Content Marketing Theory & Strategy
A Manifesto of Content Marketing
By Rand Fishkin
Rand, of Moz fame, lays out a grand and noble vision for the role that content marketing can and should play. Although we are often drawn to specific measures of success–like links or keywords–we should also remain aware of the larger role that great, groundbreaking content can play in the world and in the lives of our users.
Why Content Marketing is a Long Game (And How to Play It)
By Beth Hayden
Many marketers and companies become frustrated with their content marketing efforts. And that’s usually because they go into it expecting quicker results than are possible. Beth explains how to take a long-term, big-picture view on content marketing and generate long-lasting results.
Why SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing
By Neil Patel
This article explains explicitly how SEO and content marketing are intertwined. To achieve success with SEO, you must first invest in content marketing–and content marketing without a focus on SEO is mostly a wasted opportunity.
How a Real Estate Blog Went From 2,000 to 18,000,000 Visits Per Month in 2 Years
By Chris Kolmar & Randy Nelson
This case study breaks down the internal workings of the Movoto blog. Their team has a strategic approach to creating content, building links, and going viral. Altogether, they spell out a blueprint for content marketing success.
Content Types & Creation
What is Evergreen Content? A Guide to Long-Lasting Content that Boosts SEO
By Megan Marrs
This article explains a fundamental content type that you’ll need to generate search traffic over time–evergreen content. This kind of content creates residual value and delivers traffic over time, as your site rises in popularity and authority.
Using Cornerstone Content to Make Your Site Rank
By Joost De Valk
Cornerstone content is an essential, functional piece of an effective content marketing strategy. And it’s incredibly simple in most cases. But it still gets overlooked. This article explains how to create and curate cornerstone content to bring in tons of search traffic on more short-tail, high-volume keywords.
SEO Guide to Creating Viral Linkbait and Infographic
By Distilled
Building links is essential to content marketing and SEO. This guide explains how to approach link building from a content perspective, focusing on creating content that is inherently link-worthy and then following through with the proper execution and outreach to achieve results.
How to Go Viral: Lessons From the Most Shared Content of 2015
By Steve Rayson
This article deconstructs some of the most popular viral content from 2015 and finds the common themes, structures, and formats that made it so successful. This is an insightful look at how viral content is often not just created on a whim, but purposely engineered with a particular opportunity in mind.
Link Building and Analysis
How to Steal Your Competitor’s Backlinks, Rankings & Traffic
By Robbie Richards
Using smart competitive analysis is one of the smartest and most effective ways to build links and grow your website. In this post, Robbie explains exactly how to dig into your competitors’ sites to uncover link-earning and traffic opportunities.
Link Audit: Competitive Backlink Analysis
By Vagelis Varfis
This post also gets into the details of how you can conduct an in-depth audit of your competitors’ backlinks and then use the findings to your advantage.
Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days
By Brian Dean
In this landmark article, Brian Dean outlines the now-famous “Skyscraper Technique.” This approach is a mental and tactical model for how to use competitive analysis to identify content and link opportunities. The beauty here is in the simplicity–rather than reinventing the wheel, Dean shares how he uses content that he already knows is successful to score quick wins.
Outreach and Promotion
How to Include Influencers in Your Content Strategy
By Amanda Gallucci
Influencers can help you grow your reach and exposure. This article explains how to include them in your outreach and promotion plan in order to maximize the potential audience of your content and generate more traffic.
Content-based Outreach for Link Building
By Justin Briggs
This comprehensive guide explains much of the theory and specific tactical examples of performing manual outreach to build links for your website. This is a fundamental piece of modern content marketing and SEO practices.
How to Email Busy People
By Gregory Ciotti
Gregory breaks down how to write a succinct email that gets read and gets results. This is important–if you’re spending the time and effort to do outreach, you want to maximize its impact by learning how to write really effective emails that create action.
I Just Deleted Your Outreach Email Without Reading. And NO, I Don’t Feel Sorry
By Tim Soulo
Tim gives some tough love on why so many people struggle with outreach. It’s because they try to take shortcuts–they focus on quantity rather than quality. Doing personal outreach to high-priority contacts is an essential piece of the puzzle.