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Ultimate Guide to Real Estate SEO: 7 Ways to Earn Traffic & Leads

Ultimate Guide to Real Estate SEO: 7 Ways to Earn Traffic & Leads was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

When house hunting, 90% of buyers use the Internet. In fact, 53% of buyers start their search online, according to “The Digital House Hunt,” an extensive report on real estate consumer trends conducted by Google and the National Association of Realtors.

More than ever, people head online when it comes to looking for homes and finding realtors. Between 2008 and 2012, real estate-related searches increased by 253%. With so much opportunity online, realtors can’t afford to miss out on this valuable traffic; for professionals in real estate, SEO is more important than ever.

When it comes to capturing traffic for terms related to real estate, SEO efforts begin with local keyword targets on a personal website.

“You have to carve out a niche for yourself — think locally, and then expand,” said Robert Ramirez, a senior SEO Analyst who has managed real estate SEO for agents at Sotheby’s and Century 21.

Read on to discover how you can leverage a real estate website to capture traffic (and leads). Start from the top or click on section headings below to jump around by topic:

Target Local Keywords
Write Blog Entries
Take Advantage of Photos and Videos
Make Your Site Mobile with Responsive Design
Get Listed in Directories
Optimize Your Bio on Your Broker’s Website
Incorporate Social Media

1. Target Local Keyword Phrases

69% of home shoppers begin their research with a local keyword phrase, like “Glendale realtor.”

“Most realtors service multiple cities and regions. However, when you start your website, focus on the main city you do business in first. From there, build out silos that target other areas,” Ramirez said.

Optimize your website for search terms such as:

[City] real estate
[City] homes for sale
[City] real estate listings
[City] realtor
[City] real estate agent

These words can appear on pages throughout your site. For example, a site focusing on just Glendale realty might be organized like this:

Glendale Homes for Sale
Living in Glendale
Glendale Real Estate Testimonials
About Your Glendale Realtor

Throughout these pages, incorporate the local keyword targets, working them into content that is useful to a prospective home buyer.

“Make your website a resource,” Ramirez explained. “On a page like ‘Living in Glendale,’ provide information on school districts, crime rates, median income, public transportation, and statistics on the average homeowner.”

The more targeted a real estate website can be, the better.

“Really focus on capturing local traffic. You have a much better chance to rank for, let’s say, ‘Glendale realtor’ than ‘Southern California realtor’ — as you build your site and traffic, you can eventually target more competitive terms like ‘Southern California realtor,’ but not right out of the gate. You’ll have more success if you take a more targeted approach,” Ramirez said. “For example, a real estate agent I worked with put up a website in Chinese that focused exclusively on selling homes in the Hollywood Hills to the Chinese community and he made a killing. It was so targeted and so niche-oriented, he was able to corner the market by honing in on very specific keywords and a very specific community.”

A Note on Using IDX/MLS

It’s common practice for realtors and brokers to use IDX (Internet Data Exchange) to render real estate listings. While this is great for users, it usually does little to influence rankings on search engines because these MLS listings are usually rendered with jQuery, in an iFrame or on a subdomain that appears off of the main site — meaning Google won’t index the content as part of the site. That’s why it’s important to add additional unique content to the listings page, such as:

extra facts and features of a property
excerpts from your testimonials page
videos
photos

2. Write Blog Post on Homes You’re Especially Keen to Sell

A real estate agent can represent hundreds of listings at a time, there are no doubt a few key properties that the realtor is particularly motivated to sell. One way to secure traffic to your site for those specific properties is to write blog posts. Each blog post should target a specific property’s address, which perspective home buyers will be searching for using Google. The address becomes the keyword — follow all SEO best practices such as using the keyword in:

Meta Description
Title tag
ALT tag on photos
File name on photos
The content

As for the content itself, come up with 200 words of unique content describing the home’s features in addition to the standard description — and in this case, you don’t have to worry about duplicate content.

“Google expects to see those descriptions of homes appear across the web. You won’t be penalized for including standard listing information. However, if you want to rank for the address as a keyword, you’ll have to include unique content, as well,” Ramirez explained.

3. Take Advantage of Photos and Videos

Photos and videos are key engagement objects on all websites, but this is especially true of a real estate site. Home buyers love seeing a video tour of the inside of their prospective new homes. In addition to video tours, consider capturing testimonials on video, too.

“Whenever you sell a home, get a testimonial. If you have a video camera, a steady hand and good lighting, try to get that testimonial recorded on the spot. A home buyer is ecstatic right after getting their keys. That’s a great time to ask,” said Ramirez.

An Australian real estate group reported seeing 403% more inquiries for listings with video than those without video, and studies have shown adding a video to a page triples the amount of inbound link.

4. Make Your Site Mobile

The statistics are in and they show that home buyers are searching for real estate on mobile devices. “The Digital House Hunt” report referenced earlier also found:

89% of new home shoppers search using a mobile device during the home buying process.
A 300% growth of real estate broker-related searches on tablets year over year.
Foreclosure searches have risen 180% year over year on mobile devices.

The report found that home buyers are apt to use mobile real estate sites while at home, at work, while waiting in line, at restaurants and in other people’s homes. Home buyers visit real estate websites to:

Read general home information
Get directions to visit a home
Compare prices
Compare features
Search a listing company’s inventory
Call a broker
Locate a listing agent
Read reviews
Research mortgage financing
Email/contact a broker
Watch an online video about a property

With these statistics in mind, it’s clear that making your website mobile is an important factor in real estate SEO. We recommend using responsive design, which is Google’s preferred mobile configuration (read more on responsive design).

Real Estate SEO: Beyond Your Website

In addition to optimizing your personal website for traffic, there are steps you can take off-site to entice prospective clients, as well, such as optimizing your bio page on your real estate agency’s website, getting listed in directories and using social media strategically.

5. Get Listed in Directories

Real estate agent directories get a lot of traffic. Ramirez recommends getting listed in top real estate directories. Each of the following highly trafficked real estate sites have directories available to realtors:

Trulia
Zillow
RedFin
Homes.com

Zillow alone had 498 million page views in January 2014 and Trulia had 277 million. There’s a lot of potential traffic to be captured by getting listed in the right real estate directory.

6. Optimize Your Bio on Your Broker’s Website

If you’re a realtor working with an agency, your brokerage house more than likely hosts a web page for each realtor. While it is unlikely that this sub-domain can rank for a local keyword target, this is a great page to optimize for your name.

“People will Google your name, so you need to optimize search for your name,” said Ramirez. “Include your full name in the Title tag and Meta Description. This might be challenging, however, because on the broker site, you’re operating on a domain that you don’t have full control over. Find out what you can and cannot change – if you can alter the Meta data, optimize those fields for your name.”

In addition to ranking for your name, you can also use the bio page to provide contact information and link to your personal website. For additional tips on ranking for your name, check out “Rank for Your Name,” which has more insights from Ramirez on why and how to use your name as a keyword.

7. Incorporate Social Media

When it comes to client relations, social media is a great way to start relationships or strengthen existing ones. A realtor with an active social media presence is able interact with clients where they are everyday: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and/or Instagram.

“Real estate is all about relationships — obviously any record you can build on social media that shows your expertise is important. When people vet you and discover a healthy, professional social media presence, it’s going to signal trust,” said Ramirez.

Because photos and videos are key components in real estate sales, Pinterest and Instagram are particularly useful platforms for realtors. On Facebook, consider joining location-based groups and on Google+, get active in local communities. Across all platforms, use social media strategically, employing hashtags like #realestate or #listing. For more tips on leveraging each of these networks, read “Social Media for Business.”

Need some inspiration? Take a look at how professionals are wielding #realestate:

Tweets about “#realestate”

This real estate SEO guide was written with individual realtors in mind. If you represent a brokerage house and are interested in learning more about SEO, PPC or social media marketing for your company website, contact us! We’ve been a global leader in Internet marketing since 1996 and have worked with thousands of companies to maximize their reach online.

