Content and Conversation: SEO Tips from Siege Media Siege Media

The right copywriter may be the deciding factor between standing out and blending in with the crowd.



Forget college essays and MLA format, today’s content marketing needs writers for the digital world–writers that can make “what is a proxy server” sound interesting.



In this episode of Content & Conversation, Julia McCoy, founder of Express Writers and Content Hacker, discusses what she has learned from hiring writers over the last decade and how it has helped her business scale ($75 to $1 million to be exact).



Additionally, listen to what makes the vetting process so crucial, how SEO tools come into play, and why AI isn’t as intimidating as you may think.







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Show Notes:



00:21: Julia McCoy’s background, the origin of Express Writers

2:37: How to interview new writers

5:39: The best process when vetting portfolios

8:02: The ideal writing staff split

9:37: What is a typical tempo of your editorial team?

10:36: In-house vs. outsourced team structure

14:04: How clients split copywriting duties in-house

16:02: How much content should I be creating?

18:42: Common obstacles when scaling production

20:32: Educating clients post-2020

21:14: How much SEO knowledge is appropriate?

23:09: How crucial are SEO tools?

24:50: The importance of on-page brand experience

26:37: The state of AI in copywriting

28:56: Roadblocks when relying on AI

31:53: Copywriting trends to look forward to in 2021





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Digital PR has been around for more than a decade. So why is it trending now?



It’s 2021 and our social media feeds can’t stop talking about Digital PR and GameStop. Yet, it’s for a good reason. Whether it be brand identity’s rise in Google ranking factors or the competition of viral content, it’s impossible to ignore the draw to digital PR.



In today’s episode of Content & Conversation, Ross Hudgens and Director of Digital PR, Vince Nero, discuss the current state of digital PR, what mistakes to avoid, and how to best incorporate it into your content marketing strategy.







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Show Notes:



00:34: Welcome back, Vince! Siege Media’s Director of Digital PR

00:40: GameStop stocks and how to manipulate the stock market

1:20: What is digital PR?

2:57: Why is “digital PR” trending?

4:37: The differences between digital PR, SEO and link building

6:01: Viral content vs. brand identity

6:28: What are the biggest digital PR mistakes?

7:40: What “going viral” means in different industries

8:49: How Siege Media combines content marketing and PR

9:37: Industries where digital PR is optimal

10:27: Calculating link value by website

11:57: Dangers of scraper sites in link reporting

14:27: The legitimacy of viral content

16:50: Going viral within your niche audience

17:44: Is this a strategy or one-off?





Show Links:



Follow Vince on Twitter

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Enterprise SEO is a huge endeavor. With differing opinions from the C-suite, how does one execute a realistic plan of action?



The initial hurdles when managing enterprise SEO can be navigating internal departments and setting the right expectations. In this episode of Content & Conversation, we chat with Jenn Mathews, the SEO Manager at GitHub, and discuss how her experiences (Nordstrom, Groupon) thus far have taught her about implementing SEO on a large scale.







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Show Notes:



00:27: Jenn’s background and how she landed at GitHub

1:06: GitHub’s technical foundation pre-SEO

2:00: How Jenn prioritized SEO with developers, engineers and CTOs in mind

3:14: Beginner vs. advanced keyword topics

5:15: Understanding enterprise intent for a technical audience

6:10: How SEO is defined at GitHub i.e. marketing

7:28: The collaboration between SEO and content creators

8:30: What developer skills overlap with SEO?

10:30: Why SEOs tend to misuse canonicals

12:10: The important of basic HTML understanding

13:00: Common mistakes when growing SEO at the enterprise level

15:18: Educating the C-suite on SEO

16:59: Surprising collaborations with other departments

18:13: What to highlight when reporting metrics to the C-suite

21:45: Focusing on data you can control

22:34: How Google’s update is affecting impressions

24:11: Is there an ideal in-house to agency split?

25:59: How to utilize your budget when growing a department



Show Links:



Follow Jenn on Twitter

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In a new year, the pendulum is swinging once again for all things content marketing. Are you on the right side?



This week’s episode features an all-star guest list of SEO experts (in order of appearance): Cyrus Shepard, Founder of Zyppy; Mike King, Managing Director & Founder of iPullRank; Aleyda Solis, Intl. Mobile SEO Consultant & Founder of Remoters.net; Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder & CEO of Sparktoro; and Kevin Indig, Director of SEO at Shopify.



Listen and learn as this experienced group discusses Core Web Vitals, visual search and the ongoing debate of the most important ranking signals for the future, plus more.





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Show Notes:



1:04: Cyrus Shepard, Founder of Zyppy | How Core Web Vitals, passage indexing and engagement will impact both ranking signals and click-through rates

2:20: Mike King, Managing Director & Founder of iPullRank | Is Core Web Vitals all hype? What to focus on instead

7:46: Aleyda Solis, International Mobile SEO Consultant, Founder of Remoters.net | The importance of visual search

11:16: How Google vs. Apple affects outcomes internationally

12:20: Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder & CEO of Sparktoro | Brand identity vs. link building

13:15: What is a good link signal vs. a bad link signal?

15:11: Kevin Indig, Director of SEO at Shopify | Why Google’s increase in SERP features will affect rankings and traffic



Show Links:



Follow Cyrus on Twitter

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Follow Rand on Twitter

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It's 2021 and we're giving you permission to stop stressing.



In this week's episode Director of Marketing Caroline Gilbert and SEO Manager Jon Eric Dela Cruz discuss technical SEO and content marketing "best practices" that you should stop worrying about. They cover rating tools that you should stop following, what actually make a quality backlinks, internal linking recommendations and more.





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Show Notes:



00:28: How "rating" tools like Yoast, Clearscope, Lighthouse and more shouldn't be the main focus

3:09: How SERP features negatively impact you and your competitors

4:52: Asking for "word count" as a baseline indicator of quality content

7:00: Our thoughts on technical text analysis like TFIDF, LSI and more

8:11: Thoughts on linking root domain authority vs. relevancy

10:00: Balancing internal linking with UX and user journey



Show Links:



Why Writing Quick Answers for Google is Not Enough by Ross Hudgens

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In the past year, the personal finance affiliate space has exploded.



Recent acquisition and partnership news, like NextAdvisor and TIME, mean the competition is only getting harder to beat. This week we return from our holiday break with an interview with Alli Berry of The Motley Fool to discuss her role as SEO Manager, how the company treats evergreen vs. breaking news content and tips for other players in this space (main takeaway: good luck).





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Show Notes:



00:30: Alli's start and how she landed at Motley Fool

1:45: How Motley Fool structures content and editorial

3:05: Balancing focus between evergreen content vs. news

4:45: How breaking news can inform traffic to evergreen topics

5:50: Collaborating with the news team

6:33: Deciding what content gets top navigation, homepage and similar high priority real estate

10:12: How to explain complex financial topics to beginner audiences

12:21: Recommendations for new or early stage personal finance sites

15:32: Influencer marketing for The Motley Fool

16:24: E-A-T, syndication and existing reporter influence

17:34: How to scale content refreshes and revamps

21:00: Using Google Trends to inform keyword research

23:39: How COVID has impacted the content at Motley Fool

26:00: An AMP rant



Show Links:



Follow Alli on Twitter

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