Inbound Marketing Blog

One of the major factors that drives any Inbound Marketing campaign today is organic search. It’s critical to know your company’s ranking goals and the current position of your most valuable, target keywords. 

When you first start learning about inbound marketing, it's easy to feel bombarded by all of the different tactics that experts discuss. Keyword research is a classic example of something that you probably already know you should be doing, but aren't quite sure how to do it. Keywords are the terms that people type into search engines. They can be one word or they can be phrases of several words. Regardless of their length, targeting keywords in your content is one of the fundamental elements of SEO and it is an easy way of tracking the progress of your SEO efforts.

Earlier this year, I came across an article by Brian Dean on how he increased his search traffic by 110% in just 14 days using what he calls The Skyscraper Technique. Naturally, as a full-time inbound marketer, I was intrigued. After reading the article and watching his awesome step-by-step video, I was sold. I absolutely had to put this into action for my clients to help them reach their goals. However, I decided to put a little twist on Dean’s technique by adding an extra step in the process which has helped my SMB clients get noticed by top influencers and authors. For marketers and businesses who are looking for a boost in rankings and engagement with their content, I assure you that this is a process you want to add to your content strategy.

There's a quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower that reads, "We accept the love search rank we think we deserve." (Okay, so I may have embellished that a little bit, but you get the point.) While it's no secret that there can only be one number one, we've found that marketers continuously struggle to rank for highly competitive, high-volume keywords. However, the truth is, this doesn't make them better marketers, it makes them strugglers.  While certainly under-utilized, long-tail keywords provide marketers with an opportunity to establish a stronger line of communication between their brand and their target audience.

While Google's algorithm updates sound eerily similar to roll call at the zoo (Panda? Penguin? Hummingbird?), SEO is no monkey business.  I know, I know, that wasn't my best pun, but I got your attention, right? While SEO plays a huge role in helping a business achieve recognition, it's never been the easiest thing to master. I like to blame it on a combination of fast paced updates, limited credible resources, and the need to juggle the interests of both humans and robots.  Needless to say, we thought you might need some help coming up with a manageable SEO strategy (most people do), which is why we've identified a four step process that should help you get a grip on the basics. 

If search engine optimization is a science, than keyword targeting is kinda like handling chemicals in a lab. It must be done carefully.  Over-optimizing your content with keywords – or "stuffing" as it's commonly referred to – will negatively impact your search rankings, while not targeting the right keywords at the appropriate volume will hurt your visibility as well.  It's all about balance. But what exactly does that mean? Funny you should ask... 

Most small business blogs stink. I’m sorry if that offends you. Fact is, it’s true. There are many reasons for it, but none more important than what I want to briefly talk about and then show you(via video) today. A few months ago, I wrote a blog about long-tail keywords and what they are. Although I don’t want to go into too much depth here regarding this ‘low hanging fruit’ of the world wide web, suffices to say that long tail keywords consist of longer phrases (usually at least 3 words or more)that internet searches are entering in order to find more specific data regarding a particular niche. Here is an example: