Matt Cutts, a distinguished engineer from Google, recently released a video announcing the next wave of Google algorithm updates. He specifically discussed Penguin 2.0, saying it will roll out this summer.

So Google is giving site owners a big heads up!

Also, on last weeks’ SEO Copywriting Certification call with Bruce Clay, he discussed Penguin 2.0 and what it means for site content. So Heather thought she would address this update today because it is a big deal to a lot of site owners!

Tune in to learn what web copy on your site might need rewriting, before the imminent Google updates hit:

Are Some Of Your Pages So-So At Best?

- Does your site have any low-quality posts or articles?

- Does your sales copy walk a keyphrase-stuffing line?

When speaking to the SEO Copywriting Certification folks last week, Bruce Clay advised listeners to go through their websites and locate those pages that are of so-so quality, and make them as good as they can be.

A lot of companies have these so-so pages on their site. They might not be technically keyphrase-stuffed, but they’re not necessarily high-quality or well-researched either.

These mediocre pages might be articles that you kicked out all at once and under deadline, so maybe you or the writer in question were working a little bit more quickly than normal. Or you might have some lower-quality blog posts on your site from way back when you first started out.

There also may be old sales copy on your site, where you thought you were supposed to include more keyphrases than you really should, and they are walking that keyphrase-stuffing line.

These are all examples of evergreen content that is ripe for a rewrite.

Also consider that you’re probably not getting much promotional value from them, because you know they’re not good. You never link to them, you never talk about them, and you may haven’t had the time or the inclination to go through your site and make those posts or those sales pages as good as they can be.

Well…

Now Is The Time To Make Some Changes!

- Google wants to recognize authority sites.

- Identify low-value and low-quality content and rewrite it.

- If your blog hasn’t been updated in months, it’s time to start blogging again.

In his Google Webmaster Help video, Matt Cutts made it very clear that Google wants to recognize – and reward – authority sites. And Bruce Clay emphasized in his presentation that if you have those kinds of pages on your site that are so-so at best, now is the time to revisit and rewrite them.

So identify that low-value and low-quality content! And if you don’t have time to go through and rewrite those pages, now is the time to find someone who can help you with it.

That way, when the Penguin update does hit, you know that all of your pages are exactly the way you want them to be: they are well-written and well-researched, and you’re able to link to them and refer to them without embarrassment!

And if you’ve neglected your blog for months, now is the time to get back to it. Again, Google wants to recognize and reward authority sites, and the way that you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche is by blogging about it – consistently!

If you tackle this evergreen content rewriting project now, then when Penguin 2.0 and other Google SEO updates roll out, you should be in good shape!

Thanks for tuning in! Have any questions or feedback? I’d love to hear from you! You can leave them in the comments, or email me directly at heather@seocopywriting.com. You can also find me on Twitter @heatherlloyd.

photo thanks to nick.amoscato (Nick Amoscato)

The post Penguin 2.0: Should you rewrite your evergreen site copy? appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

When it comes to giving someone the ax, I am a far cry from Donald Trump. Did I get pleasure from the experience? Heck no. Did I lose sleep over the decision? Sure.

Did it need to be done? Yes.

Fortunately, I’ve (finally) learned when to fire someone – and how to do it well.

Chances are, you’ll have to fire someone someday. The writer who misses deadlines. The accountant who doesn’t return your calls. The consultant that isn’t teaching you anything new. It’s never easy – no matter why you have to let them go.

Looking back, I’ve made many “I should have fired them sooner” mistakes. There was the vendor who bad-mouthed me to clients and colleagues (and yes, my clients and colleagues told me what she said.). There was the flaky vendor who would do a half-assed job, make lots of mistakes, and would charge me for fixing the mistakes she made. And then there was the vendor who was so rude to clients that they refused to talk to her. At all.

In all of these cases, I gave everyone chance after chance. I sent supportive emails. We had “talks.” There would be a temporary short term improvement. Then, time would pass, old habits would kick in and we’d be back to square one. Or even square zero.

This time, I was definitely smarter and more methodical. It didn’t make the process psychologically easier, but it did make it smoother.

Here’s what I learned:

Figure out the core problem

Is the vendor missing deadlines? Are your emails to them going into a black hole…and you never hear from them in a timely manner?  Or, is it just that you aren’t “clicking” with the vendor, no matter how you try? There may be a list of issues, or just one main one. Be clear  about your reasons for wanting to let them go.

Do you want to work it out?

If the vendor lied to you, bad mouthed you or purposely did something to jeopardize your business, you got to let them go. Right now. I don’t care how much you like them, or if they’ve worked for you for years. Let them go. You can’t afford to work with people who don’t have your back.

If there’s room for improvement, determine your desired outcome. Maybe you need them to always get back to you by the end of the business day. Or, you want them to proof their work before sending it to you. Ask yourself what kind of behavior change you need, and when you need to see it.

Start documenting the problem

It’s easy to think, “Things aren’t that bad” and fool yourself into thinking things are OK. When you document the problem, you’re forced to acknowledge that, yes, it is a problem. It’s not a one time thing. It’s a long standing issue. Plus, the documentation helps during the next step, which is…

Talk to the vendor about it.

This is not the time to suffer in silence. If missing deadlines is unacceptable to you – tell them. Outline what deadlines they’ve missed and how that affects your business. If communication is an issue, tell them you need a faster response time – and be specific about what that means to you. I prefer to do this by email so I have the paper trail. Other people prefer to do this by phone and then they later send a follow-up email. It depends on your personal style and the relationship you have with the vendor.

You may learn that the vendor has been sick, is going through a divorce or having another problem that prevents them from giving their 100 percent. Be sympathetic, but remember that their problem isn’t your problem. It’s OK to cut them some slack. But it’s not OK to do it when it’s at the expense of your business or sanity.

I will have one – maybe two “talks” with the vendor. After that, my next step is to…

Set up consequences

Have you told the vendor what you need – and you’re still not getting it? Tell them that if things don’t improve by X date, you’ll have to let them go.  At this point, your vendor may quit. Or, she’ll promise to get back on track. Promises are nice – but action is what you’re looking for. If your vendor doesn’t fulfill his or her end of the bargain, it’s time to…

Say, “You’re fired.”

