Content Channel Efficiency - #SEPodcast 233

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burris. This guy next to me is... Charles Lewis, your internet marketing specialist. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of the best, most fabulous, freakiest, livest, awesomest... Freakiest? I don't know. It just came out. Scratch freakiest, all right? Because that's not appropriate for an SEO podcast. That's some other kind of podcast. I'll tell you what. If there is any sort of freakiness in any podcast, you will find it here. You'll find it here. I mean, SEO... Did I say SEO podcast? Not any podcast. SEO podcast. Any SEO podcast. This is podcast number 233. As always, there is a tip from our previous podcast, and that tip is positioning is more important than ranking. Yeah, you definitely want to focus your whole marketing, online marketing, and placement efforts on the positioning, not necessarily the ranking. Why? Because ranking is really not important right now. It's really more about positioning. Secondly, because everyone's placement changes due to the various local listings, and Google showing different results based on IP addresses, and if you're logged in, and things like that. Focus more on positioning. Can you get a top position? Can you get a position in the local listing? Can you get a position in the paid listing? Whatever your goal is, think about the positioning of your site and your ad more than your ranking. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you know, it's a subtle difference. It's a subtle difference in focus, and it's really pretty important. Remember, we are your friendly local neighborhood top position snatchers. Yes. Where our mantra is... Don't be a deuce. If you can, you should. We ask you to. It's not that you should. We ask you to. You should. You should. You really should. Tweet. And what should they tweet, Chuck? You should tweet... What should you tweet? This is my sound behind it. Hashtag. SEO Podcast. This is number 233. Be sure to tag us in it at eWolfStyle, at BestSEOPodcast. That way we can follow

you back and do all of our social networking stuff. If you like our podcast, you can do a couple of things for us. I think there's three of them. Yeah, there's three of them. And one of them has three steps. Go on to iTunes, create an account, write a review. If you choose to, send us an email, podcast at... EdaysWolfStyle.com And let us know that you submitted a review. We're hoping that you will make that review five stars. Now, the other thing you can do is go to our Facebook page, facebook.com slash... With Thou. And when you're on our Facebook page, over on the right, there's a little place where you'll see stars. Usually, actually, you'll only see five stars. And when you're there, go ahead and submit a review. And we're hoping that that review will also be five stars. I bet you knew that was coming. And finally, on our G Plus local page, which we've made very easy for you to get to, all you have to do is go to e-webstyle.com slash... Google plus... Or slash... Google plus... Or slash... G plus... Or slash... G plus... And all of those will take you to our G Plus local page. By the way, we have more reviews than we have page plus ones on our G Plus local page. So remember to plus one our G Plus local page. Plus one that page, put us in a circle, and leave us a review. Yeah, we probably... People have probably added themselves to circles and written reviews. They just haven't bothered to plus one the page. Well, and frankly, those should go up once we... You know, we just launched. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the changes we've got coming is adding the plus one options to our webpages. Yep. And so, then those should go up. Now, those should actually plus one the particular web page, right? So that won't show up on the count of our Google Plus local page. We're talking about our actual plus page. Literally, I

was on the plus page today checking our reviews. Yeah, it gives pluses as well. Yeah, and there's like 31. I'm like, 31? What? That doesn't even make any sense. We have 44 reviews. And sure enough, there's 31 plus ones over at G Plus page. So, yeah, go ahead and make sure you plus one it while you're there. By the way, if you're listening and you've written a review, go ahead and head back there and plus one us, please. Yeah, so appreciate it. And that's all. Do not... Well, let's talk about all the ways that you can haunt us, stalk us, harass us, and enjoy our company, interact with us. And that is facebook.com slash... E-Web Style. Twitter.com slash... E-Web Style. YouTube.com slash... E-Web Style. I will not forget instagram.com slash... E-Web Style. We have a referral program. That is, if you have an SEO client, you send them to us. If they pay their bill, you can get paid. That works pretty easy. Very simple process. It's at the bottom of our page referral program. If you want a free website analysis or just a proposal, go to our website, e-web Style.com, and you will find pretty easily some way to submit. I'll say slash something. Yeah, me too. I was like, nope, don't say slash. And you'll find a place to fill out a form, and we'll get to that website analysis. Actually, we're really getting caught up right now. Today, our favorite segment with the most awesome video special effect ever is our algorithm cataclysm. All right, so you got to check out that effect. So Chuck was on the phone with Google today and learned something really interesting. Really interesting slash kind of sketchy. Kind of like... Suspect. Wait, how about... Why don't we... Stupid? Yeah. Yeah, we're going to throw stupid in there. So I got a client, right? I got a client, and we're running a brand new AdWords campaign. By the way, that's the only way you're ever going to get on the phone with Google, because if it's

