This week I found a few nice tidbits on the future of link building, the updated Google Quality Raters guide, AMP mobile and how effective social ads are compared to search ads.

1. Google Quality Raters Guide gets an update

The Google Quality Raters guide was recently updated and it shows that EAT (Expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) is still important, mobile continues to be the focus of Google and  they are introducing new quality concepts such as Know Queries and Know Simple Queries.

According to TheSEMPost: “Know Queries tend to be ones were the result couldn’t be answered in a short list or 1-2 sentences, because the result would either be too broad or would need to be much more detailed. While “how tall is <someone>” would be a Know Simple Query, simply searching for “<someone>” would be a Know Query.”

2. Social ads stepping on traditional advertising’s toes

In a recent study: Brands Finding Social Ads as Effective as Traditional Advertising. 52 percent of companies surveyed in a recent study by IZEA, find social ads to be effective. Adweek

3. Social media makes up nearly a third of all referral traffic  

Shareaholic says social media referral traffic is up 22.71% from this time last year. Pissed off at Google for penalties with no immediate cure? Amp up your organic social sharing and buy some social ads.

4. Link building is dead? Not.

Manual link building is not dead, it has just shifted to being more like public relations. Well, it always should have been that way but now people realize this is the only mind frame to use when link building. Ask yourself The Golden Question of Link Building: Will this link drive engaged visitors or is it just for SEO?

Getting these good links is much easier for experts and authorities rather than companies than want to highlight their logo rather than their people.

See below how Authority is passed through Hub and Expert Pages.

5. Penguin real-time update is imminent

Gary Illyes from Google said the next update should be by the end of the year and it will be a huge change. Does that mean we will see many sites get hit that did not before? Does that mean all good news that we now finally have a way to end penalties and algorithmic filtering that has hurt sites even though they stopped crappy link building years ago or does it add yet another load of stuff to do?

I thinks it’s great to have a disavow process that actually works and that you can adjust weekly if needed. Just be prepared to do more of this and on an ongoing basis, if your site was hit. You should also do it as a protective measure against content scraping that contains your links and for rare but potential negative SEO.

6. Study: 80% of Companies Will Increase Digital Marketing Budgets

80% of businesses will likely increase their digital marketing budgets in the next year or so, according to Mondo_. It amazes me how many steps there are to digital marketing these days compared to the old SEO days. Expanded budgets would be nice.  

7. Free Digital Images
   

Here is another great pace for free digital images for websites, social media and blog posts.

8. Google introducing accelerated mobile pages

Google is “announcing a new open source initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages, which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web”.

9. Small Business Saturday

November 27th is Small Business Saturday. Here is a fun graphic we made for our online only bank client, Bank5Connect. 

Conclusion 

This week I got a nice lift of traffic and engagement by emailing people I had mentioned / quoted / linked to in posts. Thanks Neil Patel for this advice and stay tuned for a podcast I just did with Neil to be released this week.

There is no doubt that authority, real links/PR, social and mobile are growing and expanding people’s budgets. Do you have digital marketing plan in place to spend your money wisely?

Last week I went to the Authority Marketing Summit in Charleston, South Carolina and the Legal Marketing Association of New England annual conference in Boston. The trends of content marketing and thought leadership continued throughout each of the conferences and here are this week’s favorite digital marketing tips and news.

Dan Kennedy and the Authority Marketing Summit

Dan Kennedy was the main presenter for the Authority Marketing conference and he focused on two key areas: Public speaking and Writing / Media.

I will write a post on this event soon but here are the two main concepts:

1. Speak more, LOTS more and get paid for it. Dan generates a million dollars a year speaking. He averages $25,000 per speech and often earns over $100,000 to audiences of 15,000 to 30,000 people. He sells products and successfully “whale hunts” for large clients at his talks with no booking agent.
2. Write regularly, including writing for the media and top blogs or as an authority, you will perish. Dan writes an hour minimum per day and says that he literally “wrote himself into existence”.

Dan doesn’t do much with internet marketing yet makes more just from speaking than most small web marketing agencies. He shows how powerful these two main authority marketing tactics can be, even if the internet did not exist.

Check out his books and articles on entrepreneur.com to get a feel for his NO B.S. Style.

Adam Witty and Advantage Media Group

Adam Witty who hosted the Authority Summit says that “professionals that write a book themselves average 3.2 years from first writing to first draft.” I couldn’t agree more, since 3 years is essentially what it took me to get mine done before realizing the hardest part is marketing it!