If things have reached this point, you have done everything you can do. The vendor, for whatever reason, can’t do what you need – so it’s time to let them go.

Send them an email and keep it professional, factual and friendly. Tell him or her why it’s happening, refer to past documentation and sever ties immediately. If they’re in the middle of a project, find someone else who can take over. The faster you (and your vendor) can move on, the faster it’s out of everyone’s lives.

Firing someone is never fun – but it is necessary. What tips would you add to this list?

The post How to fire a vendor (and still feel OK after doing it.) appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

Content and social media marketers discuss the reality of a youthful audience and its preferences for mobile, social, and visual content. Meanwhile, YouTube introduces paid channels, Bing helps Klout out with its new “experts” feature, and local search shifts to mobile apps in a big (and affluent) way.

The SEO and search community buzz about Matt Cutts’ forecast for SEO over the next few months, and discuss the need for a new mindset around link strategy as Penguin 2.0 looms ever larger on the horizon.

Enjoy this week’s picks!

Content Marketing

Alex Clifford posts “Content Marketing in 2023: Expert Advice on the Trends that Will Matter” at Content Marketing Institute.

Lee Odden shares eight optimization fundamentals with “Want to Improve Your Online Marketing? Master These Search & Social Media Tactics” at TopRank.

Frederic Lardinois reports “Google Launches Content Recommendation Engine For Mobile Sites, Powered By Google+” at TechCrunch.

Josh Byers posts “Three Reasons a ‘Mobile First’ Philosophy is Critical to Achieving Your Business Goals” at Copyblogger.

James A. Martin shares a slideshow, “The Content Marketing Hall of Fame: 13 Ways to Build Your Business” at CIO.com.

phrase HQ assembles an illustrious list featuring “The 101 Best Copywriters in the World” at their site.

Alicia Lawrence posts “Writing Pixelated: Visual Content for Generation Y” at Spin Sucks.

Steve P. Young posts “The 2013 YouTube Marketing Guide” for video content marketers at KISSmetrics.

Tom Pick features “30 Awesome Blogging Guides, Tips and Resources” at Webbiquity.

Miranda Miller discusses “Content Marketing Tactics: Business Blogging Pros, Cons, Best Practices & Brands Doing It Right” at TopRank.

Ben Straley posts “3 Keys to Activating an Audience with Smarter Content” at Search Engine Watch.

Arnie Kuenn posts a video interview with Curata’s Pawan Deshpande on “Content Curation for Your Website” at Vertical Measures.

BtoB Magazine has released its annual “B2B Media Power 50”, listing the top b-to-b advertising vehicles in eight different categories, posted by Kate Maddox.

For fun: Simon “Media Guy” Dumenco posts “What Happens Next in Media? 9 Predictions” at Advertising Age.

Seth Godin posts “The reason they call it a browser” at his blog.

Shelly Bowen discusses “Exploring Your Brand’s Personality with Story” at Pybop.

Rae Hoffman posts a self-described rant, “Content Marketing is the ‘Escort’ of Online Marketing” at The SugarRae Blog.

Mark Emond discusses metrics and ROI with “Four Foundational Elements of Marketing Analytics Success” at MarketingProfs.

John Bonini discusses “How to Fix 6 Failing Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About” at HubSpot.

Zach Bulygo discusses “How Being an Authority can Boost Your Online Sales” at KISSmetrics.

Lee Odden shares his keynote presentation to the Portland Communicator’s Conference with “Digital Convergence of Public Relations & Marketing” at TopRank.

Laura Hazard Owen reviews “Ping.it: Not a Google Reader replacement, but a tool to discover emerging viral content” at paidContent.

Roger Dooley posts “Persuade with Visual Metaphors” at Neuromarketing.

Karen J. Bannan posts “How real-time analytics help email marketers” at BtoB Magazine.

Danny Sullivan shares an infographic from Email Monks with “Infographic: The Challenge Of Email Success In A Fragmented Mobile World” at Marketing Land.

Jakob Nielsen shares insights into why users often fail at new tasks with “Usability for Novel vs. Routine Tasks” at his Alertbox blog.

Events:

• The Neilsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conferences will be held in Toronto from June 3^rd thru the 7^th, and Washington, D.C. from July 15^th thru the 19th.
• Marketing Sherpa’s Optimization Summit 2013 is scheduled for May 20^th thru the 23^rd in Boston.
• Confab Minneapolis 2013 is on for June 3^rd thru the 5th.
• Ad Age CMO Strategy Summit 2013 will take place June 4^th in San Francisco.
• GigaOM’s Structure conference on the future of cloud computing and internet infrastructure will be held June 19^th & 20^th in San Francisco. Supersaver rate ends May 24^th!
• Content Marketing World 2013 returns to Cleveland, OH, September 9^th thru the 12^th. Early bird rates expire May 31^st, and all coupon codes will expire August 23^rd
• MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2013 will be held October 9^th thru the 11^th in Boston.

SEO & Search

Matt Cutts discusses “What to expect in SEO in the coming months” from his Webmaster Help video, re-posted at his blog (Gadgets, Google, and SEO).

Chris Crum covers Matt Cutts’ main points nicely with “For Better Or Worse, A Lot Of Change Is Coming To Google SEO” at WebProNews.

In step with Matt Cutts’ video and post, Heather Lloyd-Martin asks “Are you writing content ‘for Google’?” at SEO Copywriting.

Referring to a tweet from Matt Cutts earlier in the week, Danny Goodwin posts “Matt Cutts: Google Penguin 2.0 Coming in ‘Next Few Weeks’” at Search Engine Watch.

Peter DaVanzo discusses post-Penguin linking strategies with “Link Madness” at SEO Book.

Michael Garrity posts “Could Google+ Play a Role in the Upcoming Penguin Update?” at Website Magazine.

