CTAs sprinkled throughout the text.
Each is a clickable link that takes you straight to what you need to act on the information in the email.
The CTA is essential to seeing results from your email marketing. Don’t leave home without at least one somewhere noticeable in the copy.
[bctt tweet=”Don’t leave home without at least one solid CTA noticeable in your email copy. #emailcopywriting ” username=”ExpWriters”]
You’ve Got This “How to Write Email Copy” Thing
Email marketing is a powerful tool just about anyone can use to build their brand. Don’t be fooled, though – the most compelling aspect of your emails needs to be the copy, not the flashy images or design.
The words you use WILL make or break your success. Learn how to write email copy, wield those words wisely, and the ROI will flow in. Promise.
(Add in traffic from other search engines, and you’ll find about 70% of all traffic, ever, starts with a simple search.)
Whoa.
Combine that with a simple fact: with the right keywords, topics, quality content, and some elbow grease, you can draw in search traffic from all over the world. All the people that might never have found you otherwise.
By creating content around keywords they’re searching, including phrases and topics that matter deeply to them, you essentially become a magnet for buyers (with Google’s help).
You pull leads into your orbit without advertising, without selling – without much effort at all beyond the initial strategizing, planning, and creating.
That, my friends, is a good, basic definition for today’s term.
SEO marketing definition: noun. A series of actions, strategies, and best practices that help your website content rank higher in search results.
And, before you ask: Yes, it matters big-time.
When you rank higher in search, more people will find your content, read your content, and act on that content.
With numbers like “70% of all traffic originates from a search,” needless to say, capturing search traffic is a HUGE deal. If you have an online presence, this type of marketing is essential to master for better visibility and more leads coming in.
Need more reasons to invest in SEO marketing? We’ll explore some convincing ones coming up, plus a checklist with marketing tools and techniques to help you ensure success from start to finish.
Your SEO Marketing Guide: What’s Ahead in Our Guide to Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing
5-Step Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing
1. Create Quality Content (With a Case Study: How the Write Blog Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings)
2. Get Your Website Design & Site Tech Fundamentals Right
3. Follow Google’s SEO Standards for Quality (E.A.T.)
4. Be Smart About Keyword Usage
5. Use SEO Plugins and Tools to Help You Get It Done (Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress, Keyword Research Tools: SEMrush and KWFinder)
3 Things SEO Marketing Should NOT Look Like
1. Cheating for Rankings
2. Keyword Stuffing
3. Thin, Shallow, Low-Quality Content
[bctt tweet=”Have you already invested in SEO marketing and creating site content optimized to rank in Google? In this Write Blog, @JuliaEMcCoy shares killer reasons why Google reigns supreme for traffic sourcing, PLUS a bonus checklist on the best SEO techniques @ExpWriters” username=”ExpWriters”]
3 More Reasons Why SEO Marketing Is Such a Big Deal
SEO marketing tools and techniques are good for your bottom line.
How good?
Ridiculously good. For starters:
1. Rank #1 in Google Organically, Perform 30% Better
Besides the fact that Google holds 76.03% of the total search engine market share as of June 2019, there are other reasons to aim for #1 in Google search results.
Mainly, ranking #1 in Google is a surefire way to outperform results #2-10 and earn the best ROI. It’s how you ace SEO marketing.
According to data from Advanced Web Ranking, the organic click-through rate for position #1 is 30.97% on desktops.
Compare that to the CTR for position #2: it gets slashed in half to just 15.29%.
The lower you go, the more steeply CTR drops. Position #5 gets a 4.11% CTR. Positions #9 and 10 get just over 1%.
That said, even the lowest positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) get a higher average CTR than display AND search ads, including pay per click marketing. This chart with Wordstream data shows what I mean:
The average Google Ads CTR is 3.17% on the search network and 0.46% on the display network.
Compare those numbers to the average CTR for position #7 and higher in organic Google search results, which is over 2%. In fact, as long as you rank in the top 5 positions, you’ll score an average CTR of at least 4%.
