Greetings fellow marketers! Thanks for joining us for another episode of The Marketing Microscope!

Today’s episode is all about content marketing!

In this episode, I welcome Jodi Harris, Director of Editorial Content at Content Marketing Institute and Editor-in-Chief of CMI’s magazine, Chief Content Officer. If you’re in content marketing, you’ve more than likely read a few of her posts!

In this episode, Jodi and I talk about content marketing as a whole, the 2020 outlook, and how content marketers can bring their game to the next level.

We kick the show off with Jodi sharing a few of her favorite content marketing campaigns.

These include:

The Coerced – by the Atlantic – to promote the Netflix show “When They See Us”

The Black Cube Chronicles – The New Yorker.

The Will to Die – the audio promotion of a book written by Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi

We then get Jodi’s unique definition of content marketing, and what it means to stand out from the crowded digital space.

Spoiler: Content marketing is all about creating a story that builds trust!

Jodi and I then examine the differences in content marketing from a B2B versus B2C perspective and the dominant channels to keep in mind in the 20s and beyond. Speaking of channels, we discuss the rise of AR and VR – as well as how to properly experiment in content marketing.

After a brief intermission, Jodi and I talk about client management. More specifically, convincing clients to invest in content marketing. We then touch on the topic of personal branding and where it fits into the process of building trust.

Jodi and I shift gears to the nuts and bolds of starting a content marketing strategy from scratch – using my camping rental company startup as an example!

As the show comes to a close, Jodi gives us her take on how to convince clients to invest in content marketing. She gives us some insight on how agencies can build trust with potential clients – as well as some red flags to be aware of.

In true Marketing Microscope Fashion, we get some excellent parting words from Jodi to new content marketers:

“If your content is being driven by the demands of your job and not the demands of your audience, you’re doing content marketing wrong.”

If your looking for some good tips on content marketing – or just want to nerd out with us – definitely give this episode a listen!

For more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, check out our website or look us up on iTunes and Stitcher!

Our Website - https://www.e2msolutions.com/podcast

Find Us on iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-marketing-microscope/id1446251517

and Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=210559

Welcome back faithful listeners!

We’ve got an awesome episode for you today! We welcome SEO veteran and one of our good friends at E2M, Steve Wiideman of Wiideman Consulting Group. Now, we don’t throw around the term “SEO veteran” lightly. Steve has been involved in the search industry since before Google became the face of SEO!

Steve has seen it all in SEO – and he’s got all sorts of knowledge and insight to share!

In this episode, our focus is mostly on educating/managing clients on SEO.

We start the show by getting Steve’s take on what SEO looked like at the beginning, the challenges, and old tactics that used to work wonders. Fast forwarding to 2020, we discuss some of the biggest challenges currently facing SEOs and what the near future might bring.

We then get into the specifics of managing clients from the initial consultation to setting up an SEO audit. Steve touches on one of the most important aspects of being an SEO agency: conveying technical speak to clients in a way they understand!

The first segment continues with more information on audits, building an SEO roadmap, and some commonly overlooked strategies.

We end the first half by getting Steve’s take on the February 7th update and what it all means!

Intermission

We pick up episode 16 after the intermission with more insight on client management. In this scenario, Steve talks about what to do if your client’s website takes a hit in the middle of a campaign. This segues into our discussion on client transparency and how vital it is to being a successful agency.

Taral takes the lead on some technical questions – including mobile-first indexing, SEO-friendly design approaches, and fragmented URLs.

As the show comes to a close, I ask Steve some big picture questions about link building. More specifically, we echo a topic from segment 1 about Google penalizing sites with bad outbound links and what to do. Spoiler: When linking out, consider implementing Google’s new nofollow attributes:

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As per usual in The Marketing Microscope, we close the show with some parting advice from the guest to new people in the field. Steve provides some good approaches for getting involved in SEO, an ideal career path, and how to keep up with the changing industry.

In addition to reading up on the latest industry blogs, Steve recommends getting involved in the following SEO-related Facebook groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SEOSignalsLab/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSEOInsider/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/189214800466/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/586840424661425/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1076439469163104/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1227041817330134/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/361683227538153/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/368478557332648/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/396911393798716/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2579149939075933/

That’s it for episode 16! If you do anything in SEO/manage clients, definitely give this one a listen!