 

The #1 Thing You Can Do to Improve Mobile UX: Image Optimization

The #1 Thing You Can Do to Improve Mobile UX: Image Optimization was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Or: So You’ve Got Responsive Design, Now What?

Having a responsive design is the Google-recommended way to deliver content on mobile devices. While other mobile formats are acceptable to Google as well, Google prefers one over the others. The benefits of responsive design are clear, but what happens when responsive web design isn’t good enough? An issue complicating mobile UX for many responsive sites: load time and image heavy sites.

Load Time for Responsive Sites

Web developer Trilibis recently released a survey on the web performance of sites utilizing responsive web design and found that 69 percent of those sites did not have an acceptable load time.

Part of catering to a seamless mobile user experience means that site performance should be up to par; users aren’t very forgiving of sites that are slow to load. Users don’t like it, so they bounce. Google doesn’t like it, so you rank lower. Desktop sites are viewed in this way; why would the expectation not translate to mobile devices, especially considering the narrower bandwidth?

Perhaps we overlooked user experience and took for granted performance on mobile devices. We thought maybe the relatively fast load times on our desktop sites would translate to responsive design. Our site is content-rich and relevant to user queries. So, what gives?

The single-most contributing factor to slow load times on responsive design mobile sites is images, says the Tribilis survey. Big, fat images. (Tweet this)

Senior VP of Sales at Triliblis, Ted Verani, asserted that the mobile web “is considerably slower than its wireline counterpart. By serving images and pages that are optimized for mobile devices, we see dramatic improvements in page-load time, which translates to a much better overall user experience.”

It’s easy to forget about images and the effect they have on load times, but if, we as an Internet marketing industry, have forgotten images, we have forgotten our mobile users. We must think of mobile as the lowest common denominator, as the key driver of traffic to our sites.

This isn’t news by any means, but clearly, image optimization is something that’s been overlooked considering 32 percent of the mobile sites surveyed loaded in an abysmal 8-48 seconds with page sizes in excess of 1.7MB. Want to know what the average page sizes were for the top-30 online retailers according to the Keynote Mobile Commerce Performance Index? 420KB, with an average load time of 3.7 seconds. (Tweet this)

Optimizing images as a means of decreasing page weight and load times is probably the easiest way to improve site performance, thereby improving mobile user experience by catering to the user’s expectation of delivering here and now.

3-Step SEO Solution to Quick Loading Images

There are two ways to easily optimize images: compression and definition.

First, use a page speed to tool to identify which images are the culprits. I previously wrote about Mobile UX and using Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. Using this tool will point you in the direction of which images to optimize.

Next, compress your images. This can consist of anything from choosing a better, less space-intensive, image format, to determining how images are going to load on the page. Either way, chances are, the size of the images on your site need to come down, and there are many methods and tools that can be employed to accomplish such a goal. HTML5Rocks has an exhaustive article on a number of equally valid ideas on image compression. Check it out — your mobile UX depends on it.

Lastly, image dimensions. This is critically important for both desktop and mobile/responsive sites. Not defining your images means the browser must render the image as it loads the other elements of the page. When dimensions are defined, the browser will pre-render the space in accordance with the dimensions.

In other words, there are no hang ups on loading images. Plus, it can act as a poor man’s version of image compression. It is worth noting that images should be defined proportionate to their original dimensions, otherwise the images will be sized correctly, but the contents will look slightly humorous.

It’s clear employing responsive design isn’t enough. We can’t overlook the simplest elements, not even from a general optimization standpoint, image optimization included.

This may not fix all the ills on all responsive web design sites, but it can go a long way in getting you there. Put these simple tips together and you’ve already gone farther than most in addressing site performance issues, and more importantly, how users interact with your site.

New AdWords Feature: A Drill Down into Drafts and Experiments

New AdWords Feature: A Drill Down into Drafts and Experiments was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Editor’s note:

On Tuesday, Google AdWords announced a number of new features and abilities for Google advertisers would be rolling out in the next few weeks, with standouts including:

bulk action editing
offline reporting capabilities
ads for apps and in-app purchases
bid automation
drag-and-drop report creation
draft mode for ad and campaign changes


Today’s post is by 3Q Digital Senior SEM Manager Eric Smith. You can catch 3Q Digital’s expert search marketers on the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog every other month, and we on their’s, in our ongoing search blog partnership. Eric has drilled down into one of the new features that Google advertisers will see coming to their AdWords Editor in the coming weeks: Drafts and Experiments.

This week’s AdWords Performance Forum featured a lot of great new and upcoming features; a livestream of the first overview session can be found here.

It wasn’t much of a surprise to many advertisers that Google is continuing to focus on mobile and bid automation as two key areas of improvement, and updates here are likely to be very positive. One of the most exciting announcements, however, was the unveiling of Google’s new “Drafts and Experiments” functionality.

As the name implies, there are two main product improvements here.

Drafts and Experiments: Draft Mode

The first is “draft mode,” which allows users to make and save edits within the AdWords UI without pushing them live to an account. Third-party management tools and AdWords Editor have functionality around this already, but it wasn’t previously possible through the user interface.

Draft mode is particularly handy when you’re:

Rolling out large-scale changes that take multiple sessions to complete
Planning to update bids and ads based on seasonal factors such as holidays
Or working on accounts where multiple people are involved and want to stay abreast of changes before they are executed

Rolling out changes made within draft mode can be done in two ways, and this is where things get interesting.

The first way changes can be made is intuitive; edits made in draft mode can be pushed live to the account, and the result is just the same as making an edit in the UI or through AdWords Editor.

Draft Mode Experiments vs. AdWords Campaign Experiments

The second option implements changes made in draft mode only to a certain percentage of traffic. If you’ve spent a lot of time in AdWords, this should sound vaguely familiar. A while back Google introduced AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), which allows you to set a percentage of traffic as an experiment group and test (among other things) ad text or keyword level bid multipliers.

If you haven’t had the opportunity, playing around with ACE is highly recommended. Being able to segment a portion of your traffic is a big deal and Google, as the ad publisher, is uniquely positioned to do this — this functionality is not found anywhere else. Side-by-side comparisons don’t allow for week-over-week variations to influence any of your tests, and having smaller experiment groups mitigates risk of disrupting performance through testing.

ACE has some drawbacks (clunky setup, reporting can be tedious) though it looks like that is what Google is trying to address here. There are also a lot of important things ACE can’t test, such as any type of campaign setting, targeting method, or bid strategy. Bids themselves can only be tested through % multipliers.

Although Google hasn’t released all the details, the most exciting part about the Drafts and Experiments announcement is that it seems like all experiment limitations are going to go away. From the AdWords blog:

“You can experiment with almost anything in your campaign, including bid changes, new keywords, different campaign settings, special bids for times and locations, different kinds of ad formats, and more. We think you’ll like it!”

This is really great news, and I for one can’t wait to get in and start testing!

How 3 Big Brands Use Storytelling to Make Everyday Products Exciting

How 3 Big Brands Use Storytelling to Make Everyday Products Exciting was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Storytelling. It’s important. I feel like you, my Internet marketing comrades, get this by now. Interruption marketing is dead, the online attention span is dwindling, content creation is up, and your brand needs a hook to catch consumer attention before the message goes in one ear and out the other (if it even gets to the first ear at all).

You get it.

But what if you’re not GoPro? What if your brand is boring or mundane? What if you sell less than sexy everyday products like graham crackers or online classes?

Enough with the what-ifs.

Storytelling that works is all about telling your story in a context that gets people thinking about their own lives. Every brand, no matter how “boring,”  has some special hook in their product line or their value system that is a great story just waiting to be told.

Taking a cue from the experts that are already doing it right, here are three great examples of big brands that are content marketing with stories that sell, and five reasons why their campaigns work so well.

Three Examples of Storytelling That Works

At the heart of it, storytelling is about using characters, setting and storyline to take an audience somewhere and make them feel something.

