​In this 'housekeeping' episode of The Content Champion Podcast, I set the scene for our new series of shows called 'SEO Essentials', where we discuss the prerequisite on-page SEO steps you ​must take to maximise your long term success with both SEO and content marketing.​So if you're considering outsourcing your SEO or embarking upon a major in-house SEO drive, these shows should prove invaluable in helping you get your on-page 'ducks in a row', before wasting any time and/or money on SEO that's ​destined to just never ​work properly.



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[Podcast] ​Introducing The SEO Essentials Podcast Series From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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Show NotesWhy we're wrapping up the expert interviews (for now)The latest news on the Authority Content Experiment (ACE)How we started an ecommerce site that grossed £10k in 2 monthsAn introduction to the 'SEO Essentials' series of podcastsVarious other 'housekeeping items' on where the show is headed


Resources Mentioned In This EpisodeAuthority HackerNiche Site ProjectAuthority Website IncomeHuman Proof DesignsOur Previous PodcastsCustom SEO Services




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I'm Loz James, and this is the Content Champion podcast, the content marketing and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real world examples.​Hi guys. Welcome to episode 70 of the Content Champion podcast. This is the first in the SEO essential series, where we're looking at key SEO tasks to help get your site in order before spending any more time or money on long term SEO that won't necessarily work if you haven't put these foundational aspects of your site in place.So, this could also really be called the Content Champion housekeeping podcast, because I haven't done one of these shows for quite some time. We've been busy working on a new eCommerce site with my business partner, and a lot of client work at the moment. And really, I've got a couple of things to clear up as a way of introducing the next sort of episodes of the show that will come after this.​So, firstly, I just want to talk about what a great pleasure it was for me personally to interview Yaro Starak on the last episode of the podcast. That for me really marked a sea change, if you like, a perfect place to draw a line under the existing interview series that I'd done. I'd done nearly 70 of those, and getting Yaro on the show was such a highlight, it seemed a good point for me to really segue over into different styles of show that would help our target audience more and our listeners more.​So, I will be going back to doing some of those interviews with top SEOs and content marketers in the future, but for the time being, what we're gonna focus on for our core audience of independent online business owners and retailers, eCommerce store owners, is really those key SEO tasks that can really help you to get your house in order, as I say, before you go and employ a company like Content Champion to help with your SEO and content marketing or any other agency, or do your content marketing and SEO in house, because what we've seen is the same things come up over and over again. The same issues and problems with our clients and also with our own eCom...

CC 070: Introducing The SEO Essentials Series

​​Welcome back to the SEO Essentials Series of the Content Champion Podcast. In this episode, I'm ​discussing canonicalization with highly experienced SEO, Tom Peary. Yes we know, don't let your eyes glaze over quite yet - as getting this right could save your organic traffic.Tom ​is the Head of ​SEO here at Content Champion, and ​also specialises in optimizing Google Shopping feeds. Between the two of us, ​we have over 30 years' experience in the content marketing and SEO industries.Tom joins me today to explain what canonicalization is and why it’s ​an essential ​part of your SEO strategy. He ​​also tell us how using canonical tags can help boost your search engine ranking, and explains ​how to fix and prevent canonical errors.



Listen To The ​Canonicalization Show

Show NotesWhat are canonical tags and canonicalized URLs?How ​using canonicalization tags can help improve your website rankingHow to identify canonical problems on your websiteHow to prevent canonicalization problemsUsing htaccess commands and ​301 redirects to resolve canonical website issuesHow long does it take to reap the benefits of correcting canonical errors?



[Podcast] ​​Canonicalization (SEO Essentials) From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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Resources Mentioned In This EpisodeGoogle Search Console - Webmaster ToolsMoz Guide To CanonicalizationGoogle Guide To Using Canonical URLsCopyscapeSitelinerSitebulb




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Loz James:           I'm Loz James, and this is the Content Champion podcast, the content, marketing, and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real world examples. Hi guys, welcome to the show. This is our first SEO Essentials programme. We're going to be talking ... Me and Tom Peary, our head of SEO here, are going to be talking about those foundational elements of SEO on-page, technical, everything related to that, that you need to get in order before you do your in house SEO or content marketing, or start to use the services of a company like Content Champion. So, this time, we're going to be talking about canonicalization, and, look, me and Tom have got about 30 years SEO and content marketing between us, so you're in safe hands. Let's introduce Tom. Hi, Tom.Tom Peary:          Hi, Loz.Loz James:           So, what is canonicalization?Tom Peary:          OK, so a canonical tag is really just a way of telling a search engine about a page on your website. If you've got a piece on content on a page that is then duplicated elsewhere, the rel=canonical tag just, literally, shows Google, this is the main page, this is the master URL, we're not intentionally trying to duplicate content across the site. That way, it just sorts out any problems with duplicate content.Loz James:           Okay. Can you give us some examples of what that looks like on a small business site?Tom Peary:          Yeah, sure. I think one of the easiest ways is, if you take, for example, the www. extension on your domain. You don't have to have that as your domain set up. You'll see many sites where it's just http then the domain, or https. You can actually use anything. I've seen it before where it's ww2,

CC 071: Canonicalization (SEO Essentials)

Welcome back to another ​show in the SEO Essentials series of the Content Champion podcast. A common issue with many of our new client websites is duplicate content. Duplicate content can play a significant role in your site’s ability to rank well on search engines such as Google. Content Champion’s Head of SEO, Tom Peary, joins me again today to share his wisdom on the best SEO strategies to help you improve your website’s search ranking. Tom explains what duplicate content is - on your own website as well as across the web - and how this content can affect your ability to rank at the top of Google. He also explains how to identify and fix these issues, how Google views duplicate content on ecommerce websites, and how soon you can expect to see an improvement for your site once you’ve made these corrections. 



Listen To The ​Canonicalization Show

Show NotesWhat is duplicate content and why it’s important to identify it on your website How to identify external duplicate content How Google views duplicate content for ecommerce websites Methods used to find duplicate content How to handle duplicate content issues How soon can you expect to see your site rebound after fixing these issues Ways to protect your original content, when to contact site owners plagiarizing your content, and using DMCA 



[Podcast] ​​​Duplicate Content (SEO Essentials) From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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​Resources Mentioned In This EpisodeCC 071: Canonicalization (SEO Essentials)CopyscapeSitelinerSitebulbAhrefsDMCA




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Loz James:           I'm Loz James, and this is the Content Champion Podcast, the content marketing and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real world examples. Hi, guys. Welcome to the show. This is the second SEO essentials podcast, talking about the foundational elements of SEO. I'm with Tom Peary, a head of SEO here at Content Champion, and related to the last show about canonicalization, we're now talking about duplicate content. Tom, could you explain to us what duplicate content is, on both our own sites and on the web?Tom Peary:          Yeah, sure. Let's start with our own sites to begin with, because it ties in nicely with the last podcast. Looking at your site for duplicate content is really important, as we said before, just because it can really hold you back in terms of your organic rankings. Too much duplicate content ... A little bit's okay, the odd fodder thing, menu items, Google understands that, but duplicate content across your site is going to impact poorly on your organic rankings, because Google sees you haven't taken much effort, that it's just filled with the same stuff. How relevant to that is a user? It can't differentiate different pages, because it has the same content. So that's the first thing.​The other one, which can be ... usually, it's out of your control, initially anyway, is external content that's been lifted, effectively. So if a site has been lazy, and they've just taken all your site content, or huge chunks of it, which we see all the time, it's really common, especially in the black hat world, which is not as abundant as it was, but certainly where somebody sees what your site has done to rank and just copies huge chunks of content, especially if it's very detailed content on something specific like health or a service that's a bit more complex.

CC 072: Duplicate Content (SEO Essentials)

As we continue our SEO Essentials series, we’re ​discussing how the speed of your website plays a crucial role in your conversion rates, so much so that this one issue alone can make or break your online business. ​​Our Head of SEO at Content Champion, Tom Peary, joins me again on this episode to explain why site speed is so important - and how a slow site can drive away potential customers ​and kill your conversions, even when your ​organic traffic is doing well. ​​​In this quickfire ​show we also discuss what load impact is, how technical and hosting factors can ​influence the speed of your website, and how you can improve your site speed on WordPress with the various plugins ​available.



