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The New Way to Blog

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the new way to blog

Blogging has changed over the years.

When I first started blogging, it wasn’t that competitive.

You write an article… on pretty much anything… and you get some social shares.

And then you would try to build links, but even if you weren’t great at link building you would still naturally generate more backlinks overtime.

Just take a look at one of my first blog posts that I wrote on August 31, 2005. Here are the first few paragraphs…

SEO Made Easy

The hardest thing for any site owner these days is getting the search engines to properly list their website. Making a site search engine friendly is the key to the success of search engine optimization. A site must be written in a language that the search engine will recognize such as HTML. In addition, the site must have defined keywords that are going to be used in classifying the site.

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In all actuality, search engine optimization is nothing more than simple common sense. The whole goal of optimizing your site is so that search engines will find your site easily and catalog it within their systems for easy retrieval by consumers. Simple SEO is not hard and requires only basic knowledge of how algorithms work in relation to programming. The two important things to remember for those that are trying to learn the basics are how a search engine spider works and how it figures out what content is relevant to your keywords you have chosen.

I didn’t really provide anything actionable in the post. I even went on to discussing how search engine algorithms aren’t that complex.

But back then there weren’t many blogs. Now there are over a billion. That’s roughly 1 for every 7 people in this world.

Which is why it’s hard for you to generate backlinks, social shares or even get SEO traffic when you blog.

So, does that mean all hope is lost and that blogging is dealing?

Of course not. It just means you have to adjust your approach to blogging.

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And that’s what I am going to share today. Here’s the new formula to blogging.

Not all content is equal

Before I dive into the formula you should follow, you should first have a better understanding of the type of content that does well.

And it’s not the same for all platforms.

Just look at the screenshot below from the NeilPatel.com blog. These are the top blog posts by traffic…

topposts

What do you notice?

The first post breaks down how to get Instagram followers.

The second tells you what the 4ps of marketing is.

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The third post tells you how to check the traffic of a website.

The fourth breaks down how to make money from Instagram.

Do you see a trend yet?

Here’s another hint. Let’s look at the keywords that drive traffic to the 4ps post.

4pkeywords

As you can see the keywords that drive traffic to that page are all basic and beginner terms.

But here is what’s interesting. I broke down all my beginner content versus advance content.

Beginner content on average gets 3.68x more SEO traffic than advance content.

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seotrafficposttype

So, at first, I thought it’s because beginner content gets shared more on the social web. But that can’t be true because I just skip beginner content myself… so I decided to look at the social shares per post on Facebook (I could get Linkedin and Twitter stats due to API limitations).

facebookshareposttype

Interestingly enough, advanced content gets 91 more Facebook shares on average and 288 extra visitors from Facebook.

Now let’s look at backlinks. (You can check the backlink count for any page here.)

backlinkposttype

On average my advanced content generated 4.81 times more backlinks on average than my beginner content. (When going through the backlink count numbers, we removed links from scrape sites and RSS feeds as we don’t really consider quality links, they are more so spam.)

So, what does this tell you?

Well first off, not all content is equal.

Secondly, advanced content tends to get more backlinks and social shares.

But basic content tends to generate more SEO traffic.

And no, it’s not just NeilPatel.com

To make sure we weren’t the only ones seeing this, we analyzed 191 blogs using Ubersuggest.

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Can you guess what we found?

The results were somewhat similar.

Here’s what we saw form a social share perspective.

ubersuggestfbshare

As you can see advanced content generated more social shares. Now we couldn’t see people’s Facebook traffic stats, but it’s a pretty safe assumption to assume posts with more social shares typically generate more social traffic.

And here’s backlink data.

ubersuggestbacklink

Advanced content generated more backlinks. It wasn’t 4.81 times like it was for NeilPatel.com, but it is still a significant difference.

And as for search traffic, based on our Ubersuggest traffic estimation basic content generate more SEO traffic.

ubersuggestseotraffic

So, what’s the new way to blog?

The beautiful part about owning an ad agency is that you see a lot of data, you can spot a lot of trends and figure out what works for all industries.

