ACCELERATING YOUR BRAND

IN SIX MONTHS OR LESS

Arnie Kuenn, President, Vertical Measures - @ArnieK

@ArnieK

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER…

• President of Vertical Measures – A Search, Social &

Content Marketing Services Company

• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute & Online

Marketing Institute

• Been an Internet marketer longer than Google has existed.

@ArnieK

WEB CONTENT MARKETING IS A CONTINUOUS,

PLANNED OUT PROCESS

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

DEVELOP YOUR STRATEGY – QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

• Strategy will evolve through the whole process

• Why are you creating the content you are creating?

• Who is your audience?

• Who are you? – Determine your “voice”

• What types of content will you create?

• How will you develop your content?

• When will you develop your content?

• What does success look like?

• What is different a year from now?

@ArnieK

UNIVERSAL SEARCH RESULTS

61% of all search results

@ArnieK

LONG TAIL IS THE KEY!

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

GOOGLE’S DISCUSSIONS IN SEARCH

@ArnieK

WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR COMPETITORS?

@ArnieK

GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORD TOOL

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

CREATE GREAT CONTENT!

@ArnieK

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTENT

Any specific content to discuss?

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

ALL DIFFERENT – BUT CORE ITEMS

• Content is found via social media & search engines – so optimize it!

• Web pages, News, Local, Images & Videos

1. Links pointing to your content

2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)

3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)

4. Image alt text tags

5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)

6. Page load times

7. Freshness of content

8. URL structure (short & include KW’s)

@ArnieK

SEARCH OPTIMIZATION ELEMENTS

@ArnieK

HOW TO OPTIMIZE IMAGES

• Image files should be compressed as much as reasonably possible to

reduce file size. Smaller files mean faster site load speeds. JPGs generally

offer the best balance of file size & quality.

• Use relevant keywords in image filenames, separated by dashes (not

underscores). Instead of "DL000031.jpg", use something like "red-sports-

car.jpg"

• Make sure <img> tags have their "alt" and "title" attributes defined with

descriptive, concise, keyword-related text. Do not stuff <img> attributes.

• Context matters. Google looks at content placed around the image, like

titles and captions, for context about your image.

• Host images on your site not on 3rd party sites like Photobucket & Flickr

• Be sure to include images in your sitemap. The XML tags provide

additional opportunities to define an image's title, caption, and even

geographic location.

@ArnieK

HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEOS

• Specific, Compelling Title –Would you click on “Our Company” or

“V00023.mov?” neither will your audience.

• Tags –This is where you can help your video appear in the “Suggested” or

“Similar” videos section. Don’t be dishonest, but if there are pop culture or

social media references in the video, tag them accordingly.

• Description - Say as much as you can in the first sentence or two, because

many video sites will hide the bulk of your description. Include at least one

link placed at the start of the description – with http://.

• Video Quality / Resolution – Shoot, edit and export the video in the highest

quality available on the devices and software you use. The online video

audience is very forgiving of skill level, but a low resolution video can make it

difficult to see what is going on.

• Thumbnail Image – If it’s an organically made video (not planned), pick the

most visually compelling of the options they give you.

@ArnieK

HOW TO OPTIMIZE FOR GOOGLE NEWS

• Need to submit your URL to Google first

• Article URLs must be:

– Unique

– Permanent

– Display a three-digit number

• To see if a site is already included in Google News, type [

site:url.com ], into the search box and click "Search News."

• http://support.google.com/news/publisher/

@ArnieK

THE TOP 5 LOCAL RANKING FACTORS IN 2012

1. A physical address in the city

2. Associate your business with proper

categories.

3. Have an address close to the centroid

4. Complete and accurate NAP (Name,

Address, Phone) accuracy across the

local ecosystem

5. High number of customer reviews on the

new Google +Local

@ArnieK

CLAIM YOUR LOCAL PROFILES

@ArnieK

GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGE

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT

• Understand who your customer is and where they are online.

• Conduct PR and blogger pitches

• Develop relationships & build partnerships

• People share your ideas, link to your content.

• Mentions & Shares are signals (especially G+)

@ArnieK

WHY BOTHER WITH TWITTER & FACEBOOK?

• In a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey, it was found:

– 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers

are more likely to recommend those brands since

becoming a fan or follower

– 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers

are more likely to buy from brands they associate with

online

@ArnieK

STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE POSTS

• URL shorteners: Engagement rates are 3X higher for full length URLs

• Action Keywords: Fans follow instructions. Ask them to like, post, comment or tell you something.

• Ask questions at the end: 2X higher engagement.

• Fill in the blank Posts: 9X more comments than other posts.

Source: Buddy Media Platform

@ArnieK

TWITTER – AJ BOMBERS

• Milwaukee restaurant formed a

community by publishing specials

& answering customer questions

• Have more than 12,000 followers

• Estimate 75 percent of customers

are Twitter followers

• Treat everyone on Twitter as if they

are regulars

• Allow customers to write their

Twitter names on the walls of the

restaurant

@ArnieK

+1 BUTTON: OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESSES

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

• Be proactive. Build out many Social Media Profiles and be

somewhat active on them

– Google+ – Profiles for people, pages for business.

– Facebook – Pages for your business.

– Twitter – Profiles for key executives, profiles for your business.

– LinkedIn – Profiles for key executives, company pages for

businesses.

– Pinterest – Make sure one of your pins includes your name or

business name too!

– Flickr – Create profile and post images

– YouTube – Create a channel and post videos

– Slideshare - Create profile and post slides

– And of course every directory and local listing you can

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

BUILD LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT

• Identify low hanging fruit

– Internal links

– Blog & forum participation

– Where you have relationships

– Local partners & listings

– Guest articles or blog posts

– Local destination schools

– Competitive research for similar content

• The best links:

– Are from trusted sites

– Have varied anchor text

– Are from many different, relevant websites

– Determined editorially

@ArnieK

What Works For Your Competitors?

@ArnieK

@ArnieK

MEASURE!

• Measure for successes…

and failures

• Check your rankings, traffic,

conversions and other key

metrics

• Focus on the strategies that

are providing the best ROI

and keep rolling out the

content

@ArnieK

Contact: 888-476-1881

www.VerticalMeasures.com

More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.

THANK YOU!