Listen To The ​Site Speed Show

Show NotesThe first thing to look at regarding site speed How to see an improvement in your conversions The relationship between site speed and conversion rates What Google will do if your site has been running consistently slowly Why you should take load impact into consideration  The relationship between load impact and your server Why you should choose your hosting carefully 



[Podcast] ​​​Website Speed (SEO Essentials) From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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WPX Hosting 




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Loz James:           I'm Loz James and this is the Content Champion Podcast, the content, marketing and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real world examples. Hi guys, welcome to the show. This time me and Tom Peary, our Head of SEO here at Content Champion, are talking about site speed as part of our SEO Essentials Series.​Now, why is site speed important? We're going to look at that. We're going to look at some examples based on our own eCommerce store as to how this can basically cut your conversions and cause a lot of problems for you, so Tom, give us the background on site speed and why it's so important.Tom Peary:          Yeah sure. I think the first thing to look at is your visitors, your users. That's the primary reason you have a website. So if your site's running slow, we don't all have access to super fibre 200 mg connections. Sometimes we're on 3G or non-3G ​or 4G, so when the user's trying to visit your site and it's taking a long time to load, they're probably going to give up. You can see this with certain tools anyway, which we'll go into in a bit.​So that's the first thing is losing potential business because your site's not performing how someone would expect and they just get bored and they'll go elsewhere because somebody else will serve them that information faster even if they're further down in the ranking. So you could be just turning away business just because your site is running slowly.​There's a great tool called Mouse​flow. I can plug that because again, I think this is an amazing tool that everyone should be using. I think this should be if you've got analytics you should be using something Mouse Floor simply because you can view how people in real time have looked at your site and how they've engaged with it or in some cases not engaged. They come onto your site, they've found what they needed, and you can see the egg timer going round or you can see the images are loading slowly or they clicked add to cart and it's just taken an age to get to the point where they want to spend money with you.​At that point they'll leave. You can set actions within tools, analytics and things like drop-offs, but also just in Mouse Floor, just looking at this data. So you can see, if you notice your conversion is going down and your traffic really hasn't,

CC 073: Website Speed (SEO Essentials)

​Welcome to another episode ​in the SEO Essentials series of the Content Champion podcast, where ​we ​discuss the foundational aspects of SEO ​you need to get right before ​rolling out a successful SEO campaign - or employing an agency. This time I'm joined again by our Head of SEO, Tom Peary, to ​look into the subject of backlink auditing​ - how ​we assess ​a backlink profile and ​the tools we use to achieve this. Let's dive in...



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Show NotesHow to use Google webmaster toolsHow you can get a manual link penaltyWhat over-optimization means and why it is bad for SEOThe first thing to look for in a link profileWhat makes a link badWhat link contextuality isHow to submit a disavow file through Google Webmaster Console* When and why you should disavow links



[Podcast] ​​​Backlink Audits (SEO Essentials) From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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​Resources MentionedGoogle Webmaster Console Ahrefs Moz SEMrush How To Create a Link Disavow File 




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Loz James:           I'm Loz James and this is the Content Champion podcast. The content, marketing and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real world examples.​Hi, guys. Welcome to the show. Tom, how do we assess ​our back link profile?Tom Peary:          Yeah, it's a good question, because for those unfamiliar with what impact links have or how to find them. It's going to be a bit daunting, so we'll try and break it down into a few ways that you can do this. First thing is, you should always have a webmaster console account. Previously known as webmaster tools. I still call it that. I think it's a better name.​Using that account, registering your domain, and then once it's been registered, at least generally at least a few weeks because it won't find all the links straight away, is going to the in bounding section. I'm looking at the links to your site, and then you can export that as a file, and then viewing them. See how they look. Your sites about one topic and you got links from a site that's completely irrelevant and your links just don't seem to fit. Do you really think that's a great thing for your site? ​That's the first thing. Using Webmaster console is a brilliant tool. Google created it for a reason. Also, it's not updated as frequently and as quickly as some of the more sophisticated SEO tools that are built purely to look for signals from links to your site, but it will give you a good idea, especially if you've had a link penalty. Say you've had a manual action, the links are probably in that section of your webmaster profile. Yeah, I'd probably say nine times out of ten. Using that, that's the first one. Google Webmaster Console. Register with that. See what's coming into your site, and keep your check on it as well.​Other ways, other tools, are things like our favourite that we use daily is AH Refs. Ahrefs.com in my opinion is the best link auditing tool there is. There's also Moz, and some other great tools out there, but I find it works quicker. It finds links faster that are coming in.

