Startup SEO Challenges with Sean Smith of Simple Tiger

Posted by on December 7, 2017 in CredoCast/Growth/Marketing Strategies/SEO

Sean Smith is the cofounder of Simple Tiger, a digital marketing firm that has been on Credo since the beginning. They specialize these days in startup marketing, especially SaaS companies, helping them get traction through SEO, content, and promotion. In this video Sean lays down some of the most common SEO and content mistakes he sees startups making that, when corrected, can drive huge growth. Simple Tiger on Credo Simple Tiger’s website Sean on Twitter

What is anchor text and does it still matter in SEO?

Posted by on November 28, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics

Misinformation runs rampant in the SEO world. Back before Google’s Penguin algorithm launched on April 24th 2012, link building was easy and relatively safe. If you built too many exact match anchor text links, the worst that would happen to you was that you’d rank better. After April 24, 2012 when Penguin was released to target manipulative link building, the industry changed. Many SEOs have become scared of acquiring links for clients that contain the words for which they are…

The Future of Websites and Business is Personalization, with Brennan Dunn

Posted by on November 16, 2017 in CredoCast/Entrepreneurship/Marketing Strategies

Brennan Dunn is a developer at heart, but over the last few years has taken personalization and marketing automation further than pretty much anyone I know. Founder of many companies but most notably Double Your Freelancing and now RightMessage, we geeked out on personalization, the steps he’s taken to go from some side projects to a six figure a month info-product company, and what he’s trying to do now with RightMessage.

Why “SEO Keywords” don’t matter and what to do instead

Posted by on November 7, 2017 in Marketing Strategies/SEO Tactics

If you’re an SEO reading this, the point of this article is to communicate this: businesses should hire an SEO consultant/agency to help them out with the full research, guidance around writing things that rank, and promotion. SEOs don’t just insert keywords into articles that are already written. Often when I am speaking with business owners or marketing managers about SEO and content marketing, I hear some version of this: We have the industry knowledge, but we need someone to…

The Future of Advertising and Why Facebook Ads Are Giving Paid Search a Run for Their Money, with Susan Wenograd

Posted by on October 26, 2017 in Advertising/CredoCast/Marketing Strategies

Susan Wenograd is a Virginia-based advertising specialist. She’s actually my own go-to mentor on anything Facebook Ads or general advertising related, because she’s established herself as an expert there running campaigns for so many different types of businesses. In this episode we talk about Facebook advertising and some of the tricks she’s learned, but more importantly we talk about the shift we are both seeing towards more social and demographic based targeting and away from straight classic PPC keyword targeted…

Find Your Communities, Seed Them With Value with Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool)

Posted by on October 26, 2017 in Content/community/CredoCast/Marketing Strategies

Ross Simmonds, aka The Coolest Cool, is a marketer’s marketer. He owns his own brands as well as doing marketing for clients. In this episode, we talk about: His process for identifying promotion opportunities; How he doesn’t get flagged for spam or overpromotion; Why he thinks this is such a big opportunity for brands moving forward.

SEO tips for eCommerce businesses to stand out online

Posted by on August 24, 2017 in Marketing Strategies/SEO Tactics

If you run an ecommerce business, you get how important and hard it is to stand out online. You may be selling artisanal chocolate bunnies, but you’re still competing against sites like Amazon in the search results. So how do you set yourself apart? How do you get that click from the search results even if Amazon/Walmart/competitor is outranking you for that coveted #1 or #2 position? Free five step ecommerce SEO framework Struggling to focus your ecommerce SEO efforts?…

SaaS Startup SEO Advice

Posted by on July 13, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics/Small Business

Most startups underinvest in SEO for a really long time. If that’s you, listen up. On the one hand, I can’t blame you. You’re trying to get a new thing off the ground and just keep it alive, and maybe even grow it. You’re trying to figure out your customer segments, how you’ll make money, who you need to hire and when, and so much more. Trust me, I’ve been through all of it over the last two years running…

No Nonsense Content Marketing

Posted by on July 11, 2017 in Growth/Marketing Industry/SEO Tactics

Two weeks ago at the MN Summit I presented this deck entitled “No Nonsense Content Marketing”. I have removed one slide that I gave away an an attendees-only gift, but the presentation otherwise is below in its entirety. Enjoy.

SEO Site Migration Checklist: How to migrate your website and not kill your SEO efforts

Posted by on June 29, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics/Small Business

Migrating your site to a new domain or URL structure is a huge undertaking whose SEO implications should not be taken lightly. In fact, I would say switching URLs and technical stacks can be one of the highest risk things you can do for your site’s SEO. Sometimes, though, we have to do things that are risky for other reasons. Maybe politics is at play and you were not involved in the decision. Or maybe the UX team has made…

Information Architecture for SEO

Posted by on May 25, 2017 in Growth/SEO Tactics

I work on a lot of large websites. Most of the time when I am brought in to work on one of these sites, whether a content site or a marketplace (similar to ecommerce), one of the biggest changes I can make is fixing their site’s information architecture. That’s what we are talking about today.

