An imaging showing your site in the middle and other sites linking to it

August 4, 20212Comments

As regards SEO, is everything link building?

This phrase has been stuck in my mind for about a year now, after I interviewed a few dozen people for an article I wrote for Search Engine Watch and

by Kevin Carney

Link Building

July 6, 20210Comments

When it comes to link building, what matters most?

The headline implies there is one thing that matters most, and for what it’s worth, that title occurred to me after I wrote this article, as I decided that in

by Kevin Carney

Image of a dark blue upgraph against a neon red background, leading up to gold dollar signs

Inbound Marketing

June 14, 20211Comments

Why Your Blog on Your Website is the Hub of Your Online Marketing

The primary reasons are: It’s real estate on the Internet that you own. You can not control the rules at Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, and the people who do sometimes change them

by Kevin Carney

Brand Journalism

February 15, 20210Comments

Digital PR vs Link Building

Featured image attribution: The Castle Group, image URL, and image license. What is Digital PR, and why does it matter? Backlinks, link building, and domain authority are not terms traditional public relations

by Kevin Carney

Link Building

December 9, 20202Comments

Link Building Tools for Better SEO

What are links?The word "link" is an abbreviation of hyperlink, and hyper means "jump".A hyperlink is a jump from one web page to another. Parts of a linkLinks have two parts.Attributes

by Kevin Carney

Brand Journalism

December 4, 20200Comments

Public Relations and SEO

Image credit: drumBeat Marketing This article starts with a very brief summary of the top ranking articles for the search phrase "public relations and SEO". They're presented and summarized in three groupings: SEO

by Kevin Carney

Image of text from a dictionary showing the definition of the word "quality"

SEO

December 3, 20200Comments

Why Your SEO is Affected by How Google Makes Money

What is the Point of this Article? If you’ve paid any attention to SEO over recent years, you probably know that: People figure out tricks to game the system to rank their

by Kevin Carney

Link Building

November 30, 20200Comments

Writing link building pitches that get noticed

About this article In the spirit of full disclosure, this article is based on, and is a bit of a rewrite of an article written by Surena Chande and published on

by Kevin Carney

Image shows Send mail as configuration within Gmail

Tutorials

November 7, 20200Comments

Creating and using Gmail “Send mail as” aliases feature

Why use Gmail "Send mail as" aliases? Why not just use Google G Suite? Which makes it easy to have email addresses that are within your domain:? Because when compared to the

by Kevin Carney

Screen shot of Plugins within a WordPress Dashboard

Misc

January 11, 20194Comments

Which WordPress Plugins Should You Use and Why

Every WordPress Site Needs Plugins But which ones? And why? Last night I met someone who was confused about this. I told him I would send him a list of which

by Kevin Carney

Image of old vintage Avis Unique Selling Proposition that really helped grow their business.

Marketing

June 8, 20180Comments

In Closing: Your High Growth Unique Selling Proposition

Getting your USP right is not quick and is not easy, but when you get it dialed in right, it carries your business. It explains to people in very few seconds

by Kevin Carney

Image shows a woman talking into a metal can with a string attached and is representative of communication, or in this specific instance, communicating your Unique Selling Proposition to the market.

Marketing

June 6, 20180Comments

How to Communicate Your High Growth Unique Selling Proposition

Communicating your USP starts while you’re testing it, and continues after you think you’ve got it right. When you come to the realization you’ve got a product that solves a real

by Kevin Carney

Image business meeting representing a customer and/or prospect giving feedback, in this instance on how the USP meets its needs.

Marketing

June 4, 20180Comments

How to Test Your High Growth Unique Selling Proposition

Once you’ve developed what you think is a good USP, how do you test it? There are two ways that make sense. Of course, if you think of more, let

by Kevin Carney

Image shows the iterative process of creating a high growth Unique Selling Proposition.

Marketing

June 1, 20180Comments

How to Craft a High Growth Unique Selling Proposition

Once you’ve got background information on the whole USP thing, how do you craft YOURS? I found a great method described in a blog post titled 5 Ways to Develop a

by Kevin Carney

Image shows a jungle overgrowing and walkway. It is representative of the idea of a High Growth business fueled by a strong Unique Selling Proposition.

Marketing

May 27, 20180Comments

How to Figure Out a High Growth Unique Selling Proposition

So…. How do you create a great USP? The short answer is….. Slowly, through iterations. But…. And this is critical….. If you don’t have data to back up your USP, you

by Kevin Carney

Marketing

May 26, 20180Comments

Examples of Fantastic and Terrible Unique Selling Propositions

Some brands have experienced impressive growth during periods where they used a really effective Unique Selling Proposition (USP), then lost market share later when they stopped. This has occurred often enough

by Kevin Carney

Image shows a Volkswagen Beetle (cira 1960 to 1970 ish) which is representative of an exceptionally great ad campaign which positioned small cars as “cool”.

Marketing

May 23, 20180Comments

Very Important Ideas About High Growth Unique Selling Propositions

Sometimes, for your message to get through, it’s necessary to (metaphorically speaking) hit someone over the head with a message that effectively says “What you know is wrong”. Dispelling Myths A YouTube

by Kevin Carney

Image shows robots being assembled in a factory. It is intended to invoke the idea of “The Customer Factory” which is a model of monitoring and measuring customer acquisition activities.

Marketing

May 20, 20180Comments

How The Customer Factory Helps You Achieve Massive Growth

When you get your USP right, EVERY “flow” of The Customer Factory is better. Monitoring The Customer Factory for your business tells you if your USP is working. The Customer Factory I

by Kevin Carney

Image of giant sequoia redwood tree as a representative of “massive growth” within the context of your business, which is achieved in part by figuring out your Unique Selling Proposition.

Marketing

May 15, 20180Comments

How Your Unique Selling Proposition Fuels Massive Growth

How are your USP and your UVP different? It depends who you ask. When you Google for USP vs UVP, you get various answers. Some people say they’re different. Others say they’re

by Kevin Carney

This image illustrates how focusing on what you provide to your customers that your competitors don’t helps you create your Unique Selling Proposition

Marketing

May 1, 20180Comments

Why a Great Unique Selling Proposition Creates Massive Growth

This article provides examples of how a USP that IS MEANINGFUL, has created massive growth for companies. These are real examples taken from real companies (some old, some new), whose USPs

by Kevin Carney

This image shows a vintage ad for M&Ms candy, with the Unique Selling Proposition clearly identified, which is “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand”.

Marketing

March 19, 20180Comments

Creating Your Unique Selling Proposition (Brand Strategy)

A great Unique Selling Proposition (USP) will cause the market to pull your business along. You'll have trouble keeping up. A mediocre one makes you just like everyone else. Your USP, is the simple

by Kevin Carney

Image shows how Contextual Marketing is enabled via social media and “lives” at the intersection of how we define ourselves (profiles), and what we do online (behaviors) allowing advertisers to place highly targeted ads in front of people who are very likely to be interested.

Misc

February 26, 20183Comments

How to generate high quality leads with contextual marketing

What Contextual Marketing is Not Contextual marketing is neither Outbound Marketing nor Inbound Marketing, both of which provide a lower ROI today. To better understand Contextual Marketing, it’s important to first understand the

by Kevin Carney

Image showing what “Walking the Controversy Tightrope” is like

Inbound Marketing

January 18, 20181Comments

How to increase blog traffic with controversial topics

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics The topic of using controversy to grow blog traffic and generate leads is, in and of itself, controversial. I’ve read articles online that talk about how well

by Kevin Carney

An image showing a traditional sales funnel.

Marketing

December 27, 20170Comments

How to increase leads and revenue with Pipeline Marketing

What is Pipeline Marketing? At its core, Pipeline Marketing is nothing more than the attribution of “credit” for generating revenue, across various activities that are required to capture a lead, nurture

by Kevin Carney

Image showing the numerous tools a company uses for content marketing, and the sheer number of such tools.

Inbound Marketing

October 9, 201711Comments

The Big List of Content Marketing Tools

This post started as a simple rant about how most Content Marketing tools are too expensive and too complicated for small businesses to make effective use of them, and somehow

by Kevin Carney

SEO

September 24, 20170Comments

What is semantic search? How to do SEO like a professional

What is Semantic SEO? The commonly cited concise definition of semantic SEO is a bit cryptic. “Semantic search is a search or a question or an action that produces meaningful results, even

by Kevin Carney

How do you use presuppositions phrases to help sell stuff?

