20 Digital Marketing Hacks to Grow your Business
Hack. Marketer’s keep using that word. I don’t think it means what they think it means.
Using the Buying Cycle to Determine Keyword Intent
To the untrained eye, a keyword typed into the search bar at Google or Bing is just that: a keyword. But the shrewd marketer understands that every phrase used to […]
Does Your Content Play All 4 Quarters of the Game?
I’m not a big sports buff (#understatement), but I have heard the phrase “play all 4 quarters.” What that means is that you bring your A-game throughout the entire contest […]
How to Make Existing Web Pages Searcher-Intent Focused
Part of the job of every SEO is the process of merging keywords into content. That can be done using existing content or creating new content for the main site […]
9 (+1) Tips For Writing User-Friendly Content
This is part of the Total Usability Series that was originally published in 2007. A decade later, usability is more important than ever, so we are revisiting this series and […]
SEO Job Knowledge Interview Question #15: Name One Unimportant On-Page SEO Factor
As hard as it is to assess ANY job candidate’s knowledge, it’s even harder with SEO candidates because there’s so much gray area in the industry. This blog series presents […]
Using Keyword Research To Understand Searchers’ Needs
If I asked you what the most important aspect of SEO is, what would you say? To get top search engine rankings? Search engine exposure certainly is valuable, but that’s […]
Keyword Research is Product Research
Every business should periodically take stock of their current products (or services) to make sure that what they offer is meeting their customers’ needs. But it’s not just the needs […]
Why It’s a Mistake to Ignore Low-Searched Phrases
Let me start by saying that this post isn’t for every business. But it could be a goldmine for yours! In SEO, there is this idea that we should only […]
Keywords are for Adding Value Not for Adding Content
Let’s get one thing straight: Keywords–and keyword optimization–are not about adding content to your site. The most important purpose of a keyword is adding value.
The 30-Minute Competitor Analysis
Successful SEO strategies start with competitive analysis — it’s that important. Putting your direct competitors under the microscope provides rare insight to many of the important questions impacting your organic […]
3 Ways To Create Value for Your Site Visitors
Question: If your website isn’t valuable to your visitors, what is it? Informational? No. Helpful? No. Interesting? Maybe. But how far will that get you? Without value, your website isn’t […]
Keywords Are For Conversions, Not Clicks
One of the most difficult aspects of keyword research is understanding the searcher’s intent for any given keyword. The intent determines where the searcher is in the buying cycle. Are […]
The Ultimate Keyword Sorting and Organization Spreadsheet
Keyword research has always been an important part of the process for optimizing a website for search performance. Even with all the algorithm changes that have occurred over the years, […]
SEO Red Flag: “Keywords Are No Longer Relevant”
Let’s call this the biggest web marketing lie since Google rolled out the Hummingbird algorithm in 2013! Google and other search engines are getting better and better at understanding human […]