Sean McGinnis shares “Link Building Techniques That STILL WORK!” at 312digital.

David Harry speaks to SEO link-building addiction with “It’s Time to Change the SEO Mindset” at Search Engine Watch.

Ron Garrett discusses “Positioning Your Business for the Future of SEO” (Whiteboard Friday) at SEOmoz.

Mani Karthik discusses “The Future Of SEO in a Socially Driven World” at Search Engine Land.

Barry Schwartz reports that “No, Publishership Isn’t Coming Soon To Google Search To Join Authorship” at Search Engine Land.

Courtney Ramirez addresses client enlightenment and managing expectations with “SEO client education: It’s your most important job” at SEO Copywriting.

Rob Toledo discusses explaining SEO to non-techies with “How My Mom Thinks Search Engines Work” at SEOmoz.

Amy Gesenhues reports “Another One Bites the Dust: Google SMS Search Shuts Down Without Warning” at Search Engine Land.

Jessica Lee discusses the website Gwern.net with “Can This Data Analysis Predict Which Google Products Will Close Next?” at Search Engine Watch.

In the first of a six-part series, Chad Kearns posts “Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Account Structure” at Portent.

Trond Lyngbo posts “How To Double Your Revenue With SEO” at Search Engine Land.

Tim Ash posts “The Secret Ingredient for Successful Websites: Effortlessness” at ClickZ.

Jennifer Horowitz posts “Site Redesign: Avoid These Mistakes” at Level 343.

Jill Whalen shares the “SEO Tools and Extensions” she uses on a regular basis at High Rankings Advisor.

Tom Demers posts “Web Analytics Software Comparison: Identifying The Right Web Analytics Tools For Your Business” at Search Engine Land.

Marc Purtell posts “Beyond Search Rankings: Using SEO to Improve Site Optimization” at Search Engine Journal.

Cyrus Shepard posts “How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint” at SEOmoz.

Glenn Gabe discusses “Facebook Graph Search: Local Search Ranking Factors” at Search Engine Watch.

Spencer Yao discusses “How Your Domain Name Will Impact SEO & Social Media Marketing” at Search Engine Journal.

Anna Bager discusses “How to Benefit From the Mobile Shift in Local Search” at ClickZ.

eMarketer reports “Affluents Drive Local Search App Use.”

Allison Howen discusses the latest development in the Bing-Facebook connection with “Bing’s Social Sidebar Gets Interactive” at Website Magazine.

Another Bing alliance: Anthony Ha reports “Klout Gets Into The Q&A Business By Launching Klout Experts (With Help From Bing)” at TechCrunch.

Mark Schaefer posts “Klout innovation will power search engine results” at {grow}.

Events:

• Distilled’s SearchLove SEO Conference returns to Boston May 20^th and 21^st.
• SuccessWorks Master’s SEO Copywriting Certification Training Event will be held May 22^nd in Phoenix.
• SMX Paris is scheduled for June 6^th & 7^th.
• SMX Advanced Seattle 2013, June 11^th and 12^th, is sold out. But…you can sign up for the wait list, and workshop and networking passes are still available online. Save on each option by registering by June 10^th!
• SES Toronto 2013 is on for June 12^th thru the 14^th.
• MozCon 2013 (SEOmoz) will be in Seattle (of course) from July 8^th thru the 10^th.
• ReelSEO’s Video Marketing Summit 2013 will be held along with Liveclicker’s Video Commerce Summit 2013 for a two-in-one offering July 25^th and 26^th in San Francisco.
• Search Exchange 2013 will be held July 29^th thru the 31^st in Charlotte, NC.

Social Media Marketing

eMarketer posts “Which Social Networks Are Growing Fastest Worldwide? Twitter, Google+ see major gains in active users.”

Todd Wasserman reports that while Google+ may be catching up to Facebook, it still lags in average time spent on the site, at Mashable.

Josh Constine reports “Facebook Previews New Features For Home, Which Is Near 1M Downloads And Increases Users’ Time Spent On Facebook By 25%” at TechCrunch.

Andrea Vahl discusses “How Your Business Can Use the New Facebook Cover Photos” at Social Media Examiner.

Mark Burgess discusses “Building Your Brand With Google+” at Blue Focus Marketing.

Re-posting a video interview, Ad Age reports “Foursquare’s Crowley on Automatic Check-Ins and Privacy: ‘Just the Natural Progression.’”

“YouTube Paid Channels” headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Frank Strong discusses “The End of Free” at Sword and the Script.

Acknowledging its 10^th year, LinkedIn’s Outstory posts an interactive infographic, “A Brief History of LinkedIn.”

Host G+ Hangouts? Tim Schmoyer posts “How to Create A Permanent Link for Your Hangouts-On-Air [Creator’s Tip #90]” at ReelSEO.

Rachel Freeman posts “Overlooked and Underappreciated: the Social Share Button Strategy” at Search Engine Journal.

Peter DaVanzo posts an in-depth discussion on “Measuring Social Media” at SEO Book.

Debbie Hemley collects “26 Social Media Marketing Tips from the Pros” at Social Media Examiner.

Brian Solis discusses “New Digital Influencers: The Coming Youthquake” at his blog.

Bonnie Fuller posts “Baby-Boomer Marketers Are Misreading Millennials’ Media Behavior” at Ad Age | digital.

Gini Dietrich looks at “The Best of the Least Engaged Brands on Twitter” at Spin Sucks.

Rachel Miller asks “Is Your Company Social Media Friendly?” at WindMill Networking.

Jeff Bullas shares “How to Make Money from Your Blog: 11 Powerful Case Studies” at his blog.

Kristi Hines posts “How to Generate More Leads With Your Blog: 5 Tips” at Social Media Examiner.

Rebecca Debono posts “Top 5 hottest social media tools” at iMedia Connection.

Greg Jarboe posts “Unruly Unveils Top Vine Metrics and 100 Most Tweeted Vines” at ReelSEO.

