Content and Conversation: Organic Growth Insights from Siege Media

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, Mark Barrera, Vice President of Audience and Review Generation at TrustRadius 00:44: How do you use SEO data to impact decisions at TrustRadius? 3:36: The impact of review generation on SEO 5:23: Duplicate content and how to create different experiences 9:39: Mark’s ideal SEO department 11:37: Measuring reviews, metrics vs. competitors 13:01: The typical SEO at TrustRad...

Show Notes: 00:15: What is the 50%+ of your time on distribution theory? 1:38: Why do we think this theory is wrong? 2:36: Spend more time on quality and optimization for search 3:24: The appropriate amount of time for distribution on average 4:11: Using Pareto’s Principle (80/20) to better balance efforts 5:34: What Archimedes’ Lever has taught us on content performance 7:54: How to best use your...

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, Kelsey Jones, Founder of Six Stories 00:34: Kelsey’s content audit philosophy 3:08: The best process for content audits 7:22: The necessary benchmarks for content audits 12:53: How much time do content audits take? 14:38: Kelsey’s digital tool set 16:17: How to adjust for keyword cannibalization 19:45: Kelsey’s 404 vs. redirect ideology 24:07: Are jump-to links for redi...

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, Bernard Huang, Co-founder of Clearscope 1:19: Bernard’s unique NFT marketing strategy 7:44: The importance of “search perspectives,” predicting the evolution path of a SERP 15:04: Where search perspective applies 16:09: What Google’s “what people have also asked” tells us 17:21: Google’s business model — is UX or ad revenue the priority? 20:20: Solving for for individua...

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, David Palombo, President and COO of Launch That. Brands include: Asbestos.com , Retireguide.com , Drugwatch.com , Annuity.org , Consumernotice.org 1:39: Launch That’s content creation process with E-A-T in mind 5:53: Balancing high-quality content and scale for content creators 8:09: How to separate ownership, performance across team members 9:10: Procuring experts for...

Show Notes: 00:15: Why we recommend interactive content 1:31: What are the cons of interactive content? 2:16: If Google is building the same tools in the SERP, is it worth it? 3:44: How to think about the calculator itself, what to consider 4:25: Positive outcomes we've seen through passive link strategy 6:56: Other examples of interactive content 8:48: Why time to value is important 10:34: The re...

Show Notes: 00:44: Our transition from manual to passive link building strategy 2:45: Examples of passive link topics 3:23: How newer authority websites can execute 4:36: Hammer vs. power tool strategy 6:22: Passive link strategy = higher authority on average 7:28: The importance of internal linking 8:06: Interactive content, why high-quality content is necessary 8:54: Why the domain rating of pas...

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome back, Tom! 1:01: How to structure a good kickoff meeting 9:03: Separating great kickoff meetings vs. average ones 10:04: How many meetings are too many? 15:20: Report revenue to increase credibility 17:00: How to run meetings effectively 22:22: Is dedicated account management essential? 24:57: Defining the roles on your team to deal with clients 26:45: Favorite tips for...

Show Notes: 00:39: Bryan’s original post on how IBM generated over $250M of lifetime traffic value (LTTV) in 2021 1:10: IBM’s “Inbound Workbook” 8:13: What processes have made the workbook successful? 10:41: What is the “diamond team model” and how has it helped SEO in larger organizations 16:45: IBM’s SEO team breakdown 21:46: The benefits of keyword frameworks 14:25: Why user stories are importa...

Show Notes: 00:17: Elsie’s roles and what it means for onboarding 00:37: What are some of the strategies we use to scale our training? 2:08: The benefits of open-source knowledge 3:28: Hiring in cohorts 4:00: The controversial “test” project 5:58: How to hire and train remote teams 7:01: The advantages of bringing in other managers, mentors early on 8:14: Ideal length of training period 8:57: Inte...

Show Notes: 0:39: What content strategy means at the enterprise level 3:02: How to navigate push back 4:58: Governance model examples 6:56: Quick wins vs. big build-outs 9:16: The importance of work-in-progress updates before major deliverables 12:38: Mike’s playbook for getting things done as an agency in an enterprise organization 14:25: Why user stories are important 16:42: What is content engi...

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, John-Henry Scherck, founder of Growth Plays 00:28: What’s evolving in SEO and content in 2022? 3:39: Technical SEO is a bargain, not a mandate 6:58: Do CMSes prevent technical SEO debt? 10:05: Utilitarian content vs. “engaging” content 11:29: Why low time to value and instant gratification is key for content 14:25: Taking a John Barrows approach (give and take vs. give)...

Show Notes: 00:12: Meet Tom Critchlow, Strategy Consultant, Founder of SEO MBA and former VP of Operations at Distilled 1:21: How to secure a substantial SEO budget 5:13: Tom’s contrarian take on how companies should invest in SEO 6:15: The secret behind organizational charts 7:42: Best metrics to use for proving ROI 10:46: Common mistakes in strategy presentations to the C-suite 13:43: The correl...