The values-driven, user-generated stories Honey Made, Patagonia and University of Phoenix tell with their unscripted “Worn Wear,” “This is Wholesome,” and “A Career Outside Of Football” campaigns accomplish this extremely well.

Here’s what their campaigns look like:

Patagonia: “Worn Wear”

In the “Worn Wear” series Patagonia invites brand advocates to share about their outdoor adventures, their lives, and the stories their gear would tell if it could talk.

The campaign has two parts: A 27-minute YouTube documentary that brings to life the stories of seven adventurers, including Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard himself, and a dedicated landing page where readers can scroll through user-submitted images and their accompanying “Dear Patagonia” stories.

If you’re thinking about how not boring outdoor gear is, I tend to agree with you, but watching the documentary you’ll notice some of the products featured (like a child’s romper and a pair of board shorts) are not all that exciting on their own. It’s the stories around the romper and the shorts that make them engaging, not the clothes themselves.

In their own words, Patagonia describes the project as “an antidote to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy, [released as] an invitation to celebrate the stuff you already own.”

Why it’s successful:

265,251 views on YouTube
1,704 YouTube thumbs up
184 YouTube comments

Honey Made: “This is Wholesome”

In their “This is Wholesome” series of documentaries, Honey Made gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of three different families, and how each make their unique situation work. The one-minute-plus documentaries feature a military family, a single dad, and a same-sex couple with two children. Although Honey Made graham products are shown in passing several times in the documentaries, the storyline is all about these families, their challenges, and, as the documentary series implies, what makes their family life wholesome.

Straight from the brand, these are the words Honey Made uses to describe the “Dad & Papa” episode of their “This is Wholesome” mini-series: “This is a touching story  […] about how two traditional guys built their family on love and laughter.”

Why it’s successful:

203,267 views on YouTube
5,132 YouTube thumbs up
1,380 YouTube comments

University of Phoenix: “A Career Outside Football”

In the University of Phoenix short documentary we meet NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who tells us in a first-person narrative about his mom’s fight with cancer, his dad’s emphasis on education and how studying at the University of Phoenix allows him to work on his degree even while raising a son and travelling the world.

In their own words University of Phoenix says this video is all about showcasing: “NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald […] working toward one of the most important completion attempts of his life: his college degree.”

Why it’s successful:

10,475,974 views on YouTube (yes, over 10 million views)
50 YouTube comments

5 Elements That Make These Stories Successful

Outdoor gear, graham crackers, and online education; not the sexiest subjects. So what makes these storytelling campaigns so successful?

The short answer: They’re successful because they tell great stories.

The longer answer: The’re successful because they tell great stories that accomplishes these five elements:

Hit a nerve: The stories told in these campaigns are fascinating, heart-felt, genuine and inspirational. Patagonia takes us down memory lane and inspires us to think about our own adventures and the stories we’ll pass  down — with our gear — from generation to generation; Honey Made’s family stories make us think of our own families, and inspire us to live with more love in our day to day; and the University of Phoenix short makes us think about our own goals, the role education plays in our families, and how the flexibility of an online university can make it possible for anyone to fulfill their dreams — including us. These types of stories make us think introspectively and hit a nerve that makes them particularly memorable and share-worthy.


Cast relatable characters that personify brand core values: Each of the adventurers, family members, and students we meet in these stories are true walking, talking embodiments of the Patagonia, Honey Made and University of Phoenix brand core values. People like to buy from brands they identify with; brands they believe in. These campaigns use the stories of real consumers to give the brands a human side, and to get the audience identifying with the characters as a means to get them identifying with the brand.


Show, don’t tell: The trick to content marketing with storytelling is to use your story to show the audience how excellent your product is by working it naturally into the stories you tell. Honey Made shows us a family telling jokes, talking about what they love about each other, making s’mores on the stove. They never mention the graham crackers or tell the audience how to use them; instead they show the audience how they can be a fun, comforting addition to a day with the family. Patagonia shows you an old jacket — a jacket you can’t even buy! A jacket from the 1980s. They don’t tell you to buy a jacket, instead they do the opposite and tell you to keep the jacket you already have forever and reuse it a million times. They do this to show you the value of clothing that is made to last, which is part of Patagonia’s core value system. These stories show you scenes that softly pitch the framework of concepts, then allow you to interpret significant details and come to your own conclusions. Selling in this way is smart because it builds affinity and brand-loyal customers who are more likely to come back year after year to keep buying.


Tell stories that naturally highlight product benefits: What’s the benefit of signing up for an online university? It allows you to take classes in Antartica! Or so I’ve learned from watching Larry Fitzgerald’s University of Phoenix story. Why buy from Patagonia? Because “Worn Wear” just showed me a guy cross country skiing in a perfectly good pair of Patagonia pants he bought 30 years ago. Why buy graham crackers? Because it’s the little things that count and sharing a graham cracker with someone is a great way to show them you love them. I know; Honey Made just showed me three families that do it all the time and they look super happy. Every product has benefits; the trick is to use the show-not-tell angle to highlight these benefits and show them in action as a central part of your storytelling.

Find real brand advocates that can sell the product for you: Production time aside, Patagonia, Honey Made and University of Phoenix didn’t have to do much writing at all to get these above-and-beyond stories. All they had to do was figure out the hook and ask their users to speak for themselves on a topic. The trick is to think about what makes your brand special — what the personification of your value system looks like — and then to find user stories that embody this vision.

At the end of the day, the type of introspective, user-generated storytelling exhibited in these three campaigns works particularly well as a marketing strategy because it engages the audience emotionally and makes them feel connected – both to the stories being told, and associatively to the brand.

Remember Your Campfire Roots and Don’t Overthink It

Considering storytelling as a content marketing tool, it can be easy to overthink the whole thing. If you want to create stories that sell, get in touch with your consumers (what makes them tick) and your own brand (what makes you special). The trick is to work smarter, not harder, by choosing to highlight stories that make an emotional impact, feature characters consumers can relate to, personify core values, and show (not tell) the benefits of products.

This approach can work for anyone, whether your product is deodorant, law services, online education, motorcycles, magazines or something we’ve never even heard of.

Looking for more content marketing strategy tips? Check out Bruce Clay’s book  ”Content Marketing for Professionals” to learn more.

SEO Newsletter: AdWords + Social Media = Amplified Reach

SEO Newsletter: AdWords + Social Media = Amplified Reach was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Internet marketing is evolving — are you? This month’s SEO Newsletter focuses on amplifying your business’s online reach with articles explaining how to use an underutilized and under-publicized paid, local search marketing platform, AdWords Express, and a guide intended to help a business choose which social networks are a good fit for their audience and investment. The strongest SEO campaigns work hand-in-hand with paid campaigns and social media marketing, both of which amplify a brand’s reach among new audiences.

Feature: Which Social Network Fits Best?

When first assessing social media marketing for your business, you may find yourself asking Which Social Networks Should I Invest In? In this month’s feature, you’ll read guidelines for determining if your business could be a good match for marketing, branding, community building or customer service on the six major social networks: Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Each of these social networks has its own rules of engagement — the more familiar a brand becomes with each social network’s nuances, the better they can leverage the social network to the benefit of their brand. Discover:

Demographic information of users on each social network to help you find your audience online
What brands are doing on each of the social networks that’s resulting in engagement and community growth
Criteria that can help a business evaluate if a social network is a good fit for its products and audience

Google AdWords Express for Local Search Marketing

In How to Use Google AdWords Express for Local Search Marketing, the Smart Way, get the inside scoop on how to harness Google AdWords Express if you run or work for a local, brick and mortar business. AdWords Express is a simplified version of AdWords that allows local businesses to target regional users and show up on Google Maps with a blue promoted pin. Read this article:

For guidance setting up AdWords Express
For information on budgeting and geotargeting
To find out why and when ads render through AdWords Express

News and Upcoming Events

In addition to these articles, get information on upcoming SEO training opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. In this month’s Hot Topic, get Bruce Clay, Inc. senior SEM analyst Michael Shore’s reaction to Google’s removal of paid query data in Google Analytics reporting. You’ll also learn what’s coming on April 22. In addition to these stories, readers will get a rundown of the latest news on all things related to search marketing.

