We are all fighting for something in our lives. Whether personally or professionally, it's usually something we are very passionate about. Today, I would like to talk about the things that we fight for from a marketing standpoint, especially in SEO.
As we all know, we’ve come a long way from hiding texts, blog commenting, forum placements, etc. Now, it’s more about answering the questions of users – in fact this was always the case, but some just overlooked it. By partnering the strong architecture of your site with quality and useful content, you have the ability to attract a new audience while becoming a consistent resource for the community that already exists.
To achieve this goal, we’ve gone through countless research and a lot of fighting in the form of getting that “YES” from our clients to help achieve the objectives we have set for our clients and for one another.
But why do we do this?
Why do companies like Moz, SEER, SEO Gadget, Distilled and others provide valuable insights in the form of blog posts and case studies?
Example 1:
Think beyond SEO to help promote assets and resources as described in an article written by SEER’s very own Andrew Meyer and Brandon Wensing, “How to Improve Your Paid Content Promotion Efforts, Measurement, and Reporting.” They are going far beyond links and taking a deeper dive into the stream of possibilities available for pushing client assets in front of their target audience by using different marketing channels.
Example 2:
In her Future of Content: Upcoming Trends in 2014 post on the Moz Blog, Stephanie Chang from Distilled provides her insights about how marketers need to be agile while at the same time adapting to the growing needs and expectations of their customers. This provides valuable information as to how content has evolved and what exactly you should be looking at when producing content.
These are two valuable examples of blog posts that help the industry in a number of ways.
Why do people like Wil Reynolds, Rand Fishkin, and others speak at conferences all around the world?
To educate! There are plenty others who get out there to speak and we appreciate your dedication and thank you for your valuable insights on the industry and for the industry.
Fun fact: Combined, Wil and Rand have spoken at more than 30 conferences in 2013.
Why do we have team brainstorming sessions that result in tons of brilliant ideas that help our clients?
The ideas implemented in these sessions provide results correctly. These results become case studies, which later become resources for both clients and the industry.
Result – RCS by SEER Interactive
• RCS has received social engagement greater than 25k • It has helped to answer users' questions
Why are the technical insights and tools provided by people such as Aleyda Solis, Aichlee Bushnell, Adam Audette, Richard Baxter, and others so important?
Example 1:
Richard Baxter’s team builds awesome tools that not only help to identify issues, but also aid in finding solutions to help clients and the industry.
Example 2:
The Screaming Frog Guide from Aichlee saved her countless hours and helped her to find valuable information that helped clients in the long-run. Again, this wasn’t only valuable for the clients but also valuable to the industry.
Example 3:
Adam Audette’s team put together a collection of instructional and informational videos from industry leaders. This is a perfect example of using video as an educational platform, which is valuable for teaching clients and the industry. Loving the transcript too: if you do it, do it right! Moz does it pretty well, too.
Example 4:
We know mobile is growing. We hear it every day. Aleyda and Vanessa Fox have produced some gems of mobile SEO guides in the past that have been heavily influential to the industry.
Why do we prepare architecture audits and discuss each and every single item ranging from crawl budget to Hreflang?
The implementation of any action items within the architecture audit have the ability to:
1. Help improve business for the client. 2. These can turn into a case study similar to one SEER did on Hreflang, which then becomes valuable for the industry.
Result – Hreflang
Why is it important to talk about titles, copy, internal linking, etc.?
These still play a huge role in improving organic visibility to a certain landing page. Below are a couple of examples of quick wins the SEER team has achieved with the implementation of internal linking and content auditing:
Results
Example 1 – Internal Linking
Notes:
• Green identifies keywords ranking on page 1 for that category. • Internal linking was performed on 12 pages. • Ranking improvements correlate beautifully, with an increase in traffic for the same date range. • From October to November, there was a 17.22% increase in traffic to these pages (2,335 visits vs. 2,737 visits.)
Example 2 – Internal Linking + Content Audit
Thank you to Brendan Cottam for providing insights on the content audit.
Notes: • Green identifies keywords ranking on page 1 for that category. • Internal linking was performed on 5 pages. • Ranking improvements correlate beautifully, with an increase in traffic for the same date range. • From October to November, there was a 30.89% increase in traffic to these pages (2,810 vs. 3,678.)
What is an internal linking audit? In an internal linking audit, SEER provides recommendations to help strengthen the internal linking structure of a client’s website. In the above example, the audit only covered one section, and 12 pages, of the website. It’s important to phase these audits out depending on the size of the website so that it doesn’t create a log at the client’s end.
What is a content audit? Content audits are completed to ensure and help improve the organic visibility of a certain page. This is done by looking at meta data, page copy, and internal linking along with a conversion analysis.
Why do we measure each and every thing we do?
Is it to show the value you provide or implemented? No is the answer from me! It is done to show the importance of the item that was implemented, whether it’s a link building campaign, content produced, or an item from within an architecture audit.
The steps of measurement creates two paths: 1. The how-to guide on how to measure everything. Again, valuable to the industry. 2. The results. These once again prove to be beneficial to the client and the industry.
Annie Cushing, Rachael Gerson, Justin Cutroni and more have all produced inconceivable content that has helped the industry greatly.
The Reason
From my point of view, it looks like we are providing an education in different ways. We are all providing valuable insights on what we believe can help improve our client’s business, whether directly or indirectly. We are evolving along with search so that we can provide the best possible solutions to our clients that can also assist in building the right community.
Building community takes blood, sweat and maybe not tears, but definitely long nights. If everyone is not on board in building community, it can be a long and sometimes unsuccessful journey.
If that is the case, any company trying to find an SEO agency to work with should first identify the resources and capabilities that they already have to get things done.
The Answers
We are fighting for our clients. We are fighting for each other. WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE INDUSTRY. And you better believe it!
