Tomorrow I will be answering live questions on how to double your blog traffic in two weeks in the SEM Rush chat.
In this post, I will be listing materials for the audience.
Rand Fishken – Why Content Marketing Fails – Click Here to Download
Technical Aspect of Structuring a Blog
Blog methodology
- Post
- Share buttons
- Thumbnail image
- Read more button
- Pagination rel next rel prev
- Technical
- XML sitemap
- HTML sitemap in footer (can part of main HTML sitemap)
- Video sitemap
- Image sitemap
- Should be on directory
- Hreflang tags if international/language
- Article schema
- Yoast plugin
- Stay away from page speed plugins
- Contextual related post plugin or Zemanta related post plugin
- Add this plugin for share buttons (or something similar)
- BuzzSumo email pop up capture
- BuzzSumo heat map
- Sidebar
- Text box at the top (letting user know where they are)
- Social media profile buttons
- Email capture – Newsletter opt in – Subscribe button
- Recent posts
- Top posts of all time (whitepapers, great posts, etc.)
- Categories (make sure they align with top keywords, 5 to 15)
- Search box
- Button to become a contributor on the blog
Blog Post Promotion Checklist
| Things to Keep in Mind | |
| Write 5 titles and then pick the best one, the title is the most important thing. Make sure it pops! | |
| Make sure blog is optimized for a term. Use main keyword in first few sentences and throughout the post | |
| Focus both on broad terms for optimization and long tail terms just in case | |
| Make sure post is 1,000 words to 6,000 words, about 2,000 is ideal | |
| Make sure blog has one optimized image for each 200 words, the more the better | |
| Make sure share buttons are visible and commenting is possible | |
| Make sure to mention people and business in your post that are relevant to the topic | |
| Link to people you want to do business with, to authoritative sites, posts/pages on your site that you want to rank and posts/pages around the web that you want to rank | |
| Checklist on Blog Promotion | |
| Tweet blog post | |
| 3 times day 1 | |
| 1 time day 2 | |
| On weekend in weekly review | |
| Once every two weeks following | |
| Make sure to use hashtags | |
| Tag all people mentioned and let them know they are in the post | |
| Do a promoted Tweet | |
| Promote on Facebook | |
| Share post | |
| Make sure it is a good photo | |
| Add relevant text | |
| Make sure to use hashtags | |
| Tag all people mentioned and let them know they are in the post | |
| Do a Facebook promoted Post | |
| Share in Facebook groups | |
| Post to Facebook as an instant article if possible | |
| Share on LinkedIn | |
| Post to main profile | |
| Post to LinkedIn Groups | |
| Post as LinkedIn post and link to full article | |
| Do a linked in sponsored post | |
| Share on Pinterest | |
| Make sure it is a great image | |
| Pick a relevant category | |
| Do promoted Pin | |
| Submit on StumbleUpon | |
| Run stumbelupon ads | |
| Submit on Reddit | |
| Run Reddit Ads | |
| Add to additional social media sites and nice bookmarking sites | |
| Promote with Zemanta | |
| Promote with Outbrain | |
| Turn blog into a slideshow and add to slideshare | |
| Run PPC ads to blog post from (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Google, Bing) | |
| Add to Scoop.it | |
| Answer Questions and promote blog on Quora | |
| Create an Image with Text and Share on Instagram | |
| Email all websites of business or people who are mentioned in the post and ask to share | |
| Send to network of influencers to share on thier social (only if makes sense) | |
| Link to this blog post from other popular blog posts | |
| Use tools like Pitchbox to let people know about the post and ask them to link to it | |
| Respond to Haro requests and link to post in request as a reference | |
| If blog post is not ranking well, go back a few weeks later and extend the length another 500 of 1,000 words | |
| Submit post to industry roundup blogs | |
| Promote post with pop ups on your site | |
| Use a plugin like Tweet this so it is easier for people to share | |
| Send out blog post in email to people who subscribe |
Screen Shots
Search Engine Land Template
SEM Rush Rankings for Search Engine Land Page
eHow Rankings Decline After Panda Update
In Case you Missed the Twitter Chat, Here are My Answers
Question 1: Let’s speak clear, does everyone really need a blog?
No. There are plenty of businesses built on cold calling, 100% referral partners, #affiliates, etc.
But if the business wants to be customer facing and do their own #marketing, yes, they need a blog.
If you blog correctly, you will drive traffic, sales, become a #thoughtleader and even potentially win industry awards.
If you blog incorrectly, it is a complete waste of time.
#Contentmarketing has become more competitive.
10 years ago when I worked in publishing, it was only news sites publishing; now many more sites are.
So the way you blog now, makes all the different. And there are some big mistakes people make.
