I was asked today during a client interview how I got my start in this crazy world of content marketing. I wanted to share my response with you: “I fell into it on accident. In my position at Prudential Relocation (a Prudential Financial company), everyone considered writing-related work to be a punishment. At the time, I was new to the marketing position and was handed the “grunt work” of content creation. Within 6 months I was the Editor in Chief of the  company’s three international publications and was traveling with the company president, writing her speeches. I love to write and know this is what I was born to do.” Choosing to work with Cowtown Creative on your content marketing needs will not get you a company driven by the bottom line. We love content and we love content creation. Better yet, we love Fort Worth Content Marketing. Let us [...]

Years ago, when SEO was really taking off, search engine results were sort of laughable. Most of the time, what would result were unreadable, as the owners of these sites and blogs felt it was necessary to “plug” keywords so richly in the content, there was essentially no message. It was just paragraphs full of these keywords. If you want to leverage the power of keywords, you need to be smart about saturation levels and understand that Google in particular has become very smart about recognizing sites that over-plug for SEO. A good amount of keyword usage in any site, also known as saturation, is 3% to 4%. So, on a website page with 100 words, a keyword need only be used 3 to 4 times. Ideal placement is also key, however, and should always include it in the title, first paragraph, and closing paragraph. Remember, as we’ve discussed before, [...]

I was reading a blog this morning about best SEO practices, which I love to do in order to see if there’s anything new that’s come to the market and just to validate against what others are trying. The content was pretty great and included a fairly comprehensive list of the top 20 tactics to be implemented by anyone wanting to see real results in the search engines. Yet, in the middle of all this greatness, something truly surprised me. This statement: “Leverage free-for-all linking wherever you can get it.” Whaaaaa???? This statement made me go back up to the top of the blog to check the author’s credentials again. Yes, it’s that big of a mistake.

You know that content is the words on your site’s pages, and you may have also noticed that if you see lots and lots of words on a page in one big block, your eyes glaze over and you start thinking about what’s for dinner. The secret to content is not quantity (although that’s important, too), it’s applicability. Make your entire site applicable in three simple steps. Step 1: Read what’s there So, go take a look at your page as if you’re someone who’s never seen it before, and honestly analyze your content. I’ll wait….Did your fresh eyes see useful information? Just by existing, your site promises to be useful. If you’ve ever been to a site that wasn’t full of great information, I bet you haven’t been back a second time. Step 2: Rewrite it so it’s better Write content that is well-organized and informative, and visitors will [...]

Lots of people start out in the optimization biz, by not truly being in the optimization biz. For a site owner who first learns about SEO, for instance, it may seem only natural to focus completely on keywords. But, again, SEO isn’t only about keywords, just like it isn’t only about reciprocal links and content. Finding the right balance can be a delicate process, and it helps to learn from the experts: the people who search for stuff on search engines. You may be thinking, “Where on Earth can I find such people?” But it’s easier than you think. A very knowledgeable one just read this sentence. Think back, for example, to the last search you did for a local Chinese restaurant. You knew at the outset that if you searched for “Chinese restaurant,” you would get loads and loads of links that were useless to you. That brings us [...]