CC 074: Backlink Audits (SEO Essentials)

Business owners spend a lot of time and money creating visually appealing websites and in-depth content to promote themselves online. While these are key features in generating leads, you also need to understand on-page SEO essentials if you want your site to rank properly in the search engines and be found by potential clients.Since many business websites tend to overlook the relevance and power of on-page SEO, in this quickfire audio checklist I’m going to give you an overview of the crucial foundational SEO elements you need to get right. I share how to properly use keywords, outbound links and internal links, and also consider how to create content that engages your audience and encourages people to stay longer on your site. Let’s dive in.



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Show Notes​How to create SEO-friendly URLsHow to effectively set up meta titles and meta descriptionsKeyword variations and sub-heading variationsWhere to position keywords in body textWhy you need a mobile-friendly, responsive designThe relevance of multimedia on your pageHow to create authoritative content that’s easy to readEncouraging social interaction through social sharing buttonsHow to use internal links to boost your key contentWhy site speed is always important



[Podcast] ​​​​On-Page SEO (SEO Essentials) From Content Champion #contentmarketing #​seo




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​Resources Mentioned●     WordPress ●      Smart Podcast Player ●      Vimeo ●      Canva ●      Pexels ●      Pixabay ●      CC 073: Website Speed (SEO Essentials)




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Loz James:           I'm Loz James, and this is the Content Champion Podcast, the content marketing and SEO show where you can learn actionable techniques from real-world examples.​Hi guys. Welcome to the Content Champion Podcast, and this is another in the SEO Essentials series, which helps you get to grips with those foundational elements of SEO, that you must get right before you roll out your own successful SEO campaigns or employ a service like Content Champions SEO Solutions.​This time on this solo show I'm looking at on-page SEO, and I just plan to really quickly go through all of those essential on-page SEO elements that you must get right, but quite often, you know, we overlook, so that all your pages can have their best chance of ranking properly in the search engines.​First up, must ensure you have SEO-friendly URLs. You really need to have the keyword in the URL, which is especially easy to do in WordPress. For example, mysite.com/bluewidgets. Okay, secondly, add your main keywords to the meta title, preferably at the start of the meta title, and make sure your meta title length's about 50 to 60 characters, no more.​Then, by extension, add your main keywords to the meta description, and try to write it in a way, within 160 characters, that entices click-through. So, make a little mini-ad in a SERPs to click through to your page.​Moving onto the page itself, got to ensure that keyword is in the H1 tag, preferably at the start again. Then,

CC 075: On-Page SEO (SEO Essentials)

​Hello and welcome to episode 76 of the ​Content Champion Podcast. On the show this time, I’m delighted to be talking with the founder of the Content Marketing Academy - Chris Marr.Chris has fast become the leading voice in the UK content marketing movement - and the CMA Live conference he established, held annually in Edinburgh, Scotland - attracts big name speakers such as Marcus Sheridan, Chris Brogan and Ann Handley (and not forgetting Chris himself - who is an engaging and inspiring speaker and coach).I wanted to talk to Chris about a great article on the CMA website ​detailing how content marketing leads to sales, and what resulted was a fascinating conversation. So let’s dive in...



