SEO & Content Marketing: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Quality content seems to be the main edifice on which any SEO campaign can gain a deep-rooted search presence.

You share quality content with the groups, circles, or people you're connected with on various social media platforms. If that content is valuable and informative, only then does it have the potential to be shared further, go viral, and reap the targeted return on investment (ROI).

SEO vs. Content Marketing Tasks

This shift of focus to content creation (and content marketing) has created a misconception in the minds of some website owners that just because they publish content regularly on their website or blog that their SEO is taken care of. Content creation isn't SEO.

Website owners made a similar mistake in the past when they focused only on the quantity of links they were getting from various sites to "take care of their SEO." It took Google's Penguin update to jolt them and remove that misconception

SEO is a branch of marketing, but yet it is unique in its own way and beyond marketing when it comes to technical aspects. SEO also has many other objectives and long-term effects and benefits (e.g., rankings, traffic) for the site being optimized.

The SEO tasks related to content can be summarized as below:

·         Ensure that the site is crawled correctly and regularly.

·         The site URLs are being indexed as per the XML sitemap and robots.txt specifications.

·         The site is gradually ranking and is having an improved search presence as a result.

·         The regular monitoring of the metrics and data of the webmaster tools and Google Analytics to be sure that the above tasks are gearing the site in the right direction on the web.

·         Implement the Authorship Markup.

·         Implement the Twitter Cards and Facebook Open Graph.

·         Update XML sitemaps for text content, images, and videos.

On the other hand, content marketing tasks involve:

·         Regular content creation.

·         Working on a content strategy.

·         Plan the process of sharing it on social media and all over the web in various forms.

The Declaration of Interdependence

Though content marketing and SEO are interconnected and SEO efforts get a boost if the high quality content goes viral, website owners must not only assign importance to content creation and sharing. You must also keep a regular check on the core SEO tasks of monitoring the crawling and indexing.

Neglecting core SEO tasks may result in losing out on the long-term benefits that can accrue out of all the social media efforts, as all social media signals may not get passed on and get correlated to the site if it isn't being regularly crawled or indexed by the search engines.

Content shared on social media has a very short life span. Readers quickly move on to the latest content which is creating a buzz and catches their attention.

The purpose of sharing content is to try and get the maximum outreach. Therefore, it shouldn't just create a buzz, result in retweets, and create ripples – it should also get crawled and indexed by search engines to give websites long-term benefits.

Website owners must clearly understood the importance of SEO.

Content creation isn't the only way to go. Instead of creation, you can curate content and be active on social media platforms, having relevant conversations revolving around the curated content.

Google's Knowledge Graph is taking search to a completely different level. The Knowledge Graph is also paving the way to new approaches toward SEO.

Semantic search isn't just about the web. It's about all information, data, and applications.

The content writer may write good quality content but an SEO professional is always the right person to keep a check on the code for the content behind the page so that it is readily accepted by the search engine bots and gets its due from search engines.

SEO & Content Marketing: Heads & Tails

SEO and content marketing are two different industries but are like two sides of the same coin. Your SEO may or may not create content for you and at the same time your content creator or writer may or may not optimize your site.

No doubt, every piece of quality content boosts your search presence – provided your site has been optimized wisely for the search engines and the search engines can easily index and extract the right context of the content to make it prominently visible on the search results for their users.

Both industries, though interrelated and interdependant have distinct identities. A content creator needs to have knowledge about the concerned industry for which he wants to create content but a SEO needs to have knowledge about the search engines, their algorithms, updates, webmaster tools, analytics, etc.

While it's possible that one person may have general knowledge about all the essential SEO and content marketing tasks, in the field of medicine there are general practitioners, but specialists are most trusted for their advice.

Source: blog.webpro.in

How to Generate Quality Traffic With Display Advertising

For a few years it seemed that “display advertising” had become something of a dirty word for many in the Internet marketing community.

Perhaps they only tested contextual targeting on the Google Display Network (GDN) – throwing a few keywords up and hoping for the best? Maybe they tried some large buys from a demand side platform (DSP) and didn’t see the best ROI? Or maybe they signed on with a self-service DSP only to find the platform was confusing and lacking in features?

Whatever the case, there are so many options available for display advertising that you should be out there testing.

