Should ebook content be a download or hosted on site for SEO?
-
We have written ebook(s) on subjects of interest to our prospects (B-C market). We have taken many recurring questions asked over the years plus helpful graphics and put into short 12+ page ebooks.
After filling out form to receive ebook- (first name & email on form) for any option below-
Should we:
a) send them to Landing page to download ebook to their desktop?
b) send them e-mail with link to download ebook?
c) send them directly to page on our site with the ebook content?
d) something else?
My thoughts are to do c) which will put content on site, though 'protected' via gate. This way the search engines can crawl the content. However, if that content is not directly reachable through menu will that degrade the importance of that content?
Obviously we want to provide good, helpful information to prospects. We would also love to benefit from that content from a Search point of view if possible.
Anyone have experience with this through A/B test or otherwise?
Thanks,
Steve
-
1) why would so many companies like Hubspot, others require email for content exchange if putting on site would do as well?
Here are two answers:
A) they want to spam you with email and sell your email to everyone on the planet;
B) the value of a sale is enormous, so they would rather have a sale than the ad clicks
Does the type of industry: B-B, vs B-C make a difference in how you would approach or is your answer blanket for all types B-B,B-C?
Publishing for everyone makes more sense for the B-C business because the number of potential visitors is enormous compared to the B-B.
If we go the route of publishing to site (not pdf) does it make a difference whether a 12 page ebook is one long scrolling page or should the content be 'click to read more' which advances to another possibly optimized page? If multiple pages then each page would likely be optimizing for pretty much the same content?
I put a few thousand words on a page but if you have more then I would break it into separate pages. I would break the ebook into chapters or lessons each targeting a different keyword.
Has there been any correlation between top step (main menu) and 2, 3, 4 steps below the main navigation on relevance (with same content) in rankings?
Yes. The deeper you bury the content in your navigation the deeper it will rank in the SERPs. If you want to promote this for traffic, income, links, tweets, signups, I would think that you would be showing it to every person who visits your website. That's what I do when I have something hot, valuable and important. If you fail to do that you lose the opportunity.
-
a different paradigm then i've been hearing.. now i'm thinking more about this.
two things come to mind 1) why would so many companies like Hubspot, others require email for content exchange if putting on site would do as well?
Does the type of industry: B-B, vs B-C make a difference in how you would approach or is your answer blanket for all types B-B,B-C?
If we go the route of publishing to site (not pdf) does it make a difference whether a 12 page ebook is one long scrolling page or should the content be 'click to read more' which advances to another possibly optimized page? If multiple pages then each page would likely be optimizing for pretty much the same content?
Has there been any correlation between top step (main menu) and 2, 3, 4 steps below the main navigation on relevance (with same content) in rankings?
-
a) we potentially loose the opportunity to periodically drip other helpful info over time as we are not requiring name/email for this content. correct?
I think that you are giving up a FLOOD to collect a drip.
My experience has been that I get a LOT more traffic from the SERPs than I can get by collecting emails.
If you publish awesome stuff you can still collect emails... "Sign up for free updates by email".
If we do publish without "gate" then does it make a difference if this page with pdf is part of main/sub navigation or if we exclude it from that and make if available from pages within site?
I would not publish on pdf because they do not perform as well as html pages in the SERPs and they are harder to monetize.
Instead of excluding this from your navigation.. I would be shouting about it on my homepage and every relevant page of my site. Drive as many people into it as you can.
**Does how far a page is from main navigation make a difference in relevance/importance from SEO Point of view? **
Yes. Pages in your main navigation get more linkjuice and often rank better than if they had just one or two links into them.
I would be monetizing this content with ads. They can be adsense, another network, or they can be house ads promoting your own products.
-
So, if we publish the ebook to the site, without a gate (email/name) then:
a) we potentially loose the opportunity to periodically drip other helpful info over time as we are not requiring name/email for this content. correct?
If we do publish without "gate" then does it make a difference if this page with pdf is part of main/sub navigation or if we exclude it from that and make if available from pages within site? does how far a page is from main navigation make a difference in relevance/importance from SEO Point of view?
-
thanks, Patrick. This isn't the formula to Coca Cola or some other highly held secret. If a skilled searcher get's the info without giving name, that's fine. I'm looking to give good content, get ranked for relevant information and with permission drip e-market to gain position of trusted expert in my area by disseminating, hopefully, helpful content.
My main concern is whether not having a direct (stair step) link structure from main menu to protected content will diminsh the relevancy of what i'm trying to rank for...any thoughts on this?
-
I go for D.
Publish the whole thing on your website and link to it from every page of your website... so that anybody anywhere can view it for free at anytime with no limitations.
If this ebook is fantastic then you want everybody everywhere to see it, be amazed, tweet, like, link, emal, share and bookmark. All of that traffic will come to your site and the cycle will start again.