For more than a decade, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s SEO Newsletter has been providing articles that help businesses stay on top of their Internet marketing game. If you want a monthly dose of Internet marketing news and information, sign up to get the SEO Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. You can check out the archives here.

SEOs Discuss the Role of Brands as Publishers

SEOs Discuss the Role of Brands as Publishers was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

The SEO benefits of publishing and content marketing are huge. Google’s head of webspam, Matt Cutts, has long preached that unique, compelling, user-focused content is the hallmark of a quality, well-ranking site. As brands become publishers, they also stand to earn top-of-mind recall and establish brand recognition.

Y esterday, Bruce Clay, Inc. hosted #SEOchat on Twitter. On the agenda? Brands as Publishers.

When SEOs take on a content publisher orientation, it helps think in terms of how to tell stories and how to manage assets as publisher organizations do. The best brands tell stories that resonate with their consumers — think of Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” or Dos Equis’ “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” These brands aren’t just advertising — they’re telling stories. This kind of strategic content marketing means brands and businesses have to be capable in the role of a publisher, i.e. creating and curating content, images and video that targets and engages specific audiences.

 During the Brands as Publishers #SEOchat, SEOs discussed:

Does Brand=Publisher?
Lessons from Traditional Publications
Media Mission Statements
Communication and Coordination
Content Types
Publisher Goals vs. SEO Goals
Writers and Editors
Writers’ Authority
Planning Content
Images
Competitor Content
Format Sweet Spots
Content ROI
Editorial Guidelines

Feel free to jump to you the topic that you’re most interested in by clicking the heading above … or read them all!

Does Brand=Publisher?

1. Do you consider your business a publisher? Do you believe the paradigm of brand=publisher applies to you?

@PaulaAllen: Today’s marketing requires content … have to distribute quality, but have to make yourself heard.

@KevinWaugh: Not yet, but I am pushing my work to embrace that, it takes some political wrangling.

@KristiKellogg: Absolutely!!! Successful brands are 100% publishers. Re: Dove. Red Bull. Coca Cola. etc. They TELL STORIES

@TannerPetroff: It’s more important than ever to be a publisher, and great at content marketing. We’re not perfect, but working on it.

@LisaBuyer: If you have a website or blog = you have a publication so… YES! brand=publisher.

@chrisjeverett: Being a publisher is essential for getting your message (your value, credibility, etc.) across to your prospective buyers.

@MichelleDLowry: I think it depends on the vertical. Forcing a publication to jump on the bandwagon may not work well for all brands.

@ClairWyant: In this day in age, if you have a robust marketing program, should be 50/50 your business and publishing.

@LandMoore22: I can’t separate the two. Publishers have to money. Businesses have to make money.

Lessons from Traditional Publications

2. As you transition into a publisher, what have you learned from traditional publications or other businesses?

@maryi: I’ve learned a lot from journalists – importance of a good headline and what to cover in content. Do good research.

@KristiKellogg: Upworthy has really taken the reins on renovating the traditional headline — and that model is working.

@KevinWaugh: From having hired journalists in the past, enforcing content style with multiple contributors was the main thing they taught me.

@JoshMcCormack: Publishing is your way of letting people find your businesses value.

@ClairWyant: Regarding headline, different headline works for different audiences and industries.

@sonray: Google Drive for internal and external teams to stay on point is really helpful. Personally love @trello as well!

 @bloomreachinc: We learned from a journalist by hiring one! @mikecassidy joined as our storyteller and has made a huge impact. The style of writing that a journalist brings is so much more consumable. Clear takeaways in a very narrative form.

@LisaBuyer:  Ethics, copyright laws, attribution, fact checking, editorial calendars, quality writing, deadlines.

@BruceClayInc: Brands can learn a lot from journalism model in “A Brand News Approach to Content Marketing.”

Media Mission Statements

3. Mission statements can help drive content with a purpose. Does your brand have a mission for its publishing?

@bloomreachinc: Not a mission so much as themes we focus on for a quarter. That content mixed in with ad hoc, timely pieces.

@PaulaSpeak: Having a mission statement is a big differentiator between media companies and brands. Per @JoePulizzi: http://goo.gl/7HK4tO

@LisaBuyer: They help the brands to keep on track. Similarly, people may have an idea about the businesses by their missions.

@ScottACroom: The hard part is following them and making sure they are BS-free.

@JennineMiller: We follow best practices, but I’m not sure if we have anything in writing. It’s one of those work smart not hard scenarios.

@ScottACroom: Putting on paper can help make the ideas more concrete and more likely to be followed. Not too crazy formal, though.

@JennineMiller: Yeah it’s something I should probably do soon! Our content calendar is on paper so that’s good for something.

@ScottACroom: Calendar is critical for everything, especially social media. Too easy to get overwhelmed otherwise. EFFICIENCY.

@8Keith: So your editorial calendar is a living, breathing thing?

@JennineMiller: And cries and needs consoling! … Consider your editorial calendar as tentative and always stay on top of ideas that will be relevant at the time.

Communication and Coordination

4. Does functioning like a media organization require more coordination between departments? How do you facilitate communication?

@BloomReachInc: Yes and the only way to do that consistently is to have some dedicated to it who can ask the right questions.

@scottacroom: Cross department communication is critical in any business, not just media. Use HootSuite for monitor/listen for the most part. Lifesaver. Can’t rave enough about Basecamp from @37signals.

@jenninemiller: Working in a small agency now but if it was larger I’d say yes! Communication is a must. Tools like Asana help everyone KIT

@michelledlowery: First, have clearly defined roles for each dept. Then encourage open communication. Important for leaders to set example.

@Feviyu: We use @mavenlink for collaboration both internal for our team and externally with clients #Loveit.

Content Types

5. What content types do you publish most (ex: web pages, blog, curation posts, videos, social posts, infographics)? Why?

@chrisjeverett: A mixture of everything. Diversification is key in publishing/content marketing for max customer reach.

@scottacroom: Totally industry and client dependent.

@sonray: Desired outcome is key. What is the best outcome? Then work backwards from there with a strategy/content type.

@clairwyant: Infographics help tell the story … but a summary is needed, mainly for SEO purposes … Big fan of blogging… plain simple text with a few images to help tell the story.

Socially… love images & infographics. If you have the resources for video, use it. It’s more cost effective not to, but if you can, all the better..

@JennineMiller: Working in a small agency now but if it was larger I’d say yes! Communication is a must. Tools like Asana help everyone.

@uprighttire: Social, blogging & webpage – in that order.

@BruceClayInc: We’ve invested the most focus in our blog and newsletter for years. Now increasing publishing activity in Google+ & others, too.

@lisabuyer: Seems like web pages get lost in the shuffle, if you have an online newsroom, each piece of news content=web page

@kmullett: yup, people became way too enamored w/the idea of “blogs” when “frequently updated quality content” was the goal.

@paulaspeak: True! Website revision takes a backseat to the latest blog post ideas, and blog has big payoff for SEO, too.

@kmullett: ANY quality content that solves problems or answers questions will help SEO, not just those in the blog.

@michelledlowery: social, blog, web page, in that order. Video’s a bit out of budget right now. Infographics are overused, IMO.

@rvaghanani: Infographics. Since they are more eye catching then printed words.

@JennineMiller: Technically social posts because we’re trying to keep engagement up and it helps with content promotion for blog posts, etc.

Publisher Goals vs. SEO Goals

6. For titles, do you find publisher goals (optimize for virality/social sharing) & SEO (rank for relevant keywords) are at odds?

@scottacroom: At odds? Not if you are doing them right.

