Which Content Marketing Strategies Have the Biggest Impact on Keyword Rankings?

The term “content marketing” is a wide umbrella.

It encompasses a plethora of different strategies and techniques.

But at the end of the day, one of your primary goals is to create content that ranks as highly as possible on search engine results pages (SERPs).

This is important because organic traffic is the number one means of generating traffic for many companies.

A study from The Bright Edge even “found that organic search drives 51 percent of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites trumping all other non-organic channels.”

This means one thing.

You need to figure out the relationship between content marketing strategies and keyword rankings.

This is instrumental in fine-tuning your content marketing campaign and finding the right areas to focus on.

In this post, I analyze data from multiple studies and draw on my own knowledge and experience to give you a clear idea of the content strategies demanding the most attention.

So, let’s see which strategies have the biggest impact on keyword rankings.

Rich content

I won’t waste your time telling you about the importance of creating quality content.

You already know that.

But I’d like to share with you this statistic from an infographic on Quick Sprout:

That’s a lot of links!

And I’m sure you know the integral role links play in SEO.

This graph from Moz illustrates the importance of links and their influence on Google’s algorithm:

Let’s put this information together.

When you create rich content, it gets you more links.

These links improve your overall SEO, which improves your rankings.

So, being diligent about achieving and maintaining rigorous quality standards should be of the utmost concern.

Long-form content

Here’s the deal with long-form content.

It’s hot right now. Scorching hot.

I remember a few years ago when your average blog post was only somewhere around 500 words.

But if you look at the vast majority of content that ranks on page one of Google SERPs today, it’s rare that you’ll find anything under 1,000 words.

To prove just how important long-form has become, I would like to show you a couple of graphs.

The first is from a fairly old (September 2012) article I wrote on Quick Sprout.

I got the data from research performed by SerpIQ:

As you can see, every single piece of content that ranked on the first page had at least 2,000 words.

More specifically,

The first result typically has 2,416 words and the 10th result has 2,032 words.

Newer research (September 2016) from Brian Dean of Backlinko shows a similar pattern:

According to his research,

The average word count of a Google first page result is 1,890.

That’s over 500 words fewer than the original research from SerpIQ indicated back in 2012…526 to be exact.

But it still shows us long-form content is a key element in achieving solid rankings.

Why is this so?

The way I look at it, there are two main reasons for this phenomenon.

First, people have a tendency to scan through content these days.

Few actually sit down and read a 2,000-word piece word for word in its entirety.

Instead, they scan through and look at the sub-headers that grab their attention and may read little snippets of text from there.

Long-form content facilitates this new method of reading.

Second, a longer word count tends to translate into more links.

And this makes sense.

The more content you provide, the more opportunities for it to be linked to.

Put all this together, and you can see that long-form content means higher rankings.

Who knows, the whole “long-form content bubble” may pop in a few years.

But it’s stronger than ever at the moment.

However, it appears that the ideal word count has been reduced considerably, and you should aim for just south of 2,000 words.

How do you create 2,000-word content?

• Decide on a specific and narrow topic.
• Create a compelling title.
• Discuss the issue from every angle.
• Provide as much detail as possible.
• If possible, provide step-by-step instructions on how to do something.

You should never stuff your articles with words just for the sake of hitting a word count.

But you should strive for detail, depth, clarity, and mastery of a subject matter.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about long-form content. When you truly make an effort to provide value in your content, it expands in length.

That’s not to say that you can’t provide value with a 400-word article.

But the level of value created in a 2,000-word article is usually much greater.

Content with “topical relevance”

But the plot thickens.

The same Backlinko article also points out that

content rated as “topically relevant” significantly outperformed content that didn’t cover a topic in-depth. Therefore, publishing focused content that covers a single topic may help with rankings.

Topical relevance basically combines my first two points of creating rich content and long-form content.

It simply means that Google values content that’s comprehensive and that thoroughly covers a topic.

This means it’s best to focus on a single topic for each piece of content you create.

