Sometimes we put things on our to-do list like update the design to our own website that tends to be put to the end of the list.
An old friend came out of hiding a few weeks ago and what a great time he did because I needed a kick in the ass. He simply said, “Lisa, your process is all about creating engaging content which can be promoted, but your own site doesn’t allow to share or connect.”
Yes, this is true as my last site update was from January 2009, so many items in search, content and social has changed. The landscape, the Google updates, the usability, the IA, the overall design of a site and how the web is mostly accessed on a mobile device vs a desktop.
So I had to get my slap in the head from over 3000 miles away to make me realize it was time for a site update.
You will notice the design is minimal, clean, shareable and
It has been a wild year in search with Panda and Penguin being tossed out by the big “G” but what an exciting year in search and social it has been.
My big deal moment came a few weeks ago when I was chosen as a presenter to speak at SMX East on the Authorship to Authority panel on October 3 at 3:30 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC! I am joined by many other greats in the industry and very lucky to have the opportunity to share my 15 years of content development, SEO and Social knowledge with a ballroom of interested attendees.
Below is the official description for the panel.
From Authorship To Authority: Why Claiming Your Identity Matters (#smx #23C)
With all of the recent focus on “content is king,” many marketers overlook that there’s a much broader process involved in establishing and maintaining the all-important factor of “authority.” This comprehensive session considers the entire process of “claiming your identity,” starting with brainstorming sessions with SEO, social and content development teams, to content promotion tactics for gaining authority links. Both enterprise SEO teams as well as outside consultants will benefit from this session.
After 3 years of not speaking at industry conferences, a few colleagues gave me the push to send out proposals to get myself out from behind the computer screen and be seen in person. My first industry presentation was at Simon Leung’s (aka Coolsi) first conference in 2007 in San Jose and prior to that experience, thanks to my education background, I taught in college classrooms since 2003. If you can keep hung over college student’s interested at 8:00am, presenting to 75 – 400 attendees doesn’t seem too difficult.
My presentation will focus on “Content Development with Purpose.” If you have been following my twitter stream the past few weeks, I’ve been posting some small tidbits of information about this topic which incorporates all three focuses of search, social and content strategy. How all teams working together can produce not only amazing content, but content which is informative, interesting, engaging and visitors want to SHARE and READ. BUT does all content have to be read?
Can’t wait to meet you at SMX East and answer this and many other questions.
In the past year the phrase which keeps being repeated to me when I am seen in a dress & make-up, “You clean up nice.”
Is this suppose to be a compliment?
Does your content clean up nicely?
Since my teenage years I always chose jeans, t-shirts or shorts to wear. Hair in a ponytail, thanks to Shirley Temple curls and I was never into make-up or trying to impress others. Spending most of my childhood up on a stage where I dressed in costume and globs of make-up was applied to my face as I gracefully danced around definitely had something to do with not wanting to add fakeness to myself as I grew older. With the addition of always ending up with some skin irritation and eye infection, putting make-up on left me with a bad experience.
Up to age 25, it never bothered me till my wedding day. I walked over to my grandmother (Pearl) during my wedding reception where she said the most sarcastic thing to me, “You clean up nice.” My mouth dropped open, I smiled, hugged her and said, “I love you too grandma!”
Since I always felt living a natural and an organic life also included natural beauty, why did I have to “dress” up for others?
Then I realized what my grandmother was trying to say that day. It wasn’t so much about the make-up or hair but the way I held myself like I used to up on stage during all my solo dance performances. The confidence which shined through that day because I was “put” together from hair, make-up to the wedding gown and my ballroom dance placed me back up on that stage ready to perform.
When approaching brainstorming sessions with my team, before the content creation process, there are a series of questions we ask ourselves. These questions are focused on the presentation of the content and how others will perceive it. Another way of saying, “you clean up nice” but focused on the production of content.
If a piece of content isn’t formatted in a way that is eye pleasing or easily understood to your target audience, then why bother to write or even create the piece? Taking all the time to create with no real reward, what is the reasoning behind this?
To relate this idea back to being told that I clean up nicely, I am guessing the effort to be presentable, to each individual, have different “clean up nice” levels. A lot of my reasoning of why I choose to dress the way I do is I am a shy person and getting attention from others has always been an internal fight.
Could this also be a reason why some pieces of content that are created are not overly driven by data and promotion? Does the creator not want the attention for their piece?
As I have grown into a “mature” woman, I am getting more used to “cleaning up nicely” but the internal struggle will always be there. When it comes to content, I’ll always make sure it is presentable and as my grandmother said to me it will “Clean up nicely.”
Do you ever wonder why certain blogs are more successful than others? Or why some show up in the search more times than you think they should? What about being in Google News? Have you ever wondered why some content will get more exposure than other pieces?
If you have decided to start a new blog or get serious about your present one, a key item which should be on your to-do list is creating a schedule for your content. This not only helps you as a blogger to map out your editorial calendar but it trains the search engines to know when your site posts new content and about which topic. Establishing a publishing schedule also helps your readers to know what to expect on Tuesday morning at 10:30 as you want to become an authority voice in whatever genre your blog is about.
An example of how scheduling content can help your SEO is let’s say your site gives information about coupons. You provide your readers exclusive details about sales and a head’s up about unadvertised specials. Your competitor gives the same information, has been online for less time and is always outranking you in the search. What do you think the first steps are to figuring out what the competition has over you?
First we suggest reviewing the competitor’s site from the technical items to the design, usability, link ratio, social media and content. The only real way to figure out and create a strategy for your site is to see what the competitor is doing. Once you have researched and reviewed your competitor, now it’s time to review your own site and compare your present game plan with your competitor findings.
In this particular case, the competitor’s content publishing is a daily cadence and some days they publish two times a day. Also, on each of their days, they have a theme so Monday’s are Moo Moo Monday’s and Tuesday’s are Toddler Tween Tuesday’s and all their content for that day are centered around that theme, as well as the keywords they decided on from their research. By scheduling their content and deciding ahead of time what they will be publishing, it not only keeps their editorial efforts in line with the entire team BUT it tells the readers as well as the search engines that every Tuesday, the content will be focused on toddler products in the morning and tween products in the afternoon. The established schedule also allows their social media and promotion efforts to always be working simultaneously.
Both sites post daily but just posting the coupons or deals on your site with a once a week blog post is showing you from the search results, that this technique isn’t cutting it like it once did when the competition was low. It is now time to establish your editorial calendar, and content strategy and decide on the topics and cadence you want to publish content around to get back up in the SERP’s and play with the competition.