@chrisjeverett: Sometimes Yes, Particularly when the SEO Focus doesn’t match the “Brand Message” (ie terminology used)

@kristikellogg: Sometimes — like when you want to write a ridiculously clever (or alliterative) headline but it fails to wield keywords. #sad

@jenninemiller: They can be at odds but the trick (no easy task) is to nail the keywords & create an awesome/sharable title. If applicable use a # or @ in the title. When someone shares it w/o edits it can lead to more real conversation/interaction.

 @feviyu: Sometimes @BruceClayInc hard to draw the line b/w creativity and practicality with titles

@lisabuyer: For titles, needs to be optimized is the key, so sad how much I see NOT optimized at all

@michelledlowery: Excellent tip I heard from @seanthinks at PubCon Austin: If headline isn’t working, change it. 3

@8Keith: It’s a dance … there is no perfect title. That’s the FUN.

@clairwyant: I tend to look at the SEO factor. One of the few areas I actually research. You can still make appealing headlines. The keyword research I do is very basic & not very in-depth. Noticed a difference between doing it & not.

@bloomreachinc: Write for human consumption.

@emcgillivray: As search engines get smarter, it’s better to optimize for humans than keywords.

@feviyu: I agree with @emcgillivray. When I’m faced with a decision will choose humans over bots.

@lisabuyer: Or balance of both is possible! @emcgillivray

@sonray: Yes, yes, yes, all day long. You can take visitors to the bank, rankings not so much.

@paulaspeak: It’s not either/or … rankings bring visitors, don’t they? Or is your site a destination in itself?

Writers and Editors

7. Who writes for your brand? Who edits? Is content primarily generated in-house?

@JennineMiller: Currently it’s all in-house, but if we were to expand for clients’ sake, I’m sure contracting wouldn’t be out of the question.

@bloomreachinc: Mostly in-house and we have a storyteller (@mikecassidy) doing most of the writing. Content marketing team edits & propagates. While our storyteller does the writing, his journalism background means he uses experts at the company & elsewhere as sources.

@mumar_khan: Everyone has the right to write but the editing should done by specialists and yes it has to be produced in-house.

@Lisabuyer: Traditional PR peeps write 4 press release a month, journalists write 4 stories a day! Who is better?

@Feviyu: All content is in-house because we are a small biz we take ownership of all grammatical mistakes too.

@8Keith: (sigh) one man band … for now!

@BruceClayInc: We have a team of four full-time in-house writers.

@8Keith: Is envy really a sin?

Writers’ Authority

8. Do you encourage your writers to build their own brand and authority? How?

@michelledlowery: Absolutely. Through authorship, guest posting, and social network visibility. Also keeping brand comms separate.

@bruceclayinc: Empowering employees to be brand advocates helps “humanize” your brand & extend reach. goo.gl/3PpqqV #authenticity

@kristikellogg: #Writers can build authority socially and through quality writing also — “Twitter for Journalists: http://selnd.com/1lL7L7i

@paulaspeak: Definitely! Hire someone who represents your brand values & brings powerful following http://goo.gl/3PpqqV . BTW, heard a super interview this week w/ @alexcote on making employees #brand advocates: http://goo.gl/gXBFiE

Planning and Scheduling Content

9. How far ahead do you plan and schedule content? What guidelines do you follow when developing your content calendar?

@mmlukens: Never far enough!

@kmullett: We start w/a content opportunity report, then rank by value/effort, then decide calendar. As far in advance as possible. A Content Opportunity Report tool:  http://www.marketsnare.com/content-op...

@ConstantContent: We plan a rough outline approx. 2-3 weeks in advance, but constantly add in breaking news as it happens.

@Feviyu: No content calendar, I write when it moves me. But I have one objective at all times.

Images

10. When do you publish images? Do you ever take the photos yourself? Do you use captions or text overlay? 

@lisabuyer: I love when a brand owns a curated authentic image library!

@paulaspeak: We’ve found Haiku Deck a super tool for making fast, professional images w/ text overlays. (And it’s free.)

@bloomreachinc: We always use photos – either originals that we take or Creative Commons from @flickr.

@ConstantContent: We rarely include photos. Usually choose text-based graphics over stock photos.

@Kmullett: I almost exclusively take pictures myself, but I have several resources for finding free/cheap stock when needed.

@JennineMiller: It varies. If we have a good existing image then we use our own or buy something. Text overlay beats captions IMO. We always, always, always upload files with good names and use alternate text.

Competitor Content

11. At what point in the development cycle do you compare competitor content to your own? How do you evaluate competitor content?

@paulaspeak: Inevitably, ideas float around, so someone else publishes similar as yours is being created. At that point, need tunnel vision!

@lisabuyer: Competitors can make you look good.

@kmullett: Before, during, and ongoing.

@feviyu: For clients 10 minutes before it gets published. For personal, never. Life is too short.

Format Sweet Spots

12. In your industry, have you found there are sweet spots for word count? Tense? Style? Format?

@paulaspeak: Word count limits not as important as quality #content – We’ve had high engagement with some 1.5K posts on @BruceClayInc

@JennineMiller: Never do something you would criticize competitors for doing. Keep it professional but in your own voice.

@8keith: 300-500 but with LOTS of white space – headings and paragraphs. My view on content is like a movie – if you need 4 hours, then its two movies – 1000 words = two posts.

@constantcontent: It’s a great idea to watch competitors, but we like to focus on evaluating the quality of our own content.

@ClairWyant: Found approximately 500 words is a sweet spot. Google like the length and not too long/not too short for readers.

Content ROI

13. How do you gauge your content investment – is it worth it? How do you measure your ROI on #content?

@8keith: It’s not a science for me yet – but more content = more conversations = more business.

@constantcontent: A great way to determine ROI of content is to measure traffic, conversions from the page, bounce rate & time spent on site.

@ClairWyant: Pageviews & amount shared on social first 24-48 hours. Page views via search thereafter.

@JennineMiller: Views, shares, quality interactions and conversions depending on your goals.

@LandMoore22: Google analytics metrics!

Editorial Guidelines

14. As a brand publisher, what standards, guidelines, rules do you have in place (or wish you did)? AP style? Certain words/slang not accepted such as OMG, WTF or “epic?” 

@paulaspeak: As a start to creating a brand voice/style guide, this article by @ChelseaBeaAdams inspires: http://t.co/DlhmXci3qk

@LisaBuyer: I think the words “great” and “excited” should not be allowed #seochat #Boring #meaningless.

@Sonray: “Awesome,” too.

@ClairWyant: I try my best to stick to AP style. Doesn’t always happen.

@JennineMiller: Never do something you would criticize competitors for doing. Keep it professional, but in your own voice.



Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s #SEOchat! #SEOchat is held every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET on Twitter. Learn more about participating here.

To Tell the Right Stories, You Need to Listen: Michael Brito on Content Marketing

To Tell the Right Stories, You Need to Listen: Michael Brito on Content Marketing was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Brands — including your business or the business you work for — have a monumental task of transforming into publishers. (Because brands are publishers today.) So in your Internet marketing role you’re wearing many hats, developing and optimizing the content to publish across the channels, and coordinating the various interests of the brand across the organization.

To aid you in this task, we’ve published “Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals,” within which renowned social media strategist and community builder Michael Brito contributes a section on where paid, earned and owned media intersect, and how to maximize the impact of these channels through synergistic strategy.

We’ve tapped him again here for an exclusive interview — read on to discover:

Which brands are standing out as publishers.
What the biggest misconception regarding content marketing in 2014.
Advice for creating content for socially minded consumers.

“While each of these channels play a critical role in your content strategy, the real power is when you can integrate two or more of the channels into one campaign initiative,” Brito writes in the book, available for purchase on Amazon.

In his current role as Group Director at WCG, Brito helps clients transform their brands into media companies. Brito has handled social media and marketing strategy for the likes of Hewlett Packard, Yahoo and Intel. He also is a professor of social strategy at UC Berkeley and Cal State San Jose. Discover Brito’s top content marketing tips and his favorite resources in this exclusive interview.

