Content Marketing is older than Search Engine Optimization
The world's first known content marketing effort was a quarterly print magazine that was started by John Deere in 1895.
Here is an image of the front cover of the spring
Kevin Carney
Kevin Carney
SEO: Link building, digital PR, and the Google origin story
Introduction
At its core, SEO is about content and links, with an overlay of something Google calls E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, and trust).
In this post, I argue that once you understand
Kevin Carney
You do NOT want backlinks to your landing pages!
When I google for the title of this blog post, I find numerous articles on why your landing pages should have no OUTBOUND links, but I see nothing on whether
Kevin Carney
Finding unique content marketing perspectives
How do you write on a topic without saying what thousands, if not millions, have already said?
How can your content marketing stand out against an entire Internet of content, also
Kevin Carney
Software update: Link Earning Community
This blog post details the software upgrades made as a result of some early adopter users, and myself, finding errors and making enhancement requests.
Enhancements
Enhancements are divided into two categories, functional
Kevin Carney
Google’s helpful content update and E-E-A-T?
Google has been pushing âcontent qualityâ for years
While some people have expressed concern about Googleâs âhelpful content updateâ, weâve been repeatedly warned about it for years.
We all knew it was
Kevin Carney
Start Here: Overview of the Link Earning Community
IMPORTANT: While the post contains the registration URL at the end, please read this post before you register, as the concepts described in this tutorial are important to understand.
The Link
Kevin Carney
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
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When it comes to link building, what matters most?
The headline implies there is one thing that matters most, and for what itâs worth, that title occurred to me after I wrote this article, as I decided that in
Kevin Carney
Why Your Blog on Your Website is the Hub of Your Online Marketing
The primary reasons are...
Itâs 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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
Public Relations and SEO
Testing: link test
Image credit: geminos creative
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
Kevin Carney
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 youâve paid any attention to SEO
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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
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How to Communicate Your High Growth Unique Selling Proposition
Communicating your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) starts while youâre testing it, and continues after you think youâve got it right.
When you come to the realization youâve got a product that
Kevin Carney
How to Test Your High Growth Unique Selling Proposition
Once youâve 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
Kevin Carney
How to Craft a High Growth Unique Selling Proposition
Once youâve 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
Kevin Carney
How to Figure Out a High Growth Unique Selling Proposition
SoâŠ. How do you create a great USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? The short answer isâŠ.. Slowly, through iterations.
ButâŠ. And this is criticalâŠ.. If you donât have data to back up
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
Very Important Ideas About High Growth Unique Selling Propositions
Sometimes, for your message to get through, itâs necessary to (metaphorically speaking) hit someone over the head with a message that effectively says âWhat you know is wrongâ.
Solid unique selling
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How The Customer Factory Helps You Achieve Massive Growth
When you get your USP right, EVERY âflowâ of The Customer Factory is better. Monitoring The Customer Factory for your business tells you if your USP is working.
The Customer Factory
I
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How Your Unique Selling Proposition Fuels Massive Growth
How are your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and your UVP(Unique Value Proposition) different?
It depends on who you ask.
When you Google USP vs UVP, you get various answers. Some people say
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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, itâs important to first understand the
Kevin Carney
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.
Iâve read articles online that talk about how
Kevin Carney
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 âcreditâ for generating revenue, across various activities that are required to capture a lead, nurture
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
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.
âSemantic search is a search or a question or an action that produces meaningful results, even
Kevin Carney
How to Sell More Easily and Naturally with Presuppositions
Presuppositional Phrases are the Language of Advertising
The following all contain presuppositions.
âNothing whitens better than Crestâ
âWhy suffer another summer?â
âThis year, Iâll stop asking âDo I look fatâ?â
Notice the first statement does
Kevin Carney
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
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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
Kevin Carney
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
Kevin Carney
Google E-E-A-T: What it is and why it matters
Google E-A-T recently became Google E-E-A-T, and this is important.
Google has been pushing E-A-T as their main set of quality metrics for years now.
This has become especially relevant with Google's
Kevin Carney
Customer Journey / Buyers Journey
The customer journey or the buyers 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
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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.
Both of which
Kevin Carney
SERP (Search Engine Result Page)
Introduction
A SERP (Search Engine Result Page) is the page Google (and the other search engines) return to you in response to a search query.
This post is part of a series and
Kevin Carney
Private Blog Network
Introduction
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a privately owned network of servers that have obtained high domain authority via some means (generally via what where called Black Hat SEO techniques)
Kevin Carney
Outbound Links
Introduction
Outbound links are links from pages on your website to web pages on other websites.
A study of the effect of outbound links was conducted and demonstrates the positive impact of outbound
Kevin Carney
Brand Publishing/Journalism
Introduction
Brand publishing or brand journalism is simply the strategy of practicing journalism, but for marketing.
Brand publishing describes how brands (businesses) directly publish content for their customers, their prospects, and to
Kevin Carney
Plugins
Introduction
WordPress is a web server framework that provides a specific set of functionality.
Plugins are software packages specifically made to extend the capabilities of WordPress sites. It is like a small
Kevin Carney
Internal Link Structure
Whether you know it or not, whether you planned it or it happened by accident, your website has an internal link structure.
This post is part of a series and here is
Kevin Carney
Internal Links
Introduction
An internal link is noting more than a link that is anchored on one page of a website, and links to a different page on the same website.
This post is
Kevin Carney
Google Sandbox Effect
Introduction
The Google Sandbox Effect describes a phenomenon where new sites rank very poorly until suddenly, one day the level of visitors who arrive via organic search increases dramatically, almost overnight,
Kevin Carney
PageRank
Introduction
PageRank is THE original search signal back when Google first started and it is intimately tied up in the Google origin story.
Very briefly, back in the 1997ish, a computer science
Kevin Carney
Pillar posts
Overview
Pillar posts are ones that are well researched, well written, longer (than a snippet post) and read more like a white paper or tutorial than a snippet.
A pillar post is a
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