Rather than bouncing around from subject to subject, you’re better off going all in on a single topic and leaving no stone unturned.

Does this mean you can’t discuss other topics?

No. In fact, you should touch on as many relevant topics as possible! But your focus should be on a single topic.

If you feel you need to cover a topic you weren’t able to get around to in the post, create a separate piece of content and cover it in-depth as well.

Using long-tail keywords

This strategy has been in existence seemingly since the dawn of SEO—back when SEO was in its primordial soup stage.

One of the main ways small-scale marketers have been competing with the big dogs is by using long-tail keywords.

And why wouldn’t they? It freaking works.

In fact, I’ve been using this strategy for years.

I even used it to grow my search traffic by 51% in just three months!

And guess what? It still works brilliantly.

An infographic from Adept states that “pages optimized for long-tail keywords move up 11 positions on average, compared to just 5 positions for head keywords.”

It’s really not rocket science.

Using long-tail keywords means less competition, which means a greater likelihood of achieving a favorable ranking.

The awesome thing is that long-tail searches account for roughly 70 percent of searches:

This means there’s plenty of opportunity out there.

Of course, you won’t get the same volume of traffic that you would for a head keyword or broad keyword, but you can still generate some sizable traffic if you do your keyword research and choose a phrase that receives a reasonable number of searches.

Check out this post from NeilPatel.com for a step-by-step walkthrough of integrating long-tail keywords into your blog posts.

The process is fairly straightforward:

• Do your typical keyword research (using Google AdWords Keyword Planner or your preferred tool)
• Select the long-tail keywords from the list (3 words or more)
• Use these keywords in your content.

Image-rich content

If you haven’t heard, people respond positively to images.

It’s true.

And although I think the whole visual-centric discussion has been done to death, I would like to reference one more point from the Backlinko article I mentioned earlier.

According to Brian Dean,

Industry studies have found that image-rich pages tend to generate more total views and social shares.

But here’s the interesting thing.

Using at least one image is much better than not using any images at all.

However, they couldn’t find a correlation between the total number of images and rankings.

That means there’s no proof that using a lot of images will improve your rankings any further.

In other words, using just one image would in theory have the same effect as using 10 or more images.

The key takeaway is this:

Using a single image is clearly better than zero images. Including lots of images doesn’t seem to have an impact on search engine rankings.

When it comes to my posts, this information isn’t going to stop me from sprinkling plenty of images throughout my content.

In fact, you probably know that many of my posts are jam-packed with images.

I think my audience enjoys the “eye candy,” and graphs in particular are excellent for explaining fairly complex concepts.

But keep this in mind when creating your next piece of content: going nuts with images probably isn’t necessary.

Direct answers

If you’re not sure what I mean by “direct answers,” it’s simple.

Google is now starting to show direct answers when you use a “how to,” “what is,” “who is,” etc. type of search.

Here’s an example:

The first thing that pops up at the top of the page is a clip from the top ranking site.

It’s a way to streamline the process and offer searchers direct information without them having to actually click on the link.

Of course, oftentimes they’ll still click on the link to find more in-depth information.

I know I often do.

So, here’s the deal.

Providing a direct answer can be beneficial and a viable strategy for killing it on SERPs.

If you can provide a quick, logical, and direct answer, especially for a long-tail keyword phrase, there’s a good chance you can get your content featured at the top.

Just be sure your direct answer transitions smoothly into the rest of your content.

Here’s how I typically use this strategy:

• Identify a question marketers are asking.
• Create an article answering this question.
• Provide a step-by-step solution to the issue.

When I follow this three-step process, the articles I write on those topics usually rank on page one for the associated keyword within five days or less.

This is the primary technique I’m currently using on NeilPatel.com, and it’s earned me over 800,000 unique monthly visitors.

Conclusion

I value objectivity when determining the approach of my content marketing strategy.

I find that examining the cold hard facts clears most biases and preconceived notions I might have.