Events:

• BlueGlassX 2013 will be happening soon – May 21^st & 22^nd in Los Angeles.
• Zenith SocialCon 2013 reutrns to Duluth, Minnesota, on May 30th.
• EmMeCon Emerging Media Conference will be held June 3^rd thru the 6^th in Seattle. Tickets are selling out fast!

(For an all-in-one listing and description of social media, content & inbound marketing events, check out Neal Schaffer’s “The 12 Best Social Media Conferences to Attend in 2013” at Social Media Today.)

photo thanks to Bitterjug (Mark Skipper)

The post SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 15th appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

In fact, I’d wager that if you’re struggling in your business as an SEO provider, client education is the missing piece.

Client education and managing expectations go hand in hand.

What do I mean by education? It can take many different forms, but the goal is to help your client get up to speed on what you provide, why you provide it, and how they’ll benefit. It’s not a sales page or a sales call. It’s helpful information that makes them a smarter buyer.

When I’ve had a difficult client relationship in my business, nine times out of ten it’s been because of a big difference between what the client expected and what I was able to provide. For example, as a copywriter, I can’t build your backlink profile or improve your offpage SEO. But I can make it easier for search engines to understand your site – and help your site visitors get where they need to go.

Client education is important in any industry – but it’s absolutely essential with SEO. Search engine optimization is complicated – and it’s always changing. Although the core of the process is growing a bit easier and less fragmented (pick your keywords, create great content and stay social), there is still enough change from update to update and from year to year for clients to get confused.

These changes can be jumped on by less than scrupulous providers to make a mountain out of a molehill. For example, when Panda and Penguin hit, questionable backlinks became the biggest problem. Unless a client has been paying someone to post backlinks to large, spammy directories there’s no reason they should be spending their time and their money on devaluing links when there aren’t many there begin with. They’d be far better off creating some great content and getting social to build genuine backlinks.

Since there are so many factors that go into SEO and some scum bags out there that are misleading their clients (either intentionally or unintentionally), your job as an educator becomes even more important.

Here’s how to do it, in three steps:

1. Always start the process with an intake call.

Do you get a lot of emails that look something like this: “Hi – I need some web copy. How much do you charge?”

Delivering a paragraph or two back with a quote isn’t going to have the impact that an official intake will. Start your relationship with a conversation so you can understand their SEO needs and determine if they need you, or another type of provider. This will also help you set the framework for how you are working together and let you explain the specific value that you provide.

2. Rather than being a service provider, think of yourself as a consultant.

It’s a subtle shift but an important one if you want to educate your client and take a more strategic role. When you’re “just a service provider” a client will expect to come to you, place an order and then get exactly what they ordered – no questions asked. These are the clients that will come to you saying “Here’s my keyword list and I want a blog article on X, Y and Z.”

But when you present yourself as a consultant, you’ll leave the door open to explain to them why jumping into blogging without a strategy is a bad idea. You can give them insight into how to make their pages better before they blog, how to create a blog strategy and how to improve their overall presence.

3. Produce lots of content – and then produce some more!

When it comes to copywriters and content, it’s often like the old story about the shoemaker’s children having no shoes. If your work days are filled with work for clients, how will you find time for your own work? Make time!

If you want to provide education for your SEO clients, you need to blog, create white papers and develop newsletters. It doesn’t have to be extensive, but it does have to be there. This way, your SEO clients are prequalified and educated before they reach out. They know the difference between bad SEO and good SEO because they’ve read it on your blog.

What steps are you taking to educate your clients?

About the Author ~ Courtney Ramirez

Courtney Ramirez is the Director of Content Marketing Strategy for Endurance Marketing and owner of Six Degrees Content. She’s an SEO Copywriter and content marketing specialist who creates clickable content for clients in both B2B and B2C markets. As a proud graduate of SuccessWork’s SEO Copywriting Certification training program, she geeks out on algorithm updates and content marketing metrics. She’s always in the mood for a good cat-based meme. You can connect with Courtney on Google Plus, LinkedIn or Twitter.

image thanks to Digital Sextant (Brendan Riley)

The post SEO client education: It’s your most important job appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

The idea that you need to write content in a particular way for it to position well in search results is a tenacious misconception. It’s also an unhealthy one, both in terms of search engine appeal and user experience.

Tune in to hear what Heather has to say about writing “for Google” and how to correct for this stubborn tendency in your own SEO content:

“Gift Baskets” Is Repeated 9 Times!

So here’s an example of what writing content “for Google” can mean, where the term “gift baskets” is repeated nine times within a teeny-tiny block of copy!

I’m sure that the person who wrote this content didn’t do so thinking “Im gonna try to spam the engines and get up to the top results!” But the problem is that a lot of folks still think this kind of keyword stuffing is the way you write good SEO content.

Relax! Google Wants You To Write Good Content

So if this has been your mindset – that you have to write separate pages “for Google” or stuff the page full of your keyphrases in order to get a good ranking – you can relax: Google wants to you to write good, quality content. Really!

- Never write copy “for Google”. Write it for your readers.

Instead of hanging onto the notion of writing your content for Google, think about writing for your readers – always focus on their experience!

You don’t want to include a keyphrase so many times that it becomes distracting. People may well bounce off your page and out of your site to find another source of information that sounds more reputable, and offers content that is easier to read.

Additionally…

- Keyword stuffing won’t help your SEO.

Google has closed that loophole. Once upon a time, sure, jamming your copy full of keywords might’ve worked – but not today. So there’s no reason to do it!

- Unsure if you added too many keyphrases? Read the copy out loud.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you’ve been heavy-handed with the use of keyphrases in your content, sometimes the best thing to do is to just print that page and read it aloud.

The same applies if you’re a site owner working with a copywriter: when s/he submits the copy, read it out loud. That way you’ll hear if the keyphrase has been used too many times.

- Think quality – not quantity.

When thinking about your content, it’s always best to think of it in terms of quality.

It’s not about how many pages you can kick out so Google starts thinking you’re an authority on “X”. It’s about how many good pages you can write for your readers, so you attract more traffic and build your brand that way!

