Hi Dieter,

As a companion to the great answer from the RayFlexGroup, I have a few resources for you:

• Could Google Shopping Feeds Be a Thing of the Past? The post highlights some of the elements at work behind the scenes to render such results. It also shares some tips brands can use to increase the likelihood that their products show up similarly.
• Another great resource: 5 Essential E-Commerce Rich Snippets for Your Store
• There certainly is a schema markup for products.

Let us hear from you once you give it a try

RS

Hi,

I'm working on a presentation that helps brands answer this question. It really feels like one of those questions that should have a great, simple answer.

My quick-fast-dirty process looks a lot like this.

Brand-level

• Determine goals for brand
• Ascertain how content can help brand attain those goals

Competition

• Do a simple Google search to see which brands are competition for the same audience (e.g., using your money keywords)
• Pay close attention to the content they've created that's ranking well
• Try to create a short list of things you can do content-wise better

Audience

• Figure out who they are being visiting social media, Quora, Reddit, etc., and doing a keyword search to see who is using your terms
• Make at list of the folks who are influencers and what questions, concerns, issues are being raised
• Use this information to find other such platforms where similar audiences might be congregating (i.e., do a Google search or Twitter search or Facebook search to see what other groups key members might be a part of)

Content

Armed with your keywords, the questions you can likely answer and the types of content your competition is creating, you can being to think about the types of content you can and should create based on your brand's needs and goals.

For example, if you have an existing product that is now newer and better than ever, but you need to get people to learn about the changes, maybe you write a top of the funnel piece that includes your brand as part of a solution to a problem you found from online discussions. The maker of a sleek, redesigned wallet for millennials, say, might write a post titled "Why Your iPhone Case Should Never Double as a Credit Card Holder."

The key is to focus as much on the execution as the idea. That is...

• Have a clear goal with regard to each piece of content
• Know in advance which segment of the audience you're attempting to reach and what desired actions you wish for them to take
• Understand that publishing content is only part of the process. (It must be shared, promoted and, hopefully, amplified to be successful)

To help you get started, here are a few indispensable resources:

For help with what questions you should be answering:

* Answer the public

* http://keywordtool.io/

For how to come up with better ideas more easily:* Creating Demand for Products, Services, and Ideas that Have Little to No Existing Search Volume - Whiteboard Friday*GENERATING BETTER CONTENT IDEAS

Hi Rolando,

Hmmm... How about we look at this a little different:

• What are the blogs you're qualified to write for (e.g., some publications prefer authors be active members of the community or have written for similar publications in the past)
• Which publications would be worthwhile for your brand?
• Which of those publications accept guest authors?

You'll need to do a little digging, but a simple, easy-to-use way to find out if your ideal place to share content accept pitches is to do a simple Google Site search:

• site:domain.com “submit a guest post” or site:domain.com “guest post by”

This will help you figure out if the site you wish to write for offers guest posting opportunities.

Read these two posts: The No. 1 Reason Your Content Gets Rejected by Prominent Blogs  and Power Guest Posting for SEO

Have to confess: Track, Test, Tweak, Repeat is legit.

Similar to my Refine, Revise, Repeat for content creation and amplification.

So often we hear that something or another didn't work, when in reality the brand or the individual either didn't optimize the experience for the desired outcome, didn't have clear, defined goals in place or lacked the ability to track the effort's performance.

What I love about email is it's easy to track. From there, it's all about the TTR

RS

Recently, I wrote a Moz post on what I think comprises effective online marketing outreach via email: Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach

Though I'm by no means an outreach expert, it's a topic I do feel qualified to talk about, owing to having worked with numerous PR/Outreach folks, seeing what works and what does not, and because of my experience working for and with Fortune 25s in a sales, outreach capacity. I'm wondering...

• What's the biggest challenge you've faced with regard to outreach?
• How are you addressing it?
• What's the No. 1 tactic you've used to attain success in email outreach?

RS

My latest post on the Moz Blog, Featured Snippets: A Dead-Simple Tactic for Making, explores how to keep Featured Snippets once you have them. I'm curious to know how many brands are actively working to get in the answer box, and for those who are, what's been the results?