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Show Notes​​​Learn about Chris' previous career & backstory​Introducing the Zero Moment of Truth​Understanding how your prospects buy online​Formulating buyer questions to inform your content​The process of how content marketing leads to sales​Marcus Sheridan's 'They Ask You Answer' Framework​The 5 main types of questions your customers always ask​Why content marketing is a strategic part of your business​Where we can find Chris online and access his resources​The PS Question - Chris shares a great answer you won't want to miss!



[Podcast] ​​​​​How Content Marketing Leads To Sales With Chris Marr  #contentmarketing ​




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​Resources Mentioned​​Content Marketing AcademyCRUSH IT! by Gary Vaynerchuk​CMA Live​The Sales Lion​​Ann Handley​Chris Brogan​Mouseflow​Zero Moment of Tru​th




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Loz James:           Thanks for coming on, Chris.Chris Marr:          Awesome. I'm really pleased to be here. I'm excited. Thanks for having me.Loz James:           Okay. Now, before we dig down into how content marketing leads to sales, could you tell us your backstory, please, and how you got started in the industry?Chris Marr:          Yeah, sure. I think this is quite an interesting journey for me, because I never started off as a marketer as such. So I was ... Wind the clock back to the ages of 19 and 29, I was working in management, a management role at the University of St. Andrews, and it was probably like mid-career that I really started to get interested in marketing, without really knowing that that was what I was getting interested in. We had events, venues, we had bars, cafes, and things like that. And suddenly I started to change my role into looking at, like, you know, traffic and profits and, you know, sales and stuff like that. I got really interested in that. Social media obviously started to become a big thing back then. Facebook landed in the UK. Started to just really get interested in all of that stuff. Started a blog. And it just all kind-of got really organic, actually,

CC 076: How Content Marketing Leads To Sales With Chris Marr

Listen to the full episode here:
https://www.contentchampion.com/does-content-marketing-work/

​Does content marketing work anymore? Is content marketing dead? These are just some of the questions I hear all the time - and that I hope to answer in ​this edition of the Content Champion podcast.​​​To discuss this subject, and ​to mount a defence of content marketing, it’s my great pleasure to introduce my latest guest, Sarah Mitchell, Director of Content Strategy at Lush The Content Agency in Perth, Australia.An expert at developing content marketing and community engagement strategies for clients, Sarah is also an in demand public speaker, Australian editor for The Chief Content Officer magazine and co-host of the Brand Newsroom Podcast.​So there really is no-one better placed to show us ​how content marketing works and what you’re doing wrong if it isn’t working for you just yet. Let’s dive in.



Listen To ​​Sarah’s Show​


Show Notes

​​Learn about ​Sarah’s backstory

​​Why a documented strategy is essential for content marketing success

​​Why marketers and agencies should stop looking for quick win tactics with content marketing

​Why content marketing is a long term investment in your business (and commitment is key)

​How to measure content marketing so you can report on your success

​Examples of two firms killing it with content marketing

​​Sarah’s quick fire defence of content marketing (25 things you should look out for if you want to be successful)

​​Where we can connect with Sarah online

​The PS Question - ​listen to the end as you won’t want to miss Sarah’s answer!



[Podcast] ​​​​​Does Content Marketing Work? With Sarah Mitchell ​ #contentmarketing ​




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​Resources Mentioned​​​Lush The Content Agency ​The Great Content Marketing Swindle 
​Content Marketing Institute ​Brand Newsroom Podcast ​​​Acquire Technology Solutions 
​​Mining People ​​Social Media Examiner ​​Sarah on Twitter 




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​Loz James:                             Thanks for coming on, Sarah.Sarah Mitchell:                   Well, thanks for having me. I’m really delighted to be here today.Loz James:                             Now, before we dig down into the subject of today’s show, which is really looking at does content marketing actually work? We’d love to hear your backstory, please.Sarah Mitchell:                   My background is not in marketing funnily enough. I started my education was in computer science, and I spent just about 20 years in software and software development, really, this will date me, but by the time the Y2K bug rolled around, I was just so over software.

CC 077: Does Content Marketing Work? With Sarah Mitchell

Welcome to the Content Champion Podcast - content marketing and SEO advice for ecommerce stores and online business owners.