Thanks for joining me for this week’s video! As always, if you have any questions about today’s post, or anything else for that matter, I’d love to hear from you! You can email me directly at heather@seocopywriting.com, or find me on Twitter @heatherlloyd.

image thanks to warrantedarrest (Tomas de Aquino)

The post SEO Copywriting Checklist: Are you writing content “for Google”? appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

The result? Here are 14 life, business-building and marketing tips for freelance writers – all in Haiku. Enjoy!

Don’t you think it’s time

To build a business you want

Nothing’s stopping you

Starting your business?

Consider your unique niche

What sets you apart

Choose your clients well

Give them high quality work

You will see success

Get paid what you’re worth

Don’t settle for less money

Know your bottom line

Hire savvy experts

Legal, accounting, business

They will help you grow

Market your business

You are your biggest client

Don’t let yourself down

Testimonials

You need them to prove your worth

Always ask for one

Embrace Google+

Verify your authorship

Don’t wait. Just do it

Measure yourself not

By others’ accomplishments

Set your own metrics

There will be bad times

They happen to everyone

They will also end

When things feel shaky

Take a break and recover

Things will feel better

Take care of yourself

Exercise, eat well and rest

It will keep you sharp

When the cash rolls in

Set up a savings account

You’ll be glad you did

Don’t let other folks

Get in the way of your dream.

Just do it. Right now

The post Smart freelance writing tips – in Haiku appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

Content marketers discuss mobile trends and innovation, the future of PR, cross-platform content creation realities, and the interplay of SEO and content marketing.

The SEO and search community note Google’s new offering in real-time analytics as well as its quiet elimination of yet more search tools. Other notable discussions include the impact of Google Now on search, the implications of its acquisition of Wavii, post- (and impending) Penguin link-building strategies, and the new role of the SEO professional.

Social media marketers discuss LinkedIn’s introduction of visual content, YouTube’s premium content monetization, Google+ overtaking Twitter, and Twitter’s extending its platform to all advertisers.

Enjoy this week’s picks!

Content Marketing

Arnie Kuenn posts his presentation on “The Intersection of Content Marketing and SEO” via Vertical Measures on SlideShare.

Lee Odden discusses “What Should Lead Your Online Marketing Strategy: SEO or Content Marketing?” at TopRank.

Joe Pulizzi shares “The Top 10 Content Marketing Strategy Lessons from the Last 15 Years” at Content Marketing Institute.

Eric Enge shares post-Penguin strategy with “How to Shift From Guest Posting to Content Marketing in 6 Basic Steps” at Search Engine Watch.

Forrester has released its 2013 Mobile Trends for Marketers report, highlighting how to become “more strategic with … mobile initiatives” as well as “game-changing mobile topics.”

In her ongoing series on mobile innovation, Christina “CK” Kerley posts “Innovating Value Propositions Through Mobile” at MarketingProfs.

Kelsey Libert shares “The Secret Recipe for Viral Content Marketing Success” at SEOmoz.

Dan Tynski posts “Mining Current Events for Content Marketing Home Runs” at BuzzStream.

Sujan Patel discusses “Mining Your Social Networks for Content Marketing Ideas” at Search Engine Journal.

David Gould posts “Rethinking Relevance in Content Marketing” at Vertical Measures.

Jeff Ogden posts “How to Organize a Digital Marketing Team – Lessons from Hubspot” at Fearless Competitor.

Gini Dietrich shares her Ragan Corporate Communicators Conference keynote with “The Future of PR: It’s Our Time to Lead” at Spin Sucks.

Paula Andruss shares “The Secrets of 7 Successful Brands” at Entrepreneur.

David Soyka posts “Be Your Brand: 5 Tips To Help Your Brand Connect With Customers” at My Blog Guest.

Jay Baer interviews Kyle Lacy of Exact Target on content creation vs. engagement with “Don’t Ignore Content in Favor of Engagement” at Convince and Convert.

MarketingSherpa’s weekly research chart is on “Use of analytics to inform customer theory.”

Cheri-percy posts “Data vs. Personas for Content Planning” (a DistilledLive video discussion) at Distilled.

Courtney Ramirez discusses “How to Perform a Content Audit” at Greenroom Interactive.

Seth Godin posts “Remind you of anything? Simple typography for non-professionals” at his blog.

Heather Lloyd-Martin discusses readability with “Does your web content pass the quick-scan test?” at SEO Copywriting.

Dan Virgillito posts “How to Write Copy in the Post-PC Era: Surrender to the Cross-Device Reality” at KISSmetrics.

Amanda Clark shares “10 Essential Components Of Effective E-mail Marketing Copywriting” at Business 2 Community.

Ben Settle discusses profitable email marketing with “How To Sell Without Selling” at Copyblogger.

Karen Talavera shares “Three Powerful Ways to Measure the Impact of Your Email Marketing” at MarketingProfs.

Heather Lloyd-Martin shares “7 tips for sales call success” at SEO Copywriting.

Miranda Miller posts “Conversion Rate Optimization Software: Choose the Right Tools for Your Business” at TopRank.

Events:

• The Neilsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conferences will be held in London from May 12^th thru the 17^th, Toronto from June 3^rd thru the 7^th, and Washington, D.C. from July 15^th thru the 19th.
  
• Interactivity Digital Marketing Conference will be held in South Beach, FL, May 15^th and 16th.
• Marketing Sherpa’s Optimization Summit 2013 is scheduled for May 20^th thru the 23^rd in Boston.
• Confab Minneapolis 2013 is on for June 3^rd thru the 5th.
  
• Ad Age CMO Strategy Summit 2013 will take place June 4^th in San Francisco.
• GigaOM’s Structure conference on the future of cloud computing and internet infrastructure will be held June 19^th & 20^th in San Francisco. Supersaver rate ends May 24^th!
• Content Marketing World 2013 returns to Cleveland, OH, September 9^th thru the 12^th.
• MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2013 will be held October 9^th thru the 11^th in Boston.

SEO & Search

Guillaume Bouchard posts “How Google Now Will Impact SEO: What You Can Do to Get a Head Start” at Search Engine Watch.

