Another World Cup, another disappointing showing for the U.S. team. At least this time around we were all spared the pain of actually having to watch a bunch of MLS washouts get stomped into the pitch (that’s what they call it, right?) by their European superiors. Oh well, at least we still have baseball. What? We’re not good at that anymore either? Oh brother…
Unless you’re French or a Francophile, this year’s World Cup didn’t quite live up to your expectations. Maybe you really thought England was going to “bring it home,” or you were pulling for Croatia to finish their Cinderella run or maybe, just maybe, you had 50 bucks riding on Germany to win it all but promptly lost your betting slip on the Luxor’s casino floor. Who’s to say? These are all 100-percent hypothetical scenarios.
The point is, we have just the ticket to help you get over that dreaded World Cup hangover: That’s right, it’s the Content Marketing Weekly.
Hang up those cleats for another four years, because we’ve got all the content marketing news that you’ll need to for next six or seven days.
Your Must-Have Checklist for Successful Blog Promotion (Infographic)
We all know a content marketer’s work doesn’t end when a blog is published, but what steps should you be taking to promote that article and get as many as eyeballs on your content as possible?
Over at the Content Marketing Institute, Brody Dorland has a handy infographic to walk through blog-promotion best practices and ensure you get the most value out of your content. The infographic covers no-brainers like sharing your blogs on social media channels or including them in weekly newsletters, as well as promotional tactics you may not have considered. Dorland recommends using guest blogs to draw attention to your own content or enlisting your employees to share articles on their own social media accounts.
Your mileage may vary as far as how enlightening Dorland’s insights are, but if nothing else, it’s pretty convenient having a step-by-step checklist to follow the next time you promote a new blog post.
Check out the full infographic here.
Google Does Not Use Pogo-Sticking As a Ranking Factor
Every content marketer considers high bounce rates to be their mortal enemy, but are they overlooking a similar, less publicized villain?
Pogo-sticking, if you haven’t heard, is when a visitor hops around your site, going to a page only to immediately back out to the previous one. The thing is, they don’t actually leave your site, so it’s not really bouncing, but it’s behavior that could indicate a lack of engagement. If someone lands on a product page only to go back after a few seconds, what does that say about that product page?
Given how secretive Google is about its search algorithms and the criteria that factors into site rankings, it’s no surprise there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the potential impact pogo-sticking could have.
Well, Google’s John Mueller is here to say that’s all nonsense. As reported by Search Engine Journal, the webmaster trends analyst dispelled the notion that pogo-sticking factors into search rankings at all during a recent webcast.
“We try not to use signals like [pogo-sticking] when it comes to search,” Mueller said. “So that’s something where there are lots of reasons why users might go back and forth, or look at different things in the search results, or stay just briefly on a page and move back again. I think that’s really hard to refine and say ‘well, we could turn this into a ranking factor.’”
You can rest easy … for now, at least.
A/B Testing Can Delay Site Migration, Google Says
Pogo-sticking may not be cause for concern, but willy-nilly A/B testing could be an issue worth fretting over.
You may be tempted to run a barrage of A/B tests when executing a site migration, but according to John Mueller (man, that guy sure gets around a lot), it could come back to bite you.
It takes a lot of effort on Google’s part to keep up with site migrations and make sense of exactly what’s happening with all of those new URLs and webpages. Throwing a bunch of A/B testing into the mix is a recipe for trouble, and Mueller suggested that doing so could delay Google’s recognition of the new domain.
Your best bet is to keep things as simple for Google during the migration process and save the A/B testing for a later time.
You can read all of Mueller’s thoughts on the subject over at Search Engine Journal.
That about wraps things up for this edition of the Content Marketing Weekly. But don’t worry, we’ll be back next week with another round of content marketing news, tips and trends. So sit tight, patience is its own virtue, after all.
