Greg and I did an hour on an overview of content marketing.
We discussed what makes good content marketing. We also looked at examples of how other companies are doing content marketing. And then we wrap up with different kinds of content marketing you can do.
This has become a very well regarded series in our region. They always have really cool people speaking.
I’ve been lucky to be part of the series 3 times now.
Tonight, I’m doing a presentation on: The top 10 things you should know about SEO for your small business.
I’m seriously considering doing a live stream of the session from my phone on my Ustream channel. The biggest issue with that is what kind of Verizon service they have there. If I can get a solid 4G signal I might just try it.
If I stream it live I’ll post the link to the live session at the top of this blog post and I’ll tweet it out.
This is a two hour session. So getting to 10 points in two hours makes for a bit of a whirlwind. But it should also make it pretty fun.
I thought I’d wet your whistle for the event by listing the top 10 of these points.
I’m pretty much just going to bullet point them here. But we’ll go into more detail of each at the event.
OK. Here you go the top 10 things your small business should know about about SEO:
SEO has never, in the history of SEO, been harder for small businesses. Google would rather rank a large brand or a big publisher. Just type in your major key phrases and see if this isn’t true for you. But there are things you can do. Read on…
For your first line of key phrase research defense: Use the Google and YouTube suggested search listings. And also use Google’s Related searches at the bottom of the search results page. Like these:
Youtube suggested search
Google Suggested Search
Google Related Searches
Use YouTube! This is the absolute best way to break into the search results at Google and YouTube. Google loves Youtube and still loves the small guy for video.
Don’t give up on optimizing your content. Use your targeted key phrase in 3 primary places:
* Your page title.
* Your body content.
* Link text (anchor text) from other pages back to the page you are optimizing.
If you do those things you are ahead of the vast majority of people.
Create content people want to talk about. Content that people share in social media, comment on and link to is going to be content that ranks well. You just have to be brilliant, that’s all
9. Use Slideshare to get ideas for content. There’s a ton of great content over there… probably in your industry. You can use those presentations as inspiration for content for your site.
10. Write in-depth, long, thoughtful articles. Google is looking for the most relevant content. That is usually the most thorough article. “How to” articles are great. You probably will have better luck creating one great article a month versus 20 quick articles.
So there you have it: The Top 10 Things You Should Know About SEO For Your Small Business.
That’s against every socially accepted practice in the book.
The rule is: steal stuff as much as you want, until you start making money off of it. That’s the line.
That line is becoming thinner and grayer every day. But a big box store taking your stuff and selling it without your permission is in a whole other world.
Just the same: this is one of the best thing that will probably ever happen to this band. We should all be so lucky to have a major retailer stupidly steal our stuff. This is PR gold for YACHT.
We’re not sure if you’ve heard of the latest marketing campaign by Microsoft or not but they have recently released “The Bing Challenge.” It’s also known by the catchphrase “Bing It On.”
Regardless of what you call it, it’s pretty straightforward and here at SageRock, we’ve decided to reward you for participating. (No, neither company is paying us to do this.)
The SageRock “Bing It On” Contest
Here’s the deal:
Bing wants you to use their search engine instead of using Google (duh), and is proposing to take it on one search at a time. You put in a search term, and Bing shows you two separate results: one from Google, one from Bing. You then are asked to choose which one you liked the best. The catch? You aren’t told which is which until the very end.
Want to Participate in the SageRock Contest?
Don’t worry, it’s very simple. You are going to take the Bing Challenge with your own searches, but based around our suggestions. Why? For science! (or something) After you complete the Bing It On Challenge, take a screenshot of your final screen and send it to: bingiton@sagerock.com
The winner (chosen at random) will get either a Google or a Bing Coffee Mug, depending on their results*
We will compile all entries into a blog post giving the results at the end of March. We will also give the winner(chosen at random) either a Google or a Bing coffee mug depending on what their results were.
Best of luck to all of you!
*The Winner will be chosen at random but we will combine all entries into a future Blog post to showcase the outcome and determine who the winner really is!