So what is content marketing?
It’s creating valuable content through blogging, podcasts, seminars, white papers, etc and distributing that material to people who will associate a positive connection to your brand or services. Content Engineering takes that a step further– it’s using trends in analytics to optimize the views, downloads, clicks, traffic, and overall saturation and performance of the content you are marketing, before you publish it.

Why does it matter if we engineer the content?
Well, Google (and other search engines) reward websites that provide helpful and relevant content and make it easy to find. Relevant doesn’t just mean it’s helpful to some people, it means that popular search terms, the blog title and blog content all connect, forming a relevant search experience for the reader. In other words, people search and find what they are looking for, consistently. As a result of your strategic content engineering, your website will be more credible and optimized.

This type of engineering can be as simple as doing keyword research to analyze the competition and volume of a keyword or group of keywords before publishing your blog post using tools like Wordtracker or Google Keyword Tool. Let me give you an example…I had a handful of options for the title of this blog:

Hi, I’m a Content Engineer, and I’m Doing it Right Now. (Interesting, but not good for SEO)
The Basics of Content Marketing, Keywords and SEO for Blogging
What’s the Value of my Blog?
How do I Search Optimize my Site with a Blog? (Getting closer…)
How To Blog Your Way To More Search Traffic (WINNER!)

The difference between these titles could be hundreds or potentially thousands of unique visitors in the next few months. It’s hard to predict exactly what the outcome would be for each title, but looking at the keywords in each, the titles range from very competitive to high volume / low competition (and that’s what we want).

For example, the term “Content Engineer” shows ZERO searches in the Wordtracker database. That’s right, being the top site on Google for those who search for “Content Engineer” will gain you exactly nothing. Nobody knows the term (surprise!), and so nobody is searching for it. Conversely, the term “How to” was included in almost 250 million searches in the Wordtracker database and “How to Blog” in over 20 million. While not everyone who searches for “How to blog” is looking to increase search visibility, there’s a good chance that people who are looking to blog want people to read it, making this a very pertinent article.

If you’ve read to this point and learned something new, then I guess I’ve done my job and I’m sure Google appreciates it. So, before you just post your next blog, think about the amount of potential interest based on the topic your writing about and don’t just come up with a clever title. Find the right title for SEO. You’ll be happy with the results.

We get calls about it all the time – a potential customer asks if we can land them on the first page of Google, perhaps thinking we can control the whims of Google’s search engine with a few lines of code or an incantation over a black cauldron. Invariably, they grow confused and indignant when asked what keywords they want to show up on the first page for, resisting recommendations that include visible changes to their website. They especially aren’t interested in adding pages full of keyword heavy content to the site; who has time to write that stuff anyway? What they really want is to get more website traffic. My best advice to these proactive entrepreneurs is to start a blog. Here’s why:

1) SEO – Nothing is better for a website’s SEO than adding lots of informative content that is industry or service related. Writing a short blog entry that explains some of your business’ finer points is a great way to attract those interested in your products or services. It’s amazing how effectively an article full of blog tips can attract people who search for “how to write a blog.” Similarly, a blog or website that becomes a wealth of information on Internet marketing techniques and practices will tend to attract people searching for a marketing expert. Why swim against the current of Google’s search algorithm when you can just play to its intent of providing users exactly what they’re looking for?

2) Let’s give ‘em something to talk about – Aside from search engine traffic (and those who type the URL straight into the address bar), a site’s most important metric is referral traffic, that is, users who click a link to your site from some other location. Whether it’s from your Facebook page or a link from a partner company’s website, your best tool for drawing these inbound clicks is to have content that your target audience wants to read/watch/listen to. So, start a blog, write an entry about using organic, garden fresh ingredients in your recipes and post a link on your restaurant’s Facebook fan page. At Brolik, we nearly doubled the number of referral clicks to our website with just this technique. They weren’t bounces either, the users stayed on our site for an average of several minutes because they were actually reading the article. Write really good stuff and you’ll find that other blog websites will use or link to the content, giving you even more avenues for referral clicks. What better target audience for our web and interactive focused content than those who regularly read a well known technology blog like Mashable or Engadget?

