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The Blogging Gospel According to Seth

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One of the reasons we love blogs so much at Fathom is because they are such an excellent means to provide fresh content to your website on a regular (weekly? daily?) basis. That is, as long as your blog is on your domain and NOT on some massive blog-hosting platform. You want all that fresh content featuring your important keywords to be generated right where you live for search engine cumulative effect, and it does truly work over time.

Another strong point about blogs is that they can establish oneself as an expert in an area. Seth Godin, for example, is a really respected guy in the online marketing world, and his blog is rated by many to be the best in the industry. He blogs about all things marketing-related, but in a syncretistic manner using all sorts of subject matter to make his point, which makes for entertaining reading. And reading should be entertaining!

I came across this interesting article on Neil Patel’s website QUICKSPROUT, illuminating 10 things any blogger can learn about blogging from Seth, and although the whole “list” aesthetic of many online articles is getting old, some of the points mentioned are quite empowering. A few I found encouraging were: blog every day; write like you talk; avoid time-sucking meetings and television and blog instead; edit, edit, edit!

None of these points offers any new revelation, and they’re all pretty much common sense. But as C.S.Lewis once wrote, “good teachers don’t teach you anything new, they simply remind you of what you’ve forgotten.”

So bloggers, start your engines. You CAN use blogging as an effective content marketing strategy to increase your content, site rankings, and expertise quotient in your industry—no matter what business you happen to be in.  Go for it, just like Seth.

Posted in Content Creation, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO | Tagged ,

 

The Case for Mobile SEO

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Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO – does it exist? If so, how important is it? And is it really that much different than the regular SEO we all know and love? Whether or not you’ve been told that developing a mobile site is vital to converting customers on that platform, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

Although some experts in our field question the necessity of mobile SEO, there’s no denying the huge opportunity within mobile site development.

And I know what you’re thinking – If Apple, one of the leading pioneers in mobile Web browsing, doesn’t need a mobile website, why would I need one? It’s true that Apple has made one site that is desktop- and mobile-friendly, but this doesn’t mean that their approach could work for everyone or that you can ignore designing with mobile users in mind. Furthermore, Apple is in a unique position. Brands that are not as iconic will struggle if they do not embrace the mobile revolution because users will not grant the same patience or credibility to mobile sites with poor user experiences.

When people search on their smartphones, they typically have an immediate need and therefore, are much more likely to take an action:

  • More than half of smartphone users make a purchase after searching: 68% visit a business and 53% make a purchase (40% of these purchases are made in-store)
  • Local info seekers are ready to buy: 77% contact a business and 44% make a purchase (36% of these purchases are made in-store)
  • 36% of local info seekers take action immediately after searching (http://www.gstatic.com/ads/research/en/2011_TheMobileMovement.pdf)

If your desktop site is already mobile-friendly, these statistics indicate that you are on the right track. If not, it’s time that you begin to incorporate mobile (and in some cases, local) search into your online strategy.

Mobile and smartphone usage has grown at such a rapid pace that many of us couldn’t have possibly foreseen the necessity of having mobile-friendly websites. If you have a successful desktop website, don’t think you have to dismantle everything and start from scratch. There are plenty of readily available mobile SEO best practices for those of us still developing digital marketing strategies in this portable computing world.

Posted in Local SEO, Mobile, SEO | Tagged , ,

 

Do You Smell That? It Could Be Your Stale Content

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Once you create quality content for all the pages on your website you’re finished, right?

Wrong. Your content is not something you can just write and ignore. You may not realize how quickly your content can go stale.  Just like the brown bananas in your kitchen, if you let your content sit for too long without edits, it can go stale. Fresh content is key to keeping your site relevant.

While it may seem like a hassle to continually track all of your content, if you take the time to do it right maintenance will be much easier.

