Top 10 digital marketing agencies with remarkable blogs
There are thousands of blogs around the web. Some of them are magazine-type platforms like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch. Others are blogs by SEO software providers, for example WebMeUp, Moz, Advanced Web Ranking. There are hubs by individual SEOs — Point Blank SEO, Blind Five Year Old, OnReact, to name a few.
Also, there are blogs by digital marketing agencies, which I believe deserve a special look. Just imagine, they’re written by people who deal with multiple SEO cases in various industries daily, and who are willing to share this experience in highly-practical content.
Below you’ll find a list of 15 remarkable blogs by digital marketing agencies to keep an eye on. For each blog, there’s a short description, some quick engagement stats, references to key people behind the blog and posts you might like to read. Besides, blog authors were asked how they felt their blogs were different from the rest, and some replies will be provided below.
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2. Dejan SEO
With so many people writing about SEO, I really like the DejanSEO blog because it is about true-style practice-focused SEO. There’s so much work put into the majority of posts that it’s breathtaking. Most articles are written by Dan Petrovic, a well-known Australian SEO and managing director of Dejan SEO agency. Dan’s posts are often SEO experiments and insights into how making tweaks to sites affects their performance in search results.
Insider’s quote: Dan Petrovic in reply to How DejanSEO’s blog is different from thousands of other SEO blogs?
“Svaki cigan svoga konja hvali.”
Translation: “Every gypsy praises his own horse.”
Serbian proverbs aside, I think you’re asking an important question that we need to ask ourselves and our clients. What makes us extraordinary? Google, for example, is in the business of highlighting high value content and connecting users with the most likely answers to their questions. This is why any successful blog has a distinct flavour in a sea of vanilla content. I remember a Googler saying something like this to me in 2012:
“Create an extraordinary site with lots of value and great user experience. We have ways of telling when people love a site and when we do we’ll show it at the top of our results.”
I stick by this advice religiously. I’ve always known what my ‘flavour’ was: discovery and innovation. I love describing our investigative, experimental activities and sharing tools or information that may not be obvious to the masses. I prefer doing this instead of curating content or regurgitating industry news. Most importantly, it feels right as I’m driven by passion and not by commercial gain. I think our readers can tell the difference.
Blog Flavour: Discovery & Innovation
Upside: People in the industry appreciate, share and engage with our content. This creates valuable citations and links while helping grow our social network.
Downside: Our typical customers rarely read or understand the content we publish, meaning that the blog itself if a poor conversion mechanism.”
Average # of posts per week: 2
Average # of shares per post: 290
Average # of comments per post: 33
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 966,500
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Dan Petrovic
Posts you might like to read:
Google+ Profile Authority: An In-Depth Analysis
Cutts Says 25% of Web is Duplicate Content: The Question He Didn’t Answer
3. Zazzle Media
Zazzle Media is a renowned British content marketing and SEO agency, and their blog is definitely worth following. Updated weekly, the blog has many content marketing and SEO articles with social media and PR focus. Zazzle Media team members appear to be frequent attendees to search and content marketing shows in Britain, and they give coverage to these events on their blog.
Insider’s quote: Simon Penson, MD & Founder, Zazzle Media, in reply to How Zazzle Media’s blog is different from thousands of other SEO blogs?
“We are working on a significant relaunch at present which will make our existing offering much stronger. The key for us is to really stick to our mission around thought leadership and to write not just about news-led concepts but to share real world experience-based pieces that share what we learn every day doing the jobs we love.
We also ask all staff to contribute, not just a small handful of those that can write or have more senior job roles. It’s important culturally that we share our voracious appetite for learning with the world. Going forward that will include every kind of content possible but for now that has meant articles, infographics and ebooks, all of which are planned in advance through our editorial calendar.”
