This week, it seems like a great time to do an edition of Return On News. We haven’t done one in at least a month or two, and there have been a ton of great articles that I’ve come across in the past few weeks.
Of course, it has been a very busy time in internet and inbound marketing. The biggest news has been Mobilegeddon, and we would be remiss not to include at least one post on the topic. That said, I think you’ll like the topic that is included below, since it is not a typical FUD / Doom and Gloom type of piece like most of what you see on the web today.
So let’s get right to the content. Take a little time to review all of these posts. They are great.
NOTE: You can click through to the posts and articles using the subheads or the website name / URL. Enjoy!
Content Quality Beats Mobilegeddon
Suuvance.com – I mentioned Mobilegeddon in the intro, and decided to lead off with this post. After seeing a litany of posts talking about how many sites got hit by the mobile update and the sky is falling, it was refreshing to see the contrarian opinion. Heck, we watched our own organic volumes jump immediately after the update, so there’s good news mixed in with the bad!
Is Mobilegeddon a complete death knell for sites that aren’t 100% responsive or otherwise mobile friendly? Sure, there’s some risk involved for laggards, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. If your content is world class or otherwise notable, there’s a lifeline remaining for your website. Read this post to learn more about why.
This is an Insanely Awesome Blog Post
LinkedIn Publisher (Elijah May) – In the spirit of transparency, this post was written in response to a rant I made on Facebook that my colleague, Elijah May, saw and commented on. Here’s the exact status update that inspired his reaction:
If I see another blog post that uses the word “insanely” in the title I just might gouge my eyes out. Sensationalism doesn’t pay. Just say no.
After making fun of me for my tongue-in-cheek sensationalistic complaint (about the same behavior nonetheless), Elijah turned to LinkedIn Publisher to chime in himself. He completely “got” my point, and this post is his excellent commentary on the topic. Read it to see his thoughts – it’s well done.
Extract SEO Value from SERPs with Knowledge Graph and Answer Boxes – Whiteboard Friday
Moz.com (Rand Fishkin) – A lot of SEOs and marketers have found themselves complaining about Google’s Knowledge Graph and Answer Boxes. The standard complaint is that Google is “stealing” traffic from their website by showing the answers right on the SERPs.
Sure, that’s a concern worth entertaining, but it’s pretty short-sighted. In this Whiteboard Friday video (transcript included), Rand Fishkin of Moz reviews some ways to derive SEO benefits by targeting exactly that which is being shunned – the answer boxes themselves. Rand always does a great job on his Whiteboard posts, so give the video a watch and see what you think.
10 Challenges To Tackle While Optimizing An E-Commerce Website
GetResponse.com – Ecommerce continues to grow and thrive, commanding an ever increasing share of the overall consumer spend in the United States as we head toward the middle of 2015.
But the game has changed quite a bit. People are more critical of the stores they buy from for a range of reasons. From user experience to customer service, there is a specific list of things to get straightened out if you want to succeed with online commerce.
If you are aiming to launch an ecommerce store, or even if you have one already operating and making money, you will find this post valuable. I know I did.
8 Ways Social Media Can Impact Your SEO
SEM Rush Blog (post removed in 2022) – I wrote about Social SEO some time ago, and the topic continues to be misunderstood or dismissed by people who think social and SEO are separate entities.
Everything you do to market yourself can impact your business and SEO in a positive (or negative) way. Social media is part of that marketing effort. Be sure you are not hurting yourself or overlooking important ways that social can help you rank better and drive more organic traffic. Even if it is indirect, there is absolutely an SEO impact from your social media marketing activities.
This post outlines the biggest ways the two disciplines overlap.
SEO Chart: How customers form queries in search engines to find content
Marketing Sherpa – Search behavior has changed a lot over the past five years, and it continues to evolve as the search engines get better at parsing and matching queries to results.
I run into a lot of SEOs and prospects who are still “optimizing” their websites and SEO strategies according to old school principles. While you might luck into good results that way, it’s worth taking the time to learn more about what people really look for online.
Our own SEO strategy is heavily focused on semantic match, providing answers to questions, and addressing topics rather than only keywords and ranking. And it has enabled us to increase our overall website traffic by nearly 15X over the past three years.
This short article covers off how search behavior actually happens today. It’s a must read for SEOs, content marketers, and anyone who thinks they want to grow their organic traffic over time.
Why Skimmable Content Is More Valuable Than Deep Content
Huffington Post – While I don’t agree 100% with the assessment that deep content is lower value than skimmable content, I do agree wholeheartedly that content on the internet should be skimmable.
Regardless of my own opinion, it’s worth reading what Jayson Demers has to say about the topic. Keep in mind that you can create deep content and make it skimmable if you structure and mark it up properly.
In reality, a mix of lighter content and deep dive materials provides you with the best assortment of content for ranking and sharing purposes. There’s no way to know with full certainty what will perform best, so it pays to test for yourself.
We have seen short posts and very long posts perform well, and also poorly. Long-form tends to excel more for ranking, but short-form can be better for social shares and curation sites.
But keep the key point in mind – all content on the web should be skimmable on first glance. People don’t just read a thousand words because you wrote them. Break it up so they can scan it first, and you’ll have a much better chance of them reading it through to the end.
Image Source: Pexels.com under CC0 Unlimited Use License
Tommy Landry
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