Bill Slawski discusses the ramifications of Google’s purchase of Wavii in “With Wavii, Did Google Acquire the Future of Web Search?” at SEO by the Sea.

Danny Sullivan reports “Yahoo Extends Microsoft Search Deal & Revenue Guarantees” at Search Engine Land.

Jayson DeMers discusses the anatomy and how-to of co-citations with “SEO co-citations: What they are & why they matter” at SEO Copywriting.

Michael Martinez shares “Link Building Strategies for 2013” at SEO Theory.

Pratik Dholakiya posts “The Definitive Guide to Recovery from the Unnatural Link Penalty” at Search Engine Journal.

Nick Stamoulis discusses “Who’s Name to Use for Link Building?” when using blog commenting as a linking strategy, at Brick Marketing.

The latest (non T-shirt related) Matt Cutts’ Google Webmaster Help Video addresses the question: “What’s the latest SEO misconception that you would like to put to rest?”

Citing Cutts’ video (above), Brafton posts “Is Matt Cutts saying Authorship updates are not imminent?”

Nathan Safran posts “SEO Branding: Appearance In Search Results Impacts Brand Perception” at Search Engine Land.

Rand Fishkin discusses “Why We Can’t Just Be SEOs Anymore” (Whiteboard Friday) at SEOmoz.

Thom Craver posts “New in Google Analytics: Real-Time Conversion Report” at Search Engine Watch.

John E. Lincoln posts “The Ultimate Guide to Multilingual and Multiregional SEO” at Search Engine Land.

Tom Pick shares “11 Expert PPC Guides, Tips and Techniques (and One Rant)” at Webbiquity.

Ginny Marvin reports “AdWords To End Product Extensions As PLAs Take Over,” at Search Engine Land.

eMarketer reports on declining CPC rates and rising global paid search ad spending with “Mobile Gets One Out of Five Paid Search Clicks.”

Garrett Moon discusses “5 Things You Must Do Before Jumping Into Paid Internet Advertising” at KISSmetrics.

Describing mobile, local, and apps as “the trifecta in web marketing,” Jessica Lee reports “Local Search via Non-PC Devices Quadrupled in 2012 [Study]” at Search Engine Watch.

Another search feature removed: Barry Schwartz reports “Google Local Results Drops ‘More Results Near…’ To ‘Improve’ Local Search Experience” at Search Engine Land.

SERP URL displays on Google’s chopping block too? Chris Crum posts “Webmasters Hope This Google Test Doesn’t Become A Reality” at WebProNews.

George Freitag assures with “5 SEO Strategies We Swear Aren’t Going Anywhere” at Portent.

Derek Edmond shares “5 Ways to Create Productive B2B SEO Benchmarks in a ‘Not Provided’ World” at Search Engine Watch.

Carrie Hill discusses “Using Advanced Segments & Scroll Depth To Test Content Types in Analytics” at Search Engine Land.

Lori Kirk posts “Not all traffic is created equal: Qualifying SEO & PPC visits” at Brafton.

John Gagnon shares “5 Free Excel Add-Ins to Help Digital Marketers Decipher Big Data” at ClickZ.

Cyndie Shaffstall posts “23 Keys to Targeted Landing Pages: Conversions, Attribution and SEO” at Target Marketing Magazine.

Jim Yu discusses “Optimizing For Facebook Graph Search: SEO Meets Social” at Search Engine Land.

Bill Slawski takes a departure from patents with “Bill’s Most Excellent Top 10 SEO Rules” at SEO by the Sea.

Starting off a monthly SEJ video series, Srinivas Rao posts “A Sit Down With SEO Expert Alan Bleiweiss” at Search Engine Journal.

Events:

• SMX London is on for May 15^th & 16th.
• Distilled’s SearchLove SEO Conference returns to Boston May 20^th and 21^st.
• SuccessWorks Master’s SEO Copywriting Certification Training Event will be held May 22^nd in Phoenix.
• SMX Paris is scheduled for June 6^th & 7^th.
• SMX (Search Marketing Expo) Advanced is returning to Seattle June 11^th & 12th.
• SES Toronto 2013 is on for June 12^th thru the 14^th.  Tomorrow (May 9^th) is the last day to save $300 with early bird rates!
• MozCon 2013 (SEOmoz) will be in Seattle (of course) from July 8^th thru the 10^th.
• ReelSEO’s Video Marketing Summit 2013 will be held along with Liveclicker’s Video Commerce Summit 2013 for a two-in-one offering July 25^th and 26^th in San Francisco.
• Search Exchange 2013 will be held July 29^th thru the 31^st in Charlotte, NC.

Social Media Marketing

Thomas Watkins posts “Suddenly, Google Plus Is Outpacing Twitter To Become The World’s Second Largest Social Network” at Business Insider.

Chris Atkinson reports “Google+ Hangouts-On-Air Now Feature Live Rewind, Instant Publishing” at ReelSEO.

Ryan Hanley posts “Building Authority Online using Google Plus with Mark Traphagen” at his Content Warfare Podcast.

“LinkedIn Visual Profiles” headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Kristi Hines posts “The 2013 LinkedIn Marketing Guide” at KISSmetrics.

Maura McGowan reports “New Instagram Feature Allows Users to Tag Brands” at Adweek.

Eric Schwartzman shares a podcast on “Why Salesforce is Closest to Pulling KPIs from Social Media” at Social Media Today.

Amada Sibley posts “Twitter Opens Advertising to All: Here’s How it Works” at HubSpot.

From Business News Daily comes “The Best Twitter Accounts for Entrepreneurs” at Mashable.

Chris Atkinson posts “YouTube Trends Adds Nifty Map for Popular Videos Across the U.S.” that shows what people are sharing as well as watching, at ReelSEO.

Mitch Joel advises “Pay Closer Attention to YouTube” via Six Pixels of Separation at Twist Image.

Adam Morgan reports “YouTube Will Now Monetize Its Premium Content” at Search Engine Journal.

Jeff Bullas shares “21 Awesome Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics for 2013” at his blog.

