How to create bite-size (short) content for SEO?

SEO Fundamentals Room Feb 8, 2022

This week we focused on audience questions and some questions from our moderators in the SEO Fundamentals Room. The first question comes from Renee Bigelow:

Question 1: 00:09:24 Renee is trying to figure out how to create bite-size content while maintaining its relevancy for Google Content Best Practices?

Question 2: 00:17:52 Michael has created video courses on building a brand and getting a reputation.
He wanted to ask: Are there any areas or platforms that the mods can suggest promoting his online courses.

Question 3: 00:27:32 Reyaz asked:
Is it healthy to add a competitive branded keyword link to my content? For example, when he writes about digital marketing (he has a digital marketing agency), is it reasonable to use MOZ as a keyword and generate an anchor link to the Moz website.

Question 4: 00:33:15 Michael Has a Question:

He has a few name competitors. They were well established, with their name much earlier than Michael. One of them is Michaelfenney.com, a magician who has his domain name and website since the 1990s. Another one is a TV – Newspaper journalist from San Francisco. What do you suggest me to do?

Question 5: 00:37:20 Christopher

He asks for any books, resources or guides for a newbie to learn SEO?

Question 6: 00:40:35 Jenifer’s website is https://cocobuttery.com. She is looking for somebody or an agency to hire for SEO services.

What is the average rate for SEO service?
What is the service level for receiving return over investment (ROI)?
When she gets into the market, does she go with one product or promote all of her products?

Question 7: 01:01:34 Kyla’s Question

Does Google spider Instagram? I’ve been receiving alerts from Google that her blog name has been mentioned

Question 8: 01:11:08 Terri

Is there anybody getting SEO results for a blog post earlier than one year? If so. How do you do it?

Room Information

Question 1: 00:09:24 Renee is trying to figure out how to create bite-size content while maintaining its relevancy for Google Content Best Practices?

As we all know, Google’s algorithm ranks higher the longer form authoritative content you have. This content contradicts expectations where searchers would like to consume shorter content.

00:10:00 Karin has received good outcomes with the short form of content when users expect short content. Fluffed content does not do good when the short content is precisely what is needed during the corresponding user journey.

When you have short content with strong backlinks, internal linking and social media references it performs well.

The pages that immediately answer “So what…” without blundering or fluffing will have good SEO outcomes.

However, short content generally does not perform as well as long-form. So, it’s an ongoing struggle.

00:11:17 Iquo

She suggests using “Infographics” by visually summarizing the content or entirely relevant images to explain the topic discussed.

00:11:49 Jenny Favela

Jenny takes the long form of content and dissects it into bite-size content pieces. Sometimes it might only be an infographic, and sometimes it might be only a standalone picture. She links all the short form of content to the related long-form content page. She usually creates 12 different content types sourced from one long-form article, and she runs those content pieces in a 3-month campaign period.

00:12:52 Arnout

He also shared his experience: He likes to create long content. By generating “Jump to Links” at the top of the page, he nests all the anchored linked items (Content headlines) at the top of the page. In other words, he creates a mini navigation index specific to the topic covered on that page. In many cases, he uses questions as content headlines. The indexed content headlines with “hashtag jump to links” makes it easy for Google to understand what each section is about. This is also very useful for users to directly navigate what they are looking for without getting lost in a long-form content page. This method is also helpful in getting seen on featured snippets in Google.

00:12:52 Bob Clark

Bob’s method provides answers to the questions asked on Google (People Also Ask). Therefore, each content page is devoted to answering one query in the best way possible (short-form content). Then he links all the answers up to the main topic content, which is longer-form content. (especially the money pages – where you monetize your traffic) That helps build authority since you interlink your long-form content with the supporting short-form pages.

00:16:04 Renee Bigelow

Renee is also testing short-form videos giving the user a chance to consume the short content with a video like a movie trailer. She is looking forward to hearing all the mods’ experiences and tests. “The content should be as long as the message that it conveys.” She believes that 2022 will be significant for video content.

00:16:48 Emmanuel asked the moderators about their experience with a siloed content structure such as Tips, Best or Muse type of posts. He also asked, “When having long-form content can you cut it into meaningful pieces as subtopics and create short-form content?”

Question 2: 00:17:52 Michael has created video courses on building a brand and getting a reputation. He wanted to ask: Are there any areas or platforms that the mods can suggest promoting his online courses.

00:20:56 Renee suggested Michael follow up her other Room in the Clubhouse, “Data-Driven Content Distribution”. A couple of weeks ago, they dived deep into the content distribution topic. Listening to or joining in future conversations might be helpful. He can find the necessary links on Renee’s profile. Here is her Club House Profile link: https://www.clubhouse.com/@reneebigelow?utm_medium=ch_profile&utm_campaign=PJXpSg7V7m9WmnluQh1ZvQ-62787
He can also find the audio replays of the Data-Driven Content Distribution and SEO Fundamentals Room.

00:22:15 Michael has also written books on Photography in the National Parks. He likes Twitter and has used it during previous promotional efforts.

