Updated: October 27, 2015
What time is the State of the Union? If you’re still asking that question, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that you’ve already missed it. President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address was last Tuesday (Jan. 20), but you can still watch the full speech on Whitehouse.gov. However, the real news of the week is that this year marks the first time the White House itself deliberately used SEO tactics on their site in order to get ranked for search queries about the SOTU address.
Leading up to the speech, the White House made a special post entitled “What Time Is The State of the Union?”, as well as posting “Watching The State of the Union: Everything You Need To Know” on their blog.
As Search Engine Land points out:
“That’s a pure SEO play — and a smart one. The White House understands people are going to want to know this answer, and it has created content designed to answer it and more.”
You can get the full scoop on SearchEngineLand.com.
Moving onto other news, we’ve got a lot to cover from the last couple weeks in SEO, so let’s get started…
Design
- The fact that infographics successfully bring in more web traffic and increased engagement is known. But so is the reality that creating them can eat up a lot of time and resources. Learn how you can recycle these 5 free cool infographic templates and create awesome designs for less. And while you’re at it, check out these eye-catching examples of what makes an infographic great.
- Also, see how to step up your content game with infographics that are truly…wait for it…legendary.
Analytics
- Need some guidance on Google Analytics? This Ultimate Guide to 150+ Analytics Resources for 2015 from KISSMetrics should be a good start.
- Forget about the conjectures and opinions, now there’s finally some real data on key performance indicators (KPI) for e-commerce. Determine which engagement metrics are actually correlated with your site’s conversion rate from this Moz study.
SEO
- We all like the free stuff. Well good news: Search Engine Watch recently put together a list of free SEO online training courses that you shouldn’t miss out on. Did we mention they’re all free?
- You can find even more free stuff by looking at these 8 free tools for finding new keywords.
- WordPress isn’t the only CMS around, but this article discusses why it is one of the best content management systems for SEO.
- SEO is all about staying ahead, and finding keywords that people use but your competitors don’t. So how do you find those “hidden gems” in the vast search engine ocean? Try out these simple tactics.
- Apply the “six degrees of separation” theory to SEO and see how each marketing discipline is tied to each other in this piece.
- Two out of three small and medium-sized business owners agree that internet marketing is effective, according to the newest SMB internet marketing survey.
- Sort through the stats from the just-released Salesforce “State of Digital Marketing” study to review the top digital priorities, obstacles and channels for digital marketing in 2015.
- Are you preparing to present your 2015 SEO strategy in the coming weeks? Here are a few tips for nailing that presentation.
Content Corner
- The word that should be on every content marketer’s mind in 2015 is “curation.” What is curation? Well, you’re looking at it. Click here to learn more about what this term fully encompasses and get 5 tools for implementing curated content into your marketing strategy.
- Hone your storytelling skills and learn how to connect with your audience by reading this insightful article about improving your content cadence. It will feel like you’re in English class all over again (in a good way)…
- Happy Whiteboard Friday! Discover what “unique value” means and how to apply it by watching this video with host Rand Fishkin, the SEO cowboy.
That’s a wrap! Have a great January everyone and be sure to leave feedback, thoughts, and any other SEO news in the comments below.