Creating a Content Inventory Spreadsheet

First, it’s important to log all of your existing content on a spreadsheet or chart. The important information you need to include:

  • URL – Add the page URL for tracking purposes
  • Page description  – Include a quick description of the page’s content
  • Page level – Note where the page occurs on the site
  • Content function – What kind of content is on the page?
  • Content owner – Who is responsible for the up-keep of the page’s content
  • Date of creation – The date the content was originally developed
  • Update frequency – How often will the page need updated to stay relevant?
  • Current status – Is the page current, or does it already require edits?
  • Notes – Add any additional information that will be necessary to know

If your website has numerous pages, it can seem overwhelming to create a spreadsheet like this. However, if you start with the primary pages and slowly work through content page by page, you will eventually have a working inventory of all your content.

A content inventory spreadsheet is meant to guide you when it comes to making site updates and creating new pages. Pages that have a high update frequency will be your major priority. These pages usually include upcoming events, press releases, employee directories and things that could quickly change within your company.  When it comes to content creation, use your inventory as a reference as to what your website is currently lacking.

While the process of a content inventory is tedious, the benefits far outweigh the boredom.

How do you currently keep track of content on your website?

Posted in Content Creation, Online Marketing, SEO

 

LinkedIn Is an Asset for B2B Link-Building

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According to Debra Mastaler, blog author of Link Spiel, LinkedIn for B2Bs is a hot ticket.  Here are a few reasons why:

  • It is populated with businesses and business professionals,
  • It provides a neutral setting for companies to post information,
  • People use it as a search outlet for vendors and suppliers,
  • It is a good venue for establishing oneself or one’s company as an industry leader.

An increase in link-building opportunities is another perk; however, many B2Bs have yet to take full advantage of this benefit.  If your B2B company is in the market for quality, relevant backlinks, then here are a few ways LinkedIn can be of assistance:

Company profile pages

LinkedIn provides a link to your company’s website from the profile page—pretty simple.  Additionally, it’s worthwhile to ask employees to link to the company from their profiles as well.  Suggest they consider linking to your:

  • Company’s homepage
  • Company’s blog
  • Company’s Facebook or Twitter profile

Posting on a profile page

Populated by professionals, LinkedIn is a great outlet for posting business-related updates and content, even information that might be considered a little dry on other sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Consider posting updates with relevant links leading to:

  • New product or service pages
  • Events
  • Articles and press releases
  • Videos
  • White papers and case studies
  • Contests
  • Reviews

Additionally, if a LinkedIn member is actively searching for your type of content, then they might post one of your links elsewhere without you even having to ask.  One thing to be mindful of however, is not to flood your updates with links leading to your company’s site.  Be sure to include a variety of resources, including ones coming from other sites when applicable.

Outreach information haven

One method for acquiring quality links is that of blogger outreach, but between finding targets and creating engaging outreach emails this can be a daunting task.  LinkedIn can help by providing:

  • An advanced search – This is useful for filtering member profiles by industry.  Once the field has been narrowed, check these profiles for links to sites that seem worth reaching out to.
  • Common ground– You might have the industry thing in common, but in what other ways do you or your company relate to your targets?   Do you both:
    • Have affiliations with a school?
    • Attend mutual conferences?
    • Participate in the same forums?
    • Belong to a mutual group?

Scanning a profile can be an easy way to go the extra mile.  A thoughtful connection mentioned in an email often makes contacts more likely to provide a link.

  • Contact information – Look for that elusive contact information within a user’s profile, or within a blog stemming from a profile.  LinkedIn’s InMail may also be an option if no other contact info is available.

Group Participation

Participation on LinkedIn is not only a good way to establish yourself as an expert, but it’s a good way to pave the way for future links to your site.  Two ways in which to get involved include:

  • Answering questions
  • Creating a group

LinkedIn’s Answers section is a means of displaying your area of expertise, by responding to questions posed by members.  A “Web Resources” section is available to insert links that support your reasoning.  If readers find value in your resources, then they may choose to put your link on their own website.

Creating a group is another way to build valuable industry relationships as well as links.  Opportunities include:

  • Linking to your company’s site from the group’s profile page
  • Including relevant links within messages you send out to group members (within reason and moderation)

Groups are especially helpful for companies in very niche industries.  Demonstrating your knowledge to professionals is helpful in establishing relationships, an essential step for becoming a future guest blogger, or for other outreach efforts.