This is important because this gives me the clearest path to achieving my goals.

While there are countless factors that contribute to keyword rankings, the ones I listed here appear to have the biggest impact pound-for-pound.

Putting your attention on these key areas should ensure that your content marketing is heading in the right direction while giving you the best chance of climbing in the SERPs.

What do you think the most important content marketing strategy for improving your rankings is?

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How to Run Your First Facebook PPC Campaign (if You Have no Experience)

Facebook’s reach is insane.

What started out in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room has gone on to revolutionize the world.

This means one thing for online marketers: boundless opportunities.

Of course marketers have been using Facebook organically for years, but recently Facebook PPC has become the go-to marketing trend.

It’s interesting because I remember not all that long ago that pretty much the only PPC platform on marketers’ radars was Google AdWords.

It was AdWords or nothing.

But with Facebook having 1.86 billion monthly active users as of Q4 of 2016, it’s easy to see why Facebook PPC has exploded.

Just look at Facebook’s growth from 2008 to 2016:

But I know from experience that getting started with a new PPC platform can be a little harrowing.

You want to make sure you’re not wasting your marketing budget, and you want to get legitimate results from the money you’re putting in.

This article is intended for those of you who are just getting your feet wet with Facebook PPC and have no experience.

I’m going to walk you through the initial steps so you can set up your first ad and feel confident that it will perform well.

Choose an advertising objective

One way that Facebook PPC differs from platforms like AdWords is that advertisers can have several different types of objectives.

While on AdWords your goal is to drive qualified traffic to your landing page, on Facebook, you can have multiple objectives.

Here are just a few examples:

• Building brand awareness
• Generating leads
• Getting people to install your app
• Getting store visits

It’s important you have a crystal clear idea of what you want to accomplish as it will dictate the specific approach you take.

I recommend doing some brainstorming beforehand so you know exactly what your advertising objective is.

Here’s the first thing you’ll see when starting your campaign:

Let’s say your objective is to increase engagement by getting more page likes.

You would click on “Engagement,” and this would pop up at the bottom:

Facebook will give you a generic campaign name. In this case, it’s “Engagement.”

But you can replace it with whatever campaign name you choose.

I’ll just use “Neil’s Engagement Campaign.”

Once you’ve entered your campaign name, click on “Create Ad Account.”

From here, you’ll need to choose your country, currency, and time zone.

Now click “Continue.”

Selecting your audience

Here’s where it gets a little trickier.

The first thing you need to do is select your audience.

It’s crucial that you zone in on your target audience and be as specific as possible.

Otherwise, you may end up wasting money if irrelevant or unqualified people find your ad.

Here’s what you’ll see:

This is pretty self-explanatory, but you need to be meticulous about filling out this info, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar business with a limited demographic in a particular region.

Carefully consider who it is you’re trying to reach.

Just below this, there is “Detailed Targeting” and “Connections.”

I really like the “Detailed Targeting” feature because I can be hyper-specific about who sees my ads.

Click on “Browse,” and you’ll be able to narrow your audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.

In my case, I’m going to click on “Interests” > “Business and Industry” > “Marketing.”

That’s because I’m targeting people who want to improve their websites and grow their traffic.

Of course, you’ll want to target your specific audience.

I suggest taking your time with this and browsing through everything so that you select a highly specified segment of Facebook users.

Just below “Detailed Targeting,” you’ll see “Connections.”

Here you can add a connection type based on:

• Facebook Pages
  – People who like your page
  – Friends of people who like your page
  – Exclude people who like your page
• Apps
  – People who used your desktop app
  – Friends of people who used your desktop app
  – Exclude people who used your desktop app
• Events
  – People who responded to your event
  – Exclude people who already responded to your event

Add any specific connections for even more segmentation. Save this audience.

Placements

You have two options in terms of how your ads are displayed.

There’s “Automatic Placements” and “Edit Placements.”

I recommend sticking with “Automatic Placements” if you’re just starting out until you get the hang of things.

