The saying might sound overused — content is king — but that’s only because it is so true. Content is king and if you’re hoping to stay relevant on SERPs you’re going to have to implement some kind of quality content strategy.

Companies that are not utilizing SEO are relatively obsolete in the online marketing world. There are more than four billion web pages on the Internet today, so it’s safe to say there is some competition over who can be the first few listings on a SERP. It’s up to those who wish to succeed to find a way to get high quality content out there for audiences to engage with, therefor increasing SERP ranking.

Attention-Grabbing Posts

The goal of pretty much anything that you post, share, create online is to get clicks, shares, and likes. Just writing generic headlines and social media posts will not entice people to engage with your content. Attention-grabbing or “clickbait” headlines might seem unfair, but they work. The whole point is to stand out from the crowd of hundreds of thousands of other businesses. If you have to write something catchy to gain an advantage then so be it.

Don’t Stuff

Although some companies think they’re ahead of the game and the figured out a loophole in the SEO system, keyword stuffing is <em>not</em> a good way to help your SEO strategy. Google isn’t stupid. If you are intentionally jamming your content with more and more keywords just to rank higher, they are going to find out and punish you for that. Plus, your audience isn’t dumb either. They are not going to be interested in content that is stuffed with the same keyword.

Isn’t everyone using SEO? How can you stand out? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As the (new)old-age saying goes, <em>content is king</em>.

Google, a lot like people, does not want to see pointless, boring, and stale content filling the Internet.

Combining your SEO campaign with high quality content can really set you apart from your competitors. You can’t fake good content and that is why it is so valuable.

Social media comes into play regarding good content as well. Again, people don’t want to see boring content, so only the best pieces of content are going to be passed along on social networks.

Sharing is a huge part of SEO because each share acts as a backlink from the person who shared it. People aren’t going to share bad pieces of content.

If something is compelling, original, entertaining, and engaging, then people will be much more likely to share and promote that piece of content. If it’s filled with nonsense and unnatural keyword placement, people will see right through that and will not share it.

Google even revealed its top three factors that go into determining page rankings. RankBrain, Google’s artificial intelligence robot, the links that a page links to and from, and the third factor, perhaps most importantly: content.

Try to think of it in terms of cereal. High quality content is like the colorful, exciting box of fun cereal. Boring content is the sad, creepy, plain box in the corner.

Which would you choose?

Does content marketing affect SEO that much? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As the (new)old-age saying goes, <em>content is king. Google, a lot like people, does not want to see pointless, boring, and stale content filling the Internet.

Combining your SEO campaign with high quality content can really set you apart from your competitors. You can’t fake good content and that is why it is so valuable.

Social media comes into play regarding good content as well. Again, people don’t want to see boring content, so only the best pieces of content are going to be passed along on social networks.

Sharing is a huge part of SEO because each share acts as a backlink from the person who shared it. People aren’t going to share bad pieces of content.

If something is compelling, original, entertaining, and engaging, then people will be much more likely to share and promote that piece of content. If it’s filled with nonsense and unnatural keyword placement, people will see right through that and will not share it.

Google even revealed its top three factors that go into determining page rankings. RankBrain, Google’s artificial intelligence robot, the links that a page links to and from, and the third factor, perhaps most importantly: content.

Try to think of it in terms of cereal. High quality content is like the colorful, exciting box of fun cereal. Boring content is the sad, creepy, plain box in the corner.

Which would you choose?

Does content marketing affect SEO that much? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you have a national brand that offers a national product then local SEO might not help as much. But if you’re anything else, which you probably are, local SEO is a necessity for a successful online marketing campaign.

Driving traffic to a specific business in a specific location is pretty much the backbone of SEO.

Local searching is quick and easy and if the SEO was done correctly, can seal the deal for a prospective client within seconds.

Online business directories, map listings, and relevant high quality content all factor into local search listings and can increase listing visibility.

Every situation, every city, and every keyword is different, but on average, growing visibility on local SERPs takes three to six months to implement. Keywords that have higher competition or are in less niche markets can take much longer.