AdWords, don't call them for places or SEO or anything else. Apps. None of that. Yeah. But AdWords, you can reach somebody. And they will answer. And they will answer. They want your money. And so anyway, called them up. And the problem was, the site got suspended. Right. Brand new account. So it's suspended, which is a phrase you've never heard before. Yeah, I was like, whoa, I ain't never had a site suspended before. Yeah. Did it get in a fight during lunch? Why did I get suspended? Why did this particular site get suspended? And so the account is actually a mobile account. They provide a mobile service. And so the pricing varies, because it depends on whatever service they provide for you. When they get there, it determines how much it's going to cost. And so there is no reason to post any pricing or an address. So when you called them, what did they say? They called. They said, hey, we reviewed your site. Your campaign looks good. Right. Of course. We made it. Yeah. I didn't need to hear that. Your campaign looks good, but the site's suspended because you don't have an address posted and you don't have a pricing structure. So that's worth repeating. The site was suspended because it didn't have an. Suspended in AdWords. Within AdWords. So unable to show ads because it didn't have an address and it didn't have pricing. Yeah. And so, you know, me being the person I am, I had already done my competitive research. And so I told my Google rep, well, hey, I've looked at, you know, four other sites that are in the same industry, in the same area, also using the same keywords on Google AdWords. And they don't have addresses or a pricing structure listed. Her response was, well, their sites haven't been suspended yet. I was like, obviously. Yeah. But they may soon be, or it could be some other reason. What other reason? You're telling me that the reason is because I don't have an address and our

pricing. By the way, does that mean I can no longer pay to get people to subscribe to my newsletter? What if all I have is a newsletter? No pricing. I just give things away for free. What if I take donations? If I'm a not-for-profit, I probably don't have pricing. As much as you want to donate, I will accept. So there is actually no pricing. And I'll be willing to pay for you to donate. Exactly. So there's probably other things involved where you actually might not have an address. Right? I don't know. You're about your business. I don't know. And you still might advertise. I don't know, maybe NASA's space station might want to have a website that collected donations or sold something. They don't have no address. Outer space. Like, look, it says outer space. That's our address. It's on our website. So, yeah, that was weird, to say the least. Yeah. And so, yeah, kicking the shin to you guys for that response to me. I'm personally kind of offended because we do great work. My MPC looks awesome. All our accounts perform well. And then I get this issue. Yeah. On a Friday evening on top of that. Yeah, that's not right. All right. So we got a little bit of news. We got a little bit of reviews. Let's go ahead and do the reviews because there's a review that also has a question. So this is from Ben Osborne. Punch in the face to Ben. I actually spoke to him this week. He requested a website analysis. And we got that done. Actually, I'm going to skip over to this one. Punch in the face to Marcio Benedetti. Marcio Benedetti. Yeah, that's right. He's with IQCleaning.us. And we spoke with him, gave him a website analysis. It was great talking with him. And then next, Ben Osborne. I spoke with him. His website is HowToSandAFloor.com. Okay. I saw you. And we did the webinar for him. And he went and wrote a review. Now, he had a question. He says, currently,

he has all-in-one SEO. So he's obviously using WordPress. That's a plug-in for WordPress. And at the moment, and he wants to go to Yoast because of the authorship stuff. Is swapping over easy or is it PETA? Pain in the ass. Okay. Good question, by the way. Well, it's both, actually. Right? Because both of them have different features. They both do things differently. They both use a kind of different type of code. Like, for example, all-in-one manages your titles and meta descriptions differently than how Yoast does it. And so from that perspective there. You're going to have to move the content. You're going to have to move your content. Yeah. Right? When you make those changes. So that's kind of a headache. Right. Yeah. But that's the PETA part. Right. But in regards to switching, it's actually kind of easy. You just install a new plug-in and then it does. Now, I will say, once you do that, moving that content over will likely be easier as well because Yoast, you know, has that feature. Yeah. Now, it may not be necessary for you. If you're comfortable with all-in-one, you know how to use it, you don't feel like going through the learning curve, my suggestion would be to just go set up authorship yourself. Yeah, you can do it. It's not hard at all. Go to, and we can recap this real quick. Go to Google+, edit your About page, under Contributor, add a link to your site, and then on the pages that you want to show for authorship, add a link back to Google+, using the tag rel="Arthur inside that link. And you should be good. Yep. That should make it happen. Cool. Yeah, and I know he doesn't have that many pages, so the amount of content he'd have to move over would be none if he wanted to switch straight up. So that's more of an issue. If you have done custom title work for a lot of pages and stuff, and then you've got to bring that over, that's going

to be more of a, that's going to take, obviously, you've got to bring it over. That's how it works. All right. So next we've got, and then Ben went on after our conversation and actually wrote a review, and he says, I actually thought I was clued up about SEO until I spoke to these guys. They are SEO assassins. Assassins? Yeah, assassins. Yeah. Well, that's because we punch people in the face, you know. Apparently our punches kill people, so watch out. Thanks so much for your help, guys. SEO assassins. SEO assassins. Not just top position snatchers. We're also top position assassins. Well, I like that. That's pretty good. Yeah, I kind of like that one. All right, so a little bit of news. In news, they were talking, the Supreme Court, this is for the U.S. people. I like law. I don't even care if it's whatever law it is, so I would actually enjoy this. Is, when you catch a criminal, they've already decided that you can actually search anything he has. So if he has a wallet, you can go through his wallet and figure out, you know, home address or whatever. If he has a cell phone, they go through it also. And so they're debating whether that's illegal search and seizure. It's a very interesting concept, because this is like, so if I carry my, I mean, it's hard. If I carry my computer. That means you can, and I did a crime. And I did a crime, can they go plug it in and go through my stuff? And I kind of think they can. Like, I understand why it's debatable, because it's a lot more, it's not just a wallet. That's their phone, right? But, you know, if somebody wrote really small, you could get all that stuff in your wallet. So, I just thought it was interesting. Now, they're about to settle an anti-poaching lawsuit settlement. This is so apparently... Anti-poaching? Anti-poaching. So, apparently in the Silicon Valley, and not just in the Silicon Valley, because it also extends

up to Redmond, Washington, the big tech companies had colluded to not steal employees from each other. Okay. So, when I was faced, you're like, hey, that's not unreasonable. Hey, Charles, you got an IT company. I got an IT company. Yeah, I'll leave my people alone. You leave my people alone, I'll leave your people alone. Well, at least for six months, you sign some sort of, you know, non-compete, blah, blah, blah. So, it's called price fixing, because it has an impact on your bottom line and the price that goes out to people. At least, that's what the lawsuit is about. And already, companies have had to pay fees because of that, right? So, it's detrimental to you and me as employees, because I can't make more money. I make more money when you poach me. It's really, like, it seems, oh, yeah, a company should be able to make those agreements. No, they probably shouldn't. We certainly came to the loop. Somebody's recruiting me, and you want to keep your higher level talent, yeah, you got to pay them. Yep. And you're preventing me from, okay. Pretty interesting, right? It kind of sucks, but, eh. Yeah, and then, finally, Google has been hit with an immense tax bill from France. So, I didn't know this. Apparently, the Silicon Valley will use Ireland, and it's actually called double Irish. They actually have a phrase for the tax avoidance process, where you end up running, funneling contracts through Ireland because they have the lowest corporate tax structure. So, I mean, just as an example, Google's sales in Ireland were 12.4 billion. Their sales in France were 138 million. Wow. The population is not that different. Yeah. Something fishy is going on. So, I just thought that was cool. The double Irish. Apparently, it's about to become Dublin closed or something like that. And that is the potatoes of our podcast. Time to get into, actually, some petiffs. Yeah, got a few punches in the face, man. You want to give a punch in the face to Joe Martin.