Google is pushing the envelope with their offerings on the GDN. But that is just one display network! Peel back the curtain and you will find a big world of networks, DSPs, and remarketing services – all of them offering their own special sauce of algorithms, self-service platforms and generally raising the bar for the entire industry.

Google AdWords – Google Display Network (GDN)

The GDN is the most well-known display network given that it is a part of the Google AdWords platform. However, the consensus among an alarmingly high percentage of advertisers is that GDN doesn’t work. My gut instinct is that the advertisers crying the loudest know the least about how to leverage the range of GDN features to target their customers.

So, if it has been a while, here is a sampling of the myriad ways you can tweak GDN campaigns to generate quality traffic – and yes, conversions:

·         Contextual Targeting: This is the basic foundation of the GDN. Input some keywords that are relevant to your product or service, and Google will match your ads to websites. This is where a lot of advertisers stop. But you have to dig deep. Segment your keywords. Google has given us the ability to bid on individual keywords. Review placement performance reports and exclude poor websites. Add demographic settings to gain another layer of relevancy.

·         Placement Targeting: Cherry-pick the websites that are most relevant and/or convert the best. Layer on keywords, demographic settings for even more detailed targeting.

·         Topic/Category Targeting: Need to increase your ad reach? Try Topics or Categories relevant to your product or service. This will open you up to a much larger portion of the GDN. Be sure to control performance with site exclusions, keyword targeting, and demographic targeting.

·         Remarketing: Where do I start? The possibilities are endless! Tag your website and landing pages. Segment those visitors into audiences. Create targeted ads. Voila! – watch the conversions come in!

·         Search Companion: Bridging the gap between search and display, Search Companion is a unique feature for the GDN. You create a campaign leveraging keywords you would normally target on search. Google will cookie anyone searching for those keywords on Google.com – regardless of whether they click your ads. You can then target ads to those searchers on the GDN. This is an extremely relevant way to run display ads!

·         RLSA: Otherwise known as “remarketing lists for search advertisers.” This is another way Google is bridging the gap between search and display. RLSA functions like typical remarketing, adding a cookie to anyone who visits your website. However, instead of triggering ads on display, your ads are remarketed to these visitors on Google.com. Unfortunately, this beta test is closed. Ask your Google rep for more details.

·         Similar Audiences: Already running remarketing? Great! How can you gain even more impressions, clicks, and conversions? Run ads on audiences that are similar to your existing remarketing audiences. Google reviews your audiences and will match you to an audience that expands far beyond those visitors who have already been to your website.

DoubleClick Bid Manager

By now you likely know that Google bought DoubleClick a few years ago. That’s why we now have the Google Ad Planner and now DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBA).

DBA is a demand-side platform that gives you access to ad exchanges with reach far beyond the GDN. Why would you choose DBA over another DSP service?

·         DBA is a platform that is similar to AdWords. So there is familiarity and a lower learning curve for managing campaigns.

·         Options include contextual, placement, and category targeting. However, you can up the game by targeting third party data segments – which are essentially demographic levers you can pull.

·         Want to make a direct buy on a premium website, but don’t have the resources or time? DBA allows for “private exchange deals” which are self-service direct buys on premium websites.

Broader World of Display

Outside of the world of Google, there are countless options for display advertising. Here is a brief sampling:

·         DSPs: Also known as demand side platforms, DSPs are the backbone of the display industry. Familiar names include The Trade Desk, Media Math, AppNexus among a host of others. Offerings range from utilitarian display buys (budget, CPM, bam you’re done!), convenient self-service platforms and emerging real-time bidding options (RTB).

·         Remarketing: So many advertisers have made the unfortunate connection that Google is the only name in remarketing. Not true. If you want to be a remarketing pro, Google is only the first step. Services like FetchBack, AdRoll and Perfect Audience (among countless others) are changing the face of remarketing every day. Target your previous website visitors on ad exchanges and websites far outside the reach of the GDN. AdRoll and Perfect Audience are specializing in Facebook remarketing, too.

So, even if you have been burned with a poor display experience in the past – or were just too scared to try – know that now is the time to test display again. There are so many options, it is truly like being a kid in a candy store. Options, reach, flexibility and – best of all – great performance

Source:http:searchenginewatch.com