Competition, unlike national SEO, is much more minutiae. National SEO has to compete against hundreds of thousands of companies offering the same products and services as your business. Local SEO, on the other hand, has to only compete with the few — to possibly zero — businesses near by who offer the same products and services to the same local population as you. Despite this somewhat advantageous aspect of local SEO, competition between even two businesses can often be just as intense as a national battle royal between hundreds.

Customers only want to drive a few minutes to get to where they want to go. Local SEO is extremely important so that you can stand out in your town and gain traffic to your site, which then turns into traffic for your business.

How important is local SEO was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SEO works for national marketing but it’s important to know that it comes with some complications that local SEO doesn’t have.

Broader Competition

Trying to rank your company’s listing on a national level is more complicated because of the sheer number of other users trying to do the exact same thing. Local SEO, although still extremely competitive, is usually just a few specific businesses competing with each other. National SEO, however, has to deal with companies all over the world. Some might have better products and services than you do, some might have a better social media presence, and some might have their own SEO team working tirelessly to stand out over you. The competition is intense, but it makes it all the more worth it once a high ranking is earned.

Longer Campaigns

National SEO campaigns aren’t usually done in a week or so. Once you commit to attempting to rank on a certain term, topic, or phrase, it’s important to know that you are going to have to work towards that goal numerous times a day. You can’t just post once or twice and hope to rank on a national level. You’ll have to post strategic content strategies and plan for a larger budget.

Well-Known Brands

National SEO has to deal with national brands. No matter how loyal your fan base, audience, or clientele are, there is no way they are as large as the amount of people who know about Walmart. You’ll be competing against organizations like that who have significantly higher budgets and marketing teams so it can be very difficult to rank higher than them.

Although successfully being ranked nationally is difficult, it can still be done. Keep these in mind but work hard enough and you should reach your goal

Does SEO work for national searches? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

No.

Not really, at least. It’s just not that simple. Google doesn’t want to waste its credibility by putting whatever company has the most disposable income at the top of a search results page. Although some companies certainly do pay top dollar for SEO, you still have to earn it.

Being at the top of a SERPs page should be treated like a honor and not a privilege. Just know at any given moment there are probably thousands of companies offering the same products and services as you who would do anything to be in your position on the SERP listing. Don’t take a high ranking for granted.

You can’t just blatantly pay Google to adjust your keyword rank and put you as number one. It just doesn’t work that way, which is awesome, because that makes it more of a level playing field for businesses on smaller budgets.

However, one thing you can do is pay a successful SEO company to handle your online marketing and they can help improve your rankings. An experienced SEO company can work to improve your ranking for specific keywords and then build up to getting higher on SERPs.

That’s why being number one is so prestigious: because you don’t pay for the rank. It means that you really earned it, as far as Google is concerned, and potential customers will flock to you no matter what.

You can use Google AdWords to pay for your advertisements, however, but these show up in a different view from the regular listings. Ranking the highest on organic SERPs should definitely be your end goal.

Can’t you just pay the most to rank the highest? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Social media does affect rankings on a search engine results page (SERP) but not based solely on numbers. Just because your business has a lot of followers on Twitter or likes on Facebook doesn’t mean you will rank any higher on a SERP.

Content is What Matters

Each tweet and Facebook post acts as its own individual web page. You wouldn’t create thousands of pointless web pages with nonsense content in hopes of ranking on a SERP. Social media works the same way. Posting thousands of worthless tweets and Facebook posts won’t do much for you if the content isn’t engaging.

Having a tweet or post shared numerous times, however, that indicates to Google that that specific piece of content may be worth looking at.

Link Building

Every time a piece of content is shared on Twitter or Facebook, a new link is built. Build up enough links through social media shares and your content will be indexed in terms of ranking.

Having a strong presence on social media also has added benefits. If you have a few well-known and important followers and they share your content, it affects the index ranking as well. Your content will be indexed based on how many people share your piece of content, the influence of those people sharing your content, and how fast your content is shared once published.