Boom. Hit us up on Twitter. Yeah, he says he left you guys a review on G+. Hashtag best SEO podcast. So, we'll check that out, and we'll give you a punch in the face for that. Appreciate it. Matter of fact, you have a punch in the face right now. Yeah. Another punch in the face. This one goes to Tony Powell. He's at T-O-P-O-A-T-L. He says, at eWebStyle, at Chuck, at best SEO podcast. First time checking you guys out. Pretty cool. I'm definitely going to check out more episodes. Cool. That's what's up. Punch in the face to you. And remember the guy last week? We gave him a punch in the face. That's right, yeah. At Envig... Envig... Envig... Envig... E-V-G-E-N-E-N-Y-N-E-U. Yep. That's what I said. Envig in you. Yeah. Okay. It sounded better now. So, anyway, remember last week he says that he left us a review saying that podcasts are so awesome that he basically summarizes them and sends them out to his team. Yeah. And so, we were like, oh, that's awesome, dude. Send them to us. And he did. So, you guys go check out E-V-G-E-N-I-I dot com. Check out his... Go to his blog once you get there. And check out the summaries of our podcast. Punch in the face to you for doing that, dude. That's awesome. That's just kind of awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very cool. Now, we're going to get into the meat of the podcast. Definitely. I want to give a punch in the face to Andy Lombard. Andy posted an article... You've already been talking with him, right? Yeah. Sign up some tweets. Let him know we're about to do this right now. Hopefully, he's tuning in. He posted an article on Marketing Land called, Are Your Content Channels Working Together? Eight Steps to Find Out. Are Your Content Channels Working Together? Eight Steps to Find Out. Yeah. Great one. That's cool. Cool title. Got my attention. I began looking. But before we get into his eight steps, I think it's worth identifying

content channels for those who just may be oblivious and don't know what that means. Yep. Content channels are essentially different ways you put out content, right? Right. Your website, your blog, maybe video, social media, email, direct mail. There are physical content channels as well, TV, radio. All these are ways you can produce content. And get it out there. And get it out there. Exactly. And so his question is, are all of your content channels working together? And they should be. And here's why. And he does a good job of explaining why. So let's dig in. And number one, he says, ensure your brand's look and feel is consistent across all of the channels and all assets. Ensure your brand's look and feel is consistent across all channels and all assets. He goes on to say, look through your campaigns and platforms with fresh eyes to identify inconsistencies. What does that mean? What he's saying is, check your branding, right? Whatever logo you're going to have. For example, if you see McDonald's or Nike or any one of these companies, every time you see the logo, it's the same logo. It's not slightly different. Yeah. It's not like. It has the same hex value. It doesn't have a gradient on the colors. Exactly. It's the same. If it's this big or if it's this big, the proportion is consistent. Identical. So check your branding. Make sure you're using the same logo across all your platforms, right? Especially if you're going through some redesign or more importantly, maybe you've had different people working different things. Like you had somebody, some intern doing your social stuff and maybe she's doing everything in third person and then you hired somebody and they took over and then they started doing everything in first person and then your content writer who was writing on your site just was doing it totally different. Now you have some inconsistencies and that's what he's referring to. So make sure your branding is correct. Make sure the point of view that your content is put

