First of all, I’m writing this on a Sunday night, but I realized from last Sunday’s post that no one wants to read work-stuff on a Sunday night so I’m changing our “Weekend Reading List” to “Monday Reading List” instead, our little treat for you as you start your work week. You’re welcome.
Second of all, yes, SEO and Link Building are not dead.
In fact, SEO is still very much alive.. and keeping us alive. (Photo Credit)
We all know that SEO has evolved and most of the SEO tactics we used to apply do not work anymore. Because of these changes, SEOs have jumped in on the Content Marketing wagon, claiming that Content Marketing is the new SEO. On top of this Content Marketing trend, and in spite of the many websites that were penalized because of bad links, we cannot ignore the fact that Link Building is very much alive, too. When you look at it, quality links is actually the ultimate goal of Content Marketing.
Today’s reading list is made of proven effective ways to do SEO and Link Building in this Post-Penguin search era. Also, some articles on Content & Social Media. Read on!
Link Building
1. Linking the Google Way in 2014. When someone titles his post like this, you’re bound to stop whatever you’re doing to focus and invest time and emotions (yes, emotions) on this piece of article. Unfortunately, the blogger is not really from Google, and this is not an official Google statement. But he did suggest an interesting piece of advise to explore Google Ventures when doing competitive analyses and link building strategies. Worth the read.
2. Link Building Case Study: How I Increase my Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days. We absolutely love Backlinko, and this skyscraper technique is one of the most, if not the most, effective link building strategies we’ve tried ourselves. This is not a new article. It was posted in October last year, but every now and then we would see this get shared again in various forums and social networks. One time we tried doing the skyscraper technique for one of our clients and we got ourselves 18 high quality back links in less than 2 weeks. Tried and tested.
3. 21 SEO Techniques You Can Use Today to Get More Search Engine Traffic. Another one from Backlinko, this article might as well be titled “21 Link Building Techniques”. Tips are very actionable, with specific examples. Follow these tips by the letter and I’m confident your organic traffic will increase exponentially.
4. The Power of Authors and Content for Link Building. This article takes a reverse approach to guest posting, where, instead of finding niche websites offering guest post opportunities, you find niche content creators first. It’s a long article, but worth every second of your time, specially if you’re seriously taking on Content Marketing as a way to build links.
SEO
5. What’s the Best Keyword Research Tool. 7 Internet Marketing experts shared their favorite keyword research tool in this article, with Long Tail Pro and Google Keyword Planner getting the most number of votes. We, here at Spiralytics, uses Google Keyword Planner. This article gives us a reason to try check out Long Tail Pro. Thanks Niche Hacks for compiling this one.
6. 7 Alerts to Monitor Your SEO Process Opportunities and Issues. This is a must-read for Online Marketers who are handling multiple clients at once. You don’t know you’re missing out a lot of opportunities until you become more proactive in finding opportunities. Our SEO team loved this one.
Content & Social Media
7. Beginners Guide to Social Media. Oh my wow! Moz launches its new Beginners Guide to Social Media, and while I haven’t really read it cover-to-cover yet, I’ve browsed through it and have seen the illustrations. While my baby was sitting on my lap! And she absolutely enjoyed the pictures too! (She probably thinks it’s a fairy tale book.) Good job, Moz! I love it. My kid loves it. Our graphic designer loves it. And I’m so sure our future Social Media Manager (we haven’t hired her yet) will love it too.
8. Facebook to Agencies: Time to Create Better Ads. The gist is: Facebook is basically saying, ‘I don’t care how much money you put behind a post. If it isn’t good content, we’re not going to serve it.’ Facebook actually wants to guard users from bad content. For some reason this recent development has made all of us here go, “Thank you, FB!” and then, “Game on!”
9. How to Growth Hack your Content Marketing. Kissmetrics gives actionable tips on content hacking, some of them are quick wins and are easy to implement. What?! You don’t know what “content hacking” means? (That’s okay, I didn’t know too, until I read this one.)
10. Essential WordPress Plugins for Content Marketing. I am over the moon about this one. Can you tell I’m doing a happy dance right now? Content Marketers and Publishers using WordPress, today is the day our lives are changed forever.
ONE LAST THING. I feel the need to share this picture. It probably looks bizarre (or even yucky) to you, but this is actually a tree made of dreams. Go ahead, read it.
Have a great week ahead!
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