PPC marketing seems pretty lame by comparison, especially when you can double or triple your CTR by focusing on organic search results, instead.
2. Leads from SEO Marketing Are More Powerful
Let’s add more fuel to our SEO marketing fire with this little statistic: Leads coming in from SEO are far more likely to convert.
According to a Marketing Sherpa study on conversion rates for organic traffic, the average traffic-to-leads conversion rate across all industries is 16%.
That number is really, really impressive, considering the average conversion rate for Google Ads across all industries is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads, via the Wordstream data mentioned above.
3. Search Traffic >>> Traffic from Social Media
Another good reason to dive into SEO marketing: Search drives more traffic to websites than social media (via a Shareaholic study).
Meanwhile, according to ConversionXL, clicks from social aren’t very high, either. Facebook has an average CTR of 0.72%. LinkedIn draws a dismal 0.06%. Twitter gives you the best shot at clicks with a 2% average CTR.
When it comes down to numbers, search is the better bet for pulling in traffic.
[bctt tweet=”Why is #seomarketing a big deal? 3 awesome reasons: ranking #1 in Google makes your site perform 30% better, powerful leads, and more traffic from search than social media.” username=”ExpWriters”]
Your Go-To Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing
You get it: SEO marketing is powerful, effective, and SO worth it.
It’s time to implement. Here’s a checklist to start with, including 5 basic steps to achieve successful SEO search marketing:
1. Create Quality Content
Quality content is everything to SEO marketing results. In fact, I would say it’s THE #1 factor.
How do I know? It’s what I’ve seen with our content at Express Writers.
Case study time.
Case Study: How Our Content Quality Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings
I never pay a cent for ads, I never do outreach, and I never pursue backlinks. Despite that, our content at EW has seen mega-growth over its lifetime.
For this blog, I pulled some fresh stats: As of mid-July 2019, we are currently ranking for 24,800 keywords in Google:
And, Alexa ranks us #100,548 out of billions of websites worldwide, and at #43,373 out of 876.8 million active websites in America – craziness!
Our content quality is the major determiner, here. It’s why we have reached these heights and achieved this level of success. (Most of our consistent clients at EW see the same kind of growth, too.)
Combine content quality with consistency and volume, not to mention relevancy to our core readers, and you have a winning formula for SEO marketing.
Also…
Wondering why our graph jumped so much in growth?
January of 2016 from July of 2019 has seen a ton of growth.
2. Get Your Website Design & Site Tech Fundamentals Right
Unfortunately, even if your content is of the highest quality, if your website design sucks, none of it will matter.
This is SEO marketing 101: For Google to rank your website content, the search engine crawler has to be able to find your pages, understand them, and index them.
Checking all of these boxes is more complicated than including your target keywords in the right spots or making sure your content is accurate and exceptional. While those are good practices, the more techy stuff needs to be in place, first, on the ground floor:
The HTML code underlying your site needs to be standardized. Why? Web crawlers read the code like a language to understand what your page is about and how it’s structured. This is called site architecture.
As search engines crawl your site, they use the links present to understand connections between pages, move from page to page, and understand your site’s page hierarchy. (The reader browses your site in the same way.)
Most websites have sitemaps that provide an overview of all their page links and page hierarchy. These maps make it easy for search engines to crawl and understand your entire site. Here’s a diagram of how a sitemap works from HubSpot:
In a nutshell, good web design practices are necessary for good SEO. The structure of your HTML code, pages, links, and navigation will all impact how search engines crawl and rank your site. Get it right, or suffer the consequences.
3. Follow Google’s SEO Standards for Quality
If your website design and site architecture are already great, you should worry about your content quality next for effective SEO marketing.
But what IS high-quality content? What does it look like?
Don’t worry: Google has answered this question in full. Enter their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. These were written for search quality raters (humans who help hone Google’s algorithm and the accuracy of search results), but are equally useful for marketing. The ideas they present about quality content are golden.
