Content Creation: Winning Tactics for the Real World (Ted Uhle)
Don’t build a Frankensite. Business process & workflow must support SEO.
Training for SEO. Locate and educate everyone in the workflow. Dedicated analytics for each person. Hold regular team meetings.
War Story #1 – Management MUST Buy In. Major Enterprise – Silicon Valley. Great Identification of Players (IT Dept., Marketing, Web Design, Writers, Analytics). Strong Education Kick-Off (High Enthusiasm), ½ the team reassigned 4 weeks later.
Business Goal is #1 Always. Marketing Strategy: 1) Content – Concept Level. Back end decisions (server, CMS, analytics). Then, do keyword research. Then follow with Information Architecture & Menus. Then, develop your content – full copy. Followed by Graphic Design – Templates. Content – “Web edit” in browser. Must document each decision.
War Story #2: Beware of Chasing Trophy Keywords. (niche market “homeopathy software”). Product is aimed at doctors, search terms is used by the layman (b2c not b2b). Gained #1 and #2 rankings – 150 pages of content, sales decreased. Happy ending…rethinked strategy.
Information Architecture: Before Making Menu Decisions, need the right buckets for your content.
Final Web Edit: Content Interacts With Layout. CSS is web typesetting. You can kill good content with bad layout or beast weak content with good layout. Study print typography.
Simple and Seamless for the End User, for Search Engines, for Maintenance. Make simplicity your discipline. Where were the seams come from? Showing off…works against business purpose. Code Geeks should never write content.
Despite all your planning, things will go wrong. When it’s time for a fix, thou shalt not kluge. Better late than lousy, expect to make tradeoffs. Keep all the priorities straight…reference your document.
Robin Liss: Reviewed.com High Value Content Production Workflow Strategies.
Just like a car maker, you manufacture a product. What lessons can we learn from traditional manufacturing?
Mr. Ford’s assembly line rocks! Create content like an assembly line.
Blog: On a blog, each person usually performs all the steps…that’s why it’s so efficient. Blogs might have “long” form posts that have more editing and more process. With this pipeline, there is no outside quality control or editing, but many argue that is what defines blogs.
Modified Pipeline (1 Writer & 1 Editor / Boss). Time how long each step takes and distribute the tasks accordingly. You may have to go through more than 2 edits, especially with less experienced writers. It may be efficient to add a 3rd person to take the specialty tasks such as CMS loading, Copy Editing, Marketing or Supplemental Asset Creation.
6 People Pipeline (Editor in Chief, Managing Editor, Writer, Product Photographer, Product Tester, Copy Editor). Many quality controls built into this process. Highly efficient because it uses specialization, everyone has a specific job which they do and can get very good at.
Content Management System (WYSIWIG tools save production time and money), Dreamweaver, Plone, MoveableType, Own your CMS, Investing Money in your CMS will reduce editorial costs long term. Workflow Management Tools: Google Calendar, Lots of Speadsheets.
Specialization = Economic Efficiency. Find the right writer for the right task. Short form vs. long form. Journalistic vs. Opinionated. Edgy vs. Straight. Switching tasks take time. When doing large projects, different parts of the article might go to different people. Product and Editing Specialization. Find an online copy editor to pay per word. Find a basic HTML guru to do the CMS input. Hire a part time or full editor to improve your quality and manage workflow. This will allow your writers to improve their craft and get more efficient. Making one person do everything can be very inefficient.
Bottlenecks must be destroyed. Time everything. Constantly track these times and look to improve them. Create an “article flow” or “article patter” by reducing bottlenecks.
Error-free content = credibility. Measure everything.
Final tips: Set up clear contract…you own the rights. Put plagiarism protection clauses in your contracts. Be specific as possible, try to put those blueprints into the contract. You get what you pay for…cheap original content will cost money in the long term in editing and correction. Try your best to be original in your content. Blogs are a great way to dip your toe in original content production.
Mobile Content (Rupali Shah)
84% of Iphone users are looking for information on their mobile device…potential viewers of your content. Should check your website on an Iphone / Iphone emulator.
Mobile SEO: Use valid XHTML code, W3C compliance, keywords, metadata, linking, sitemaps.
Accessible mobile content: Uncluttered (Less is more). Page size: Small. Simple design – text. Style sheets. Div tags, not tables. Optimized images – including ALT text. Categorized browsing.
Other tips: Google Mobile Sitemap. Yahoo Mobile Content Submission.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.