You can find more episodes of The Marketing Microscope on our website, as well as on iTunes and Stitcher!

Our Website - https://www.e2msolutions.com/podcast

Find Us on iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-marketing-microscope/id1446251517

and Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=210559.

Hello marketers! Thanks for checking out the 15th episode of The Marketing Microscope podcast!

Briand DeanWe’ve got a killer installment for you today! We’ve got Brian Dean on the line to talk about link building, SEO, and content.

As you probably know, Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko, one of the most popular blogs in our industry! I’ve got Taral and Manish joining me again to talk shop with Brian and get into the nitty-gritty details of link building.

We start the show by getting Brian’s take on the toughest aspects of link building these days, some of the best tactics for conducting outreach, and the most ideal times to send your inquiries. Spoiler: it’s generally a smart move to send B2B link building emails after lunchtime.

We get Brian’s take on Google’s new approach to no-follow links, the role of domain authority in link building, and how to build high quality links at scale. As always when we interview SEO experts, we ask Brian’s opinion on the mysterious concept of E-A-T and the most important things that funnel into it.

We discuss how people can get the biggest bang out of their backlinks – it’s all about context, choosing the right anchor text, and placement within the content.

As the first segment comes to a close, we get some amazing insight on how to build links as an e-commerce company – a task that is getting harder by the day.

Intermission

After the intermission, we get right back into it by discussing the importance of links in author bios compared to within the actual content. Taral asks Brian for his take on nooperener and noreferrer links – then we shift gears back to e-commerce. Brian gives us a few good strategies for internal linking and how to make an online store more navigable.

We get a super interesting answer about linking out to high authority sites and how it impacts rankings. Brian sites a study that all but confirms it does indeed help with SEO – this is in contrast to John Mueller’s comments on the topic.

As we wrap up our link building questions, Brian gives us some techniques that many people might be overlooking – this includes reaching for the stars with PR to target SUPER high authority sites.

Now, to switch to the content side of things, I ask Brian about the biggest SEO + content takeaways from the 2010s, and how exactly he defines “great content”. I also ask how marketers can find a healthy balance between creativity and SEO in content creation.

We get some good insight on evergreen content versus timely – and what exactly this means for the content creation efforts of marketing agencies. Brian and I debunk some general statistics about the most ideal content length, voice search, and how ‘questions’ are influencing keyword research.

As the show winds down, I ask Brian about some of the big content formats for 2020 and beyond – as well as his favorite link building tools. To close out the show, we ask Brian to provide some words of wisdom to new link builders – “start experimenting!”

This was one of the most interesting episodes of The Marketing Microscope yet! If you want to learn more about link building and how to refine your SEO strategies in the next decade, definitely check this one out!

Want more episodes of The Marketing Microscope? Check out our website - https://www.e2msolutions.com/podcast or find us on iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-marketing-microscope/id1446251517 and Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=210559.

Welcome back Marketing Microscopers! We appreciate you checking out the 14th installment of the company podcast!

This one is focused on technical SEO.

We proudly welcome Michael King to the Microscope! King is an SEO expert who works as Managing Director on iPullRank. King is featured on Moz and has spoken at SEO events across the world!

Manish, Taral, myself, and King kick off the episode talking about technical SEO as a whole. King gets into the specifics about the role it plays in 2020, the impact of fast-evolving tech, and how to optimize websites built in the latest JS languages.

We then shift gears to site navigation, where Taral asks some good questions about top-level navigation, its importance from a user point-of-view, and the click depth of pages. King dives into the details of URL structure and how it impacts large eCommerce sites SEO – and provides some expert tidbits on how to build it out!

We begin wrapping up the first segment of the show by discussing loading speed. King gives us his honest take about SEOs relying on Google’s Page Speed Insights and its suggestions. He provides some excellent words of wisdom on what factors to prioritize when analyzing loading speeds, as well as some good tools to use for more accuracy.

After a brief intermission, we get into the thick of e-commerce and how to implement an in-depth SEO audit – especially for sites with tons of products. King provides some expert advice on managing crawl budgets – and how sites that operate in multiple countries can avoid duplicate content issues.

As the show comes to a close, I ask King some more general questions related to SEO as a whole – like whether linking out to high authority sites actually makes a difference in rankings. We briefly discuss tiered linking and its impact on “relevancy”, as well as Google’s outlook for 2020.

King closes out the show by providing five pieces of wisdom for webmasters!

If technical SEO is your game, this episode is a must-listen!

To hear more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, check out our website or find us on iTunes and Stitcher!p{margin-bottom: 1em;}.accordion-accordion_content table td {border: none;}.accordion-accordion_content h3 {text-align: center;color: #39B0D7;font-size: 2.5em;}

Read Full Transcript

Read The Full Podcast Transcript

Kevin Svec:

Good morning Marketers. Welcome to the 14th installment of the marketing microscope podcast brought to you by E2M Solutions, a full service digital agency, specializing in content marketing, web design, e-commerce, SEO, and copywriting.

 

This is your host, Kevin Svec, Chief content strategist at E2M solutions and joining me today from E2M we’ve got Manish, founder of the company, and SEO specialist Taral Patel. On the show today, we are welcoming Michael King, Technical SEO expert and lead consultant at iPullRank.

Michael King:

Hey, hey, hey!

Kevin Svec:

Michael, how are you doing today?

Michael King:

Thanks for checking out the 13th installment of The Marketing Microscope. Things got a little crazy at the end of the year – you know how that goes – so we had to take a brief hiatus from podcasting.

We’re excited to announce we are up and running again with a fresh episode!

ln this installment, I welcome Daniel Daines-Hutt, Founder of Inbound Ascension and AMP My Content to talk about paid promotion. Daniel has been working in marketing for the better part of the 2010s and primarily works on the retargeting/remarketing side.

Now, this one was a little bit out of our comfort zone at E2M – as we do not typically dabble in paid advertising. I learned a great deal from this episode and hope you do too!

We kick off the show discussing what paid promotion is and how it differs from organic – our bread and butter at E2M.

Daniel gives us a super in-depth rundown of the process involved in paid promotion, as well as the trends we’re seeing. We discuss how to conduct research for a campaign, the major channels, and some of the best-kept secrets – as well as common oversights in paid advertising.

As the show goes on, Daniel and I talk about how copywriting plays into paid ads, as well as the visual aspect. We end the first segment of the show by talking about viral triggers and how they impact consumer behavior.

Segment two picks up with a hypothetical situation. The purpose is for Daniel to walk us through how to plan out a paid promotion campaign from start to finish. He gives us some awesome insight on how to conduct research, set a budget, pinpoint the biggest factors early on in the strategy, as well as provides a solid list of do’s and don’ts.

We then shift gears to outsourcing and how to find a good firm. Spoiler: it’s all about finding firms that ask detailed questions about your target audience, goals, and challenges – similar to finding an SEO provider.

Daniel then talks about testing the campaign, understanding the big KPIs, and keeping tabs on the process. As the show comes to a close, Daniel gives us some good advice for adopting a healthy mindset in paid promotion, as well as provides some good career advice for those in the field.

If you’re interested in paid advertising, this episode is a must-listen! Daniel recently published an eBook on copywriting for direct response. Check it out!

For more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, visit the E2M website - https://www.e2msolutions.com/podcast, or also, find us on iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-marketing-microscope/id1446251517 and Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=210559.

Hello Marketers! Thanks for taking time out of your day to check out the 12th installment of The Marketing Microscope Podcast! In this one, Manish, Taral, and myself welcome Barry Schwartz, editor on Search Engine Journal and operator of SEO Roundtable.

We start the podcast by talking about podcasts themselves. Google has recently started displaying podcast files directly on the SERPs. We get Barry’s take on how podcasters can play by the rules and get their content ranked. For reference, check out Google’s Developer Guidelines for Podcasts.

After a brief touch on video SEO, we unpack Rand Fishkin’s findings that less than half of organic traffic results in clicks. Should this concern SEOs?

Barry gives us his take on the changing nature of link building, as well as some of the most important ranking factors to consider - beyond quality content and links. SPOILER: Google’s recommendations are not laws written in stone!

As we begin to wrap up the first segment of the show, Barry shares his insight on the effects of Featured Snippets and some of the big patterns we’ve seen in Google’s recent algorithmic updates.

To kick off segment two, Barry tells us how he personally stays updated in SEO.  The key is to just keep reading and staying up-to-date on the industry chatter!