Globally we have over 700 customers. It allows us to test a lot, so we can figure out how to provide the best results in the long run.

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Here’s the formula we found to work well.

Spend 40% of your time creating basic content

When thinking about basic content, I want you to keep “how to” in mind.

Anything that is how to that targets beginners typically is considered beginner content.

You can find these keywords in two simple ways…

First off, you can go to Ubersuggest and type in a keyword related to your space.

You’ll see an overview of how popular the keyword is.

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keywordoverview

And then in the left-hand navigation, click on “Keyword Ideas”. You will see a big list of keywords and as you click on the tabs or scroll you will see hundreds if not up to a million ideas.

keywordideas

Beginner keywords tend to be searched a lot and, in many cases, have a lower cost per click than advanced keywords as they are more top of the funnel and less likely to convert a visitor to a purchaser right away.

The second way you can find these keywords is to go to Ubersuggest and type in a competitor URL.

In the left-hand navigation click on “Keywords by Traffic” and you will see all of the keywords that your competition ranks for.

competitorkeywords

No matter what industry you are in, these how to informational keywords or generic terms can drive brand awareness… doesn’t matter if you are an ecommerce store or even a B2B company.

It’s great to have this traffic because a portion of those visitors will convert into customers. It won’t be at a high percentage (usually a fraction of a percent), but you can get millions of visitors due to the volume so it will still add up to being meaningful.

And if you aren’t sure on how to create basic content, followthis. Or you can watch this…

Spend 10% of your time creating advanced content

Think of advanced content as anything that an industry expert, or a speaker would discuss.

Think thought leadership.

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Whether you include stats, talking about trends, or what the future beholds… this is the type of content that generates the social shares and backlinks.

And if you want to take it one step further, we’ve found that if you include charts and graphs it tends to generate more backlinks than if you don’t.

Here’s my backlink count from posts with charts and graphs versus ones without:

graphsnographs

You can use Canva to create them, which is free.

In most cases you probably won’t have data like I was able to show you in this post, but you can get it.

From sites like Upwork, you can hire researchers for $5 or $10 who can reach out to companies and help you gather data, or they can search the web to find it.

The big thing to consider with advanced content is, if it is something you would share on the social web, chances are it’s good. If you wouldn’t, then others probably won’t.

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Spend 20% of your time refreshing old content

What you will find with blogging is that your old content will get less SEO traffic over time.

The easiest way to see this is to follow this video…

If you spend 20% of your time updating old content you will not only maintain, but you can grow your SEO traffic from your older posts.

It works so well I have a team that just updates old content for me because it’s too much work once you have thousands of blog posts.

If your blog is new you won’t be refreshing much, but once you have over 100 blog posts you’ll find that you will need to spend a good amount of time updating.

Spend 30% of your time marketing your content

I have this saying with my team…

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Don’t forget the “marketing” in content marketing.

If you write content, whether it is advanced or basic, it doesn’t automatically mean it will do well.

If no one sees it, no one is going to share it or link to it.

So how do you ensure your old content gets read? It starts with 3 simple steps.

  1. Internal linking – I want you to add 3 links to the new blog post you just published from your old content. Go into your old blog posts that are relevant and add 3 links to it from relevant old posts (one link per post). And if it is a good fit also link your new post to any old posts that are a good fit or ones that you referenced.
  2. Social sharesfollow this process to get social shares (scroll down and read the “ask people to share it” section). It’s tedious, but it works and it’s how we get social shares to any new blog that doesn’t have an audience or a big social following or even a big budget.
  3. Build links – over time you will naturally get backlinks as I get, but when starting off you will have to manually build them. Don’t buy them or do anything shady, just follow this and you’ll build more links over time.

Conclusion

Blogging still works. It’s not dead!

You just have to change your approach to how you blog.

Copying what people or even I did years ago won’t work. You have to take a new approach. And that new approach is outlined above. 🙂

If you follow this for 6 months you will see results. If you follow it for a year, your traffic will be noticeably different. And if you stick with it for 2 to 3 years, the results start compounding.

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So, what do you think about the process above?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

  • SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.
  • Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
  • Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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