Question 3: 00:27:32 Reyaz asked:
Is it healthy to add a competitive branded keyword link to my content? For example, when he writes about digital marketing (he has a digital marketing agency), is it reasonable to use MOZ as a keyword and generate an anchor link to the Moz website.

00:28:35 Jon Muranko
It depends on situation to situation. Of course, I don’t want people to go on Moz’s website. However, if he wants to reference them, that’s fine, but Jon does not in Favour of linking to Moz. Instead, Reyaz can mention Moz without linking it to Moz.com.

00:29:00 Karin

If he’s linking to the websites in the same vertical/industry/niche and he wants to rank for the same competitive keyword, having their link on his website gives Google the message that they are aligned. That is equal to saying that we are in the same vertical. In that sense, it’s ok. However, if Moz has already ranked for the keyword you aim to get ranked, it won’t do good for your site. Instead, it strengthens Moz.com’s position.

Here is how she approaches newly established websites. She searches for the keywords she wants to rank for, pulls up the top 10 websites on Google SERPs, and mentions them in her related post. Then, she links only to their Brand name, not the keyword she wants to rank for. Once her website gets ranked at the second Google Search Results Page, she still mentions those brand names but this time without linking them. She also adds a schema that signals Google that she has mentioned those Brand names. That link is not visible to humans but visible to Google Robots.

00:32:20 Bob

One thing to add: If you want to add your competitor’s link, please do not mention their name and link them in your first paragraph; just push it down to the content. Here is how Google sees things:

Google wants to see the answer to the query or the main topic mentioned in the first couple paragraphs. So, keep in mind other brands or subtopics will be mentioned at the bottom of your content. Create content relevant to the query.

Question 4: 00:33:15 Michael Has a Question:

00:34:03 Arnout

Arnout is also in a similar situation. There was a man who had the same name as Arnout Hellemans. He was very famous in the 17th century but outranked Arnout. Under these circumstances, the best that you can do is own the SERPs with a topic. This topic is your niche, and you need to make sure that you become your topic/niche. Otherwise, it’s not likely. It’s all about relevancy. Earn your name with your niche topic. That way, you help Google match you with the relevant search intent. Google will bring the magician with the same name for the magician category. For the media personality Michael Fenney, Google will get results from the publishing and newspaper vertical. When your niche is searched, Google will bring your name and results. It’s a long-term game, and it’s not easy. Make sure to be covered by the press and get podcast appearances with backlinks to your website and guest content writing.

Question 5: 00:37:20 Christopher

He asks for any books, resources or guides for a newbie to learn SEO?

00:37:50 Bob Clark and Arnout

• Karin’s video courses on how to do SEO are coming out soon
• Aleyda Solis has an email list and SEO courses at https://learnonfseo.io
• The Moz’s Beginner SEO Guide
• Following up Rooms like this one.
• Following Twitter SEO lists and SEO experts
• Get his website ranking and start testing
• Don’t trust everything you read or hear online and only do your experiments.
• Do your research.
• Be aware that SEO has nuances from one situation to another. Therefore, something valid for one case may not be suitable for another.
• There is nothing better than testing.

Question 6: 00:40:35 Jenifer’s website is https://cocobuttery.com. She is looking for somebody or an agency to hire for SEO services.

Her first question is, what is the average rate for SEO service?
Her second question is: What is the service level for receiving return over investment (ROI)?
Third question: when she gets into the market, does she go with one product or promote all of her products?

She appears on different podcasts, is featured in magazines, and is listed at Fedex’s top 100 Businesses for 2021.

00:44:10 Karin

About the pricing:
Pricing can vary depending on which labour the companies are using. The cost of Indian, American, or Philippine labour differs.
When you consider hiring an SEO, the most crucial thing is Return Over Investment. So knowing your ROI today will give you validation for the price you’re paying for SEO services. Therefore, knowing roughly your average order value, average traffic and customer lifetime value will be very helpful during the decision making process. Thus, while you make a hiring decision, you should consider your monthly revenue from the website today. When they ask me to pay, e.g., $1,500 for SEO services, do they help me generate more income than this, and how long does it take?

00:46:45 Arnout

If your SEO is done correctly, it won’t be like a paid ad performance; once the ads stop, your revenue stops. However, with SEO, it’ll last many years that you’ll still get traffic.
Feeling the vibe is another critical point because you’ll work with an agency over a long period. Therefore, understanding each other and understanding your brand is an essential element for successful teamwork.

00:47:50 Renee

It’s also true that every SEO agency has its working style for SEO.
You have a beautiful website; you have an active Instagram account. Look at what your skillset is. Determine what would you want from the SEO agency that adds and compliments your skillset and needs.

Renee sees a lot of content opportunities on Jennifer’s website. Her advice to Jennifer is to discover what she can produce as a blogger and what topics or styles she wants her team members are creating for content marketing. She could create content on:
• Her appearance in magazines such as “Women in Business.”
• Her products quality and her values.
• The ingredients used in developing her products.
• Success stories.
• The questions asked by her customers.

