Posts by Ben Holbrook

Ben Holbrook is Head of Content at Verve Search and has a particular interest in content marketing and developing sustainable link development strategies. Ben has always been obsessed with the world of marketing and enjoys coming up with new ideas based on old-school theories and past (offline) experience.
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7 Things My Girlfriend Taught Me About SEO

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No, she doesn’t work in SEO…

I love seeing how my girlfriend uses the internet. I take note of her search methods, the kind of keywords she uses to search, the types of sites she buys from. And of course, I’m frequently called to the computer to “have a quick look” at something mind-blowing.

I see it as a chance to see how “normal” people use the internet, you know, people that don’t live and breathe SEO like we do everyday. So without further ado, here’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for sometime; here’s what Sylvie taught me. (more…)

Why Content Marketing Rocks My World (and Why You Should Care)

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The words we use to talk about digital/internet/online marketing are changing as rapidly as Google are updating their algorithm. The term link building was booted out a while ago and more recently content outreach seems to have been replaced with my favourite of all, no, not inbound marketing, but content marketing. Yes, content marketing is all over the place, not that it’s necessarily a new term, but it seems to be positively and magnetically charged at the moment. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy about this. Here’s why you should be too. (more…)

We’re Not Ninjas, We’re Mutants

SEO/PR Mutants

There’s always a real sense of ‘change’ and ‘urgency’ in our industry, and there’s nothing we love more than predicting the next advancements. But as we move forward, it seems the rules are becoming increasingly familiar; they’re not new rules at all.

This blog post is a response to a very interesting, timely post that my friend, Clarissa Sajbl, wrote here on State of Search recently, called PR + SEO When Two Worlds Collide.

In this post she cleverly discusses how SEO agencies are beginning to team up with PR agencies to create content that’s good enough to generate online brand awareness, as well as high quality links. Funny that, don’t you think? We’re no-longer happy just with the link; now we want the content of the article to actively promote our clients’ brands. (more…)

2013 – How Will You React?

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“To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction” ~ Issac Newton

I recently found an old blog post written by ex-Verve Search genius, Sam Murray. I say ‘old’, he wrote it two years ago, but we all know that’s light-years in SEO world. Sam was waxing lyrical about guest posting, and how SEOs should start using it as their prime link building strategy.

“By featuring on high quality blogs you get the traffic and social interaction from regular readers, and the possibility of being tweeted about or liked by visitors.” – Sam Murray

However, back in the day, Sam was one of few who were convinced that the effort involved in guest posting was worth the juice. Many SEOs, specifically the ones who were more interested in quantity than quality, completely ignored the concept altogether. This meant that for Sam, myself and a handful of other companies and individuals who invested in guest posting experienced fantastic response rates. I remember, only 12 months ago, when I’d contact site owners with guest posts and they’d apologise for not being able to pay me for the content. They really struggled to grasp that I was happy to give them the content even though I received ‘nothing’ in return. (more…)

5 Reasons Your Outreach Emails Suck

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If there’s one thing worse than getting a rejection email, it’s getting no email at all. At least you know where you stand with a rejection email; the angle you chose wasn’t relevant enough, they’ve already covered that event, they don’t accept guest posts. But when you get no response, that’s agony! How are you supposed to know what you’re doing wrong? Well, here are a few things to consider. Maybe you’ll even learn how to write outreach emails that don’t suck. (more…)

Rel=’Publisher’ for Brand-Savvy Marketers

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I’ve been banging on about Rel=Author and Rich Snippets for a while now. Partly because I like the idea of associating content with people, and partly because I think it’s a good insight into Google’s future plans.

It totally makes sense, to me at least, that the worlds of SEO and Social Media should be run in unison – complementing each other. Rel=Publisher, however, often gets left by the wayside; I view it as Rel=Author’s ugly twin, the one that no-one really talks about, or wants to get to know. But I’m going to tell you why you should! (more…)

Long-Tail Keywords – Your Licence to Kill

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We must never forget how life-changing the internet has been for the people of our tiny planet. It’s too easy to think of it as being nothing more than a great way for businesses to make bigger revenues, but it really has done so much more. It’s broadened people’s horizons, made education accessible, and given the public a voice. Forget eBay, forget Amazon and forget the likes of www.buycheapfatburningpills.com; the internet is about people solving problems and enriching lives. You need something? You ask Google where you can get it. If you can’t afford it you ask Google where you can get it cheaper. If you still can’t afford it you ask Google how you can “make money online without investing a penny” – and guess what, Google has an answer for that, too! (more…)

SEO Growing Pains – What the Search Industry Should be Searching for

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Things continue to grow and evolve at such rapid pace, in our previously tiny industry. And to be quite honest, one of the major struggles we’re all facing is trying to keep up! I’m not talking about keeping up with life-changing technological advancements, Google’s mind-boggling algorithm updates, or even with the challenges of working in such a competitive industry. Instead, I’m talking about business 101 – recruitment challenges.

SEO blogs across the web have been voicing their ideas on what makes the perfect SEO team. Articles such as The Ideal Digital Marketing Team, written my friend and fellow blogger, Barry Adams, echo the industry’s thoughts.

Recruiting the right people, whilst growing an agency and keeping clients happy, is never an easy task. But what’s amazed us most about our recent burst of recruitment has been how we have changed.  We’re simply not looking for the same people we were looking for this time last year. We’re not even looking for the same people we were looking for this time 6 months ago. (more…)

Why doing a little SEO is worse than doing no SEO

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It’s hard not to constantly look to the future, our industry changes so rapidly and so dramatically that the next big thing could pass you by in the blink of an eye, without you even knowing about it. The SEO industry has come a long way over the last decade or so, and we’re almost free of the “spam-hobbit” reputation. I say almost because, let’s face it, the majority of people outside of the industry either have no idea what SEO is, or think that we spend our days writing spam comments and “clicking on results in Google until it goes to the top of the results” – if only it was that easy, seriously. On the flip-side of the coin, modern business owners are beginning to appreciate the amount of work and skill that goes into creating a successful SEO campaign. Some even understand just how vital it is to have the right SEO team behind them if they are ever going to compete in the world of online business. (more…)

Paid Google Shopping – Another Step Towards Google’s Master Plan

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Whether you call it Google Products, Google Shopping or Froogle (yeh I forgot they called it that before, too) things are about to change in a BIG way, again! Google has always been seen as a level playing field where small and huge companies alike could compete on equal terms. Google Products (that’s what I’ve always called it) was a big part of creating this level playing field and was a fantastic free service that allowed retailers of all sizes to display their products in the organic SERPs. It was another reason that we all fell in love with Google – they helped David fight Goliath. It didn’t matter that you didn’t have a ‘Nike’ sized search budget because results were driven on the basis of relevance and quality – things we could all control with good content and a solid search strategy. In fact, Google’s early “shopping” system allowed retailers to sell their products online even if they didn’t have a website. It was an all-inclusive service that was available to everybody, at zero cost. It was perfect, it was progressive and despite being quite difficult to use, retailers loved it. (more…)

Penguins, Anchor Text and Headaches: What Do We Do Now?

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As a link builder, what particularly interested/scared me most about the Penguin update was the part which penalised the use of over-optimised anchor text. I must’ve read 10 blog posts about it but still, in amongst the bumph remains my biggest question; what anchor text am I supposed to use now? I’m not going to focus on the Penguin update as a whole, instead I’m going to delve into the world of exact match anchor texts, and try to work out exactly what us link builders are supposed to do now that the Penguins are in force. (more…)

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