out in is correct. If you're targeting an urban audience or something like that, then it should be consistent in your videos, on your blog, in your social media and anything else that you put out should speak to that same consistency. Number two, ensure all messaging is aligned with the buyer personas. We talked about this two podcasts ago. Check out podcast 231. We talked about actually understanding who your client is, right? Each client speaks a different language. If your client speaks slang and they use that sort of terminology, then use that messaging when communicating with them. You probably should not be communicating to them in old English. Yeah, it just won't work. It just won't work. So definitely speak the language of your client is what he's saying. Speak to your client directly, right? Maybe you know who your client is. Maybe you're targeting only your clients are only people in, I don't know, 18 to 25 and they attend college. Then it's okay to address them as college students. Or future college graduates. Or things like that because that's what they are. And that way, by the way, that eliminates, you know, fluff traffic and people who won't convert either. So do that. Number three, check analytics for pages and assets that are or aren't delivering. This is a key point here and I love this one. He goes on to say, look for pages that with both high page views and high bounce rates. I'll add to that and say, after you find them, make adjustments. So if you have a page that maybe has a high bounce rate, but it's getting lots of traffic, then it's probably ranking well for what you need it to rank for, but it's doing a horrible job of converting or a horrible job of capturing attention. Now, you know, I was saying, yeah, it could be converting as well. Maybe a high bounce rate is the best sign that it's succeeding at 100%. Yeah, if you're getting tons of convergence from that page, then, you know, if

it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah, don't fix a page with a high bounce rate unless you're convinced it doesn't have high conversions, yeah. Yeah, now if it has a high bounce rate and you're looking at analytics and you're getting no goals or conversions from this page. Make some changes. Yeah, and especially if this page has a lot of content, then you need to go make some changes. Maybe you convert that content to video or you make some other thing, break it down into bullet points, give some other resources, do things like that. Or maybe you have a page that's getting low traffic and has a high time on site and that page is getting conversions, but it has a low amount of traffic to it. Then maybe you need to go adjust your navigation perhaps or re-optimize this page so the traffic that's coming to it can actually increase. But definitely check your pages and make adjustments when necessary. I can give you a really strong example of a web page that, a collection of web pages that we had that weren't converting well and there were diagnosis pages. So it was content related to whatever, any kind of ailment that you might have. Here's a potential diagnosis and here's a description of what it was. So a lot of people were typing in, you know, ACL tear or something like that and ending up on our client site. And the intent of the client site was to have them go through an online symptom checker. And so we, of course, had prominent calls to action, go through this online symptom checker. What we did was get a little more in the face of those people and as they scrolled down, this was Chuck's idea. Hey, they've gotten a little bit down the page. Boom. Here's a pop-up that comes up that says, find out if you have a torn ACL or ACL tear. And then they could go in through our process. So that increased the number of conversions because they had come

there looking for diagnosis information. So they really weren't even looking for it. And they found what it was looking for. And they weren't looking for any call to action. They were looking for the content. They found it. There's no reason to look or be lured by some very well put together call to action unless it pops in their face. So that's what we did. And that's a great example of things that you can do if you have a page that's getting traffic and not conversions. Definitely. Number four, remove outdated references. He goes on to say, all content such as references to past events, seasonal promos, or even outdated services make your brand look stale. And they do. And so I would say not only remove them, I would say repurpose them or update them, right? Give you a good example. Like at my church, for example, I manage the website there. Of course. We have probably throughout the whole year, 12 months, there's probably seven or eight different annual events that happen one time every year. And so I'll create a page for it. And so rather than remove that page, since I already know when next year's event is, once that year's event is done, I immediately put the new one in life. Yeah. Keep that page active. Yeah. Change the content. Yeah. Right? Add the new date. Add the new time. Add the new features. And that way, that page is there now, that page has a whole new set of traffic. Now, that page is still relevant. Very relevant. And so I'll say repurpose your content. Now, if some of your content is just old and not non-effective and frankly out of date and you can't update it, yeah, then definitely get rid of it. Yeah. Take it down. Number five, check for repetition. And, you know, multiple content creators can accidentally create repetitive articles, especially if you're dealing with several different sources and you have content coming from these different places. Right. Last thing you want is three different blog posts