Given that SEO is the focus of this podcast, we felt obligated to ask Barry about his take on E-A-T - and if it’s really as important as everyone thinks. He also gives us some good wisdom on how SEOs should use the Quality Rater Guidelines.

Moving on from E-A-T, we ask Barry about some of his favorite SEO tools and whether some tasks are better carried out manually. From here, Manish takes the ball as we dive into the concept of voice search. More specifically, why it hasn’t caught on like many SEOs envisioned a few years back….

We touch on how voice search has evolved, as well as which types of businesses should be investing heavily in it and how they should do it. Basically, it comes down to ranking for Featured Snippets!

As episode 12 comes to a close, we get Barry’s take on citations and why they are so important for ranking on the local SERPs.

Barry closes out the podcast by giving his humble advice to the search community, as well as budding SEOs and bloggers!

To listen to more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, visit our website or check out our profiles on iTunes and Stitcher!

Thanks for joining us for the 11th installment of the Marketing Microscope Podcast!

In this episode, Taral and Manish join me to chat about Google updates and E-A-T Score with Dr. Marie Haynes, SEO specialist, and Google recovery expert.

Originally a veterinarian, Marie’s passion for SEO started as a hobby. She would periodically analyze the results of Google algorithm updates to put the pieces together. Fast forward to the present day and she now owns her own SEO agency, Marie Haynes Consulting Inc.

In what was a HUGE career accomplishment, Marie had a post on E-A-T and core updates published by Google - something the search engine giant rarely does! You can read the full post here.

To kick off the show, I ask Marie what business owners and SEO specialists can do if they wake up to find a massive drop in search rankings. Spoiler: It’s probably not as bad as you think!

We then discuss some key strategies for adapting around Google updates, the symptoms to look for, as well as when (and when not) to be concerned.

As I pass the ball off to Taral, we get some good insights on Google Penalties and Filters, as well as the key differences between them. The conversation shifts to disavowing links and some best practices/tools for doing so.

To wrap up the first segment, we ask Marie about issues with duplicate content in the e-commerce space: it’s much more prevalent than you might assume!

Marie gives us an interesting tidbit about duplicate content being more or less inevitable in e-commerce, especially if many vendors sell the same product. From here, she outlines some of the ways e-commerce businesses can get their pages to stand above the rest (and get ranked accordingly!

After the intermission, we dive right into the thick of E-A-T score and get Marie’s take on the complicated (and ambiguous) matter.

We get into the weeds on how Marie believes Google takes E-A-T into account when ranking author profiles, business pages, and transactional pages, as well as how to abide by the rules!

To segue into Google’s official Core Algorithm Update Guidance, written by Danny Sullivan, I ask Marie to help us expand on the 4 question areas to assess content quality:

1. Content and quality questions

2. Expertise questions

3. Presentation and production questions

4. Comparative questions

From here, we talk about how to factor these concepts into building pages and what elements should be included.

As the show comes to a close, we touch on trending SEO topics like Google update rollbacks, how young SEOs can master link building, and rules to live by in the career field.

For parting words, Marie gives us some fantastic advice on what to do in the face of a big Google update (to avoid a panic attack).

This Marketing Microscope episode is definitely one of the longer ones we’ve produced and is jam-packed full of killer insight!

Trust us, you don’t want to miss it!

For reference on Google’s Quality Raters’ Guidelines, click the link for this awesome resource put together by Marie and her team!

For more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, be sure to check out our website, as well as our profiles on iTunes and Stitcher!

Hello Marketing Microscope listeners!

We are stoked to bring you our 10th installment about content, SEO, and how to connect the dots in 2019 and beyond! Taral and I had the pleasure of welcoming one of the biggest names in digital: Neil Patel!

To anyone in the marketing space, Neil needs no introduction. Many of his contributions have formed digital marketing as we know it today! Currently, Neil is the founder of his own agency, Neil Patel Digital. In addition, Neil recently launched two easy-to-use (and FREE) tools: Ubersuggest (for keyword research) and Backlinks (for link building).

We kick off the show discussing the specifics of “good content.” Neil and I talk about what precisely this ambiguous term means, what it doesn’t mean, and how to go about creating it to stand out.

Neil gives a good scoop on how small and medium-sized businesses can develop an SEO plan to generate results - both in the short term and the long term. Pro tip: go after the low-hanging fruit keywords!

Towards the end of segment one, Neil gives us some good advice on how to approach the task of content creation for a service provider, in comparison to a product provider. Neil then provides us with a breakdown of how to track success in content marketing, along with a handful of tools to use.

We kick off segment two by asking Neil about some of the most significant factors that come into play for SEO in 2019. Spoiler: brand queries, brand queries, brand queries!

In this segment, Neil discusses some of his favorite channels for content and how he thinks they will progress in the future. Perhaps one of the most exciting points of the show was Neil’s take on video content and keyword usage. He found that his videos were more successful when he actually verbalizes the keywords within his videos, rather than just include them in the title, description, and tags!

Neil then gives some good advice to SEO agencies on how to manage client expectations. As the show comes to a close, Neil discusses his new backlinks resource, as well as some of the new tools he has in the works.

For parting words, Neil provides some wisdom to new content creators: “Don’t regurgitate the same information, if you can’t write something unique that’s not already out there, don’t waste your time writing it!

For more episodes of The Marketing Microscope, find us on the E2M website, as well as on iTunes and Stitcher!

Welcome back, Marketing Microscope listeners!

We have a full house on the podcast today. Joining me from E2M is Taral Patel, SEO Specialist, and Project Manager, as well as company Founder, Manish Dudharejia. Our guest today is one of the pioneers of digital marketing, none other than Rand Fishkin!

As you marketing experts surely know, Rand co-founded SEO software Moz, where he served as the CEO until 2014. In 2018, Rand founded SparkToro, an audience intelligence software helping people find the best ways to reach their target consumers. Rand is also the author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.

To kick off the episode, Rand and I chat about Google update recovery, which opened up the conversation to the state of Google, Facebook, and the web as a whole. We also get Rand’s hot take on E-A-T Score and the concept of picking up advice from the echo chamber.

Rand then dives into the details of the Moz update from DA to DA 2.0, as well as the speculations and misconceptions surrounding it.

We wrap up segment one by shifting the conversation to technical SEO and how Google ranks content for keywords, and more importantly, user intent. Taral asks Rand about the specifics of getting different types of e-commerce pages ranked, in contrast to blog posts and informational content.

Segment two kicks off with influencer marketing, the flaws within it, and how SparkToro can help marketers identify their best opportunities!

We get Rand’s opinion on how machine learning is currently impacting SEO and the ways it will continue to do so in the near future. As we start to come full circle, Rand gives his expert advice to young SEO professionals.

To close out the episode, Rand discusses his book, the entrepreneur culture, and the secret to performing at your highest level. SPOILER: The answer is GET MORE SLEEP!

This episode of the Marketing Microscope is one you DO NOT want to miss!

Hello faithful listeners!

We are excited to bring you the 8th episode of the Marketing Microscope. This installment is all about writing website copy - something that is much more difficult than many might assume!

My guest today hails from the United Kingdom. His name is Martin Sayers, long time copywriter with vast writing experience in all sorts of industries!

Martin owns and operates MSCopy, a copywriting firm that serves many high-level clients like Costco, G4S, the NHS, ActionCOACH, and many more. In the simplest of terms, Martin writes what makes money!

Writing website copy is its own beast in the creative world. It’s much different than, per se, writing blog posts or eBooks. When it comes to writing website copy, it’s all about conveying big concepts concisely in a way that quickly captivates visitors.  In this episode, Martin and I dive into the specifics of what this entails and how to do it with style!

Martin talks about the importance of creating a bulletproof brief that not only spells out what clients want but protects you, as a writer, from client indecisiveness.

One of the most key points of this episode revolves around finding the pain points. Martin discusses his approach to finding the root of industry problems, as well as working them into thought-provoking headlines.

He also talks about some of the common mistakes writers commit in this process, and some strategies for establishing expertise without going overboard.

After the intermission, Martin and I pick up by discussing some strategies for coordinating the copywriting process with graphic designers, SEO specialists, and of course, client expectations.

As we get further into the episode, I ask Martin about some ways to handle criticism, as well as some of the best ways less-experienced copywriters can present themselves. We wrap up the show by addressing a few of the big red flags indicating that some projects/partnerships are simply not meant to be! SPOILER: Vagueness in client feedback is a big one!

For both new and veteran copywriters, this episode with Martin Sayers has some great wisdom for everyone!