Can you give some examples of the best type of content that can be executed across all media?

Red Bull does a great job telling the “gives you wings” story across paid, earned and owned media. However, they aren’t just blasting the same content everywhere or using various channels to amplify content. If you look closely, they tell the same story in each channel but with a slightly different angle.

In your own book “Your Brand – The Next Media Company,” you talk about the surplus of content and the attention deficit in the minds of consumers today … can you give us three actionable tips on how to best overcome this in 2014?

Tip 1: Have a good story. People love stories and spend 70% of their day telling themselves stories (day dreaming). Having a good story that touches on emotional and rational elements will surely help break through the clutter.

Tip 2: Leverage the appropriate platform for the various storytelling initiatives. In other words, don’t just blast the same content in every channel. Each channel has a different audience so mapping content to specific channels is important.

Tip 3: Don’t forget long-form content. Too many of us forget the power of Google and don’t realize that tweets, status updates and Instagram posts don’t have search engine visibility. So in addition to trying to interrupt consumers in their feed, it’s critical to create content in blogs, communities, LinkedIn publishing platform, etc. — those have a much longer shelf life.

What advice can you give to brands to create the right content for the social consumer?

A deep understanding of the consumer is critical to telling good stories. Their passions, behavior and lifestyle interests can all contribute to a content strategy … so the advice is to do a lot of listening and analysis of your target consumer.

Can you share some examples of brands doing content marketing right?  

Definitely Red Bull, as mentioned earlier. But also IBM, Intel and Visage Mobile in the B2B space. All these firms are leveraging content as a strategy and a storytelling opportunity.

What is the biggest content mistake of 2014?

The biggest mistake is thinking that content marketing is a strategy when it is not. Content marketing is the tactical arm of having a fully robust content strategy. A content strategy includes:

narrative development
content operations
participatory storytelling (employee/customer advocacy programs)
content distribution/integration (content marketing)
content performance/analysis

Can you share links to your top three favorite articles with your byline?

“Living The Struggle: Real-Time Marketing“
“The DNA of a Content Organization Starts with a Story“
“Your Brand is What ‘They Say’ It Is“

Do you have any favorite tools or platforms that make a content marketers life easier?

SocialFlow has the ability to publish content on Twitter and Facebook when your brand is actually paying attention.

Can you share two of your favorite industry blogs?

Digiday — There’s great content about converged media, content strategy and advertising.
TopRank Blog — I’ve subscribed to (Lee Odden’s) blog for almost nine years. It always has good content on the intersection of search and social media.

What social network is the best for our readers to connect and follow you?

LinkedIn is the best.

Got more questions for Michael Brito? Ask them in the comments!

How to Be Your Best SEO: Bruce Clay’s Advice for Gaining Influence

How to Be Your Best SEO: Bruce Clay’s Advice for Gaining Influence was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

Since 1996, Bruce Clay has been commited to ethical SEO and a passion for all things concerning search. Armed with a “be a leader, not a follower” mentality, he has helped to shape the landscape of Internet marketing with his books, presentations and training — and earned his company a spot in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list for seven consecutive years.

Clay’s SEO insights are laced throughout every chapter of his latest book, “Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals,” coauthored by Murray Newlands. Clay uses his vast knowledge and experience to provide readers with SEO tips concerning:

blogging
curation
video
images
social media
paid search
and more

In a special interview, Clay shared some of his insights on being a CEO. It turns out a lot of the principles behind successful SEO, such as transparency and commitment to quality, are the same principles that have led to his success as a CEO.

In your latest book, you share your insights as a leading SEO. You’re also a formidable CEO. Can you share some insights on successfully running a company?

The first problem of running a company in a high tech space is that things change so much. You spend the majority of your life trying to keep current and manage change. As a speaker, I have to maintain a degree of expert status, which means I have to read two to three hours a day and I’m generally up around the clock. The fact is that business takes the majority of my time. The fact that we have brand is a result of 18 years of work.

Personal life, of course, is secondary to work life — that’s the plague CEOs have. If you want to succeed, it’s your responsibility to lead, and that takes time.

What was your first job? 

My first job out of college was at the Central National Bank in Chicago as a programmer in 1972. I made $800/month — the equivalent of $2,367 in today’s world.

What advice would you give recent college grads or anyone wanting to start their own Internet marketing business?

I would suggest that a recent college grad not start their own business. A college grad has to come in, have a job, hold it for two years and be prepared to be knocked around. You have a whole lot of real world learning to do and you cannot feel entitled, which is a problem people have.

As for starting your own business, keep it small, keep it simple, service first, be an expert, satisfy the client, understand you work for them — they don’t work for you. Don’t lie. Be honest.

You’ve been a CEO for more than 18 years. What’s the best executive decision you’ve made in that time? What’s the best decision in the last two years?

Overall, it was the firm decision to unconditionally not violate any of Google’s terms from the inception of Bruce Clay, Inc. A lot of people took short cuts and they’ve been hit with penalties. We’ve never had anyone hit with a penalty.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been focusing on hiring good people. It’s really easy for a CEO to hire cheap to save money, but you have to understand that cheap is not cheapest.

They say the more you fail, the more you can learn. Tell us about a time you learned a valuable lesson as CEO of Bruce Clay, Inc.

When we started we were pretty heavy into engineering and programming. And we found that technical people have a tendency to provide terrible service and we had to morph our approach to be more service-centric. That was a significant lesson.

You are a believer in continuing SEO education. Why is it important to stay current on top of SEO trends?

When technical change is so rapid, you either are really behind or you’re really on top. There’s no middle ground. Plus, if you fall behind, it’s really hard to catch up.

What advice would you give to CEOs about what they need to know about SEO in today’s marketing world?

Do it, and do it right. Quality rules.

Can you walk us through a day in the life of Bruce Clay?

A typical weekday entails monitoring projects and key accounts, planning for conferences, supporting our international offices, launching new products, and, above all, being a leader. Another major part of day-to-day work is coping with the chaos that results from constant changes in the Google landscape. On the weekend, I’m still working, but I don’t have meetings, phone calls or commitments to clients. I use the weekends to think outside of the box and plan future projects. My staff knows to expect a full inbox on Monday morning.

What’s your favorite thing about Google?

They built the industry and maintain SEO importance via frequent changes.

What is your least favorite thing about Google?

They still allow spammers to dominate and do not enforce their own terms of service.

What’s your favorite city?

Sydney, Australia. Sydney is very much like San Francisco — there are friendly audiences, pleasant climate and easygoing people. You can go to Sydney and feel more at home than in any other city.

What social network is the best for our readers to connect and follow you?

Google+. Circle Bruce Clay, Inc. for important SEO news and updates, plus exclusive content and conversations.

Got a question for Bruce Clay about his extensive history as an SEO and CEO? Share it in the comments!

How to Build Your Brand with Google+ Hangouts On Air

How to Build Your Brand with Google+ Hangouts On Air was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

If you’re like most businesses today, you have accepted social media as a necessary part of a content-based marketing strategy. On Twitter you can communicate short-and-sweet deals, tips, news headlines, and pictures of the flavor of the day. On Facebook you can run contests, post pictures, and link to blog posts. But how many businesses realize the opportunity that is Google+?

More than just another social platform, Google+ offers SEO, branding, and audience-engagement benefits. Its Hangouts On Air (HOA) feature, in particular, can be a real game-changer that helps brands build traction and expertise in their field faster and more cheaply than any other way.

Hangouts On Air give brands visibility and interaction opportunities, both as host and attendee.

First Things First: Why Be on Google+?

If your brand is not on Google+, you’re missing far more than just social interaction. Now the second most active social network globally, Google+’s integration with search and other Google products brings undeniable SEO benefits beyond those of other social media platforms.

