Exciting things are happening in the world of digital marketing. Google search results are becoming much smarter thanks to topic modeling and semantic connectivity, and we’re seeing direct answers to our questions, such as “What year did the Titanic sink?” Additionally, web marketers are focusing more on creating quality content in addition to optimizing for technical SEO to boost rankings.
Let’s be honest—technical SEO is still important, but your rankings won’t improve much (if at all) by changing a few keywords on the home page. It takes a well-thought-out strategy of content creation to increase your search engine rankings; it’s not about how well you’ve “optimized” your title tags and meta descriptions anymore. This means content marketing and strategy will be more important than ever as we move into 2015 and beyond. How important, you ask?
Here are the facts:
- 93 percent of B2B marketers rely on content marketing to generate new business
- 44 percent of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy
- 58 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets
Whether you’re new to the industry or a working professional with 15 years of experience, trends are constantly changing and it can be difficult for marketers to keep up. To help you stay current, here are the best SEO and content marketing blogs to follow in 2015.
Note: These are not listed in any particular order.
- Main topics: Inbound marketing, SEO, link building, content marketing, copywriting, social media
- Why it’s worth reading: Moz is practically a household name around here at Gravitate. This is arguably one of the best SEO/digital marketing blogs on the web and features tons of great tips and tricks for marketers. Rand Fishkin, Moz’s co-founder, is a marketing guru who often teaches a weekly “Whiteboard Friday” lesson on SEO, search engines, content creation, and many other topics.
- Frequency: 4-6 a month
- Check out this post: How To Provide Unique Value In Your Content – Whiteboard Friday
- Main topics: SEO, SEM, search engines, social media
- Why it’s worth reading: This blog (which has made our list every year) is loaded with tons of valuable information about search engines and SEO. Their writers are accomplished industry professionals who offer great insights into the inner workings of search engines.
- Frequency: 3-4 a day
- Check out this post: Google’s Knowledge Graph May Show For 25% Of All Search Queries
- Main topics: SEO, link building
- Why it’s worth reading: Brian Dean shares his personal SEO tips and link building strategies that he used in building his blog, Backlinko.com, to over 70,000 monthly readers.
- Frequency: 1-2 a month
- Check out this post: 17 Insanely Actionable List Building Strategies That Will Generate More Subscribers Today
- Main topics: PPC, SEO, social media, copywriting, analytics, internet marketing
- Why it’s worth reading: A great all-around blog that encompasses in-depth and strategic advice for content marketers. If you’ve never heard of Portent, there’s some pretty awesome stuff here. Ian Lurie, the CEO and founder of Portent Inc., is an instructor for Lynda.com and a speaker at MozCon.
- Frequency: 3-4+ a month
- Check out this post: Content Actually Is All Around (Not Just On Your Blog)
- Main topics: Inbound marketing, SEO, design, social media, copywriting
- Why it’s worth reading: The name really says it all. HubSpot has three different blogs (Marketing, Sales, and Agency) and covers virtually every topic under the sun with regards to online marketing. Aside from the blog, it’s also a great resource for internet statistics and case studies.
- Frequency: 3-5 a day
- Check out this post: Getting Started With Content Marketing: 9 Takeaways From One Company’s Experience
- Main topics: Copywriting, content marketing
- Why it’s worth reading: Problogger is the ultimate go-to resource for learning how to be an effective content marketer and blogger. Between ebooks, guides, and insanely detailed blog posts that span a few thousand words, you’ll find plenty to read here.
- Frequency: 5+ a month
- Check out this post: Dazzle & Connect With Your Audience With These 7 Storytelling Strategies
- Main topics: Content marketing, content strategy
- Why it’s worth reading: Contently is your daily dose of… you guessed it, content strategy. With infographics, downloadable guides, and surveys, it’s an excellent resource for all content marketers.
- Frequency: 1-2 a day
- Check out this post: 6 Steps That Will Get You A Bigger Content Budget In 2015
- Main topics: SEO, content marketing
- Why it’s worth reading: Founder and digital marketing veteran Richard Baxter offers advice and tips gathered from his 10 years of industry experience. There’s some interesting stuff in here spanning a variety of topics, from career tips and CGI to SEO and content marketing.
- Frequency: 3+ a month
- Check out this post: There’s No Such Thing As Boring Content
- Main topics: Content marketing, copywriting, social media
- Why it’s worth reading: Jay Baer provides a library of social media resources and content marketing tips on his blog at Convince & Convert. There’s also a multitude of ebooks and podcasts as well. It’s very helpful information for any content marketer.
- Frequency: 8 a week
- Check out this post: How To Create Time For Writing Great Content
- Main topics: SEO, content marketing, email marketing, social media
- Why it’s worth reading: Written by a team of content marketing strategists with years of industry experience, ClickZ is a blog for every marketer and includes topics on analytics, media, search, and many others.
- Frequency: 10+ a month
- Check out this post: Does Your Content Connect?
What blogs are you currently reading? Let’s us know in the comments below.