James Dohnert discusses a recent LinkedIn study that indicates “Nearly 90% of Affluent Consumers Use Social Media” at Search Engine Watch.

Craig M. Jamieson discusses connection vs. engagement with “How Engaged Are You With Your LinkedIn Contacts?” at Adaptive Business Services.

Danny Brown discusses “The Crossroads of Influence Marketing” at his blog.

Rachel Sprung shares “5 Ways Marketers Can Stay Updated on Facebook Changes” at Social Media Examiner.

Jay Baer shares “4 Ways to Thump Your Competition with Better Facebook Analysis” at Convince and Convert.

Christopher Penn posts “More than 1 in 6 access Facebook only on a mobile device” at Shift Communications.

Lisa Buyer shares “22 Facebook PR Secrets Every Community Manager Should Know” at Search Engine Watch.

Scott Gerber discusses “8 Facebook Graph Search Pros and Cons for Marketing” at Mashable.

Michael Stelzner interviews Facebook wizard Jon Loomer with “Facebook Ads and Beyond: What Marketers Need to Know” at Social Media Examiner.

Semil Shah shares several good references in posting “Iterations: A Youthful Rebellion Against The Permanence Of Facebook’s Walled Garden” at TechCrunch.

Jennifer Horowitz talks social media planning and blogging consistency with “Does Your Blog or Social Interaction Suffer When….” At Level 343.

Brian Solis shares an edited excerpt from his new book (What’s the Future of Business…)  with “The First Mile: The Broken Link of Social Media Customer Service” at his blog.

Brent Leary interviews Sprout Social’s Justyn Howard with “Social Media Management Evolution” at Small Business Trends.

Kelsey Jones posts “How To Organize A Social Media Content Strategy” at Marketing Land.

Natalie Saumure shares “2 Great Tools to Help with Your Sales Process” via social media marketing at Business 2 Community.

Events:

• BlueGlassX 2013 will be happening May 21^st & 22^nd in Los Angeles.
• Zenith SocialCon 2013 reutrns to Duluth, Minnesota, on May 30th.
  

(For an all-in-one listing and description of social media, content & inbound marketing events, check out Neal Schaffer’s “The 12 Best Social Media Conferences to Attend in 2013” at Social Media Today.)

photo thanks to UggBoy<3UggGirl

The post SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 8th appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

Once you’ve been in this industry for a while, you learn to pay attention to what’s going on, but not to jump to conclusions and pull your hair out every time someone sneezes.

Link building has always been an integral part of performing effective SEO on any site, regardless of whether it’s a big brand or small mom-n-pop shop around the corner. But when Penguin hit the scene in April 2012, a whole new mindset had to be adopted.

No longer could you easily get away with ranking a lower-quality site merely by creating an army of backlinks for it. And in the SEO world, heads were spinning. To this day, many agree on some principles of links, building them, which ones are good, and which ones really help your site (or hurt them). Other times, there’s disagreement.

Co-citations are becoming a hot topic in the SEO world these days, and for good reason. Several years ago there was a lot of discussion about them; it was the hot new thing for SEO professionals to talk about. But the talk sizzled down… until very recently.

What are co-citations?

Co-citations can be a little difficult to wrap your head around. But I’m hoping you’ll leave here with a basic understanding of them. Co-citations mean that if someone links to your site as well as a well-known, authority site, within or closely related to your industry, in the same article, then you will share some of that authority site’s respect from Google.

Even that was something you had to read several times to try to understand, right?

Maybe this will help:

In essence, the authority or respect from Google flows both to and from a link. Article “A” links to authority site “B,” and smaller site “C.” The authority from authority site “B” transfers back to article “A” (which is why it’s always good to link an authority site to your content), but it also carries over to smaller site “C.” Got that?

Now, I can just hear you saying, “If I’m writing article ‘A,’ I certainly don’t want to link to a better-known, big-boy competitor’s site!” Well, yes, it can be tricky. What you want to do in this situation is find something relevant and helpful to the reader, but not something that would be a direct competitor to you and your content.

For instance, let’s say you’re a travel agent. You aren’t going to want to link to Tripology or some big travel company. An acceptable alternative might be to link to a well-known luggage store or travel guide books on Amazon for where your readers are interested in going.

This concept has also been referred to as SEO co-citation and similar terms. It shouldn’t be confused with local SEO citations, though.

The shifting perspectives on co-citations

This has been a pretty well-known concept in the SEO industry for a while. But today, the strategy of using co-citations seems to be shifting. The same principles still basically apply, but now we’re going deeper, due to the need to respond and adapt to Google’s constantly changing algorithm. We should be concerned not only about who we’re linking to and who’s creating content that links to us and authority sites, but also the anchor text.

The age-old practice of using keywords as the anchor text is out. Instead, Google seems to be factoring in the words that surround or are in close proximity to the anchor text, as well as the context and subject of the entire article.

Using the example above, in which we imagined you are a travel agent, here’s an example of a great link to have pointing at your site: A blogger for an African Safari company writes a piece about the new day trip they offer. They’ve noticed a spectacular deal you have right now for travel to Africa and link to you saying: “And if you’re looking for a great discount on traveling to Africa, click here.”

They’re using only the “click here” for the anchor text, but it has “discount on traveling to Africa” very close to it. Let’s say they’ve also linked to Wikipedia for the term “African safari” and to a guidebook on Amazon.com.

Essentially, you’re now sharing the authority of Wikipedia, Amazon, and that company’s blog. Plus, you’re keeping Google’s Penguin algorithm on your good side because the link anchor text isn’t keyword-rich.

So how do you make this happen?

I’m hoping this has helped you understand what co-citations are, how they’re shifting, and why you should be striving to get as many of them as you can. But that leads to the next question: How can you get them?

The best advice is to create content that’s not just for SEO, or purely for the sake of link-building, but to be helpful to the user. Every article, post, video, infographic, or whatever you create should focus on a targeted theme. It should be insightful or trigger an emotion among your readers so they feel encouraged to share it within their networks.