In general, securing quality backlinks for B2B companies has traditionally been more difficult than doing so for B2Cs.  While LinkedIn is not a quick fix for this disparity, it’s a key tool for gaining links, but perhaps more importantly, for laying a solid foundation for a quality, ongoing link-building campaign.  LinkedIn holds so many benefits for a company’s off-site SEO, and so I ask, if your B2B company is not currently on LinkedIn, then what are you waiting for?!

* Photo courtesy of Adriano Gasparri via Flickr

Posted in Link-Building, LinkedIn, SEO, Social Media | Tagged , , ,

 

Lost Rankings? How To Recover from Google Penalties

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Over optimization tipsThere are two types of SEOs: those that chase Google’s algorithm using tactics that work now but won’t in the future, and then there are SEOs that take a more sustainable approach to optimization, avoiding tactics that have a limited life-span. Prior to 2012 algorithm chasers were able, for the most part, to achieve rankings success for clients with a few setbacks from Panda. The various algorithm changes that Google announced this year (and it’s only April) have really dealt a blow to the algorithm chasers and, unfortunately, many companies that employed them to manage their SEO.

Given the new landscape, it’s not uncommon for online marketing agencies to acquire accounts with websites that have been worked over by unscrupulous SEOs in the past. These websites face a mountain of obstacles to overcome, but they can be overcome. It just may take some time depending on the severity of bad SEO.

If you have a website or you are working with a website that Google no longer loves, you’re going to need to take a different approach. Quality content and a strong social presence will earn Google’s trust again in time, but here are some suggestions you can implement now to get you back on track.

Address over-optimization on-site

A good place to start is with scaling back keyword density and any abundance of optimized internal links on your website. If you use your browser’s “find” function to highlight a keyword on a page that used to rank and it looks like you are staring into the sun, that’s a good sign you need to remove excessive mentions of that keyword from your content (or break out a thesaurus). You should also look to adjust your internal linking strategy by either removing some links or linking from related long-tail phrases.

Balance over-optimization off-site with branded links

To diagnose over-optimized links, run your page through Open Site Explorer and click over to the “Anchor Text” tab. If you don’t see your brand name or domain name in the top 5 then it’s time to put your brand first and your keywords second. You might be able to score some quick wins by changing off-site links you can control, but ultimately you need to change your linking strategy. Some purists will tell you to forget anchor text entirely. Realistically, targeting a mix of branded links and longer-tail keyword links from other websites will probably yield better results, quicker.

Combat bad links with high-quality content strategies

Bad links may be the most difficult thing to tackle on a site that has lost Google’s trust. If it is possible to easily remove bad, low-quality links, do it. In most cases, however, your time will be better spent creating quality content that can get you quality links. Either way, it’s going to take time (more time than it took to acquire the bad links). Many websites will be able to implement quality link outreach campaigns right away through public relations or sweepstakes-oriented promotions. Infographic creation and distribution can also get you some good links in a relatively short amount of time. Long-term, your strategy needs to lay the groundwork that will allow you to scale content distribution and quality link building efforts in the future. To do this you will need to do the following:

  • Construct an authoritative blog with engaging content people want to link to –authorship is important so make sure there are people and faces connected to blog posts
  • Create a social media strategy that builds followers who interact with your business
  • Develop and promote people at your company who are experts in the industry
  • Aim to build relationships, not links

The goal for any SEO or website today should be to create a sustainable optimization strategy both on-site and off-site. Many businesses learn the hard way that it takes much longer to regain rankings that are lost when Google updates its search signals. Whether or not your site has been penalized –consider implementing sustainable optimization strategies sooner rather than later.

Posted in Google, Link-Building, Online PR, SEO, Social Media

 

Why We CRO (Conversion Rate Optimize) for SEO

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Long gone are the days of online marketing campaigns that strictly revolve around keyword rankings and organic traffic – with little to no focus on conversions. Keyword ranking reports and traffic are still important indicators of success, but as we have learned, there is so much more that goes into creating and managing a successful online marketing campaign.

SEO has changed a lot in the last few years, but it is still the cornerstone to a solid foundation that helps generate revenue on the Internet. A solid SEO foundation can add a lift in performance to all other forms of marketing (paid, email, social, video, and offline).