So, what Jennifer needs to do is to decide on at what areas she is going to need help:
• Does she create the content on her own?
• Does she also need somebody else to help her in content development?
• Does she need a more technical person to fix technical issues?
• Do they allow her to learn SEO?

00:51:03 Emmanuel listed his suggestions: (Some additional tips came from Emmanuel)

• Focusing a little bit more on Local SEO. She is showing well in organic results.
• She has products posted on Google Business Profile (GBP) and reviews there. Therefore, answering her reviews on GBP will be a good strategy.
• Putting Frequently asked questions (FAQ) in GBP
• When you hire an SEO, make sure that they know SEO for eCommerce

00:53:00 Jon Muranko

• At its core, SEO is for helping businesses to show that they are solving their customers’ problems. As a result, SEO is a sales process. Therefore, writing articles or product pages explaining how your product helps them improve their lives will have a considerable impact. Sometimes, people don’t know how to express their problems and put them into words. Once you understand how your customers define their problems and which keywords, you can create inclusive content using their language.
• Create a sales letter or a short video, asking “Hey Do you have this problem…..? and explain that you are on their side, talk about all the issues related to that problem and tell them you have a solution, list your product’s features and how they solve their problems.
• Suppose people are looking for tattoo-related problems. Find what they are looking for specifically, create content addressing all those issues, and tell them your solution.

00:59:00 Renee
She wanted to share a point that is a missed opportunity for so many of us. Many people have great social media posts but don’t think about putting them on their websites. So, she advises to

• go back to the social media feeds,
• find the best performing content,
• mark the content that you are proud of or content that you explained how you’re solving your customer’s problems
• post them on your website.
• Give your customers guidance and valuable information
• Make sure that you have scheduled your posts simultaneously

Question 7: 01:01:34 Kyla’s Question

Does Google spider Instagram? I’ve been receiving alerts from Google that her blog name has been mentioned.

01:02:10 Bob

They are probably doing it.

01:03:50 Terri Added

The average life span of an Instagram post is 72 hours, whereases a blog post’s life span is three years. Terri’s website brought her constant traffic for over 10 years.

01:06:54 Gary

He has shared his approach, which works so well: He answers the questions and creates one blog post for each question. He is doing it consistently. (https://digitalmarketing.org) The site ranks for more than 30K keywords. However, it takes time.

01:07:50 Bob

He is creating videos on “How to” questions, and they are doing very well, too.

01:09:58 Karin also agreed on Gary’s insights. When you build your SEO consistently, you’ll see results in 3 months, but they are not that big. However, after one year, you’ll see a massive increase in your traffic and see great results because Google now sees you and knows you. This means that Google will trust you. That’s why when you try to get ranked with highly competitive keywords, you’ll see the results on SERPs so quickly after a year. In some situations, within 10 days, you’ll find your site among the top 10 results. That’s why SEO brings exponentially better results.

Question 8: 01:11:08 Terri

Is there anybody getting SEO results for a blog post earlier than one year? If so. How do you do it?

01:11:55 Gary

He talked about the importance of building authority, and he focused on content that people like to link. That way, he gets a lot of backlinks. He writes link bait type of content, which answers a question. He also covers every aspect of that question. As a result, other websites cite his content and link to his website.

01:14:09 Renee

She has success with relatively new clients or has low traffic websites. She focuses on customer interviews, and she talks with the sales teams to learn:
• What kind of questions are the customers asking?
• What are their pain points?
• Why are their customers choosing them?
• What differentiates their offering or brand from the others in the market?

And reverse engineer customer questions and create content by answering those questions for the top of the funnel.

01:18:40 Gary

He checked out her website https://revolutiongray.com. He has an idea of why she could not rank higher.

He thinks that it’s an esthetic website with beautiful pictures, but it’s all over the place, meaning she has content ranging from gray hair to reinventing yourself, how to lose weight, to homemade pancakes. So, Google could not figure out her website’s vertical, expertise and authority. If you want to give Google a significant signal for ranking, choose one vertical and create content consistently and get the backlinks. Then Google can say that this website is on this vertical, now it is accurate to rank it #th place on the SERPs.

01:19:40 Favour

He discovered that Terri’s website is missing H1 Tags, which is critical for Google to understand her website because H1 tags are helpful for Google to organize SERPs.

01:22:15 Kyla

She talked about the image sizes and image file names. She suggested compressing the images, using larger size images and creating meaningful image file names.

Marketing Club: The largest Marketing Club in ClubHouse

Every Tuesday at 8 am Pacific Time

https://www.clubhouse.com/event/PQ48lGnw

Date: Feb 8, 2022

Theme: SEO Fundamentals

Next Chat: Every Tuesday at 8 am PST

Moderators:

Emmanuel Dato https://www.emmandomarketing.com/

Karin Tierney: https://alzina.marketing/

Kyla Herbes: https://houseofhipsters.com/

Bob Clark:

Renee Bigelow