Technical SEO is so many things -- canonicals, parameters, hreflang, schema, robots.txt. Crawlable code and appropriate markup are part of an SEO's job, but they aren't where the competitive advantage lies. Google says content and links are the top ranking factors. So where should an SEO spend 80% of their time to beat the competition? An SEO's top priority should be content. Stories from Jeff Bezos and WaPo, Rand Fishkin and Pricenomics illustrate the case.

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Thin Content Is A
Top SEO Issue
Presented by:
Virginia Nussey
Ops & Content Manager
Bruce Clay, Inc.

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My Agenda
Thin Content Is THE Top SEO Issue
MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
Why we’re here, after all
HOW TO SET YOUR CONTENT APART
Breaking down a process for 10x content
MY 3 BEST TIPS FOR CAPTURING CONTENT MAGIC
Not really magic
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WHY CONTENT IS YOUR TOP SEO PRIORITY
3 reasons to convince you (and your boss)
WHY WE’RE HERE
Welcome (back) to Pubcon
THE JOB OF AN SEO
The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors
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WHY WE’RE HERE1

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About Bruce Clay, Inc.
1. WHY WE’RE HERE
Bruce Clay founded the company in 1996, two years
before Google was born.
We are a digital agency providing services in SEO and
consulting, paid search management, content and social
media strategy, SEO training and SEO diagnostic tools.
Company headquarters is in Los Angeles with global
offices in Japan, Italy, India and UAE.
Last month we announced the soon-to-be released
WordPress plugin because SEO at the point of publishing is
key. Request your free preview release invitation at
http://www.seotoolset.com/wp-register.

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Who I Am
Virginia Nussey
MANAGER, OPERATIONS / CONTENT & MEDIA MANAGER AT BRUCE CLAY, INC.
Six-time Pubcon attendee
Wanted to be a journalist when I grew up
1. WHY WE’RE HERE

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Our Mission as Marketers
1. WHY WE’RE HERE
DistributionLearn Solution Craft Message
Communications
Educate the target audience
across the awareness funnel
Amplification
Get your story in front of
your audience
Your Skills
Come to Pubcon, learn how to
gain competitive advantage
Your Employer
A business focused on
solving problems

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THE JOB OF AN SEO2

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OFF-PAGE SEO
Trust Factors, Link Quality, Local Relevance,
Personalization and History, Social Signals
ON-PAGE CONTENT
Quality, Research, Keywords, Freshness, Rich
Media, Answers
ON-PAGE ARCHITECTURE AND HTML
Crawlability, Device Compatibility, Duplicate
Handling, Speed, Meta Data
3 Categories of SEO
Success Factors
2. THE JOB OF AN SEO

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Top 2
Ranking Factors
ANDREY LIPATTSEV
SEARCH QUALITY SENIOR
STRATEGIST AT GOOGLE
March 2016
“I can tell you what they are.
It is content and it’s links
pointing to your site.”
“There is no order.”
2. THE JOB OF AN SEO

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WHY CONTENT IS
YOUR TOP SEO PRIORITY3

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Content Is In Your Control. Links Are Not.
3. WHY CONTENT IS YOUR TOP SEO PRIORITY

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Content Has Trackable Metrics
3. WHY CONTENT IS YOUR TOP SEO PRIORITY
Pages on the site
Thin pages turned thick
New ranking pages
added to the site
Pages indexed

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Bigger Sites Make More Money
3. WHY CONTENT IS YOUR TOP SEO PRIORITY
As owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos:
 Grew WaPo traffic 28% from 2015 to 2016.
 Surpassed New York Times traffic in 2015.
 Adopted a content strategy around producing a
high volume of content aimed at long-tail and
niche interests.

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HOW TO SET YOUR
CONTENT APART4

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Process for 10x Content
4. HOW TO SET YOUR CONTENT APART
 Research pages that are
ranking and most shared
content via BuzzSumo.
 What questions are asked and
answered?
 How thorough is the
information?
 What is the format and
delivery mechanism (UX)?
 What are the data sources? Is
it credible?
 What is the writing quality?

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MY 3 BEST TIPS FOR
CAPTURING CONTENT MAGIC5

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Data-Driven Content
5. MY 3 BEST TIPS FOR CAPTURING CONTENT MAGIC

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Watch out for the expert round-up trap
Quote and name expert sources
Interview on-staff experts or consultants
Interview industry influencers
Expert Voice Content
5. MY 3 BEST TIPS FOR CAPTURING CONTENT MAGIC

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CATEGORIZED, PRIORITIZED &
INTEGRATED INTO CONTENT
ON-SITE SURVEYS
INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
FOCUS GROUPS
Voice of Customer Content
5. MY 3 BEST TIPS FOR CAPTURING CONTENT MAGIC

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MAKING THE WORLD A
BETTER PLACE6

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RESOURCES
Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die - Whiteboard Friday
https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday
Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors
https://searchengineland.com/seotable
The Future is More Content: Jeff Bezos, Robots and High Volume Publishing
http://buzzsumo.com/blog/future-lot-content/
Pricenomics Content Marketing Handbook and Data-Driven Blog
https://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/
https://priceonomics.com/the-comic-sans-index-what-kind-of-fonts-do/
https://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique
The Skyscraper Technique: (Content Marketing for Link Builders)
Guide to Leveraging Industry Experts to Craft High-Quality SEO Content
https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/guide-to-expert-interviews-seo-content/
Bruce Clay SEO for WordPress Plugin – Optimize at the Point of Publishing
http://www.bruceclay.com/wp-register/

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LET’S CONNECT
www.BruceClay.com
2245 1st Street, Simi Valley, California
vnussey@bruceclay.com
805 517 1900
@VirginiaNussey