“Google+ is really the unification of all of Google’s services, with a common social layer.” – Vic Gundotra, head of Google+, in his recent presentation at Pubcon

“You just need to do it. It’s a top ranking signal, and I think you’re dumb if you don’t do it.” – Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, speaking in an HOA this week

Plain and simple, if your brand cares about being found in Google search, it needs to be active on Google+ for at least two reasons:

SEO Benefit 1: Articles posted or +1’d by someone a searcher has circled in Google+ can appear in that searcher’s top 10 results in the SERP. Google sees this as an endorsement from someone the person trusts, which creates ranking potential for your content in people’s personalized results.

SEO Benefit 2: Authorship photos and bylines, which sometimes appear next to Google search results and definitely increase click-throughs, pull from the authors’ Google+ profiles.

Businesses actively engaged on Google+ can join communities, comment on posts, give +1s, and post their own content in a conversation-friendly environment that was designed to mimic the way people build relationships in real life. But brands can also use Google+’s free Hangout On Air (HOA) feature to find their audience, network with influencers, and gain or establish expertise.

Hosting Your Own Hangout or Hangout On Air

Any Google+ user can use the Hangouts feature to start a video conference with up to 10 followers anytime. This is already a money-saving tip, because Hangouts give companies a completely free and easy way to do teleconferencing. Your video conference Hangout will be private, just between participants, if you use this method:

Alternatively, you can start a Hangout On Air — a live video conference available for any Google+ user to watch and comment in, and forever after saved as a publicly viewable video on your brand’s YouTube channel.

Hosting an HOA or a series of HOAs on subjects relevant to your business can quickly:

Position your brand as a thought leader in your field
Demonstrate your expertise
Communicate your brand’s culture and personality
Strengthen your relationships with other experts you invite to speak
Give your brand a human factor that people can relate to
Increase brand recognition and build a following

To Schedule a Hangout On Air:

From the main pull-down menu, choose Hangouts, then click “Start a Hangout On Air.” (Note: You must have your Google+ profile linked with your YouTube account first.)
Next, fill out the form:

Use the name and description fields well, as they need to entice people to watch. They also serve as the Title tag and Meta Description of your event page (important for search).
Be sure to tag your speakers in your description. If you invite well-known authorities to be your speakers, you increase the reach and the quality of your HOA. When they see you have mentioned them, they will probably share your post and help promote the event to their own large circles.
Also include a hashtag or two at the bottom of your description, such as #SEO, to indicate the subject and help people searching for that hashtag to stumble upon your HOA.
To schedule the event, choose “Later” and set a date and time.
For the audience, you can leave it set to “Public” to invite all your followers and also allow others to join.
To publicize your upcoming HOA, post about it on your Google+ page. Share the post with particular circles or specific people. Link to it in a conversationally appropriate way in relevant comment threads.

TIP: If you set up a public HOA at least 5 days in advance, Google can include it in a schedule of upcoming HOAs so that more people can find it. You’ll need to follow a few guidelines to make that happen.

Attending a Hangout On Air

You don’t have to host your own HOAs to use them for branding purposes. Just attending a Hangout On Air lets you:

Meet influencers: HOAs feature experts who are influential authorities on a subject. Watching HOAs related to your field helps you get to know these experts on a more personal level — how they pronounce their names, what they look like, how they talk, and other details they may share about themselves — and meet new people you’ll want to research and network with.
Don’t be invisible – speak up: If you just silently observe a hangout, you’re missing an opportunity to let people get to know you. Use the comments to type in questions and useful bits of information during the hangout, and participants and speakers will see them in almost real-time. Commenting has two benefits: 1) The speakers may respond to your question directly, even mentioning you by name. 2) Other commenters may interact with you.The first time I attended an HOA, I noticed one commenter being super helpful. When I typed a question about something the speaker had said, he clarified it for me. He also posted links to things the speakers casually mentioned. I thanked him there, circled him, and later mentioned his name in a post — and so a relationship began. Every time you post something of value, people see your name. Over time, you build more connections and your name becomes known.
Increase your expertise: When you listen to experts, you’re bound to learn something! HOAs communicate a ton of free information. Watch hangouts related to your field and be an active listener: take notes, look up the extra resources mentioned, and so on. Learning from the best and being able to quote them helps you become more of an authority yourself.
Build your circles: Be sure to circle the speakers and participants whose comments add value. (Just moving your pointer over a name pops up a hover card where you can click Add.)

How to Extend the Value of a Hangout You Attend

If you host a hangout, you will want to promote it in advance through all your social media channels. But even when you’re just attending someone else’s HOA, if it’s related to your brand’s subject matter you should try to spur conversation and interaction. Consider these actions to generate engagement before and after the event takes place.

BEFORE THE HANGOUT:

R.S.V.P.: For upcoming public hangouts, be sure to specify that you are going to watch by choosing either “Maybe” or “Yes”:

Once you do this, it will be added to your events and you’ll get reminders. In addition, your name and thumbnail image will appear in the list of viewers, creating another subtle point of exposure in the community:
Help promote the HOA: If you’re excited about an upcoming Hangout On Air, share it with your own circles by clicking the share button (circled below). Be sure to write a brief recommendation in your own words and tag the hangout organizer and/or speakers. They’ll be grateful for the extra publicity and might even thank you with a +1 or a comment.
Comment in advance: On the event page (click the hangout title to get there), you can type in a comment even before the air date. Your comment introduces yourself and seeds conversation, especially if you tag people. Once you’ve commented, you’ll be notified about every subsequent comment so you can easily jump in and interact with the event organizers and others. Comment ideas include: 1) express your interest in the topic and/or the speakers; 2) ask a question to clarify what the HOA will be about; 3) respond to the event description in some way; 4) respond to an earlier comment in the stream; 5) mention a related resource on the topic.

AFTER THE HANGOUT:

Thank as appropriate: Use the event comments to thank the organizers and speakers, tagging them by name and giving specific kudos as appropriate.
Write about the hangout: Did you get a lot of value out of the hangout discussion? Often the event organizer will post his/her own summary, but everyone’s perspective is different. You know what’s valuable to your specific audience — write a recap, summary, action item list, or other and post it on your Google+ page. In your post, link to the event page where readers can watch the replay if they want to, and tag all the speakers. If you write original content tailored to your audience, giving credit to the hangout participants by name, that’s content curation at its best.

P.S. Need more help getting started? Circle these people for a continuous stream of top-notch content on how to use Google+ and Hangouts:

Eric Enge, Stone Temple Consulting
Ryan Hanley, Content Warfare
Stephan Hovnanian, Shovi Websites, author
Ray Hiltz, NewRayCom
Ronnie Bincer, The Hangout Helper
David Amerland, author and speaker

30 Smart Online Marketing Tips from SMX West

30 Smart Online Marketing Tips from SMX West was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

It’s hard to adequately describe the balance between awesomeness and intensity that happens at a multi-day search conference like SMX.

With 100-plus speakers presenting about SEO, SMM, and SEM in 60-plus sessions, keynotes and clinics, the amount of insight and tactical information you can take away from an event like SMX — that’s the awesome part. Now, imagine having to choose only 15 out of the 60 sessions to participate in. And imagine having to absorb all the goodness that 15-plus hours of training has to offer.

That’s where the intensity factor comes in.

There’s a lot going on at conferences and it’s simply not possible for one person to catch it all.

For that reason we’ve decided to share with you our 30 greatest takeaways from the 21 sessions we were able to attend at SMX West this year.

And, since there were 30-plus sessions we physically were not able to attend (life is all about decisions, right?), we’re asking for your help! We’d love to add what you learned from SMX West this year to our list of takeaways.

What Was Your Biggest SMX West Takeaway This Year?

We know you have a legal page (or more likely a Drive or Evernote account) full of session notes. What were your biggest SMX West takeaways this year? What’s on your post-conference to do list? What’s the once sentence you heard in a session that shifted your mindset and changed the way you think about online marketing?