If you’re unhappy with your CTR (click-through rate), you can always go back and “Edit Placements” later on.

Budget and schedule

You have two options for your budget.

There’s “Daily Budget” and “Lifetime Budget.”

HubSpot explains the difference between the two:

• Daily budget. If you want your ad set to run continuously throughout the day, this is the option you’ll want to go for. Using a daily budget means that Facebook will pace your spending per day. Keep in mind that the minimum daily budget for an ad set is $1.00 USD and must be at least 2x your CPC.
• Lifetime budget. If you’re looking to run your ad for a specified length of time, select lifetime budget. This means that Facebook will pace your spend over the time period you set for the ad to run.

I suggest keeping your budget fairly low initially.

If you’ve ever used any sort of PPC platform, you’re probably aware of the inherent learning curve that’s involved.

The last thing you want to do is drop a huge amount of money without first getting your bearings and learning the subtle nuances of a platform.

As for the schedule, you can either allow your ads to run continuously or select a specified start and end date.

If you want your ads to run only on certain days or at certain times, you’ll want to choose the latter option.

Simply change the date and time to your specified settings.

Creating your ad

Now that we’ve gotten all the preliminary steps out of the way, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty: creating your ad.

You have two options.

One is to use an existing post. The other is to create a new ad.

If you want to promote a post you’ve already published on Facebook, you’ll want to use an existing post.

Otherwise, if you want to create an ad from scratch, click on “Create New Ad.”

Here’s the first thing you’ll see if you go this route.

Just choose whichever option makes the most sense.

The next thing you’ll see is the “Images” section.

If you already have a particular image you want to use, you can either pull it from your library or upload it from your computer.

Otherwise, you can use Facebook’s “Free Stock Images.”

I love this feature because it gives you instant access to a good sized library of high-quality, professional looking images.

You’ll then connect your Facebook Page and enter whatever text you want to use.

Here’s how Buffer structured its advertisement:

And here’s a little slice of advice about your copy.

Keep it short, sweet, and clear. The key is to entice Facebook users to visit your page so they can discover more.

At that point, you can convince them to make a purchase.

Notice how short and concise Buffer’s copy is.

Placement

Finally, you need to decide where you want your ad to be shown.

At the moment, you can choose between the following:

Although the desktop news feed may be your first instinct, it’s a good idea to do some testing to see which options gets the biggest results.

Placing your order

Once you’re happy with your ad, click on “Place Order” in the green box on the bottom right-hand side of the screen.

Facebook will review it before it goes live. Once it does go live, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Facebook.

Continued reading

That’s the gist of running your first Facebook PPC campaign.

The initial setup process is fairly straightforward.

But, of course, there are a lot of different variables that will ultimately determine how well your campaign performs.

When it’s all said and done, you want your ads to convert and get you the most bang for your buck.

More specifically, you want to minimize your cost-per-click (CPC) and see a solid CTR.

This is a huge subject to tackle, and I don’t have time to properly address it in this post.

But what I recommend is checking out a couple of previous posts that I wrote on neilpatel.com:

Beginner’s Guide to Running Facebook Ads That Convert

Facebook Advertising Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

These two posts pick apart the process of advertising on Facebook and will fill you in on the most important details you need for your campaign to be successful.

Conclusion

If you’ve played around with the idea of using Facebook PPC but haven’t quite gotten around to it, now is a great time to take the plunge.

Although I foresee it becoming fairly saturated in upcoming years, there’s still plenty of room for your brand right now.

And with an average CPC of only $0.64 (it’s $2.32 for AdWords), you stand a good chance of seeing a favorable ROI.

Once you get a feel for this platform, you can make the necessary tweaks to improve the performance of your campaign.

Do you think Facebook PPC could ever rival Google AdWords?

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How to Increase the Revenue Value of Your Homepage by 851%

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

I think this is a fitting quote to demonstrate the importance of a great homepage.