It's like throwing gasoline on a fire.
-
Good questions. First, anything which you want to rank in Google can be found in Google. Take for instance, I sometimes do searches for ebooks of certain topics I want to learn about for example, "how to write an ebook". I'd search "how to write an ebook filetype:pdf" and then I could potentially find direct PDF downloads from URLs and bypass any one looking to collect my email, name, etc. I don't check them all, but some may not have the PDF protected or blocked with a robot.txt file discouraging Google from indexing the page, but some do, yet their PDF can be found through a link, especially in WP sites. So, you raise a question about having your content indexed to aid your SEO efforts, right? If you're going to protect the PDF and want the content indexed then sneaky searchers like myself could find your content, otherwise, put the content on the page and the PDF and let Google index. I'd say majority of the people coming to your page would enter in their info to get the ebook(s).
I would, for the sake of saving your users more clicks and thinking, place the downloadable PDF on the Thank You page. Collect their info and eliminate any further confusion or clicks. "Thank you for taking interest in our ABC ebook. Please click below to download your copy now."
Hope this was a good answer! Cheers - Patrick
-
If we utilize option (c) how valuable do we think the SEO for that content is- IF that content can not be reached thorough the onsite navigation? In other words does brining the content 'further away' from the root domain (and without direct menu access) decrease it's importance/relevancy in search results?
Also: would the 'thank you page' - after form fill- be the page with the pdf document, or would the 'thank you page' have a link button to forward to (access) the content page?
-
Steve,
I second what Dubs states. Option C is your best option as you accomplish a lot with this strategy assuming you are protecting the page with a form submission to gain access. You capture their information, you are protecting your content on the site, provide them the downloadable PDF and could track both submissions and clicks to download in Google Analytics as "Goals".
Patrick
-
Using option B allows you to gather info on them before the receive access to ebook. However, if you were to block access to the page, option c would work to still gather user info. You can also track the pdf's off the landing page but this allows the user to have a local copy and 'share' your content without registering their information.
I would personally recommend option C as long as it's a hidden or protected page.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Site Architecture
I came across some good reading on Moz re: how deep your structure should go (ex: how many clicks does it take to get to the bottom.) It's from 2011, but I assume the info still applies today? Successful Site Architecture for SEO [SES London 2011]
Whiteboard Friday | | SSFCU
http://moz.com/blog/site-architecture-for-seo0 -
Local SEO Citation Questions
I have checked out some great resources from Rand and others here on SEOMoz, as well as some other great articles written on YouMoz by you guys! I have two questions when it comes to citations for Local SEO though. I have heard that Google does not really take the address into consideration when indexing local citations. Instead it is a combination of the business name + phone number + area code. On one hand this makes a lot of sense as far as Google crunching all the information. You can achieve a fairly accurate citation with just those three things and still weed out a lot of the "brand mentions" as citations. However this conflicts with a lot of what I have been reading and watching as far as whiteboard Fridays and blogs here on SEOMoz. Can someone provide some insight or sources concerning this? Secondly, in case of SEO and Web Design companies, such as ourselves, who do not receive the "One Box" for Google localized search, do citations play any lesser role in ranking for localized seo keywords? I am not sure if there is a definitive answer to these questions or if they are open ended. Regardless any insight would be invaluable!
Whiteboard Friday | | KesilConsultingLLC0 -
SEO Implications when domain ownership and branding changes
I have a couple questions for the SEOMOZ community - and/or it's leader, Rand, if at all possible 🙂 It is very important for us to have good information. Scenario: Company A: National established leader in a niche product currently receives 49% of their traffic from branded keywords. Company A wants to protect and further grow it's gains that have been made in SEO even after it is acquired by Company B. Company B: Is a much larger company that acquires Company A. 1. What could happen to Google rankings when company A is bought out and Company B changes the registered owner and whois record? Could Google see this as a signal that the ownership has changed and then re-evaluate the ranking of Company A's website? 2. What would most likely happen if company B were to change the branding of Company A's established website? Company A currently receives about half of it's traffic from branded keywords. The acquiring company may want to change some of the SEO titles, ALT-Text, H1 tags, etc to also promote itself on the acquired company's site. Thank you all in advance for your help!
Whiteboard Friday | | follr0 -
Temporary landing pages and SEO
Hi guys! I have a question that has been running through my mind for quite a while now. On our company, we offer different products that we put on specific landing pages (one per product). This products are "live" on a 20 day period. Right now, when the product expires, we put a label "This product expired" and return a 404. Is this the right way to do it? Take into account that keeping the page "alive" is not an option. The options would be: 301 redirecting to another listing (should I worry about this implementation being wrong? Wouldn't Google find it suspicous that lots of pages redirect to the same listing?) Return a 200 instead Thanks for your time!