Keyword Importance

Because Google uses specific keywords to rank sites, implementing them into social media posts can only help your SEO strategy. If you can organically use relevant keywords in your content, your SERP rankings should increase.

Does Social Media Affect Ranking? (Does Social Media Affect SEO?) was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For a while, we were unaware of how Google ranked listings on SERPs. But now we are finally privy to that wonderful knowledge. There are three main aspects to Google’s ranking system. Two of which are well-known aspects and one of which is a robot.

Links

Each individual link acts as a vote for that specific website. Google adds up the links and takes into consideration where those specific “votes” or links are coming from. Links from higher-ranking sites are viewed as more important than links from sites with a small domain authority.

Content

Google doesn’t just want to be supporting any pointless random piece of information out there designed to get clicks. That’s why content still is — and for the foreseeable future, will be — king. Having quality websites, articles, pictures, videos, and more proves to Google that you’re not just posting nonsense. Content matters just as much as anything.

RankBrain

Google’s newest machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) program that scans millions of web pages and determines which ones should be ranked the highest. RankBrain, without the help and or error from humans, can actually teach itself how to interact with various links and content on the Internet.

Google finally disclosed this information to the general public but it really shouldn’t change anyone’s approach too much. If your business has not been producing engaging content with a focus on link building and appeasing to self-teaching futuristic robot algorithms, you’ve been doing it all wrong.

There are many more factors that Google takes into consideration when ranking, including HTML, social media, mobile, web page speed, etc., but links, content, and RankBrain are the main three.

How does Google decide who ranks the highest? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Internet is not another commercial battleground, as many may think. Actually, it’s a weapon. Small businesses can use search engine optimization to better compete with their titanic opponents.

Yes, large businesses have bigger budgets and can afford bigger SEO campaigns, but small business SEO can give the little guys the edge they need to succeed.

Don’t believe it? Here are some of the small business SEO stats you need to see:

1. 60% of U.S. adults use smartphones and tablets to search for local product and service information
2. 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
3. 89% of participants admitted to searching for a local business on their smartphone once a week or more
4. 58% of admitted searching for a local business on their smartphone daily
5. 50% of local-mobile searchers are looking for business information like local addresses
6. One in three smartphone searches were made right before a store visit
7. Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to stores within just one day
8. 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day
9. 78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases
10. 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day

• Local SEO Statistics You Must Know [Infographics]
• 6 Local SEO Stats Every Online Marketer Needs To Know

How do small businesses compete with large corporations? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

HubShout is no fortune-teller, but if history has a way of repeating itself, we can make a couple predictions.

Content is king. Long may it reign.

Because Google wants to deliver its users the best results, it looks for great content. The problem is the fact that “great” is a subjective term. What’s “great” to one person is “just okay” to another. Worse, what’s “great” one year might be tacky the next. SEO can be Sisyphean this way.

Content has sat on the throne for years now, and it probably won’t cede anytime soon. Consequently, you need to continue offering users the best, most-relevant content possible. You need to post fresh blogs and pages, as well as update old ones, too.

Keywords will always be a factor.

Imagine searching Google for something without using words. You can’t, can you? Keywords are an integral part of SEO. That’s just how it is.

That being said, what’s wise to target this year may not be as practical next year. Keywords are slowly evolving. Innovations to mobile technology are changing search user behavior.

“Best pizza Rochester NY” is a perfectly logical keyword to target, because it’s what many users search for when they’re want a solid slice of za. However, Google Now, Siri, Cortana, and other mobile AIs allow users to voice search. They can simply ask their phones to look for something. Consequently, many expect the linguistic structure of keywords to become more natural. Users don’t have to grunt “best pizza Rochester NY” into their phones to get what they’re looking for. They can ask their phones to find “pizza near me” or “Where’s the best place to go for pizza?”

So what does all this mean?

If you want to rank well in the future, you need to continue posting great content until the day your business dies, and you need to strategically target the keywords people are using to find your products.

What is the future of SEO? was originally published in The SEO Reseller on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.