Show Notes: 00:30: How Amanda built Fitbit’s B2B marketing strategy 2:27: Why putting effort in tools pays off, Fitbit’s “ Challenge Idea Generator ” 5:40: Amanda’s lessons and strategies as Head of Marketing at Growth Machine: SEO & Content Agency 8:48: How to build a successful podcast 10:48: “Influence the influencer strategy,” approaching guests that have a strong following (and get noticed) 1...

Show Notes: 00:22: Disclaimer: Not investment advice! But, still important 00:38: What can we learn from NerdWallet’s traffic history 1:29: How NerdWallet’s syndication and penalization in 2017 has affected them today 3:36: Why multiple strategies can help combat unexpected traffic hits 4:04: NerdWallet’s “sin” in syndication 5:07: How top-of-funnel reach has contributed to NerdWallet’s success 5:...

Show Notes: 00:14: Drew welcomes new guests to the podcast: Giselle Matz, Graphic Designer; Darin Lammers, Art Director; and Cara Brown, Associate Director of Brand Strategy 00:56: Why Darin created an agency-wide presentation on “Representation in Design” 2:06: How Giselle’s Instagram has become a platform for inclusion and diversity 3:01: Checking the biases of your business and colleagues 4:33:...

Show Notes: 00:20: Drew coins the term “algo-holic” 00:30: Why you probably weren’t hit by an algorithm update 2:01: How brands with good reputations can disrupt your space 2:50: Measuring competitive research effectively 4:20: How to understand the biggest players via keyword research 5:58: Why monetization models play a part 6:52:  Acquisitions in your industry vs. ranking longevity 10:20: The i...

Show Notes: 0:53: The philosophy behind testing content marketing 1:39: Why we don’t do short engagements 2:25: How building a recognizable brand plays a part 3:03: Best-in-class content = time 3:44: The timeline from first day of engagement to ranking page 1 6:19: Difference in timeline for a low-authority website 7:36:  How to deal with clients new to content marketing 8:58: Case study examples...

Show Notes: 0:32: Meet Elsie Weisskoff, her role at Siege as Creative Content Lead 1:50: The definition of “brainstorming” 2:08: The brainstorming process at Siege Media 3:16: Group dynamics when thinking creatively 3:58: How Siege Media’s brainstorming has improved over time 4:46: Producing ideas–best tools to use for brainstorming 6:40:  The power of Reddit, how to use it effectively 7:41: Why p...

Show Notes: 0:14: Welcome, Drew Page! Content Marketing Lead at Siege Media 0:44: Growing from 1-100 people, what's the secret to retention? 3:32: How do you effectively pair a Content Marketing Specialist with a client that's in their area of expertise (E-A-T)? 4:51: Ross' push to improve company culture, and why hiring great people with better benefits is good for business 6:11: Why inclusive ac...

Training a great team of content marketers doesn’t have to feel like such a challenge. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing, we’ve seen success with our training strategy — even as we continue to look for ways to improve the process with each new team member we hire. Based on lessons learned from hiring 50+ content marketers (and their insightful training feedback!), we...

Show Notes: 0:58: How we’ve shifted our “Skyscraper Technique” outlook 1:43: The value in “2x” level content 2:30: Misapplication of the “Skyscraper Technique” 5:13: Our thought process around passive vs. manual link acquisition 8:10: Thinking about search clicks vs. search volume 12:12: Is there a “good” balance of search volume to search clicks? Show Links: How to Increase Website Traffic by 250...

Show Notes: 3:24: Are links and content really all that’s needed for SEO? 8:11: The danger in relying on SEO hacks and loopholes 10:15: Copywriting vs. content marketing 13:15: Our outreach process including open rate and placement rates 20:54: How to do content marketing at scale and still ensure quality 24:39: Our preferred SEO and content marketing tools 31:03: Refreshing content vs. killing a...

Show Notes: 00:53: Debunking common E-A-T myths 2:10: How does E-A-T relate to the Medic Update? 4:25: What should you focus on for E-A-T if you’re in YMYL? 7:12: Realistic timelines to see outcomes from E-A-T related changes 9:50: Getting buy-in for E-A-T changes 10:45: Does domain authority and brand recognition matter more with E-A-T? 15:57: Is it realistic to expect to outrank .gov sites now?...

Show Notes: 00:28: Training content marketers to communicate with creatives 1:45: Creating a Pinterest board to assemble inspiration 2:29: Training designers to communicate with marketers 4:05: How much time to give a designer to understand the content? 5:16: Ideal method of giving designer direction 6:51: Is there such thing as too much design direction? 7:38: How to feel comfortable giving creat...