This guide explains the kinds of pages that fit Google’s definition of “high-quality,” as well as which specific factors influence high- and low-quality ratings. These factors more than likely are similar to Google’s standards for ranking web content.
E.A.T.
One of the main factors Google uses to determine whether a page is high-quality is the acronym E.A.T. – Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness.
Expertise – Is the content creator an expert on the topic or industry? What are their background and reputation?
Authoritativeness – Is the content creator an authority on the subject? Does the content display proof of that authority (accuracy, citations to trusted sources, links to other authorities)? Is the website on which the content appears an authoritative source?
Trustworthiness – Are both the content creator and the content itself trustworthy? I.e. Would you feel safe implementing the information, tips, or advice from the content in your own life?
Need a high-quality blog example for search marketing inspiration?
I constantly point to Smartblogger as an example of stellar, high-quality, amazing content.
✔ It includes engaging writing targeted for the intended audience.
✔ Facts and data back up claims.
Even an expert blogger like Jon Morrow includes stats and figures in his content to add an extra shot of authority.
✔ Images and screenshots illustrate points.
✔ Steps are clearly outlined, and each tip is detailed.
The double-whammy of clear steps and illustrative images make this blog jump from really good to incredible.
✔ The topic and focus keyword line up seamlessly, AND they connect to the reader’s search intent.
To sum up: This is an awesome blog and a great example of high-quality content in action. Read it, study it, and learn from it.
4. Be Smart About Keyword Usage
We’ve arrived at the piece of business marketing everybody knows about: keywords.
Keywords have the potential to be pretty magical for your SEO marketing strategy, but only if you know how to find and use the RIGHT keywords in the most intelligent ways. This is one of the key principles of marketing online.
Choosing keywords that connect to your topic AND the search intent of your audience (in other words, relevant to your buyer!)
Sprinkling in synonymous or related keywords along with your main or focus keyword
Placing your focus keyword correctly inside the content
Avoiding the wrong keywords (too broad, strangely worded, or too competitive)
Here’s an example of a broad keyword that would be a poor choice for a small brand to target in their content, because the competition is fierce:
Targeting the right keywords is a tricky business. To do it right, learn all you can about keyword research and keyword strategy. Do the grunt work to find your best possible keywords, and use those keywords strategically inside your content.
For reference, Yoast has a good guide to check out. For a step-by-step to doing keyword research in SEMrush, check out our guide, too.
5. Use SEO Plugins and Tools to Help You Get It Done
In SEO marketing, the right tools and SEO plugins for WordPress will get you everywhere. These are the ones I recommend over and over again to make implementing your search marketing strategy much more efficient and simple.
Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress
Among the free SEO plugins out there, Yoast is high on the list of must-haves. Installing it is an easy way to ensure all of your blog posts are optimized.
In particular, tweaking the Yoast SEO settings helps you correctly optimize your metas (title and description) for search engines.
This all in one SEO plugin also analyzes your content and gives you suggestions for improvement automatically:
WordPress and Yoast go together like bread and butter. Don’t leave home (or your WordPress SEO) without this handy tool.
Keyword Research Tools: SEMrush and KWFinder
For search marketing, keyword research tools are indispensable – I repeat: indispensable!
Without them, you won’t be able to research keyword metrics like search volume, difficulty score, or competition. In other words, you’ll be flying blind.
My favorites, of course, are SEMrush (incredibly accurate data, in-depth charts and graphs, position tracking and monitoring) and KWFinder (easy-to-use, readable interface, a perfect quick research tool).
Hot tip: To get the most accurate keyword data, don’t rely on just one tool. Use multiple tools, including paid tools, to get a clearer picture of potential keywords you can rank for. No single tool is 100% accurate!
[bctt tweet=”Here’s @JuliaEMcCoy’s quick go-to checklist for successful #seomarketing: ⭐create quality content, ️ get your website design right, follow Google’s SEO standards for quality, ✔️ use keywords correctly, and use SEO plugins and tools.” username=”ExpWriters”]
What SEO Marketing Should NOT Look Like
Now that you know the basic do’s of SEO marketing, it’s time to dive into some don’ts.