Inbound Marketing

August 30, 20170Comments

How to Sell More Easily and Naturally with Presuppositions

Presuppositional Phrases are the Language of Advertising “Nothing whitens better than Crest” “Why suffer another summer?” “This year, I’ll stop asking ‘Do I look fat’?” Notice the first statement does NOT state that Crest

by Kevin Carney

Optimizing internal website linking to improve SEO

Inbound Marketing

August 27, 20170Comments

What Is Internal Linking and Why Is It Important for SEO?

Overview The internal link structure of your website has a HUGE effect on your SEO. Ideally your internal link structure should be a hierarchy, not a web. The diagram below shows a

by Kevin Carney

What are the steps to continuous content marketing improvement?

Inbound Marketing

August 2, 20170Comments

How to continuously improve your content with Deming lessons

Who was Deming? W. Edwards Deming was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, and a management consultant. He transformed Japanese manufacturing after World War II after American manufacturers thought his ideas were

by Kevin Carney

The MozBar chrome plugin shows the Domain Authority Score

SEO

June 26, 20170Comments

Find better citation links with mozbar domain authority

What is Domain Authority? It is an integer, between 1 and 100, that was created by Moz (an SEO tool vendor located in Seattle, WA) that provides an indication of the

by Kevin Carney

Glossary

January 18, 20170Comments

Backlinks

Back links are links from webpages on sites other than your site, than "link back" to pages on your website. The image above should help illustrate the idea. Back links are critically important

by Kevin Carney

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with link building and the importance of links to SEO, but it's a cool picture.

Inbound Marketing

August 14, 20150Comments

Content Marketing: The Importance of Links to Web Page Search Ranking

Every year at this time two interesting things happen: The Earth passes through the debris field of the Swift-Tuttle comet (which we call "the tail"), some of which enters are atmosphere

by Kevin Carney

Repurposing content has two main benefits: different people learn better in different formats, and different content on the same topic helps with SEO.

Inbound Marketing

July 29, 20150Comments

Why Repurposing Content Matters for Search Engine Optimization and Lead Generation

What Re-Purposing Is Re-purposing content is conveying the same topic, point, or answer in various formats. Examples of different forms are: Blog posts Videos Slideshare decks Email messages Infographic eBooks Success

by Kevin Carney

You want more people on your website who aren't buying because their presence helps attract more people who will.

Inbound Marketing

July 27, 20150Comments

Why You DO Want Visitors to Your Website Who Never Buy

People occasionally say to me to they only want people on their site who fit their prospect profile and who are likely to buy from them. People who say that are

by Kevin Carney

Email Marketing

June 6, 20155Comments

The 3 Forms of Email Marketing: Newsletter, Drip Campaigns, and Marketing Automation

Overview Those infamous studies show.... email marketing works. The optimum combination for generating business online is..... Attract visitors through Inbound Marketing. Obtain their email address in exchange for something. Stay in touch

by Kevin Carney

Inbound Marketing

May 29, 20150Comments

The Japanese Concept of Kaizen Applies to Inbound Marketing and Lead Generation

How does Kaizen Apply to Your Inbound Marketing? Note the question is not "does it", but rather "how does it". There is no question about that fact that the Japanese concept of

by Kevin Carney

Inbound Marketing

May 27, 20150Comments

Does Business Really Start With Why? Is How More Important to Long Term Success?

Simon Sinek Has a Point Understanding why organizations do what they do creates a much clearer (sometimes crystal clear) understanding of what should be done and how it should be done. Simon Sinek

by Kevin Carney

Brand Journalism

May 16, 20150Comments

Journalists Outrank Marketers in Search: Implications for Content Marketing

Journalists Consistently Outrank Marketers in Search What this means is news sites consistently outrank business sites in search results. This is not the same as saying individual journalists know things that individual

by Kevin Carney

Inbound Marketing

April 25, 20152Comments

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Updated)

by Kevin Carney

marketing automation, lead generation, lead nurturing,

Glossary

October 14, 20140Comments

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation I like the definition in Wikipedia.... Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as

by Kevin Carney