As Fathom has evolved our SEO product into one of the most comprehensive online marketing solutions in the market, we want to take time to get you up to speed on an area we feel very strongly about; Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

We Conversion Rate Optimize client websites (existing sites and re-designs) as part of our online marketing program that reflects our brand promise – Simple, Accountable, Results That Matter

Simple

Conversion Rate Optimization requires a full team of experts to plan and implement tests that provide a boost to conversions. Conversions are top of mind for our team which includes: Senior Account Executive, Online Marketing Specialist, Copywriter, Technical Marketing Specialist and Conversion Specialist. Trying to weave in CRO to your existing marketing team can be a daunting task – especially if there is no existing design, usability or technical background.

Our goal is to make this skillset simple for you, and let us do the homework and heavy lifting while proving why you partnered with us. We have proven conversion best practices and success stories in place and are constantly challenging ourselves to do more, and also utilize the best tools to help us along the way.

Our process starts with “Challenger Sale” type research and discovery. We aren’t afraid to share new insights about your business and industry as a result of our research. We then move on to developing user personas that guide our entire team with focus on increasing conversions tied to the problem-solving content, engaging social conversations, and relevant links and PR opportunities we pursue on your behalf. Our process then ends with improved conversions that affect your bottom line.

Accountable

Our monthly reporting includes your standard web stats and rankings dashboard, but more importantly includes reports on all of your conversion goals and key performance indicators. We work with our clients to establish accurate lead values and determine the Return on Investment (ROI) for our efforts. If we aren’t working towards generating a positive ROI that meets your business objectives, we aren’t satisfied.

We track conversions all the way down to the keyword level and are serious about the role keywords and high quality content (that is also persuasive) play in the conversion funnel. Bottom line – all of our tactical online marketing efforts have a purpose in generating traffic, which leads into the third part of our brand promise…

Results That Matter

After we have established the overarching business goals, lead values and other key performance indicators that hold us accountable – we build quarterly plans that focus on what matters to you (visibility and revenue). Our testing methodology looks to lift conversions for your existing traffic, and the new traffic we are driving to the website. When we optimize lead capture forms and conversion funnel flow, all other forms on online marketing can benefit.

Our conversion optimization isn’t a one and done process. We take an iterative approach to improving conversion rates over time by continual testing, reviewing analytics, generating heat maps, reviewing form analytics, coordinating user testing, eye-tracking simulations, and incorporating other site feedback tools.

Getting Started with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

There are a variety of affordable testing tools to help you get serious about conversion rate optimization. A few of our favorites are Crazy Egg, Visual Website Optimizer, Google Website Optimizer, Attention Wizard, ClickTale, Userlytics, and Cacoo. Remember the tools are only as good as the operator experience behind them, and the analysis and action that spawns from their usage!

If your online marketing efforts are operated in silos by different teams that don’t have proper coordination or end results in mind, it might be worthwhile to determine what you can do better to holistically manage those efforts. Adopting a conversion and testing culture for your business takes resources, time and money. If it’s not something you can easily incorporate, look to the experts and start a dialogue on when and where conversion optimization makes sense.

Conversion Optimization Discussion

Fathom’s own Mike Perla, Director of Conversion Optimization & Creative, has coordinated a professional group dedicated to Conversion Rate Optimization. Please visit www.CROPA.net or the CROPA group on LinkedIn to learn more about the topic, join the ongoing discussion, and view archived webinars provided by industry professionals.

Posted in Conversion Optimization, Online Marketing, SEO, Usability

 

Mr. Hymen Lipman, “The Father of Modern Content Editing” – This Day in SEO History: Vol. 4

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Welcome back for another educational and whacky edition of “This Day in SEO History!” Did you know that March 30th marks the 154th anniversary of the patent for a pencil featuring a built-in eraser, invented by Mr. Hymen Lipman in 1858?

