Weekly SEO and Digital Marketing Roundup

So I’ve been off the past couple of weeks and haven’t been keeping up with the weekly SEO and digital marketing roundup. There was Thanksgiving, side projects, my full time job, and, you know, sleep. But I’m back baby!

25 Inspirational Inbound Marketing Quotes From Experts [Expert Roundup]

Full disclosure: I am featured in this article, but there are some good tips in there, including mine (in my opinion!). Here’s my tip:

I’ve learned from working in the inbound marketing world is that you need to be focused on the customer. What do they have questions about? What do they need help with? What are their frustrations? And then you can frame your marketing strategy around answering those questions and how your product can help your potential customers. You need to be there where your customers are and that channel can differ from industry to industry, but if you’re providing informative and useful information your customers need, you’re on the right track.

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Tangential Content Earns More Links and Social Shares in Boring Industries [Article]

This is the second time I have featured Kerry Jones in my weekly SEO and digital marketing roundup, and she writes great stuff. A lot of us SEOs are in industries that are maybe not the sexiest so creating engaging, linkable content about that industry can be difficult. This article argues that we should be using tangential content, which is content that is somewhat related to your industry.

For example, an apartment listing site put together a piece on which states post the nastiest tweets. We can see how that is tangentially related: who wants to get an apartment in a state that is awful? That piece of content got over 620 media pickups. Kerry lists some more examples, and it should be the proof you need to invest in tangential content Read more →

Moving from HTTP to HTTPS [Guide]

There’s plenty of reasons to move to HTTPS, it’s going to help you with rankings and give your the site the needed security it needs. But it can be a bit daunting to actually make the switch. I know I put it off because I worried I would screw it up. And guess what? When I made the switch I screwed up. That’s why I wish I had this guide that walks you through every step and gives you a detailed checklist.  Best of luck on your HTTPS migration!
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How to Turn Keywords Into Can’t-Miss Content Ideas [Article]

A crucial step in your SEO campaign is doing keyword research, implementing those keywords, and prioritizing content ideas. This guide from Digital Examiner walks you through the whole process. The guide is informative and extensive, and you can operationalize the techniques that are listed:

• Find your target keywords
• Building and organizing keyword lists
• Turning keywords into content

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FoxSports.com has reportedly lost 88% of its audience after pivoting to video [Article]

This article, if true, is a fantastic case study of why you you need to understand your audience before you make a big business decision with your website. Fox Sports made the decision to pivot to video and in the process their traffic dropped 88%.

So this article should serve as a case study for you if you’re thinking about making major content changes to your website. Are you taking away the thing your audience loves about your site? Do you actually know what your audience wants? If you don’t, you better answer those questions before making big changes. Fox Sports didn’t and now they are paying the price. Read more →

How to Move From M-dot URLs to Responsive Site [Article]

This is from Google’s official Webmaster blog, and I take it as a heavy hint from Google to prepare yourself for their mobile-first indexing update that is looking to happen sometime in 2018. They lay out how to move your site URLs when you go responsive in 4 steps and providing some imagery along with it:

If you’re not on a responsive site, it’s time to make the change. Seriously, start getting a plan together and stop delaying the inevitable. Read more →

I’ve got to do a quicker post this week unfortunately, but it’s for a good reason. I’m headed out of town to celebrate my anniversary! We’re going to Milwaukee, which is really like a smaller Chicago, but I spent a lot of my childhood running around the city and going to Brewers games (Go Brewers! As of this post we’re only 3.5 games behind. We’re going to a game this weekend and I’m hoping we can close that gap a bit). We’ll  be hopping around the lakefront and different breweries and basically just enjoying the Wisconsin of it all.

If you have suggestions on something you think I should check out while in Milwaukee, get at me on Twitter! My main concern is getting my cheese and sausage game on across the border. I don’t think we’ll have a problem that!

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading this week, and what I think it worthwhile for you to check out.

SEO Reading This Week

• A Complete Guide to the Google Search Console
• Going Beyond Google: Are Search Engines Ready for JavaScript Crawling & Indexation?
• Google says we don’t need no stinking location modifiers… or do we?
• Google’s Mobile-First Index: What It Is & How You Can Prepare

Read more →

61 Writing Prompts That’ll Lead You to Your Next Business Blog Post Topic [Article]

If you’re blogging on a regular basis, it can be hard to come up with ideas again and again. And this can be true if you work in a traditionally “boring” industry. Salesforce put together this list of 61 writing prompts that can help you come up with some fresh blog ideas for your site and maybe help cure your writer’s block. Read more →

We’re in the great state of Minnesota for a wedding so this one is getting posted quickly before I have to run off and get down to ushering duties. Basically, I have to save seats for members of the family, but I’m dedicated to the role and I’ve been taking tips from these guys:
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5 Tips For Winning At Voice Search & SEO [Tips]

Voice search is becoming more and more important in the world of SEO as products like Alexa become increasingly popular in homes. A tidbit from the article that I found really enlightening is that Google says that 20% of all searches are voice searches. If that doesn’t pique your interest as a SEO, I don’t know what to do for you. Read the article for the full descriptions behind the tips, but here are the 5 tip they list:

1. Use microdata
2. Talk like your customers would
3. Ask the questions your target customers would
4. Make sure your website is mobile friendly
5. Dive deeper with semantics

Read more →