Once a visitor lands on your homepage, you need to impress them in a hurry.

Failure to do this typically results in a lost conversion with the vast majority of visitors never returning.

How can you ensure you make a good first impression?

And, more importantly, how do you boost conversions and increase the revenue value of your homepage?

There are countless strategies that work to some extent.

But I’d like to cover a handful I feel are the most practical and impactful.

I’ve researched each of these strategies and have implemented them on my own as well as my clients’ sites.

I’ve even seen some clients increase the revenue value of their homepages by as much as 851%.

This is not an exaggeration or some gimmicky hype to get you to click on my articles. This is stuff that works.

Let’s get down to business.

Make the load time lightning fast

Your first objective is to ensure a fast load time.

This is perhaps the most important factor of all because the rest of the strategies I’m going to discuss don’t really matter if the bulk of your visitors abandon your homepage prematurely.

Here’s a graph that illustrates how page abandonment increases as the load time of your homepage increases:

I suggest using the Pingdom Website Speed Test to accurately assess the load time of your homepage.

If it takes any longer than 5 seconds, you need to speed it up. Learn how to do it from this article I wrote.

Provide a clear value proposition

Once a visitor lands on your homepage, they should be able to tell right away what you’re offering and why it’s worth their time to check out your site in further detail.

This requires you to take one simple but incredibly important step: create a clear value proposition.

ConversionXL defines a value proposition as a clear statement that:

• explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),
• delivers specific benefits (quantified value),
• tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).

Here’s the value proposition I include on neilpatel.com:

It’s clear, specific, and to the point.

Below are some other good examples.

Dollar Shave Club pulls it off well:

So does Unbounce:

You get the idea.

For a more thorough explanation and tips on how to create a killer value proposition, check out this guide from ConversionXL.

Include a picture of a person

A few years back, there was a study that examined the impact of including a picture of a person on homepage performance.

The study involved A/B testing of two very different landing pages created for Highrise, a CRM software company.

The original design was pretty basic but fairly busy, meaning there was a lot of information.

However, the new design was very simple and included a large picture of a woman smiling.

The results were undeniable. Using the second design, with the woman smiling, resulted in 102.5% more sign-ups.

Here’s a comparison of the two designs:

What does this tell us?

It’s clear that including images of people (more specifically, people smiling) on your homepage can have a dramatic impact on conversions.

I actually follow this formula on my homepage for neilpatel.com, and it’s worked out wonderfully:

Other successful bloggers do the same.

Do you recognize this guy?

Here’s another one:

And here’s Marie Forleo:

This is Matt Barby:

Here’s Lewis Howes:

These people aren’t celebrities. They aren’t models.

They’re just bloggers. Successful ones.

They’ve figured out that a face on the screen vastly improves the profitability of the homepage.

Make your contact information easy to find

At first thought, placing your contact information in a conspicuous place on your homepage might not seem like a big deal.

It might seem like a mere footnote.

But it’s actually more important than you might think.

In fact, a study from KoMarketing found that

once on a company’s homepage, 64% of visitors want to see the company’s contact information.

And it’s not just your basic info like an email address.

Most people want thorough contact information like your phone, email, and address.

According to KoMarketing,

a lack of contact information will also deter buyers from moving forward with a Request for Proposal (RFP) and with filling out a form to request a demo or RFP.

I think this is important so visitors can tell for sure you’re a legitimate organization with a physical address and not some sleazy snake oil salesman who’s just looking to take their money and run.

The same goes for the About Us section

The same study from KoMarketing states that

once on a company’s homepage, 52% of visitors want to see ‘about us’ information.

This is one of quickest ways to establish trust and credibility with potential customers.

They want to make sure you’re legit.

Typically, the best location for your contact info and About Us section is the navigational menu at the top.

It’s above the fold and can be found in an instant.

However, if you have a fairly brief homepage, you could also place these sections at the bottom, like I do on neilpatel.com:

Don’t offer too many choices

There’s one mistake in particular I see countless companies make.