I know what you’re thinking; Slymenstra Hymen was that woman (?) who used to sing and fire-dance for the heavy metal band, Gwar. Well, my friend – that is incorrect… Although she may have had a built-in-eraser attached somewhere to that costume…

Before Lipman invented the pencil-with-eraser, people were having big trouble when they created content. The SEO world owes Hymen a big shout-out because his content-editing tool was the beginning of word processing & content management systems. Today, online marketers edit website content to increase search engine rankings and to add-in strong keywords.

Check out This Day in SEO History: Vol. 4 – “The Father of Content Editing,” written and starring our own Father of Content, Daiv Whaley, and produced by the most rockin’ production intern in the world, Victoria Wilhelm.

Happy unofficial Annual Pencil Day, everybody!

Shoot us a comment below to give us your take on SEO History! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks for watching, and stay tuned for more educational <and historical> content from Fathom!

Posted in Content Creation, Internet Video Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Video, SEO | Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Results: What Every Business Should Demand of Its Marketing

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When talking about SEO as a product, Fathom’s founder, the late Bill Fox, was fond of an analogy back in the early days of the company. In his best CEO voice, I remember him telling me in my first week on the job:

“Selling SEO is like selling beer: you’ve got the 6-pack, you’ve got the 12-pack, and you’ve got the case.”

What did this mean? At the time (2006), SEO consisted largely of keywords and rankings, and Fathom (along with the industry in general) priced its services accordingly: by volume. If you wanted the 6-pack, we’d focus our SEO on 25 keywords. If you wanted the 12-pack, it was 50 words, and so on. Companies appreciated the cut-and-dry pricing, knowing we were accountable for getting results (i.e. rankings) for a specific number and type of keywords.

As time went on, the nature of SEO changed (see 2009 to 2011 alone), and hence our approach to practicing it, along with the concept of results and associated pricing structures. Today, it’s all about the revenue and value we can drive through your website (and the profitability of that revenue). Whether it’s helping improve your sales cycle, grow your business, boost your e-commerce transactions, or any other company goal, your marketing vendors (and/or your marketing department itself) should be helping you try to meet it.

You’ll hear many in the industry correctly talk about how SEO is not a turnkey fix or a short-term operation. This argument stems from a “big-tent” definition of SEO (as opposed to what Rand Fiskin calls pure SEO—see “associated pricing”  link above) that includes many accompanying sub-disciplines in the digital marketing school: usability, conversion, research & analytics, social media, Web design & development, to name a few. In other words, SEO isn’t done in isolation. It requires coordination of many elements to be truly sustainable with a desirable ROI. And yes, you’re right, another fashionable term to use for these marketing elements is inbound marketing.

Sustainability

Here’s one more word for you: Sustainability. This word captures the ethos of Fathom’s approach to marketing. We don’t care as much about your business’s one-off campaigns or random isolated successes as about driving long-term results in line with your marketing strategy. SEO today should be more about your business objectives than any single list of keywords or set of ranking reports. Rankings are in flux all the time and also vary wildly based on factors like user location, past history, and social connections (and whether a person is signed in).

There are still ways to obtain (and maintain) great search-engine rankings, but the real question is, How well does your website meet your business objectives? When you get visitors, do you have well defined paths for them, or are they left to guess and flounder? Are your company mission and offerings clearly stated?  Do you leave a positive first impression and build credibility with each step or repeat visit? Do you reward loyalty or offer ways for your audience to keep in touch (email, social channels, blog posts, podcasts, other RSS content)?

Beware the door-to-door sales approach to SEO, and pose these questions to your marketing department (or vendor) before you spring for that set of Ginsu knives.

Posted in Lead-gen, Online Marketing, SEO, Usability | Tagged , , ,

 

Losing Rank? Over-Optimization Might Be Your Problem

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Google recently announced they are working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed”. Read the recap on Search Engine Land.

As a full-service digital agency, with our roots in SEO, Fathom is used to the changes and is prepared to react quickly if we see drops in organic keyword rankings. After all, one of our core values is “Make Order From Chaos“. We saw this update coming a few months ago and put measures in place with our sites before the vague Google news hit the internet.

