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The Best Money You’ll Ever Spend on SEO, Social, and Content

You may have all the technology and expertise in the world at your disposal, but do you have this crucial element to SEO, content and social media success?

the best money you'll ever spend on seo, social and contentDo you have a fantastic SEO platform? Or you do have an amazing agency like PPC agency in Austin, to help you with your SEO? A beautiful piece of software, with all the data dots connected, and all the keyword bells and social media whistles that you could ever ask for? If your brand has a culture that is forward-thinking enough to recognize how crucial a tool like this is to the success of your digital marketing, then I hope the answer is yes.

But that’s not the only thing that demands your precious marketing dollars. Are you promoting your posts to precision-targeted audiences on Facebook? Gaining a following on Twitter by advertising your best stuff to key influencers? Utilizing all the many paid search tools to drive traffic to your brilliant content? Does your site position you as a leader in your industry? Looking for a team of skillfull web designers? Go to https://sandcastle-web.com/services/website-design/ for more details.

All these magnificent things are not cheap, but they are certainly worth it . . . IF you’ve also made another important little investment. An investment in great people.

Don’t underestimate what it takes to win in SEO, Social, & Content Marketing

It’s no secret that the biggest bottleneck in content marketing (and by extension, SEO and social) is TIME. It takes a huge amount of time to develop truly great content that delivers value, ranks in search, and resonates throughout social media. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks that brands hit when developing their content marketing strategies and social plans. Most brands just don’t have enough people to actually execute what is needed to outpace competition and gain more ground in their markets and to achieve Sustainability In Marketing.

I mean, on their own each thing you do for digital content doesn’t seem very daunting, and this is part of the perception that makes content ‘seem’ easier than it actually is. Seriously, how long does it take to write a 500 word blog post? But what about 4 or 5 of them? Maybe add a whitepaper in there, too? Throw together a handful of tweets every day? A few Facebook posts? Couple of things for LinkedIn? Pic for Instagram? And let’s not forget the time needed to crush it on YouTube. It adds up fast. Best software for posting to Google My Business automatically will allow you to share photos, announce sales or specials, showcase new products, and list upcoming events.

But that’s just reality, isn’t it? I mean, you can’t just ‘buy’ time, can you?

clock-1274699_640Yeah, actually, you can buy time.

What if I told you for the low, low price of a single person’s salary, you could flat-out BUY dozens more hours every week? Because that’s exactly what you’re doing when you hire people. Every person you bring on is paying your brand back with their time. All of it. Every day.

Hiring great people gives you their time, their expertise, and their knowledge to execute your strategies and tactics. Without great people to action those ideas and plans, they’re nothing more than decorations on Powerpoint slides.

1+1 = 2, mostly. Sometimes it’s 3. Possibly 4?

This is really basic math. When you go from one content writer to two, that’s instantly doubling the amount of content you can churn out. That’s two times the amount of original, fresh, relevant and valuable content for your brand to rank in search and share in social.

Yeah, it’s that simple, and it scales in huge ways. Once those two writers begin to develop synergies, sharing valuable research, conducting brainstorming sessions, etc, you’ll find that your content team becomes more than just the sum of its parts. They now have the support they need to do more than they could on their own.

Investing in people pays the biggest dividends of any dollar you spend in SEO, social, and content. People give you the ability to action what you’ve been told by all the data that you have in your analytics tools and platforms, and put in motion all the advice coming from your agencies and consultants. Great people and their time are the best things you can buy for your brand.

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.11 – Pinterest the Search Engine & Agencies Making Software

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss how Pinterest and its search mechanics combine with other key aspects of the platform to bring power to digital marketers, and a recent article about how marketing agencies should be taking a good hard look at software as a competitive differentiator.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Pinterest – pinterest.com

25 Pinterest Stats, Facts & PR Best Practices – www.cision.com/us/2015/01/25-pin…r-best-practices/

Jim Dougherty – twitter.com/leaderswest

Why ad agencies need to become software companies – www.businessesgrow.com/2015/10/13/ad…re-companies/

Mark Schaefer’s {grow} blog – www.businessesgrow.com/blog/

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.10 – Ad Blocking & Missing out on the Mobile Moment

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss the latest in digital ad blocking developments, and the ‘mobile moment’ that many brands and marketers are approaching from the wrong angle.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

The Verge – Welcome to hell: Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web – www.theverge.com/2015/9/17/933896…death-of-the-web

Mark Schaefer’s {grow} blog – www.businessesgrow.com/blog/

Luke Wroblewski – Product Director at Google – twitter.com/lukewwww.lukew.com/

Hotel Tonight – http://hoteltonight.com

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.9 – Content Calendar Strategy & Being Adaptable in the Gig Economy

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss ways to be more strategic when planning your content calendar, and how important it is to be adaptable in the current digital marketing career economy.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Content Marketing Institute

CMI Content Calendar Template -> How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing

Gary Vaynerchuk – Gary on Twitter @garyvee

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.8 – Digital Marketing Career Trends & Online Engagement Driving Offline Action

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss three recent trends in digital marketing careers and an initiative by Google to more effectively measure the effects of online engagement (specifically SEM) on retail store visits.


Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Fast Company -> www.fastcompany.com/

Search Engine Land -> Google Launches “Store Visits” Metric In AdWords, To Help Prove Online-To-Offline Impact – searchengineland.com/google-store-v…adwords-211254

Search Engine Land -> AdWords Brand CPCs Rising? Here’s Why And What You Can Do About It –searchengineland.com/adwords-brand-…res-can-225648

 

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.7 – SEM Reporting with Causation & Some Brands “Going Dark” on Social Media

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss how marketers can get better understanding of their SEM efforts by mapping actions and events in their reporting and finding true correlation and causation, and explore why some brands have made the puzzling decision to ‘go dark’ on social media and shift to an advertising-only model.


Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

3-Part Introductory Guide to Adwords & SEM by Sean Clark:

  1. http://seanclark.com/pay-per-click/a-guide-to-adwords-making-ppc-work-for-your-business/
  2. http://seanclark.com/google/a-guide-to-adwords-creating-your-first-adwords-campaign/
  3. http://seanclark.com/google/a-guide-to-adwords-launching-your-first-adwords-campaign/

Sean Clark’s website: http://seanclark.com and on Twitter: http://twitter.com/seanclark

Digital Marketing & Analytics: Five Deadly Myths De-mythified! on Occam’s Razor Blog by Avinash Kaushik: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-analytics-deadly-myths-de-mythified/

Avinash on Twitter: http://twitter.com/avinash

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep.6 – Brands Mixing with Social Causes & The Optimized Personal Digital Brand

In this episode, Jonathan Barrick and Josh Muirhead discuss some of the latest news in social cause marketing, including Dove’s latest and greatest campaign, along with the dangers of not being prepared for what comes with social cause marketing. Also, we take a look at what it means to have an ‘optimized’ personal digital brand, and how you can start optimizing your own digital presence.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Dove’s ‘Choose Beautiful’ campaign -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DdM-4siaQw

Chipotle’s social marketing -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE

LinkedIn -> linkedin.com

Sam Fiorella -> twitter.com/samfiorella

Sensei Marketing -> senseimarketing.com

What Goes Into An Optimized Web Page?

A handy cheat sheet for evaluating your optimized web pages.

Back in the early days of Search Engine Optimization, there were not nearly as many factors influencing the visibility and authority of an average optimized web page. It used to be a simple matter of SEO basics, like choosing your keywords carefully, writing some solid copy, taking care of your headers, alt tags and meta tags, and BOOM you were pretty much done!

Well these days things are a bit more complex. There are more factors influencing a page’s SEO rank now than ever before, and it can be a daunting task for website managers, content creators, and SEO coordinators to keep track of them all. Fortunately, the team over at SurePayroll in partnership with Ghergich & Co. have created this nice, tidy infographic on the Anatomy of an Optimized Web Page to help keep things clear:

seo optimized web page Original post on SurePayroll’s blog: http://blog.surepayroll.com/anatomy-optimized-web-page/

 

For more information and advice on SEO, Web Page Optimization, or Digital Web Marketing Strategy, please don’t hesitate to Contact Me today!

Marketing Doubleshot Podcast – Ep. 5 – Brands as Media Companies & Google’s Doorway Page Update

In this episode Josh Muirhead and Jonathan Barrick discuss brands evolving in to full-fledged media companies, putting customer experiences and user-generated content at the forefront. Additionally, Jon and Josh discuss the news of Google’s latest algorithm change, taking aim at doorway pages, and what it means for your SEO strategy.

Links & resources mentioned in this episode:

5 Predictions for GoPro As A Media Company –www.edelmandigital.com/2015/02/19/friday5

Google To Launch New Doorway Page Penalty Algorithm –searchengineland.com/google-to-laun…gorithm-216974

Sammy Ganz, Author or ‘5 Predictions for GoPro As A Media Company’ article – twitter.com/sammyganz

Jay Schneider & the team at Brilliance Business Solutions –brillianceweb.com, twitter.com/emediavangelist

SEO Poison 2.0 – Revenge of the Linkfarmers

seo_poison_2It seems like it was a millenia ago that I wrote this article outlining the dangers to your web presence of purchasing sketchy backlinks -> SEO Poison: What you get when you hire a link farmer

In it, I wove a cautionary tale to marketers who are fed promises of ‘Page 1 on the Google!’ by less-than-reputable companies who claim to provide lots of backlinks to your site to help increase your rankings. However, these promises come with a heavy does of black-hat SEO practises that end up causing far more damage to your website than you’d expect.

You see, Google doesn’t like websites that try to game the system. Google really, really doesn’t like them. In fact, as you may be aware, Google releases regular updates to their algorithm, called ‘Penguin’ updates, in order to filter out sites that use shady backlinking to try and rise up in search results. If you give in to the glittery lure of cheap backlinks, prepare to have your site stomped in to the ground when Google releases a new Penguin update. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again, so be vigilant and follow with legit backlinking methods. In other words, if it sounds to good to be true, it most definitely is.

And yet, what of my original SEO Poison article? Well, I’m glad you asked! In true head-shaking, face-palming, rage-inducing fashion, ever since that post went live, those spammy linkfarmers decided that my article would be the absolute PERFECT place to try to jam in a bunch of garbage backlink comments. And it’s been happening a lot lately.

Behold, the latest batch of crap comments that have been banished to the depths of spam hell:

2015-03-16 09.46.02 am

Oh, and here’s a few more…

2015-03-16 09.46.56 am

And just for giggles, a few more…

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THIS is what you’re paying for when you hire those people. They’re so relentless and single-minded in purpose, they fail to even recognize that they are posting crap backlinks on an article specifically written to call them out on the very sleazy practise they are employing.

In the words of Kent Brockman, “There’s only one word for that, ladies and gentlemen: IDIOCY”

Don’t. Hire. Those. People.

Backlinks, just like any other aspect of your web presence, need to be built based on QUALITY and RELEVANCE. You don’t get those attributes by gaming the system. Put in the effort to find relevant locations on the web to place quality backlinks and you will reap the rewards.