What shouldn’t you do to climb the Google SERPs? Why does it matter? (What’s some of the worst, most horrible SEO advice I’ve ever heard?)
Let’s dive in.
1. Cheating for Rankings
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Cheaters never prosper.” Well, it’s true for SEO marketing, too.
Plenty of people believe they can game the system to improve their SEO rankings without doing any real work on their content or website.
The thing is, while cheating may work initially, it never lasts indefinitely because Google is constantly evolving and improving. One small algorithm update can bring cheating tactics to a halt.
Here are some common SEO tactics that amount to nothing, because they attempt to game the system rather than work with it:
Buying backlinks – Many companies attempt to improve their backlink profile by buying links. Backlinks work like votes for your website, so buying fake ones is akin to rigging an election. Not good.
Clickbait – “We want more clicks on our content, even though it’s mediocre. Let’s make this headline so ridiculous, enticing, or sensational that no one will resist!” That, right there, is clickbait in a nutshell – when the content doesn’t deliver on the promise in the headline.
Manipulating metrics – Another tactic some website owners use is manipulating their site metrics (bounce rate, dwell time, etc.) through unsavory means to look better in the eyes of Google’s algorithm.
Duplicate content – Most site owners commit this sin accidentally, but some create duplicate content on purpose to inflate their rankings. To do it, they publish multiple pieces of content on extremely similar topics, or they simply copy-and-paste a content piece, tweak some of the wording, and publish. NEVER a good idea.
2. Keyword Stuffing
Believe it or not, some people STILL think keyword stuffing is the way to go to rank. (Yikes.)
On this blog from Dan Taylor featuring terrible advice SEOers have heard during their careers, one SEO Director recounted how a client repeated his brand name keyword 1,000 times on a page. He thought using white text on a white background would fool Google – all because a guy “who knew SEO stuff” had told him to do it.
(I’m betting if the pseudo-SEO-guru had told this guy to jump off a bridge, he would have done that, too.)
Today, everyone knows this tactic equals SERP death (…right?). Keyword stuffing is a signal to Google to DE-rank you, not the other way around.
3. Thin, Shallow, Low-Quality Content
If you want SEO marketing to work for you, you have to create content that satisfies your ideal reader. That means thin, shallow, poor-quality, unsatisfying content will sink your ship.
Thankfully, just-plain-bad content has a bunch of giveaways:
Low-quality content is usually (not always) short.
It does not fully address the topic it covers.
It doesn’t answer reader questions fully or satisfactorily.
Low-quality content is rooted in opinion, not fact.
It’s full of errors and inaccuracies.
It’s not written by an expert on the subject.
It’s not written by a native English speaker.
Most of all, low-quality content doesn’t benefit the reader in any way.
Usually, poor content is cheap content. If you pay a penny per word, you will probably get content of this caliber in return.
Can you say “not worth it?”
Just say no. Invest in your content at every stage to produce blogs, articles, ebooks, and more that contain actual worth for your readers – because content that doesn’t satisfy your audience is worth nothing.
[bctt tweet=”In SEO marketing, you should NOT cheat for rankings, stuff your keywords, and create thin, shallow, low-quality content! Read more about @JuliaEMcCoy’s #seomarketingguide” username=”ExpWriters”]
SEO Marketing Matters: Today’s Takeaways
Without SEO marketing, where would online brands and businesses find themselves?
The potential for brand reach and visibility would be cut down to next-to-nothing. Potential buyers from around the world wouldn’t find solutions to their problems, information for their quandaries, or products and solutions tailored for their every whim.
Most importantly, without SEO, buyers wouldn’t be able to take their buying journeys into their own hands.
SEO marketing connects businesses with buyers in a way that’s natural, seamless, helpful, and relationship-building. It’s the present and future of marketing, and it’s powerful in a way we’ve never seen before.
So, my next question for you is obvious: Have you jumped on board yet?