Our efforts to understand the changes (and taking action quickly) can be beneficial to others dealing with the same updates by Google. Well-aligned optimization tactics are what it took over the years to rank for highly competitive keywords, and those tactics are still important… however we can expect Google to continue to make changes to overly optimized sites with the intention to improve their search results and drop rankings for low value content. Below are some practical tips to help you in efforts to “un-optimize” your high traffic landing pages that have dropped a few spots in the organic keyword rankings. If your site pages have low value content and have been de-indexed from Google completely, there may be bigger issues at hand that this post will not solve.

The Situation:

You have secured a top 10 competitive keyword ranking for a long while, and the ranking has dropped, and worse yet… the ranking URL has changed. You feel the intended ranking page is optimized to the best of its ability, and the inbound links support the keyword focus, yet you are scratching your head as to why your aligned efforts aren’t moving the needle.

The Reality:

Google is constantly making algorithmic changes and you are at their mercy. Ranking reports and ongoing analysis allow you to review trends as they relate to keyword rankings. Sometimes proper tweaking of content or more inbound links can move the needle in the right direction – but there is a need to dive deeper if you are at a standstill or the rankings continue to drop. With the flip of a switch Google can decide to rank a lesser desired page, but in Google’s eyes the page is more naturally optimized, and not “over-optimized”.

What to Check:

  • Determine what’s common among the top 10 ranked results? (How does your site compare?)
    • Title tag, description/snippet, on-page content, inbound links and quality, social media shares, domain authority, freshness of content, keyword density, does the homepage or interior page rank?
  • Review keyword synonyms highlighted in the SERPs
  • What are strong keyword modifiers that are still ranking? Here are some tools to help find keyword variations:
    • Google Analytics > Entrance Keywords to Landing Pages
    • Google Webmaster Tools > Your site on the web > Search queries
    • Google Suggest
    • Google Related Searches
  • Do you have top rankings for the keyword modifiers? Can these offset the drop in the strategic keyword ranking while you are revising your optimization tactics? Can these keywords reinforce the strategic keyword ranking?
  • Take a technical deep dive looking at crawling issues and internal linking structure
  • Perform an on-page ranking analysis using tools, data and experience (why did Google decide to rank a page that isn’t as good of a fit?)

Start Testing:

  • Use the data above to start revising the way you optimized your pages that have recently dropped – think about creating sustainable content!
  • Get all the SEO foundation basics and technical optimization cleaned up
  • Start lowering the keyword density and closely check the keyword ranking movement, traffic and conversions
  • Tweak the anchor text on inbound links to be more natural (remove low value links)
  • Tweak the anchor text on internal links to be more natural (do you have too many links pointing to a select few pages?)

Long Term Solution:

  • Re-evaluate your information architecture and directory structure. This could be preventing proper crawling and competitive keyword rankings
  • Remove any technical and crawling roadblocks. Review site load time. Poor usability could be a hindrance as well.

Tools for Support:

  • SEO analysis tools – BrightEdge, SEOmoz, Raven Tools, etc.
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  • SERP spot checks
  • Firefox and Chrome plugins for quick spot checks of your site and competitors (i.e. Search Status)

Are there other keyword optimization tactics or experiences you would like to share? Please leave a comment below!

Posted in Content Creation, Link-Building, Search Engines, SEO, Technical Issues | Tagged

 

SEO for the Trade Show [Interop]

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Trade shows are great for so many things: brand recognition; meeting customers and prospects; mixing and mingling with colleagues. Also long hours, sore feet and big dinner bills.  But it can be good for other things as well, namely online marketing, including SEO, social and link-building.  Here’s how and why:

Social
Social media marketing is a big part of search results and is increasingly becoming more important. Followers, likes and interactions are recognized by Google and can have a positive impact on your rankings.  That said, IT trade show Interop provides hourly updates from its feed and has more than 5,000 Twitter followers.  By acting similarly, you, too can increase your visibility on social networks and search engines.  You can also increase foot traffic to your booth at the show.  Here are some examples:

  • Promo codes
    Let your audience know you have promo codes and show it how to get them.  Offering this kind of discount is a great way to interact with customers, prospects and colleagues.  Make sure your BDM team is involved and actively using them.
  • Give-aways
    Giving away products is a great way to get traffic to your booth.  It’s also a great way to get people buzzing about you in the social space.  Let everyone know what you’re giving away (standard iPad or a Hawaiian vacation) and how they can get involved.  Perhaps if someone follows you on Twitter and stops by the booth, they get two entries instead of one.
  • Show updates
    During the show, provide constant feedback via your social networking platforms:

    • How is the show going?
    • How was the latest keynote speaker?
    • Let everyone know your keynote is about to speak
    • Let everyone know before you’re giving away a prize

Blogging
Content should be written and optimized for your blog to promote your involvement before, during and after the show.  Search engines love fresh, well-written content.  If you’re not already blogging, then start today. If you are blogging, then tradeshows like Interop provide avenues to add great content.  Examples:

  • Before the show
    Let everyone know you’re attending.  This can include where your booth is located and when your team is speaking.   You can also talk about the products you’ll be displaying and provide a link within the blog to those product pages.  Let your audience know why they should stop by the booth. Are you giving anything away? Will you have product demos available?  Maybe you’ll have free pizza and beer; if so, that’s a great blog post.
  • During the show
    Much of the updates during the show can be broadcasted via Twitter or other social channels (see “show updates” above), but a solid daily blog post with the highlights can also be compelling.  What are the key takeaways from the day?  Did you have a big rush of people to the booth? If so, take a picture and let everyone on your blog know about it.  Link the blog post to the product that had everyone’s attention.  Perhaps you generated a ton of interaction during a panel your product manager sat on.  If so, post the questions and answers.
  • After the show
    Make sure to wrap everything up with your overall impression of the conference with the highlights.

Link-Building
Link-popularity building is the foundation of many successful SEO programs.  Generating relevant and quality backwards links not only helps improve rankings, but also drives quality website traffic and supports branding.  There are numerous link- building opportunities assocated with tradeshows like Interop.  For example:

  • Exhibiting and sponsorships
    If you’re sponsoring or exhibiting at the show, chances are you’ll have an opportunity to let the world know via the show’s website.  For example, see Interop’s list of exhibitors. The majority of the companies that are paying for a sponsorship have no information about what they do, let alone a link back to their website.
  • Speaking
    Is your company speaking at Interop? If this is the case, make sure you completely fill out your speaker’s bio. The majority of the bios are left blank. Again, this is a great place to get great backward links to your online properties: website, blog, Twitter profile, etc.
  • PR/Blogging
    As mentioned below, press releases and blogging can drive quality links back to your website.  Getting the proper keywords, content and links within your PR campaigns can have a significant impact on SEO.

PR
Before the show, the PR buildup should be in full swing.  This will include press releases, social activity, speaking engagements and editorial pushes.  Be sure to cover:

  • Press releases
    Get the right keywords into your announcements and have links pointing to the most relevant pages, NOT just your homepage or events page.  If you’re featuring a product, send the readers to the proper product page.
  • Awards
    If you’re exhibiting, chances are you have new products or updates to existing products to promote.  Make sure they’re considered for any awards.  Your company winning—or at least being considered—can have a big impact on customer perception in online research, along with making your sales team very, very happy.

Website Optimization
Trade shows like Interop give you the opportunity to add freshly optimized and engaging content in a new way:

  • Site content
    Product pages can have calls-to-action that hit home with visitors and prospects.  For example, if you’re featuring a product demo during the show, state that on the product landing page: “See the desktop virtualization software in action at Interop, booth #9555.”  You can also create entire new pages about your exhibit.  For example, if you’re featuring a “big data” product that isn’t ranking for a keyword like “big data analytics,” you can create an additional page that speaks your booth promotions, demos, team and Interop interactions that are centered around the “big data analytics” product.

Gasoline on the Fire
 Here at Fathom, we love it when our clients are attending trade shows like Interop. They are the perfect opportunity to boost rankings, traffic and leads in a new and creative way. Using an analogy, SEO is like a fire—the more logs you throw on the fire, the bigger it gets.  Properly marketing your participation in trade shows is like adding a log doused in gasoline to your fire.  Poof!!

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