3) Blogging for PR- A corporate blog can be the most direct, open line of communication with customers and the rest of your industry. It’s long been the territory of a PR firm to help establish corporate credibility with careful placement of press releases and articles in well known industry periodicals and resources. Now you can take control of your own destiny, forming a professional reputation for being on top of your industry with the newest ideas and tools. A lot of trust and respect comes with being the authority on topics related to your industry so make sure people feel this security with your brand. Conversely, the openness of communication that creating a blog allows can be a great way to show a little personality. Where more formal means of communication may obligate you to write with a straight face, your blog gives an opportunity to open up and live a little, forming a more human relationship with your readers.

In the rapidly changing world of search engine optimization, it can seem almost impossible to keep up. As companies vie for the coveted top ten Google results for high traffic keywords and Google constantly adjusts its algorithms and methods, it takes a full time effort to stay competitive. Most small businesses don’t have the resources to devote even 20 hours a week to SEO efforts, let alone hire a team of full time experts. So, is it futile then to even try?

With Google’s most recent changes to their algorithm, termed Mayday by the SEO community due to its May release, many large sites saw a significant drop in traffic due to long tail keywords. This is especially true for secondary pages that may be several clicks from the home page, but house a good amount of content, like product pages on an eCommerce site. These product pages normally contain a specific item description, which is a great way to target people who are looking for that specific item. This seems like a great strategy, so why would Google want to downplay such specific results?

The reality of the search engine game is that when we find a strong tactic that seems to work, we immediately look for ways to exploit it. Instead of painstakingly writing individual product descriptions, many eCommerce sites import huge lists of manufacturer product descriptions or dynamically generate content based on search terms. This means that instead of being filled with pertinent, individualized content, many of these sites are recycling old, poorly written content. In an effort to continue providing the most useful results, Google made their best attempt at closing the gap. The result: Mayday.

This begs the question, “with Google making minor changes to their algorithm almost every day to prevent exploitation, how do we expect to stay ahead?” The answer, in short, is we don’t. We can’t. So what is long-term SEO?

Instead of fighting Google by looking for ways to exploit the limitations of their system, it makes much more sense to work with them. Google’s goal is to present the most useful, pertinent content to its users in the most specific way possible. So why not build your site around these ideals? Instead of importing a database of boring, canned product descriptions from the manufacturer, start writing your own copy. Write it in a more human, accessible voice. Relate it to your site’s specific target audience. Include keyword phrases that play to your site’s strengths. You’ll find not only that your product pages will organically draw more potential customers, but that your new visitors might even stick around to read them. Try adding customer reviews for each product. What better way to have others populate your site with pertinent information about your products?

So, what’s the trick to building a solid long term SEO strategy? The trick is that there isn’t one. Taking a shortcut or jumping on the current hot trend for manipulating search indexing will only get you so far before Google has a chance to amend the problem. With billions of dollars worth of resources placed behind keeping their search results competitive, you better believe that they will fix the problem. The only way to truly ensure the long term success of your website’s SEO is to make it the most useful, pertinent destination for your target audience.

Media Relations
Ask the question, “What makes my new website newsworthy?” Then, create appropriate launch messaging. Organize this into a press release to submit to local media outlets. For example, announce that your new website feeds into your Facebook and Twitter accounts all in one shot, or presents products in a 3D environment, or has an industry blog. If this sounds intimidating, you can hire an experienced PR firm or freelancer to manage the process.

Search Engine Marketing
Google Adwords can drive targeted web traffic, consistently, on a pay-per-click basis. This means you’re only paying when people click on your ad. If these text-based ads are relevant and optimized, your click-through visitors will be well worth the investment. If the initial SEM campaign isn’t bringing as many conversions as you’d like, don’t be upset. Look into ways to grab more attention or use less-competitive, more specific keywords. Brand awareness, web traffic, and potential for SEO will increase and sales should too.

Social Networks and Integration
Brand engagement and inbound link building are now easier than ever with the widespread use of social networking sites. Are you using a Facebook fan page to drive traffic to your site? What about a corporate Twitter account? Are you blogging and are your readers linking back or interacting? Does your team promote new blog content, new clients, company news and event announcements consistently across all social media platforms? Harness the power of connectivity that social media provides, just don’t abuse it and lose followers.

Web Analytics and SEO
The more information you have the better. Careful website traffic monitoring using a vendor like Google Analytics or Visistat will point out popular pages, what people are searching for to find you, exit points (where customers are getting confused, losing interest, then leaving the page) and how to continually tweak structure and content for an improved user experience and higher conversion rates. As time goes by, trends and buzz words change. Use search engine data to match keywords and phrases used in your website content and code and make sure they mirror what customers are searching for. Identify and utilize this information to keep your site optimized.

