By Sultan Riaz | Marketing Coordinator
MediaWhiz Senior Vice President of Media Services Peter Klein is a fount of information about performance marketing. Especially affiliate marketing. The guy loves affiliate marketing. The good kind, of course. Not the fraud-based affiliate marketing of the past. That kind of junk pains him. It
It’s with this perspective in mind that I recently sat down with Pete, who oversees MediaWhiz’s affiliate marketing business, to discuss a topic that he is particularly passionate about: launching performance marketing campaigns. damages the industry’s reputation, he says, and makes it harder for reputable affiliate networks, such as MonetizeIt, the MediaWhiz affiliate network, to earn the trust and business of today’s digitally savvy CMO.
Pete’s so passionate and informed about this topic, in fact, that he’s written an eBook on it called “The CMO’s Guide to Performance Marketing.” You can download a free copy here.
Editor’s note: This is the first post in a three-part series on the best free SEO tools. A more detailed analysis can be found in MediaWhiz’s new report, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools.” Download here.
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Choosing the right target keywords builds the foundation for an entire SEO campaign. If the right keywords with the highest potential for return are not selected, the foundation of the campaign will be weak and, therefore, success is nearly impossible.
In order to select the right keywords, data must be collected and analyzed so projections on return can be made. Gathering the necessary data, however, can be expensive and many businesses will not invest in best-of-breed SEO tools.
For those with limited budgets and without access to paid SEO tools, impactful keyword data is not out of reach. There are plenty of data sources and tools that can be used for free or offer free versions. By leveraging several free tools, advertisers can generate enough information to make informed decisions on keyword targets and set themselves up for successful SEO campaigns.
Below are three such tools. In subsequent posts, I will examine the best free SEO tools for auditing, troubleshooting and gaining competitive intelligence. For a full account of the 10 best free SEO tools, download MediaWhiz’s new report, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools.”
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By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Today, we’re releasing a new eBook in our growing stable of Insights reports (read them all here). Titled, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools,” the report outlines our top picks for the best free SEO tools and resources marketers can use to identify target keywords, audit and troubleshoot onsite SEO issues and gain competitive intelligence.
Below is a snippet of the many useful insights you’ll find inside the eBook. Download your free copy to find more.
Performance in organic search engine marketing requires an investment. Depending on the goals of a search engine optimization campaign, that investment can be quite substantial. Budget often must be allocated strategically in order to stretch it enough for success.
Part of the investment in any SEO campaign goes toward tools that help brands analyze data, strategize and track results. To do so, marketers need a bevy of tools and resources. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Content marketing can provide tremendous value to a search engine optimization campaign, as outlined in our recent eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.” There are many different content types that can be leveraged as a vehicle for lead generation with a strong return on investment. Today, we’ll examine how you can choose the right content type to increase your brand’s SEO value.
RELATED: Download MediaWhiz’s FREE eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro”
eMarketer recently published a study conducted by CopyPress in which marketers were asked which types of content are the most cost effective. Results of the study showed the growing demand among marketers of content marketing as a leading digital focus. Thirty-five percent of marketers surveyed identified content marketing as their leading focus in 2013 as compared to 19% in 2012. It is no secret that content marketing is a powerful lead generation tool and that the return on investment is high.
When it comes to segmenting the various types of content, a vast majority of the marketers surveyed identified featured articles as the content type with the best ROI. The main differentiator between featured articles and other media types is the relatively small cost and simplicity of development which makes the investment very low. The minimal hard costs and effort associated with producing featured articles combined with the innate value of any content marketing piece that follows best practices, makes these articles very attractive to utilize.
Another advantage of featured articles that makes them a priority content marketing piece is the ability to use authorship mark-up to help promote the content and improve organic search authority. Since featured articles typically contain a byline, the rel=“author” rich snippet can be leveraged to tie the content to an authoritative author, making it much more likely to rank for keyword-targeted search queries in search engine results. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Today, we released a new eBook on content marketing. Titled, “Content Marketing Like a Pro,” the report outlines the key pillars to content marketing and advises marketers on best practices for crafting and executing successful content marketing programs.
This eBook also provides a framework marketers can use to improve their brand’s SEO and generate leads via a content marketing program.
When consumers first encounter a brand digitally it’s not always the brand’s website that makes the first impression. What makes the greatest impression is the authority of the brand’s website measured by where it ranks when a consumer searches.
Content marketing is a method to build this authority and rank.
Learn how to use content marketing to generate leads and improve your brand’s SEO with MediaWhiz’s new eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.” (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
Editor’s note: This is the second post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.
Last week I predicted that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ SEO strategies in 2013. This week, I examine what 2013 has in store for content marketing and its increasing value to search and SEO.
Content marketing has been a hot topic in digital marketing this year. The positive benefits it has on SEO are invaluable if done correctly. There are two main ways a good content marketing strategy can benefit organic search results: expanding a brand’s reach by syndicating useful content throughout the Web; and including links in syndicated content to build authority back to the brand’s website.