They have a very similar concept to our “Talk Marketing” system where we interview experts and use the transcriptions to create a blog and eventual book. They focus on the book / writing part and author marketing.

They say that your part of a 250 hour, 3 month project is the 24 hours where you will be taking in interviews. Interviewing experts has worked well for us for many years and it looks like Adam and Advantage Media Group are doing great things with this as well.

Download some of their complimentary ebooks here.

Clint Arthur

Clint spoke briefly at the Authority Summit and shared how he lived on a boat – broke in L.A. -while trying to be an actor for 13 years. He drove a cab for six of those years and cried when one of his frat peers from the Wharton Business School was on T.V after becoming wildly successful with Goldman Sachs.

He swore an oath to change his life, did the amazing Anthony Robbins conference, where you walk on hot coals – I did that and loved it despite a small burn on my toe – and went on to get himself on 57 T.V appearances. This led to The Today Show calling and booking him. Now he has a company Called Celebrity LaunchPad that helps experts get booked on T.V., often starting at the local level.

Clint says: “This is about you gaining the ultimate expert positioning as the leading authority in your topic, about you gaining a national platform, and about you promoting your passion projects on real network news & talk shows all across America”.

LMA New England

I spoke the last two years at the Legal Marketing Association of New England annual conference and this year was only able to attend the last day due to the Authority Summit being on the same dates. I had a great time reconnecting with people and learning what the LMA crowd is up to.

These two talks stood out for me:

Creating a WOW Communications Program  

This was a panel of legal marketing experts listed below:

• Lisa Murray, Principal, Trevi Communications, Inc.
• Liz Cerasuolo, Director of Communications, Fish & Richardson
• Leah Schloss, Director of Marketing, Sullivan and Worcester
• Stephanie Solakian Goldstein, Managing Director, Communications and Marketing, WilmerHale

They discussed how paid advertising is not necessarily bad but they are unclear on its effectiveness. Much of the talk was around using content marketing to build thought leadership.

A few quotes  

Leah Schloss: “I have been completely brainwashed by HubSpot but it really has changed my life” and “I prefer HubSpot to Google Analytics and I now have more info to give to attorneys about who specifically is looking at their bios and if they should do more whitepapers etc”.

Stephanie Solakian: “If you build it they may not come” and “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”

Liz Cerasuolo: “We have the lawyers write one thing and squeeze every ounce of water out of that rock. We repurpose the one thing they produce into numerous other pieces of content, every way ‘till Saturday”

Lisa Murray did a fantastic job moderating and had fun pics for each section such as this:

Crafting Your Online Story: Demystifying the Process Behind Content Marketing

This session was led by the following legal marketing experts:

Lindsay Griffiths, Director of Global Relationship Management, International Lawyers Network
Adrian Lurssen, Co-founder and VP of Strategic Development, JD Supra

Adrian said that “law firms are now going beyond the basics of social media and content marketing and we are moving into content marketing 2.0.” and advised legal marketers by saying “don’t write about the law but write about how the law impacts the people you serve”.

And Lindsay said that “the number one piece of advice she gives firms is to create an editorial calendar to keep on track” and that “lawyers do not want to be first but they do want to be first to be second, so you can inspire them with competitive analysis”.

HubSpot / LawSpot

Leah Schloss recently was asked to speak at HubSpot and Brian Halligan told her they originally made their software for attorneys. Brain said that law firms didn’t take to it right away so they made it more for everyone. That was a nugget I had not heard before and if anyone has more info on this please let me know in the comments below or email me.

I searched on the history of HubSpot but didn’t find anything relating to law firms.

Conclusion

The common thread in my week of conferences and research is thought leadership. How to get it and how to use it to build your authority. From HubSpot to Law Firms to Dan Kennedy, who is not big on digital marketing, all agree that systematically using your thought leadership plays a starring role in you becoming more successful, whether you are a solopreneur or an expert at a larger firm.

I can hardly contain myself this cool Halloween morning as I filter the week’s news and tips. It’s scary how much great new stuff is happening in the word of online marketing. Below are some tricks and treats that will hopefully keep you on the edge of your seat like an 11 year old at a horror flick double feature.

Google Artificial Intelligence is here

Google RankBrain is used for vague or unique questions Google has not previously seen.