No news is better than bad news.

RS

Sounds like you have some clients with strong content, then.

RS

The key is quality content. I know we hear that a lot, so much that it becomes cliche', but it's true. A simple way of thinking about this is to never create a piece of content you wouldn't feel comfortable asking someone you know and respect to share.

RS

I like the wait and see/get more data approach. It's often tough to see a cause and effect relationship when there are so many potential factors at work.

In the last year, we've searched for ways to make YouMoz more interesting, more exciting and more inviting for the Moz community. The blog really does belong to the community, for it's the place where many novel ideas are shared, discussed, and further developed.

Aside from being a great place to share ideas, though, YouMoz is also the primary vehicle by which many now-household names in online marketing were discovered. (Many of the top posts on YouMoz eventually find their way onto the main Moz Blog.)

YouMoz belongs to the community. The blog was created as a place for the community to share and engage around bright ideas, in addition to being a vehicle for provoking thought around new concepts, strategies and tactics. For both aspiring and established authors, YouMoz has become a popular destination in the online marketing space.

In the quest to make YouMoz even better, we’ve come with a few ideas to ensure that everyone continues to feel as though they can contribute to the blog.

Beginning today, we’re introducing what we hope becomes four common formats for YouMoz: My Story, Headsmacking Tips, Problem Solved and Here’s How:

• My Story: The name pretty much says it all. Share with the community an interesting story related to online marketing. The story could be funny, personal or informational. As long as it’s interesting, well-written, and a benefit to the community, we’d love to hear it. A great example of the type of post we’re looking for is Mike Ramsey’s From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency.

• Headsmacking Tip: We’re bringing this format, first shared by Rand years ago on the main blog, out of the mothballs. Simply share with the audience an awesome online marketing-related tip that could make their jobs easier. (Example:Headsmacking Tip #21: Write Better Headlines Than Anyone Else.)

• Problem Solved: Tell the audience how you solved a significant marketing problem, making it easier for you to do your job. Share the nitty-gritty details, and include any graphics or tips needed for the community to solve the problem for themselves. (Example: A Simple Guide to Overcoming Ad Blindness for Publishers.)

• Here’s How: This style of post is meant to be a little more wide-ranging, allowing you to share with the audience ways they can successfully deploy a technique, tactic, strategy, tool or anything else you’ve gleaned that might be of value to marketers. (Examples: How to Write Emails That Get Opened Every Time and The 10 Tools I Use to Monitor Social Media More Effectively. A big shout out to Katy Katz for the inaugural post in this category: Here’s How to Write an Email That Throws off a Whole Room’s Productivity.)

Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Don’t overthink it. Read our guidelines, then dive in and get started.

Also, we’d love to hear what you think about these new formats. Plus, we welcome your comments or questions.

Feel free to share your thoughts below

Hi Donna,

Yes, original only. We don't accept posts that have been published elsewhere.

Turnaround has more to do with the quality of the post than anything else. Almost all posts will need some work, even the best pieces. But if a writer can adhere to these guidelines and incorporate the elements outlined here, the turnaround can be very short.

Below I list the main elements we look for in a YouMoz post. (Assuming the post is, first and foremost, TAGFEE

- Accuracy

• Quality writing

• Depth

• Actionable takeaways

• Novel ideas

The first two are must-haves, but if you can deliver in at least one other area, the post has a good chance of making it onto the blog.

Thank you for asking about the YouMoz process, Donna. We strive to make it as easy as possible for authors to contribute.

RS

We've heard a lot about Rich Snippets in the last few years, especially with regard to how they can help move the needle for ecomm brands.

In the latest YouMoz post - 5 Essential E-Commerce Rich Snippets for Your Store  - Aleh Barysevich provides some easy-to-follow tips he's used to help brands find success using Rich Snippets.

What about you? Have you found Rich Snippets to be all they're cracked up to be?

As a freelance consultant who has been working solo for most of the last six years, I can empathize with you. I've had to test numerous tools and platforms to find the right for me.