Question 2: What are some of the most important elements of a good blog?
@randfish really hit the nail on the head in his recent presentation on #contentmarketing which you can see here: https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
Most people misunderstand the process.
They think they make content, people visit the page and then they buy. It is actually much different than that.
It works like this: Content Created > Content Promoted > Click > Subscribe…
> More Content > Build Trust > They Remember When Product Is Needed
Now that is the conceptual part. But there is a technical part too.
I have added some of my favorite technical ways to structure a #blog here: https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
There is also a final element. The actual content you are creating. It needs to be #persona focused.
I like to start by considering who I need to #influence and then determine what type of content will influence them.
Find ways to involve people in your blog who you want to interact with.
When you publish a post targeted towards them, let them know via email and #socialmedia.
That is what I have been doing in my live case study recently which you can see here https://johnlincoln.marketing/digital-influencer-episode-2/
Question 3: Can you generate traffic quickly with SEO or should you focus on other channels?
With an established site, yes, you can generate traffic quickly with #SEO
Especially if something is technically wrong, they have keywords that are in striking distance or they have never done #contentmarketing.
For example, I had a client who had a 3 level deep unoptimized category optimization.
I gave them an optimization template, we pushed it live, and within 2 months they increased traffic by 1.4 million visitors.
But if the site has low domain authority, or is brand new, this would not have worked.
For new sites, #SEO is something you need to work on, but it will not be a quick win.
#socialmedia can really result in some quick wins for new websites.
If you get scrappy, write great content and promote the heck out of it, you will see large spikes in traffic.
You can see my blog post promotion checklist here https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
Question 4: How to refresh your existing Content to boost your traffic?
This is one of the biggest failures on the part of most #contentmarketers.
If you already wrote a post why write 10 more posts on it? Why not go back and add to the content quality, image quality and length.
If you refresh content, and increase the quality, it will result in #ranking increases for that content.
You can re-share it for fresh #socialsignals and promote it for new links.
People don’t realize you really only get one shot at each keyword online.
If you write 5 posts on a topic, Google must make a decision.
So it is much better to have one URL as the go-to for that topic.
Now, what larger publishers like @searcheland @entrepreneur @inc do is create a hub template.
For example, this is @searcheland template for the “panda update” https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
You can see it has some text, links to top resources on the topic and it has a category feed below with the most recent news.
If we put this into at @semrush we can see this page ranks #1 for panda update and many more terms. https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
One more thing, people used to write shorter, blog post that were not high quality.
That is why sites like @ehow got hit so hard from the #pandaupdate. https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
So older sites really need to go back and update those old, poor quality blog posts
Question 5: What’s more important – the amount of visitors or quality of traffic and why?
100% the quality. Anyone can get you traffic
Do you want 30,000 visitors this month, I can easily get that for you, but it will just be a number that will lead to nothing
You need quality users, who are interested in your offering and who you get to convert
There is so much junk traffic online. That is why it is so important to be highly targeted with what you are doing
You could get your site to 200,000 visitors a month and never make one dollar. You could waste years of your life
Online businesses need a clear business model that is profitable. Once they have that, they just need to get the right type of traffic
I have a client who only gets a few hundred visitors a month and does millions in revenue each year because the traffic is quality
Question 6: OK, the million dollar question. How can you double your blog traffic in two weeks?
It will not happen unless you really go after it. But here is my answer for you.
First, spend more time promoting your post than you do writing them.
This is the biggest failure. Make sure to use my blog promotion checklist here: https://bit.ly/1W6Hlli
Second, you need to hustle on #socialmedia and email.
Use a service like @PitchboxApp or @BuzzStream – tag people on #socialmedia, email them if you mention them and do outreach.
Third, put significant focus on your blog retention strategy.
Popups, email captures, #socialmedia community building. These things are so important.
Forth, focus on creating hubs of content or updating older content. This will help your rankings. Keep improving the value.
Fifth, have a #socialmedia #advertising plan around every post. It will help so much with amplification. $5 to $100.
Sixth, build relationships. Pick up the phone and call people.
Get them to #guestblog and support each other by linking to each other’s content.
Reach out to prominent bloggers in your industry. Email 50 of them and ask them to guest post on your blog.
One more thing you can do is translate your content into another language.
I recently pushed a client into 27 different countries and languages. We saw an increase in traffic of 8,000%.
It was so fun to watch.
One more thing, buy my new book (proceeds go to charity) it will teach you everything you need to know https://amzn.to/1Wqcyfq
I put a lot of time into it. It is everything I wish I would have known.
Book -> Digital Influencer, A Guide to Achieving Influencer Status Online https://amzn.to/1Wqcyfq