“According to Google, brand new queries make up to 15% of all searches a day and as Search Engine Land pointed out, Google processes 3bn searches per day, which means that 450m per day are entirely unique in nature.” Says Christopher Ratcliff of Search Engine Watch

Is this Skynet from the Terminator for search or a natural progression of using data and machine learning to improve our lives?

Google Embraces Podcasting

The Google Play Store will soon have a podcast portal. Podcasting is booming and is here to stay. Using transcripts of your podcasts can be a great way to add Google Hummingbird friendly text content to your site.

Interviewing experts helps you be seen as an expert yourself and generate links. Doing a weekly show and promoting it via social media, email and paid social ads, as a well as encouraging subscribers and reviews, can help your podcast go from good to great.

Penguin Real-Time

Looks like Google is continuing to say Penguin Real-Time updates will happen by the end of the year. If you are stuck in Penguin purgatory from bad links, this is great news.

2015 trends in digital marketing

Check out this cool infographic about the trends in digital marketing.

Mobile and video are considered “the future of marketing” and Facebook ad spends dwarfs others.

Facebook is supposedly a waste of time yet dominates social ad spend

Copyblogger ditched their Facebook page since it didn’t do enough for them compared to the effort to manage it and this article shows how Facebook marketing could be a waste of time.

While our agency is less Facebook obsessed than many internet marketing experts, I do concede it’s the first place we go – along with LinkedIn – to buy sponsored posts. What do you think, given the infographic above shows Facebook raining supreme and articles like this, show how other networks may give you better engagement and ROI with certain demographics?

Another cool source of weekly marketing news

I love weekly roundups and here is another roundup of online marketing news from Social Media Examiner.

Google Patent: Google Authoritative Rank

Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea wrote a great post recently about a new Google Authoritative Rank patent and quoted the following excerpt.

“An authoritative user is a user of one or more computer-implemented services (e.g., a social networking service) that has been determined to be authoritative (e.g., an expert) on one or more topics that can be associated with one or more queries”

The patent is titled: Showing prominent users for information retrieval requests

Bill gave an example of a phrase being tied to an author, which is essentially what this patent does. When we think of “Green eggs and ham” we think of Dr Suess or the author Ted Geisel.

Maybe we need a SeussRank to identify the silliest people?

This patent no longer makes Google+ a necessary part of their process of identifying authors, which is an interesting change.

Clearly we have not seen the end of Google tracking authors as a major part of why pages rank.

Cool digital marketing tools

Blab

By definition, to Blab is to “reveal secrets by indiscreet talk”. That sorta makes this new tool even more sexy. Mashable says Blab video chat app is like Periscope for groups of friends.

I found a nice Blab chat with Bill Slawski of SEO by the sea to get me started researching the usefulness of the tool and I was pleasantly surprised.

Bulk web page word count checker

If you had not heard, search metrics in their ranking factors study says that the length of the average ranking inner page of a website went from just over 900 words in 2014 to 1,140 words in 2015.

Here is a nifty bulk web page word count checker. Throw in the top ten ranking pages for one of your most desired search terms and see how long the pages are that do well and test emulating that, instead of merely listening to a committee say how long your pages should be. That is if rankings are important to you…

BuzzSumo Content Alerts

Set up alerts for keywords, authors and domains using BuzzSumo Content Alerts and keep on top of new and trending content.

Entrepreneurs take note: Dell XPS 12/13/15 laptops

I have been looking for the last year for the ultimate Ultrabook.  I found what I want and just need to decide on either the XPS 13 with 16 GB of ram or the tablet / convertible style XPS 12 with a max of 8 GB ram.

Conclusion

Keeping up with the fast pace of online marketing can be scary but the rewards are great. The tools and news above can help save you time and get right down to business with what is important.

No amount of digital fairy dust can save you in a world where you need to keep it real and show off expertise. Rely on ghastly black hat techniques and your marketing will be as empty as a picture of ghosts eating marshmallows in a snowstorm.

It has been a fast moving start to the fall and we are seeing a lot of new business activity and excitement for content focused campaigns. Fixing technical SEO and conversion issues are also keeping us busy. Here are a few recent favorite finds / trends.

1. Google to update its Penguin algorithm to perform in real time

This means that instead of waiting every six months or a year for your disavow link cleanup to work, you should now be able to see results perhaps instantaneously. This is HUGE news for people suffering from Penguin penalties.

2. How Content Marketing Impacts Your Bottom Line [Infographic]

Content marketing can increase top of the funnel traffic, build trust, and generate leads. Hubspot shares tips on making content work harder to improve your bottom line, such as prioritizing both on-site and off-site content as well as being patient.