The more people who discover it, and like it, the more people will link to you; the hope is that they’ll also link to related authority sites.

If you’re actually creating content to use for linking back to your site (guest posts, for example), remember to avoid always using your keywords as anchor text. Instead, use different keywords in close proximity to your anchor text. And don’t forget to link to authority sites that are related to your industry.

If you create a post that links to resources the reader finds useful, and if you create content for your own site doing the same… co-citations will come naturally, along with better rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.

About the Author ~ Jayson DeMers

Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency, as well as Crackerize.com, a lyrics-humor website. You can contact him on LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter.

image thanks to Dzhus (Dmitry Dzhus)

The post SEO co-citations: What they are & why they matter appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

A visually overwhelming page filled with dense copy isn’t inviting. More likely than not, a reader confronted with such a page will bounce off it in preference for a competing site with more reader-friendly content.

So tune in to learn how to structure your copy for quick scanning to leverage time-on-site and conversions!

Do You Really Want To Read This Copy? Really?

This first screenshot is an example of a visually overwhelming page. Chances are, when you’re looking at this page, you might see the headline, and a lot of text – but you’re probably not going very deep into the copy and reading it.

That’s the challenge for really copy-dense pages. You don’t see a lot of white space, and the text is structured in such a way that it looks like a whole bunch of paragraphs that just go on, and on, and on…

If you think about your own searching behavior, it’s likely that if you were to land on the page like that shown – even if you might be interested in the information – you might back out of the site to find another source, because this is just hard to read!

Much Better!

Now compare this to a page from 37 Signals (I’ve written about how much I like their site before).

As you can see from the slide, there’s certainly a lot of text on this page, but it’s structured in a way that makes it easy to read: you have bullet points, you have a headline, you have sub-headlines, and smaller paragraphs.

Things To Think About

- Write shorter paragraphs, use bullet points…anything to add more white space.

- Sub-headlines are great for quick-scan readers.

- Remember your mobile readers!

Besides breaking up your content with shorter paragraphs and bullet points, you want to think about using sub-headlines: they’re great for quick-scan readers!

Looking at the 37 Signals example, you’ll notice that even if you don’t read what’s in the paragraph copy, you can really get a feel for what they’re saying just by scanning the sub-headlines: “Great service is everything” and “Our customers are our investors”.

Also, you’ll want to remember your mobile readers! Going back to the example of visually overwhelming, dense copy, try to imagine looking at that page on your smart phone – it’s really going to be difficult to read!

If you’re getting a lot of mobile traffic and have these kinds of challenging pages, you’re missing a lot of conversion opportunities! So you definitely want to structure your content with your mobile audience in mind, as well.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s SEO Copywriting Checklist video! As always, if you need any help or have questions, or if you have feedback on today’s post, I’d love to hear from you: zip me an email at heather@seocopywriting.com, or find me on Twitter @heatherlloyd.

image thanks to Naomi Ibuki

The post SEO Copywriting Checklist: Does your web content pass the quick-scan test? appeared first on SEO Copywriting.

Breathe, relax and pull out your notes.

Last week’s blog post outlined how to prepare for a prospect call. Today, it’s time to pull out your notes, get on the phone and close the deal. Nervous? These seven tips will help get you through – and guarantee the call goes well.

- Spend a few minutes getting to know the prospect. A little small talk can go a long way. Sure, you’re both busy – but chatting about the weather, favorite restaurants or the latest Mad Men episode can be a great way to bond. Launching right into business-chat (unless the prospect does first) can seem abrupt. I once landed a client by chatting about Vanilla Ice. Really.

- Ask a lot of questions – and listen to the answers. What’s the best thing you can do during a sales call? Keep your mouth shut and take detailed notes. When you do speak, try to wrap your questions around your prospect’s previous response. For instance, you could say, “You mentioned that your copywriting team is already overloaded. How many new projects are you assigned every week?” That way, the client knows that you’re “hearing” them – and you get valuable information that helps you frame your next question.

- Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the “Can you send me a highly detailed proposal outlining exactly what you’ll do” trap. I know it’s tempting to spend hours slaving over a multi-page document. That’s not a proposal. That’s a strategy document. Sure, you can point out some possible SEO writing opportunities. But if your contact is asking for an in-depth, detailed document, let your prospect know that’s a separate deliverable. Here are some ways to turn around a (good) proposal fast.

- If asked, confidently state your rates. This is where some copywriters get tongue-tied. If you’re not sure how much the project will cost, it’s OK to say, “I have to work on some numbers and get back to you.” If the prospect pushes for a general answer, you can always provide a highly general range (here are some ways to handle the “how much do you charge” discussion.) If your prices are too high for your prospect and you don’t see a “match,” refer them to another (lower-priced) vendor. And please don’t discount your rates just because you’re afraid of losing the gig. There are other ways to do it besides costing yourself cash.

- Is your prospect unsure? Help them break down the numbers and imagine success. Some clients know they need help – they just need a little confidence boost. If your client says things like, “Wow, $1,000 is a lot of money – I’m not sure if I can afford you,” start asking questions like, “What’s the lifetime value of a customer” and “what’s your average sale?” Chances are, you’ll be able to counter with a statement like, “If the average lifetime value of a customer is $700, it will take less than two customers to pay for my services – and I’m sure I can pull more than two customers for you.” In one fast sentence, you’ve overcome your prospect’s objection and made hiring you a no-brainer!

- Are you getting a “I can’t make a decision right now” response? It happens. Ask your prospect if you should chat with anyone else involved in the hiring decision. For instance, your contact may need her boss’ sign off before she gives her answer. If you can be in on the “pitch” call between your contact and her boss, you can answer any questions and speak directly to the decision maker.

- No matter what happens, send a “thank you” note. Whether the answer is “yes,” “no,” “call back in six months” or “I’m not sure” – email a thank you note the next day. Why? Good manners never go out of style. Plus, your prospect will remember you for other gigs. That’s the best kind of networking there is.

The post 7 tips for sales call success appeared first on SEO Copywriting.