And that’s offering too many choices on their homepages.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

I would venture to say that vast majority of visitors who land on this page feel overwhelmed or even paralyzed with all the information.

It’s just too busy.

Here’s the deal.

People tend to enjoy having different options and choices. But only to an extent.

Too many choices have a paralyzing effect, and many people will end up doing nothing.

Here’s a screenshot from The Harvard Business Review in which they touch on a 2000 study involving choice:

The point here is that you should keep your homepage fairly simple:

That’s exactly what I tried to do with the Quick Sprout homepage, and it’s worked out very well.

If you have a lot of different products, build some type of filter so that visitors can figure out what they need without being overwhelmed in the process.

Don’t force a sign-up—allow a guest sign-up

You know what I hate?

When I land on a website and want to test out a trial version or make a quick purchase but get hit with a long registration process.

I find it really inconvenient and flat out annoying at times.

And guess what?

So do most other people.

There’s an article written about this issue by User Interface Engineering (UIE) called The $300 Million Button.

I suggest you check it out if you are not sure what I am talking about.

Long story short, most first-time shoppers find it irritating when they have to register before they can buy something. In fact, many resent it.

I love a particular quote from one shopper who said,

I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.

I think this sums it up perfectly.

Don’t make your customers jump through a bunch of hoops. Instead, allow them to complete their desired actions as guests rather than registered users.

That, right there, can have a dramatic impact on your revenue.

The article from UIE provides a concrete example of just how big of an impact it can have.

Here’s a screenshot:

Address visitor concerns

Let’s be honest.

It doesn’t take much for a would-be customer to turn around and hightail it out of your site.

And most people will have multiple concerns they’ll want addressed before they ultimately decide to make a purchase.

Here are some common concerns they may have:

• Your company doesn’t fully understand my problem
• What if your product doesn’t fix MY problem?
• Why should I trust your company?
• Why should I choose your product when there are so many other (and potentially more affordable) options out there?

Your goal is to quell any concerns or objections they may have.

But how do you do this?

It usually starts with acknowledging the problem your demographic is facing. Here’s a good example from Basecamp:

This lets visitors know that Basecamp understands how disorganization and confusion can create stress and hinder the progress of a project.

The suggestion is to let Basecamp help them get things back on track.

Including a few testimonials tends to be effective for proving that a product can fix a potential buyer’s problem. If it’s worked for countless other people, it will work for them too.

As for trust builders, here are some ideas:

• Include logos of companies you’ve worked with or have been endorsed by
• Include “trust seals” from third-parties such as the Better Business Bureau
• Mention awards or certifications your company has received

Finally, with proving value, explain why your price is what it is and what customers will get from you that they won’t get from competitors.

Create scarcity or urgency

If a visitor doesn’t convert right away, there’s a good chance you’ll lose them forever.

You want to strike while the iron is hot and while you’ve got them on your website.

One of the best ways to do this is to create scarcity or urgency.

I do this on neilpatel.com by having a feature that says “Training Starts in: X amount of time”

It begins counting down immediately after visitors land on my homepage.

I’ve found this to be effective for getting visitors to take action and for increasing conversions.

Now, there are a lot of different ways to create scarcity or urgency, and I don’t have time to fully discuss them here.

But what I suggest is checking out this post from Marketing Land that explains some techniques for using urgency psychology to improve conversions.

Note: There’s legit scarcity and there’s fake scarcity.

Using fake scarcity is a sleazy, underhanded tactic that most people will sniff out.

Always be honest.

Conclusion

There are many factors that ultimately determine the revenue value of your homepage.

It can be maddening trying to figure out what makes your visitors tick and wrapping your head around the psychology of user experience.

But I know for a fact that using these strategies will have a positive impact on the process.

You can use them to build instant trust, encourage further browsing, increase conversions, and ultimately boost your revenue.

What do you think is the single most important aspect of your homepage? What makes it profitable?

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