3. 5 Million Active Advertisers on Facebook and TV-Like Ad Buying

Facebook’s move to be more pay to play is apparently working.  Lots of new ad formats to check out. Our agency is doing more and more with paid content promotion with Facebook, LinkedIn and more. I expect this trend to continue and the cost to rise, perhaps a little bit like Google paid ads did.

4. Twitter Cuts 336 Jobs and Jack Dorsey is back as CEO

Twitter is going through growing pains and it will be interesting to see what founder Jack Dorsey can do to bring it into its second act. @realdonaltrump  gained 160k followers during the rival democratic debate recently, showing how engrained Twitter is in the media and politics but it’s not for everyone. Let’s hope things turn out well and that it can balance organic and pay to play.

5. Authority Marketing Summit November 11-12 – Charleston SC

Dan Kennedy and Adam Witty of Advantage Media Group are hosting what sounds like an amazing conference called the Authority Marketing Summit.

Topics include:

• Advanced Strategies for Speaking to Influence and Speaking to Sell
• Advanced Strategies for Writing and Publishing
• Book Marketing Blueprint

Conclusion

I had a great time speaking at the Fuel Lines ad agency new business conference last week and learned so much from the many amazing speakers and marketing experts there. Website and content marketing are going through big changes and as an authority, it’s critical to keep on top of the trends.

During the last few weeks I went to the HubSpot Inbound marketing conference in Boston and then headed down to Savannah Georgia for the Michael Port Book Yourself Solid event. I also ran a Twitter chat for ProfNet. Here are a few cool things I learned or re-learned:

 

1. Tips for Repurposing Content

Generating content consistently is one of the most common problems marketers face. Lee Odden of top rank blog gave a great talk at the Inbound conference about how you can make many pieces of content starting from one piece, such as an e-book. This post is essentially a summary of the talk about how to repurpose content and make your content marketing easier.

Lee also mentioned that his team does a quick Friday news post like the Friday fav’s John Jantsch does. Great way to keep active.

 

2. Public speaking tips from Michael Port

Matthew Kimberley, who works with Michael, was preparing for giving a talk and so at the end of the day they let us watch the rehearsal. I was shocked how specific they were in organizing hand gestures, stage position, props, loudness and softness of voice, facial expressions and all kinds of fine details.

I wish I could share the coaching session but I don’t think they videotaped it, as it was spontaneous. The bottom line is, you don’t just want to think about your content and slides but you want to think about your entire presence and show, like an actor, comedian or a musician does.

More speaking tips from Michael Port on YouTube. And check out tips part 1 and part 2 from one of his clients.

 

3. Combining sales and content marketing

Brian Halligan, one of the founders of HubSpot showed off their free CRM system and Sidekick sales tool, both of which I am now using. What really turned me on was when he said how important it is for salespeople to have a repository of blog posts and content that they can share with prospects. He emphasized the importance of showing off your thought leadership / authority.

He shared how the Sidekick for Business tool lets you keep folders of this type of content, which may have been created by the marketing team and that the salespeople can send to engage potential customers.

So don’t just create blog posts with the goal of getting them ranked in Google or sharing on social media, but use them very directly in your sales process.

 

4. How to do a Twitter chat

Shannon Ramlochan from ProfNet asked me to host a live twitter chat with her. I hadn’t done one before, and the Buffer guide to Twitter chats was extremely helpful in getting up to speed.

During the chat, I used a few hashtags like #inbound2015 and it drew in a few people who follow HubSpot. I loved the interaction with people following the #ConnectChat hashtag. I am now a strong believer in hosting Twitter chats.

I was pleasantly surprised that ProfNet also featured me in Times Square!

 

5. How to submit a journalist query using ProfNet

Shannon shared with me a link where you can post your queries in order to have experts share tips for your articles. Not only can you use a tool like ProfNet to get featured in media, but you can use it in reverse and become a journalist yourself.

 

6. News tip: My next public speaking event:

I am honored to have been invited to speak by Michael Gass, with many top agency new business experts, at The NEW Drivers of NEW Business, October 8-9, Nashville, TN.

Check out my Fuel Lines speaker page for more details.

 

Conclusion

I love going to conferences. Being around so many marketers with such high energy and learning from the greats is so nice to do in person. You can certainly get plenty of information online but getting to know high-level experts by interacting with them live is priceless.