10 Questions to ask SEO consultants

Posted by on May 15, 2017 in Growth/Marketing Strategies

If you’ve never hired an SEO consultant or SEO agency before, you likely don’t know where to start. And hiring an expert SEO professional or firm can be expensive (because of the outsized value it can bring your business over time), so you need to get it right the first time. We offer this in our VIP hiring package (get more details here) as well. Questions to ask SEO consultants These are the questions you should ask a potential SEO…

Should You Hire The Person Who Ranks #1 For SEO Queries?

Posted by on May 1, 2017 in Marketing Strategies

I’ve seen this question so many times that I want to give my thoughts on whether or not you should hire an SEO agency simply because they rank #1 or #2 for queries relevant to their business, such as “SEO agency Denver”. Now, I haven’t even looked at that query so I don’t know who’s ranking, and that’s on purpose because I don’t want to call anyone out. Here’s an example of another city so you can see what a…

51 Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Site in 2021

Posted by on March 30, 2017 in Consulting Strategies/Growth/SEO Tactics

This post is updated annually to add and remove ways to drive traffic to your site. It was last updated August 2021. You need more website traffic. If you run an online business, traffic is your lifeblood because it enables your business model to work and pay your bills. Therefore, you need to employee multiple strategies to bring new visitors to your site and keep old visitors engaged with your content. Here are 51 ways to drive and increase traffic…

MapQuest Getting Star Results from Yelp Reviews?

Posted by on March 3, 2017 in SEO Tactics

I’ve been in SEO for a long time and seen a lot over the years. Panda rolled out about a year into my career, then Penguin, then all the other amazing algorithm changes we’ve learned to roll with over the years. As Marshall Simmonds of Define Media Group says, “That right there is job security”. I’ve also seen Google slap down different tactics that seem to be gaming their algorithm unfairly. We’ve seen them allow and then drop emojis, remove and add stars…

How You Track Facebook Metrics is Changing: What You Need to Know

Posted by on February 8, 2017 in Marketing Strategies

They’ve released several reports detailing issues with the way they calculate and measure Facebook metrics. It recently came to light that some businesses’ traffic was under-counted by up to 30% – a number that should set off alarm bells for anyone. Along with misrepresenting ad effectiveness, under-reporting traffic, having issues with poorly vetted information, and inflating video views, this presents quite a conundrum.

How you track your Facebook metrics is changing in February 2017. Don’t wait to update. We’re sharing what you need to know to prep and stay on top.

Why Meaningful Content Writing Matters For SEO

Posted by on February 1, 2017 in SEO Tactics

In the modern age of search engine marketing, quality content matters more than actually having content at all. Otherwise, you’re just filling up space on a web page that has no meaning.

SEO in 2017 – What’s The Latest?

Posted by on January 18, 2017 in Business/Marketing Strategies

Every SEO I know right now is putting together a roundup post of “what #X experts think of SEO in 2017”. I’m going to do it differently. If you’re down in the trenches doing SEO, you should have a pretty good idea about where SEO has come from, where it currently is, and where it’s going. I help 60-70 businesses a month find an agency or consultant to work with, mostly for SEO. I also work with a few enterprise…

Dear John: Should I Buy That Directory Link for SEO?

Posted by on January 5, 2017 in Dear John/Marketing Strategies

Welcome to Dear John, a new (hopefully weekly) column where I’m going to answer questions about SEO/digital marketing in longer formats. If you have a question you’d like me to answer, please email it to hello at getcredo dot com with the subject starting with [DEAR JOHN]! Near the end of December, I answered a question in Moz Q/A about whether this person should buy a specific directory link. Here’s the question:

What To Read As A Link Builder

Posted by on December 20, 2016 in Marketing Strategies/SEO Tactics

Prescript: need to hire a link builder on a consulting basis to help you grow your company? You can find them here on Credo. If you’re a new link builder, you probably struggle with where to start learning. When I started in SEO full time in 2010, there were an amazing amount of fantastic new blog posts being written about link building, complete with new ideas and strategies to test. Link building was fun. The times have changed.

On-page SEO Guide for marketers and non-marketers

Posted by on October 3, 2016 in SEO Tactics

Are you a consultant or work inside an agency where you frequently need to give onpage SEO recommendations, yet you have not yet built out a full list that you always make sure to send to your clients when they ask? Or maybe you believe (as I do) in bespoke work and that no template works perfectly for every client. Over the years I have been asked by clients time and time again to provide onpage SEO recommendations, though I…

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