SEO Blog from Distilled

Using Big Brand Ideas in Small Business

By Kate Morris. Published March 14, 2013 in the Marketing category

Follow your dreams, they say.
Work for yourself, they say.
Dream big and it’ll happen, they say.

But running a small business is so much harder than that. Just getting your name out there is one of the hardest things to do, and the same is true online. To succeed online, it takes more than just building a website. I’ve been talking with a number of small businesses lately and the one thing I always hear is “What do I do? I don’t have the budget of the big guys!”

You can win on the internet without a big brand or budget. I am going to tell you how and then show you how to turn big brand ideas into ways you can build up your small business on a budget. Continue reading »

Balancing Short-term Authority Gains with a Long-term Content Vision

By Mike Tekula. Published March 12, 2013 in the Content, Link Building category

On-site/technical SEO still matters. For brands that already enjoy a healthy amount of inbound links, there is usually a good deal of unrealized value in:

Solving crawl problems
Optimizing site architecture and internal links
Managing redirects/canonical tags to consolidate/reclaim existing link equity
Increasing page speed
Enhancing mobile functionality
Improving on-page keyword targeting
etc

But inevitably even the most technical campaigns turn to the off-site factors. Links. Social shares. Authority. Preferably attracted, not “built.”

We are all in the content business.

And in the content business, we talk a lot about the need to clarify the values and vision of the brand, to agree that fostering a community and publishing content to serve that community are worthwhile long-haul engagements, before a single post or visualization is created.

Then there is the reality: the stakeholder who needs to see results this quarter, or this month, to justify sustaining the budget (and your job).

A/B testing | Optimizely wins and fails

By cheri-percy. Published March 8, 2013 in the CRO, Distilled, Web Design category

There’s possibly some stigma attached to the idea of Conversion Rate Optimisation. The name alone is a little daunting and then there’s all those other acronyms floating around the search landscape; SEO, RCS, WTF!? It’s hard not to get caught up in a wash of web analytics. Put simply, conversion rate optimization helps you to sell more online by giving your customers exactly what it is they are looking for. Patrick McKenzie summed it up well in last year’s SearchLove presentation when he explained CRO with a charming anecdote about his wife;

‘having asked one woman to marry me and that one woman saying yes, gives me a 100% conversion rate for the proposal’.

Here at Distilled, we’ve been running some tests to try and improve our conversion rates for the DistilledU landing page. We felt it would be interesting to share not only the tools we used to do so but also, what results we saw [or didn’t in some cases] and how we went on to improve this.

So, ‘what is DistilledU?’ you might ask

Think Beyond the Link – The Right Way to Conduct Reviews for Outreach

By James Daugherty. Published March 5, 2013 in the Outreach category

In my first blog post, The Scouting Report for Link Building Rookies, I discussed the ins and outs of blogger niches for outreach noobs.

As a rookie outreacher, my natural curiosity was a HUGE asset when prospecting for potential guest posts and pitching infographics. As time passed, new clients brought new challenges. Continue reading »

DistilledLive Seattle | Creating a Content Marketing Strategy for Outreach

By cheri-percy. Published March 4, 2013 in the Content, Distilled, Outreach, Video category

We got technical for the last edition of DistilledLive London as Dave Sottimano and Tom Anthony gave their thoughts on hreflang. But with the DistilledLive Seattle Meet Up just around the corner, we thought we’d take a look at current hot topic, Content Marketing with the people who know it best; the Outreach team, Adria Saracino, Rob Toledo and Alyssa Ennis.

For the full transcription of the video, see below.

Beginner’s Guide to Google AdSense for Publishers

By Jacob Klein. Published February 28, 2013 in the PPC category

Introduction

While Distilled’s blog usually focuses on e-commerce, high level SEO and big-budget outreach I thought I’d mix it up this week and throw a little something to the hard-working AdSense publishers out there. The following is a beginner’s guide to Google’s advertising network for publishers. If you’ve been receiving checks from Google over the years it’s always advisable to take a step back and revisit some of the basics. Search engine exposure and organic traffic are great and all but we know you’re also ultimately interested in those dolla, dolla, bills.

The lines between paid and organic search are blurring while millions of site’s revenue streams depend on contextual advertising to survive. I’m convinced it’s important that well-seasoned consultants and webmasters understand both sides of the equation.

While you won’t find many mind-blowing, “Increase Your AdSense CPC in Minutes!” claims on this page you will hopefully come away having learned something new. Or at least inspired enough to test something out on your own site. I hope this guide helps bridge the knowledge gap between SEO and PPC professionals. Continue reading »

Everything a Marketer Needs to Know Can Be Learned from Journalism

By Adria Saracino. Published February 26, 2013 in the Content, Marketing category

I became a marketer somewhat by accident.

I still remember filling out college applications, answering the fretful, “What do you plan on doing with your life?” question with that annoying confidence only a 17 year old can possess. I knew I would be in magazine journalism.

If that confidence wasn’t annoying enough, I went above and beyond applying to dual major programs: magazine journalism and marketing. Being forever indecisive I thought on the surface it made me look like an ambitious prospective student, while underneath I secretly hoped it would prove to be a smart “back-up plan”.

I got accepted into Syracuse, ended up transitioning my magazine journalism degree into a graphic design degree, kept working toward that back-up marketing degree, and added a psychology minor because why the hell not. I was convinced my marketing and psychology back-up plans would make me a better graphic designer. That’s all marketing ever was and would be – a back-up plan in case I failed miserably and needed a way out of a failed artistic career.

Fast forward to real life after school. I moved to Seattle and couldn’t find a job. After six months of unsuccessful job hunting, I found myself having a very difficult discussion with myself: pursue a seemingly failed design career or cash in on that back-up plan?

I now work at Distilled, so you can guess what direction I chose. However, I only recently realized that all my indecisiveness and “dabbling” set me up for my current position as a marketer. Everything I now know is the outcome of a relentless focus on journalism and communications, which I can honestly say taught me so many invaluable lessons that are essential to marketing. I would go so far as to say that every marketer should be trained in journalism.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy my part love letter to journalism, but more importantly part “if you don’t know these things you need to level up right now” list of journalism principles and attributes every marketer needs to know.

SearchLove and DistilledLive are heading West!

By Lynsey. Published February 21, 2013 in the Distilled, Events category

I’m excited to share some news with you all…

Following a successful 4 years of running conferences in the UK and US, we’re now looking to expand to the West Coast of America. We’ve been having an absolute blast over the past few years hosting conferences and meetup events in London, New Orleans, Boston and New York. Over the 4 years we have had up on stage no less than 140 incredible presenters, watched by a total of 2581 online marketers! Were you one of them?

Guide to Site Navigation for SEO

By Kristina Kledzik. Published February 19, 2013 in the SEO, Web Design category

When SEOs talk about navigation, we tend to stick to the technical side of things: “Make sure that you have internal links to every page on your site.” “Don’t put too many navigation options on a page because you’ll have too many internal links.” “Load your drop down link content before JavaScript so that search engines can read it.”

Website creators have to put navigation together on their own, gathering bits and pieces from different articles around the web. So, I’ve put all the tidbits together, creating a guide to building site navigation that’s optimal for search engines (and visitors, too, never forget your visitors!).