Link Building

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

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

This post contains a comprehensive list of link building tools, after providing an overview what links are, why they matter, and how they work. What are links? The word "link" is an

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

Believe it or not, what you do and don't know about how Google makes money affects your SEO. What is the Point of this Article? If you’ve paid any attention to SEO

by Kevin Carney

Link Building

November 30, 20200Comments

How to write link building pitches that get noticed

About this article In the spirit of full disclosure, this article about writing link building pitches is based on, and is a bit of a rewrite of an article written by

by Kevin Carney

Image shows Send mail as configuration within Gmail

Tutorials

November 7, 20200Comments

Creating and using the Gmail aliases feature (“Send mail as”)

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

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 Unique Selling Proposition (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

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 Unique Selling Proposition (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

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 Unique Selling Proposition (USP), how do you test it? There are two ways that make sense. Of course, if you think

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 (Unique Selling Proposition)? The short answer is….. Slowly, through iterations. But…. And this is critical….. If you don’t have data to back up

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”. Solid unique selling

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 (Unique Selling Proposition) and your UVP(Unique Value Proposition) different? It depends who you ask. When you Google for USP vs UVP, you get various answers. Some people say

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 Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that IS MEANINGFUL, has created massive growth for companies. These are real examples taken from real companies (some old, some

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 controversial topics to grow blog traffic and generate leads is, in and of itself, controversial. I’ve read articles online that talk about how

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 The following all contain presuppositions. “Nothing whitens better than Crest” “Why suffer another summer?” “This year, I’ll stop asking ‘Do I look fat’?” Notice the first statement does

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?

Internal linking matters. 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

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

The ideas taught by W. Edwards Deming can help you improve your content. Who was Deming? W. Edwards Deming was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, and a management consultant. He transformed Japanese

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

May 24, 20170Comments

Google E-A-T: What it is and why it matters

Your website content needs to EAT to thrive. Yes you got it right, we’re talking about Google E-A-T. Google states that E-A-T is among the top 3 considerations for determining Content Quality.

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

April 9, 20170Comments

Customer Journey

The customer journey is the steps taken and decisions made by a prospect in the course of deciding to buy whatever it is that you sell. The main purpose of defining your

by Bonface Mogusu

What are the benefits of snippet post to small business?

Glossary

March 29, 20170Comments

Snippet Post

Snippet posts are fairly short posts and either answer one question or convey one main idea. They are contrasted with Pillar Posts which are longer, better researched, and convey more information. Snippet posts are

by Bonface Mogusu

What is Search Engine Results Page (SERP)?

Glossary

March 17, 20170Comments

SERP (Search Engine Result Page)

SERP (Search Engine Result Page) A SERP (Search Engine Result Page) is the page Google (and the other search engines) return to you in response to a search query. Users enters their

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

March 12, 20170Comments

Private Blog Network

A Private Blog Network is a privately owned network of servers that has obtained high domain authority via some means (generally via what where called Black Hat SEO techniques) and

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

March 8, 20170Comments

Outbound Links

Overview Outbound links are links from pages on your website to web pages on other websites. All things being equal (which of course they never really are) pages with an outbound link

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

February 13, 20170Comments

Brand Publishing

Brand Publishing Brand publishing describes how businesses (brands) directly publish content for their customers, their prospects, and to the world at large. Brand journalism is simply the strategy of telling out your story

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

February 5, 20170Comments

Plugins

WordPress is a web server framework that provides a specific set of functionality. A plugin is a piece of software specifically made to extend the capabilities of WordPress sites. It is

by Bonface Mogusu

What are the importance of links within your website?

Glossary

January 30, 20170Comments

Internal Link Structure

Internal Link Structure The internal link structure of your website is literally the structure of all the internal links of your website. An "internal link" is nothing more than a link that originates on

by Bonface Mogusu

How significant are internal links for small businesses?

Glossary

January 29, 20170Comments

Internal Links

What are Internal links? Internal links are links from pages on your website to other pages on the same website. Not only does your website need these internal links, it needs an

by Bonface Mogusu

What can you do to get out of the Google Sandbox?

Glossary

January 28, 20170Comments

Google Sandbox Effect

Google Sandbox Effect The Google Sandbox Effect describes a phenomenon where new sites rank very poorly until suddenly, one day the levels of visitors who arrive via organic search increases dramatically

by Bonface Mogusu

What is page rank? how is it related with search engine optimization?

Glossary

January 27, 20170Comments

PageRank

PageRank is THE original search signal and is still one of the strongest. Links were so critical to Google in the early days that the search engine was called Backrub before

by Bonface Mogusu

How to create pillar blog post for your business?

Glossary

January 27, 20172Comments

Pillar posts

Pillar posts are ones that is well researched, well written, longer (than a snippet post) and reads more like a white paper or tutorial than a snippet. A pillar post is a

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

January 26, 20171Comments

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In common usage the phrase seems to have different meanings to different people. There are two definitions I accept. They are similar to each other, but not

by Bonface Mogusu

What is a landing page? how is it important to small business?

Glossary

January 25, 20170Comments

Landing page

A landing page is a page on a website that encourages the website visitor to take a specific action, which either results in them: 1) leaving some contact information, or

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

January 25, 20170Comments

Conversion

Conversion is often considered to be when someone completes a purchase. While this is true, conversion is also the smaller steps people take during their buying process. When someone goes through

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

January 23, 20170Comments

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is the process of attracting your audience to your website through a structured and methodical system of publishing useful and interesting articles and stories to your website, and

by Bonface Mogusu

Glossary

January 18, 20170Comments

Backlinks

Backlinks 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 to

by Kevin Carney

What is a sales funnel? are they important to small businesses?

Glossary

January 14, 20170Comments

Sales Funnel

The Sales Funnel is a concept that relates to how prospects "fall away" as they take steps closer to becoming a customer. That is why it is referred to as a

by Bonface Mogusu

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

At this time of year two interesting things happen. Only one is related to search rankings. The Earth passes through the debris field of the Swift-Tuttle comet (which we call "the

by Kevin Carney

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