Email Marketing and List Building
Email marketing is a highly cost effective way to spread the buzz about your website. At just a few pennies per contact, you can keep your customers up-to-date on important company news. Use it as a monthly vehicle to drive customers to your website and don’t forget to reward them for participating! Integrate a website launch “promotion” such as a 10% discount or a free consultation for clicking through. The only drawback to email marketing is that list purchasing is not acceptable. Due to anti-spam acts, list building requires a slow and steady do-it-yourself approach that can take time and dedication, but it’s well worth the hard work.

Brand Building Events
There’s nothing better to announce a new website than a party. Even if you aren’t the partying type or your industry is on the conservative side, a lunch gathering or short cocktail party can be a great brand-builder. It’s an excuse to bring clients and partners together to show excitement for your business. They’ll be excited too.

Post launch, you’ll probably notice an immediate increase in website traffic. However, a steady upward trend in user fulfillment and conversions requires quality content that’s both engaging and current, strong media relations and marketing, and a constant investigative eye on website analytics. The dynamic interplay and integration of these components will allow your website to flourish as the hub of business and will help to achieve more than a few days of spiked traffic.

With so much competition and lack of conclusive data in the field of search engine optimization, it becomes increasingly difficult to make your site stand out from countless other businesses vying for your position on Google.  The amount of competition for relevant keywords has gotten so immense that it takes a good amount of research to find strong terms that are not so highly competitive that they’re useless.  The easiest way to set yourself apart from the masses is a strong relationship between your PR and SEO.

Simply supplying a list of keywords to blog or press release writers can help them search optimize their content based around your chosen keywords.  Let’s say for example that your company manufactures synthetic lily pads for use in frog ponds and tank habitats. It would seem natural to base website content, blog entries etc. on the products themselves. A brief study of keywords and search density will show that very few people are actually interested in searching for “lily pads”, more than 10 times the traffic flows around the term “frog”. While the competition (39 million sites on Google) makes the all-important first two pages of Google’s search almost unobtainable, at least there are people looking for it. Furthermore, a little research into this term will show that just as many people are searching for scientific information about frogs, ranging from “frog dissection” to “frog life cycle”. So why not put together a case study on how your lily pads are scientifically designed to fit into the frog’s eco-system and lead to a healthy life cycle? It will certainly increase your search traffic while greatly diminishing competition for search rankings.

Public relations initiatives can be integral to building a network of inbound links to your website, which has a major influence on your search engine magnetism.   Let’s go back to our synthetic lily pads. While looking into keywords and digging around with the term “frog”, I noticed that there are more searches about how to draw a frog than there are for the term “frog” by itself.  The keyword phrase “How to draw a cartoon frog” has 921 searches listed in Wordtracker, as compared to 1561 for “frog”, but it has only 75,000 competing pages on Google as compared to 39 million. This means the ratio of searches to competition is 300 times stronger for “how to draw a cartoon frog”. While this might not fit into the technical or scientific parts of your product’s online presence, why not design a PR marketing initiative around this idea? You could be gathering inbound links from every elementary science and art teacher with a website. While not necessarily reaching your specific target audience, this alone will increase your search engine visibility dramatically.

This strong PR/SEO relationship will also allow you to highlight important keyword phrases in your non-web based publicity campaigns, using subconscious repetitive suggestion to lead your target audience to search for your chosen terms. While there is little search activity based around the term “lily pad”, it is a very specific and targeted word for your business. Aside from this it’s not a highly competitive term on the major search engines (especially “how to draw a lily pad”!). So how do we make use of this as a PR and marketing tool? By choosing keywords to highlight in non-web related initiatives we can use the incredible reach of the media and the power of suggestion to drive people to search for lily pads. When people conjure up what they search for, they will have the tendency to phrase things according to what they’ve absorbed through repetition. By carefully choosing keywords and branding, and weaving them into your other initiatives you can actually increase searches for those terms. This will drive traffic straight to your site, without necessarily a conscious decision on the part of your audience.

Combined with traditional SEO, these strategies will help to make all of your content and publicity work most effectively for your search rankings.  This isn’t just effective on your search engine rankings, an in depth knowledge of the consumer’s keyword choice can help you to steer your PR campaigns in the right direction as well. There is no way for any statistical study of marketing or consumer trends to be as up to date or accurate as search statistics. With such a huge mass of data being recorded and reported on a daily basis, having enough information is no longer the problem. Instead, it becomes a matter of figuring out how to interpret it.

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