about the same product written in three different ways. Yeah. So find the best one. Maybe take the other ones, consolidate them. Or if you have two really good ones, then link them to each other and make some changes. Right. But definitely check for repetition. You don't want to have a whole bunch of dupe content because you just weren't paying attention to how many articles you had. Number six, refine your navigation. I think the key here is usability. Right? At the end of the day, you want your site to be easy to access. If people land on the net and they begin navigating, going to different pages, you want them to be able to find where they were at or find other pages that may be complementary to what they're looking for. And you can only do that with the consistent navigation. Yeah. When we're fixing a site right now, man, it's been, well, I won't say a struggle, it's been a time-consuming process improving this site's navigation because they had subpages on top of subpages that had different submenus. And then the main nav would change. And we'd find them pages like, wow, where did this set of pages come from? And, you know, so consistent navigation is key from not only a usability perspective, but from an SEO perspective as well. They look for that consistency. Your nav should be easy to use and well-defined and text, by the way, not flash. And that way people can, you know, find what they're looking for easier. Include breadcrumbs and things like that. Number seven, identify opportunities for linking offline and online promotions. He goes on to say a print or TV ad might supply like a Twitter hashtag or QR code. And that's key, especially if you have a brick and mortar business or something like that, or more importantly, maybe you're promoting an event or something like that, then you definitely have to combine your online promo with your offline advertising. So, yeah, hashtags works, QR codes work. QR codes work, especially in magazines

and mail outs. I mean, people, you know, or flashcards and postcards and things you hand out. You put the QR code on there. They're kind of dwindling down out there. I don't think many people are using them as much as they were maybe last year, the year before. But they still work. And some people do, especially in a situation where you're waiting. You know, like if you're in the health industry or something like that, and you literally have people sitting down waiting, they will scan the QR code because they don't have nothing else to do. So, one thing, don't do that if your wait times are really long. Well, so you can get them to a website that maybe entertains them. That might be a good idea. Don't give easy access to your Facebook page if they wait in your lobby for an hour. Yeah, because then you'll get a negative review. Can't believe I'm still in the lobby. Still in the lobby. There's a skeleton here next to me in the lobby. Definitely. So, you know, but if you're doing like ticket sales and things like that, that lead to an event, definitely take advantage of that. And then I'll say this as well. You can use that same kind of reverse technology and convert your offline visitors, bring them back online. What does that mean, Chuck? So, let's say this was an event and they did get a ticket. Why not put a QR code or some hashtag on the ticket or on the receipt that they get when they leave your store that does what? Brings them back online so they can look at more products, so they can maybe get a discount on the next event or whatever it is. So, identify those opportunities for linking offline and online promo. So, extremely important. Last one, number eight, upgrade outdated content tools. I kind of changed this one a little bit. I think at the end of the day, I think you upgrade how you do it. And I'll use our podcast

for an example. Normally, we're in front of the screen. We're not in front of that now. Right. But we upgraded. First, we had a USB mic. Yep. Then we kind of changed. No camera. No camera. Originally. Yeah, we was. Just audio first. Then you upgrade to video. Then we upgrade from USB cam to lapel mics. Now, we recorded lapel mics. Then we upgraded to the screen. And so, you have to constantly improve how your content is being put out. That way, the fans and followers and subscribers you have can also notice that increase. Yep. Because they're changing. Their phones are getting better. They're changing devices. And so, you have to keep up. Yep. You can't stay in the back and expect to move forward at the same time. Don't worry. So, punch in the face to Adam. Are your content channels working together? Eight steps to find out. Punch in the face for the article. I'll repost this on Facebook, Twitter, and everything. And hit us up. Tell you what you think about it. Patiff. Patiff. All right. So, that was some great stuff. Now, we've got our segment that we all like. Yeah. And we just got to reference Google again. Yeah. For real, for real. I have to have an address. And I have to have pricing. Although a lot of other people don't. And it's possible for me to not actually have an address. And to not have pricing. Yeah. Like, what's up with that? Like, for real, for real. That's jacked up. And we're partners. Like, I'm a little disappointed in that. So. Yeah. I almost feel like getting some not a tear tattoo. But some sort of other. Like, maybe that looks like a Google. What are those Google doodles called? Yeah. Yeah. One of those. A doogle. Yeah. In that case, it is a doogle. All right. So, you guys have been tuning in to the most popular internet marketing podcast on iTunes. That is because of all you all. Thank you so much for tuning in. Until the

next podcast, my name is Chris Burris. Bye. Bye. Bye for now. Slap