In order to employ an effective content marketing strategy, SEO experts must take more of a PR approach to developing topics to write about. Content must be cutting edge and ground-breaking to gain the momentum needed for success through social sharing and PR. In today’s landscape, there is little to no value in developing content based on a keyword. Instead, it must be based on a compelling idea. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
Editor’s note: This is the first post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.
When considering major trends that will impact SEO in 2013 it’s clear that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ search and SEO strategies.
PageRank has long been the standard high-level metric used to identify the relative quality of a Web page. There is arguably limited value in using PageRank as a quality metric over the last few years, but it can still be meaningful in conjunction with other quality metrics (i.e. domain authority, page authority, etc.)
In 2013 a new quality metric will take the spotlight when it comes to page quality and search engine ranking. This metric is affectionately known as AuthorRank (or Agent Rank, according to Google’s patent).
Here’s why AuthorRank will help reshape SEO in 2013:
AuthorRank: A Brief Overview
Content quality, as measured by search engines, is no longer based solely on the authority of a domain or Web page. It is increasingly based on the reputation and authority of the individual that authored the content. This reputational score grades authors on the Web and used that grade when ordering natural search engine results.
How is AuthorRank Established?
The standard method for an author on the Web to be credited by Google with the content they produce is to tie pages they have written to their Google Plus profiles. This is done using rich snippets. Authors are then ranked based on the engagement factors of the content they produce. These factors include: social endorsements (tweets, +1’s, shares, likes); the influence and relevancy of those providing the social endorsements; comments on social networks (such as Yelp); the influence and relevancy of those commenting; and the quality and relevancy of inbound links pointing to the content. The more an author writes on a topic, and the more engagement with that content, the higher that author’s rank will be for a specific topic. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | @MarcPurtell | Director, SEO
MediaWhiz’s SEO experts share their wisdom in a new white paper, “SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”
The New Year in SEO is all about the consumer. Long live the consumer.
Search engine optimization is an ever-evolving challenge for webmasters and marketers alike. The SEO landscape in 2012 went through some of its most impactful changes to date. Looking ahead to 2013, it’s necessary to start implementing more complex processes in order to remain competitive in organic search. The rate at which search engines update their ranking algorithms makes it essential to avoid optimizing for short-term results and start planning campaigns with the future in mind.
In 2013, optimizing websites for search engines will not win the game. The necessary shift will be optimizing websites for users.
The path to SEO success in 2013 comes down to two principles: keeping user experience in mind when optimizing and closely monitoring, and adjusting to, changes in search engine algorithms. (more…)
SEO’s benefits aren’t just limited to building brand presence and driving traffic to a website. Search engine optimization also can be used to increase click-through and conversion rates of branded search traffic and act as a business retention model.
With 74 percent of consumers conducting online research before making a purchase decision, any negative sentiment around a brand can deliver a significant blow to the brand’s bottom line. In many instances of a brand’s reputation being tarnished online SEO is the only way to clean it up and present the brand in a positive light.
Social Media’s Effect on SEO
The popularity of social media and blogs, combined with the emergence of consumer complaint websites, has been detrimental to the reputation of many brands. Both allow one person’s bad experience, or even a deceitful competitor, to drag a brand’s reputation through the mud for the entire Web to see.
When a critique of a brand is posted to a popular website, search engine queries for that brand will often include that critique on the first page of organic search results. This can be very damaging to the brand. Potential customers who come across such a critique may be disinclined to engage with a brand they otherwise would have after finding such a negative organic search result.
Blog posts and social media updates that speak negatively about a brand and rank for the brand name are on third-party websites; the brand has no control over them. Since it is unlikely that the pages will be removed from the websites, the only recourse the brand has is to get them removed from the search results. This is done by leveraging SEO for online reputation management. (more…)
Look beyond SEO’s traditional uses for brand- and reputation-enhancement benefits.
SEO is not typically considered a branding mechanism. But below the surface, there is intense brand-building value. In order to fully understand the value of a search engine optimization campaign, it is necessary to look beyond traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) such as rankings, organic traffic, etc. and look also at the value search engine optimization has on a brand. Our point of view is that SEO is not successful if it is not building both brand awareness and brand influence.
That is the basis of our new white paper, “Leverage SEO’s Brand-Building Powers.” Download your copy today.
Building Brand Awareness through SEO
Brand awareness via SEO is built by saturating the most relevant channel with positive brand content for increased visibility. For example, a brand selling dietary supplements should publish engaging content with a positive brand spin throughout the health channel, both on their own website, and other authoritative sites related to health and wellness. This channel saturation will lead to increased visibility by casting a wide net of content around the Web.
It’s not just about volume, however. In order for a saturation strategy to perform, your brand’s content assets must provide value to the channel’s audience andconvey the brand messaging in a positive manner. If there is no value to the audience, the content will not perform in organic search, reducing the benefits of increased visibility.
Rather than simply promoting the brand, the content must provide consumers with information that is of value to them and that they are looking for. The more engaging content a brand has saturated within the channel, the more likely consumers are to come across the brand online. The example below shows how consumers’ first online interaction with brands has changed.
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