by Jonathon Hyjek | Dec 26, 2022 | Content Marketing
A few years ago the common mantra of most SEO experts was “create good quality content” and your traffic will increase.
Most SEO companies convinced clients that weekly blog posts would be what was needed to rank a website on the front page of Google and they needed to continue doing it if they wanted to retain that position. This was the industry standard and the results were often “ok”, if not mediocre
While this holds true today to a certain extent, using the “post and pray” method is certainly not the best use of your digital/content marketing efforts.
I will be the first to admit that it “might” work in certain situations if your content somehow gets in front of the right audience, but a better solution is for YOU to get your content in front of an audience by reaching out and finding them.
What is Content Promotion?
Content promotion basically means that you create content for your blog or another web property and then go about the process of driving traffic to that content. Hoping and praying that someone will find your content is far too passive if you want to have more than mediocre results.
Finding the right audience involves networking, emailing, being social on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many other social platforms to build relationships with other people in a similar niche that may share your content.
Time to become a social butterfly.
We all know people like that in the “real world.” They float in and out of social situations with ease. They can talk to anyone in any situation, about anything and they thrive on it. If you’re NOT one of those people, you know how hard it can be to “put yourself out there.”
The same holds true in the digital space, except that you can quite easily “hide” behind the screen so you aren’t as exposed as if you were mingling at a party full of strangers.
Content promotion isn’t a new concept, but it has been getting more visibility recently because of a few blog posts written by industry heavy-weights that expose just how content promotion works.
While you could wade through dozens of blog posts on the topic, written by a number experts in the digital marketing industry, I’ve summarized the best pieces of advice that I have read recently on the topic. These posts are written by experts in the industry that have gained the trust of the Digital Marketing community because they bring real value to our businesses and the businesses of our clients.
Below are 3 of the BEST Content Marketing, Strategy & Promotion blog posts that I’ve read recently.
Backlinko.com on Content Strategy – Brian Dean is one of the best experts in content promotion/strategy in the past year. His posts have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people who love his no-nonsense, get to the point approach. He’s like a breath of fresh air in an industry with tips that are often vague and usually leave the reader with a lot of holes to fill in yourself.
Quicksprout.com – Advanced Content Marketing Guide – Neil Patel is one of the most recognized names in the SEO/Digital Marketing industry. He consistently writes helpful guides and blog posts that have helped millions of agencies and business owners to grow their businesses online.
Convinceandconvert.com – How to Promote your content across owned, earned and paid media” – Written by Matthew Gratt who leads Buzzstream’s marketing and growth initiatives, this helpful post is packed full of useful information that you can implement right away.
by Jonathon Hyjek | Jul 25, 2012 | Search Engine Optimization
Fresh content is important from an SEO standpoint, so let me get that right out there at the beginning of this post. From a practical standpoint, I would suggest that it’s even more important. There’s nothing worse than going to a blog’s front page and noticing that the last time they posted was last year! There’s plenty of talk in the SEO community though about how fresh content ranks better in Google’s search results, but I don’t believe that’s entirely true.
Here’s been my experience with how content ranks in Google when talking about “freshness.”
1.) Established websites that continue to write fresh content will more easily maintain their rankings. Fresh content is like a placeholder for these websites.
Fresh content is important to keep Google interested in your website, but it’s not the only game in town either. It’s just part of the puzzle and needs to be supplemented by social media, building quality backlinks (or better yet, acquiring them because your content is great.)
2.) New websites that post content can see small increases in their search engine rankings each time they post new content. If you’re on page 4 and in spot 8, after new content is published, you may move up a few spots, or maybe even make it onto page 3 for a short time, only to slip back.
It needs to be noted that SEO is a total picture and looking at just one element isn’t healthy. Fresh content is a piece, but only ONE piece of a puzzle that includes many pieces.
by Jonathon Hyjek | Jul 20, 2012 | Search Engine Optimization
If you have been looking around for help getting your website ranked better in the search engines, you’ve likely come across a few terms that can be slightly confusing. Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are the two main terms that are tossed around and it’s assumed that consumers just know what they mean.
If you don’t quite understand the difference, don’t feel bad. It’s not you! Many in the online world are guilty of tossing around confusing terms and not fully explaining them. Sometimes I wonder if professional SEO’s (people who do this stuff for a living) use industry-exclusive terms in order to sound smart or more sophisticated? Who knows…
If you’re wondering what exactly Search Engine Marketing is, here’s a simple answer. Search engine marketing is a phrase that encompasses a number of activities including search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising (PPC) social media marketing and content marketing. It’s the generic term used to convey all those elements. Some in the field may break it out further, but for simplicity, I won’t do that.
Here are the 4 elements that make up the term “Search Engine Marketing.”
Search Engine Optimization – Analyzing various factors on your website and elsewhere to find out how to improve your search engine rankings. This can involve analyzing your website structure, the content on your website and building backlinks from quality sources, all in an attempt to improve your website’s visibility online. FYI: Jonathon Hyjek online believes in doing “white-hat SEO.” In other words, doing things that are ethical. Anything spammy or unethical, we won’t do!
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) – Anytime you search for something in Google, you will see ads at the top and side of the pages, often shaded a slightly different colour. These are advertisements that are paid for by the person advertising. Each time someone clicks on the ad, the advertiser has to pay money to Google. This can be from as low as a few cents per click to over $20 per click for very high competition keywords. PPC advertising may be a good option for you if you have a good quality website to direct people to.
Social Media Marketing – This is simply a fancy name for using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Tumblr or some other social network in order to advertise. Some of this is completely free while some of it will cost money, usually on a pay-per-click basis. Social media marketing involves communicating with and engaging your customers, clients and prospective customers/clients.
Content Marketing – Content marketing involves writing high quality content and distributing on different websites. The most obvious and best place to put your content is on your website or blog. Beyond that you can submit it to various online article directories, however be very selective where you distribute your content. Look for websites that seem to only have good quality content on their website. Traditional article directories have been guilty of accepting content from anywhere and have often been filled up with spammy content.
I hope that the information about has helped you to understand what Search Engine Marketing is and if you should be looking into it for your business. Although I may be biased, I believe that EVERY business should have some sort of search engine marketing strategy/plan in place.