SMX is truly a community event and we don’t think there’s any reason why the sharing that happens between sessions and in elevators has to stop just because the conference is over.

Below is our list of 30 actionable SMX West takeaways.

What can you add to the list? Share yours in the comments section below!

30 Online Marketing Tips from 21 SMX West Sessions

1) The key to mobile Big Data: Collect as much data as you can; get permission; monetize it; and then decide how to merge it, mine it, share it, or sell it. (http://bit.ly/1queSUs)

2) Stop griping about content marketing and how much you hate having to become a “media company.” Media first is not a chore! It’s an opportunity to do above and beyond what you ever thought you could accomplish. (http://bit.ly/1gj7WoS)

3) If you’re ever arguing about whether a link is a good link, the conversation is already over. It’s not a good link. If it’s a good link there shouldn’t be any questions. (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

4) If your content matters your audience has to matter even more. If you’re building content, you have to also be building audience. Content marketing is inclusive of audience development. (http://bit.ly/1oKveot)

5) The problem is that our C-Suite stakeholders don’t think of audience as an asset. They still think of marketing as a cost center. We need to make our stakeholders understand that marketing is an asset hub. It’s all about the rise of audience development and a consistency of thought, purpose and action. (http://bit.ly/1oKveot)

6) Twitter is about human communication. Any brand that has an audience they want to connect with can excel on Twitter. It’s all about finding the community, using the tools they’re using, and engaging your community with content that adds value. (http://bit.ly/1lTWTWT)

7) Twitter community coordinators, sales people, and brand managers need to be asking themselves: Can I help five people out per day? Can I join three (or however many) TwitterChats per week? Can I host a meet-up? The trick is to always be thinking of opportunities to engage and participate, and to set goals that help you make that ambition reality. (http://bit.ly/1lTWTWT)

8) Presenting big data to a stakeholder? Make sure you practice your presentation on a nontechnical volunteer to make sure your presentation is easily understood and stakeholder-ready. Seriously. Another approach is to pretend that you’re giving your presentation to your mother, or your neighbor; will they understand what you’re saying? (http://bit.ly/1g6OxTu)

9) The difference between a good analyst and great analysts – getting buy-in to continue analysis! (In other words, communicating with clarity in a way that motivates and conveys impact to stakeholders.) (http://bit.ly/1g6OxTu)

10) Don’t get a case of Audience Assumption Disorder where you put 99% of your effort into creating amazing content and apps and then only 1% into nurturing an audience that will want to see your content. (http://bit.ly/1oKveot)

11) Spend time focusing on proprietary audience development. This means you are not only building an audience, but you are building a proprietary audience that you and you alone can reach. Remember your audience is an asset with predictable downstream value! Don’t forget to invest in that asset as needed. (http://bit.ly/1oKveot)

12) Consider your paid search person (in-house or contract) as a partner; a fellow brand strategist. They need to have a clear picture of the brand’s social, UX and big-picture businesses goals. If you are a paid search person remember you need this information; part a search optimizer’s job is to aggressively find out what success looks like for the business they’re optimizing for. (http://bit.ly/1pgh12B)

13) When clients are seeking out a paid search person they don’t just expect to work with someone who knows keywords and quality score, they want to work with a brand advocate. Someone who can offer perspective, unbiased advice and the ability to explain why things are important. (http://bit.ly/1pgh12B)

14) Wondering how much content you should be creating? According to Rae Hoffman (CEO, PushFire; @sugarrae), there is no cut and dry answer. In 2014 it’s just not as simple as “create four posts a day.” So what do you do? Don’t publish crap just because the calendar says to, publish only when you actually have something to say, and don’t create any content that is mediocre. However much content you can create under those guidelines is enough content. (http://bit.ly/1pgk3nL)

15) Considering working with a new client, or negotiating a contract? Remember these two things: 1) In 2014, your job is more about audience development and business management than “SEO” as we once understood it, and 2) Don’t ever take money if you don’t think you can provide someone with the ROI they deserve. (http://bit.ly/1pgk3nL)

16) Don’t forget to always be looking for exposure opportunities off domain. For instance, Intel looks at the SERP and thinks After someone performs this search, where are they likely to land? If it’s the Best Buy website (because Best Buy is high up in the SERP for a specific keyword phrase), they consider whether it’s smart for them to put an Intel asset (like an ad) on that page to get in front of the consumer after the SERP click. Remember marketing is largely about exposure and the means you can utilize to gain it. (http://bit.ly/1pgk3nL)

17) Keep your URL structure clean. Start down the right mental path; sit down with engineering and make sure everyone who has hands on the site structure understands the whys behind site structure and URL requirements. (http://bit.ly/1pgoj6x)

18) Remember that rel=canonical is not your savior and that it should really only be used 5 or 10 times across your site. (http://bit.ly/1pgoj6x)

19) Duane Forrester’s priorities for search marketing in 2014: (http://bit.ly/1pgoj6x)

1. Content

2. Usability and user experience

3. Social media (driver of conversation and customer satisfaction)

4. Links (for traffic, not for rankings boost)

5. Basic SEO on-page best practices

20) For your brand and competitors you don’t need to know keyword referral data to succeed. What you really need to know is your unpersonalized rank; your competitors trending unpersonalized rank; how to calculate CTR potential based on rank; and how to calculate SEO competitive traffic share. (http://bit.ly/1pgrawh)

21) If consumers have a negative Google Maps experience they’ll connect that negative association with your brand. It’s important to make sure your brand’s local data is right on maps and mobile. (http://bit.ly/1pgrpr8)

22) Being small doesn’t mean you are unable to succeed with big business competition. If you are marketing a small business, you need to think of your small business as a smaller business that can 100% compete with bigger companies. (http://bit.ly/1pgrLOH)

23) It’s essential to break down the barriers between your QA, UX, HR, Engineering, PR, Customer Service and Marketing departments. When everyone works together with targets in mind the improvement can be staggering. (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

24) Once you’ve broken down your internal department barriers, make sure, as an SEO, you are over-communicating at every step. Offer guidance; instead of just saying “make the title this,” explain why the title should be that. Every SEO question should be followed with an explanation. (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

25) It’s important that your brand is building a genuine, earned reputation that is based on realized value proposition. If you are trying to build your reputation by any non-organic means, this is faux reputation and it will only end up hurting you. (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

26) Be sure to make calculated optimization changes and then always be prepared to talk about those changes (with stakeholders and CEOs) in the light of unforeseen traffic drops. Ranking fluctuation is natural but you never want to be caught without a proactive response when a CEO asks you about a sudden SERP plummet. (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

27) Don’t just focus on engagement with influencers! Make it a priority to give back to the larger community and to interact with the people in it based on the value they bring to the conversations, not the value they can bring to your résumé. Make yourself be seen as open and available (and actually be open and available). (http://bit.ly/1pgszTL)

28) If you are marketing an app make sure your app has a dedicated landing page on your website. Most apps don’t have dedicated landing pages and, according to research performed by Justin Briggs of Getty Images, this small change can result in a significant increase in app revenue year-over-year. (http://bit.ly/1jhXKfv)

29) According to Google SVP in charge of search ranking Amit Singhal, social signals from external networks like Facebook and Twitter are still not being used as ranking factors because they are considered “unreliable.” That said, signals from Google+ are different – and trust signals from G+ are considered – because the data available from Google+ is reliable. (Google owns it; of course it’s a reliable source of information from Google to Google.) As such, searchers won’t see Facebook or Twitter affecting SERP rank, but they may see a great impact based on Google+ social signals when they’re searching logged in. (http://bit.ly/1pgwGiw)

30) Pro tips for writing promoted tweets: Start organically; avoid optimizing direct response tweets with hashtags, mentions or images; include a call to action and a relevant, compelling offer. (http://bit.ly/1pgyEQ4)

 

Your Turn

What were your biggest SMX West takeaways this year? Add to our takeaways list below in the comments section below!