Whiteboard Friday | | lhernandezBum0 -
GEO TAG Images for local SEO
Hello, In the pro webinar "All About Google Places – Do’s, Don’t, Best Practices and More" Benu recomends to geo tag pictures. I'm bad with coding and using joomla. Can somebody give me a step by step guide ? For now I use this code: What do I have to ad? I want to have the picture asociated with barcelona. What do you recomend? Use regional code Microformat I found this in wikipedia ; In case you recomend me to use this. Where does it go exactly? Thanks for help
Whiteboard Friday | | igrizo0 -
External Linking and SEO strategy
I run a business where we offer music lessons in student's homes throughout a local area. We currently rank for phrases like piano lessons + city, or voice lessons + city because we have a page specifically made for each keyword + city combination. The result is a very spammy looking site. I'm afraid that eventually this duplicate content will be penalized especially when we move into hundreds of cities throughout the US. With that in mind, I came up with a system that would give each page original content specific to the keyword + city. Whenever we hire a new teacher the teacher must fill out a short teaching philosophy which will be displayed next to their picture on pages where they can teach. I go through the teaching philosophy and add a keyword or two for search engines as well. For example someone who can teach piano lessons in Los Angeles would appear on the piano lessons in Los Angeles page. This way I have some more original content. I am also going to systematically ask for testimonials from all of our customers which will then be displayed on the respective pages as well. Therefore the more teachers and students we get, the more content we have available on our site. With that said, I'm still trying to think of ways to make a better user experience with more specific content on each page. Recently I was looking through whiteboard Fridays and found this video: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/external-linking-good-for-seo-whiteboard-friday I thought it may be a good idea if I went out and found perhaps local sheet music stores and added them to my database. Then I would link out to them on specific pages, saying "this is where you can go to buy sheet music" or "buy a trumpet here". It would be a lot more elegant than that, but hopefully you get the idea. My entire site is database driven so as soon as I put the new stores information in the database it could show up on the instrument/city pages within 10 miles of the store, or something like that. I'm posting this for opinions. Is this a good strategy? Some of my worries are that these other businesses almost all provide lessons in their store, so they would be direct competitors. I also really don't want to detract from what I'm selling, which are lessons. I'm worried about conversion rates mostly. The positives to the approach though may be that I can get some good linking to these individual pages from these stores (if they'll link to a competitor), which is something that would be very difficult to do for these deep instrument+city pages. Also I'm thinking if I included the stores physical address then perhaps search engines would be more encouraged that the instrument+city page actually represents a local service. Any ideas and thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Whiteboard Friday | | BrianJenkins1 -
Is there a better map buidling platform than Google Maps for SEO purposes?
I'm about to publish a blog post and white paper on the Sierra Wine Country (over 100 wineries in the mountains between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe) to my website http://thingsyoushoulddo.com. I'd like to provide an embeddable map. Last week in the whiteboard Friday, Rand talked about how a vimeo embed could link directly back to your website vs. a youtube embed that leads back to youtube. Is there anything similar in the map creation world?
Whiteboard Friday | | juliemarg0 -
SEO MOZ Crawl Report Help
I recently bought a web page from a reputable Real Estate company (Real Estate Web Masters). They are known for their ability to write codes that index IDX feeds from MLS boards but they charge a huge rate compaired to other web devlopers in the Real Estate industry. After joining the SEO MOZ community and running a few SEO Bot Crawls I was scared when I reviewed the campaigns that I created. The report came back with Duplicate content on my blog and a bunch of on site errors and warnings. Below you will find a few quistions if you could help me with these answers I would appreciate it. 1. I have 28 URL's that show up on the error report that say they have duplicate content. Should I deleate all of these pages or erase all the content and try to make them more custom? I cant tell if this is a URL issue or a content issue. The bot reads the errors and sounds like it is trying to point out that there are more than one or two URL's on my page that point to the same blog post. If that is the problem then it is a programming issue. 2.Duplicate Page title= I have just created this blog so there are only about 30 submissions but almost every blog says it has a duplicate title? 3. Title element to long= how important is this to fix? I think this is also a programming issue becuase these title elements are created to show homes for sale within a certain price range say 200,000 to 300,000. There is a lot of desription within these tites on the homes that show up and there is a lot of homes for sale within that price range. So once again I think this would be a programming issue. I am trying to keep up with the Real Estate Web Masters on this subject but there SEO rates are $2500 a month and I am a start up company so I really need to learn how to do some of this on my own. Please advise! Relevant links My Web page Real Estate Web Masters The REW Forum I have asked for help from | I dont know if they will let you view this but I will update your response within that forum if that is ok with you.
Whiteboard Friday | | bwpatton0