First, keep in mind that what works for others likely won't work for you, so you'll have to do some experimenting as well.

• For project management, I've used Trello, Wrike, Basecamp, Freedcamp, Asana and a few others. For singular use, they are all fine, but as you have to share information across teams and with clients, you'll need the added capability and ease of use of platforms such as Asana and Wrike. They each have quirks, so experiment. I found Asana the most intuitive of the bunch. Also, keep in mind that a lot can be done simply through Google Docs and Google Sheets.
• If I had $200 for tools, I'd go with Moz Content or Buzzsumo ($99 each) for content ideation and Moz Pro for site analytics ($99). Admittedly, I'm biased as a Moz Associate. However, the key is having the ability to attain, access and discern information quickly and accurately, not have information on ALL THE THINGS. You could be successful with this small suite of tools, then over time add others such as Buffer and Followerwonk for social media.

RS

When the content developed Moz Content, I was excited as can be about having another tool in the content marketing and content strategy repertoire. I knew it could and would help marketers better identify the content they should be creating and make it easier for them to move the needle for their brands.

Since it's been available, I've had fun using Moz Content, seeing it as a great vehicle for flattening the learning curve for content ideation and creation.

In a recent post, Here's How I'm Using Moz Content for Mining Local Link Opportunities, David Farkas described how brands can use Moz Content to better create localized content.

I'd like to know how you're using it, or if you're using it:

• Have you tried Moz Content? And if not, what's stopping you?
• If you have used it, what are you really liking?
• What would you change?
• What, if any, additional features you'd like to see added?
• What tips can you share for helping others get the most out of the tool?

Looking forward to reading the comments below.

Excellent point, Donna. I do think data and storytelling form a formidable team, but their impact is certainly limited without the benefit of promotion.

RS

Recently, I wrote a Moz post on what I think comprises effective online marketing outreach via email: Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach

Though I'm by no means an outreach expert, it's a topic I do feel qualified to talk about, owing to having worked with numerous PR/Outreach folks, seeing what works and what does not, and because of my experience working for and with Fortune 25s in a sales, outreach capacity. I'm wondering...

• What's the biggest challenge you've faced with regard to outreach?
• How are you addressing it?
• What's the No. 1 tactic you've used to attain success in email outreach?

RS

We've been waiting on the latest Penguin rollout so long it would have been appropriate for Google to launch it with a creepy meme titled "I'm baaack." But now that it's here, what changes are you seeing to the websites you monitor or manage?

We'd very much enjoy hearing you stories, thoughts and proposed courses of action below in the comments.

If you need to get up to speed on Penguin 4.0, Dr. Pete's post, Penguin 4.0: Was it Worth the Wait?, is a great place to start, as is the latest Whiteboard Friday by Rand: Penguin 4.0: How the Real-Time Penguin-in-the-Core-Alg Model Changes SEO.

RS

One of biggest mistakes I used to make - and I had no idea I was making it at the time - was in trying to be too cute with my H1s, H2s and meta tags/meta descriptions. How? I focused more on using fancy punctuation (e.g., dashes, pipes and colons, especially) than I did on the message I hoped to get across to readers.

This was in 2010. Eventually, I discerned the trouble I was creating for myself, and not simply in the eyes of Google.

Instead of thinking about what punctuation Google "recognizes," think of how you can deliver your information in the simplest, easiest-to-digest manner possible. When we attempt to get too cute with our punctuation, we must rely too heavily on someone/something else (e.g., search engines) to deliver our message in the way we hope to convey it; most important, though, it takes the emphasis off of the user, which is always, ALWAYS more interested in the best, most apropos result, not the result that highlights our prowess as A-List grammarians and punctuation scholars.

My advice: Write simply to convey your message thoroughly. More often than not that means few words and even fewer punctuation characters.

RS

In a recent post, Craig Bradshaw shared how creating a URL profiler can work wonders for brands looking to learn what links competitors have attained and which links your brand should be trying to acquire.

We're wondering if your marketing team has made use of URL profiiers, for your brand or the brands you support, and if so have you found them to be worthwhile?

RS