Average # of posts per week: 1
Average # of shares per post: 57
Average # of comments per post: <1
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 134,100
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Simon Penson
Posts you might like to read:
How Traditional Sales Techniques Can Transform Your Digital PR
The Best Google Analytics Tips & Tricks for 2014
4. Distilled
Updated roughly 3 times a week, the Distilled blog is one of my personal favorites because of their design and the distinct content voice of their own. In addition to text blog posts, the team shoots a DistilledLive video every week on issues like trendsetting, web psychology, mobile vs responsive (these are some of the recent examples). If your interest lies in SEO mostly, the Distilled Blog has to offer several timeless well-written guides (you can find best of those listed as Featured Posts on the blog).
Average # of posts per week: 3
Average # of shares per post: 131
Average # of comments per post: 6
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 1,409,800
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Will Critchlow
Posts you might like to read:
7 Technical SEO Wins for Web Developers
Your Approach to Organic Search is Obsolete: How to Evolve in 2014
5. SEO Gadget
Being both an agency and a software house, SEO Gadget is a thought leader in the SEO industry, and their blog posts are worth catching up on. Topics covered include the usual set of SEO, analytics, content marketing and the unusual gamification. Their SEO articles often have an unusual focus, for example using optical character recognition for on page SEO or manipulating browser history for links.
Average # of posts per week: 1
Average # of shares per post: 133
Average # of comments per post: 7
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 1,059,300
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Richard Baxter
Posts you might like to read:
Hand Coding a Personal Website
Link Auditing: Removing A Penalty From an Old Domain
6. Stone Temple Consulting
The majority of Stone Temple’s blog posts are written by Eric Enge, a distinguished SEO expert and author at Search Engine Watch, Copyblogger, Search Engine Land (Eric sums up his major 2013 publications on various sites here). Though many of Eric’s articles are published on other resources, Stone Temple’s blog has its own share of seasoned content not to be missed, including SEO experiments and insider’s information from Google. Last month, it was for the first time that the blog featured two posts by Mark Traphagen, Google+ strategy thought leader and Sr Director of Online Marketing for Stone Temple Consulting.
Average # of posts per week: 1
Average # of shares per post: 133
Average # of comments per post: 7
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 1,059,300
People behind this agency and blog you probably know: Eric Enge and Mark Traphagen
Posts you might like to read:
Link Building Is Not Illegal (or Inherently Bad) with Matt Cutts
Does Facebook Activity Impact SEO?
7. Branded3
Updated about three times a week, the Branded3 blog has a special SEO and Marketing section. In this section, you’ll find article on latest SEO trends (including tips on dealing with Google updates), detailed guides on technical SEO and tips for getting the most from Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Branded3 team members are frequent attendees to industry events, and readers can find their presentations from these shows featured on the blog.
Average # of posts per week: 3
Average # of shares per post: 65
Average # of comments per post: 0
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 808,700
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Patrick Altoft
Posts you might like to read:
Should You Spend Time On Link Removals?
How to Calculate Your True Click Through Rate With Google Webmaster Tools
8. Vertical Measures
Vertical Measures has a powerful blog with new posts coming out almost daily. Apart from the usual range for an SEO blog, topics covered include Business Blogging, Conversion Optimization and Video Marketing. This blog also has a feature column, the Weekly Measure, which is a fine collection of new articles, covering content marketing, paid search, social media, SEO and link building, as well as highlights of upcoming internet marketing conferences and webinars. Another column on this blog I really enjoy is Expert Interviews, which has history of featuring stars like Guy Kawasaki, Brian Solis and Eric Ward.
Average # of posts per week: 4
Average # of shares per post: 131
Average # of comments per post: <1
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 454,180
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Arnie Kuenn
Posts you might like to read:
Three Ways Google Plus Ripples Can Increase Your Visibility Online
9. Portent
With their blogging strategy, Portent team clearly goes beyond good, solid advice. They have instructographics, open letters and insights into their corporate culture. Beyond that, they publish solid experience-rich articles on what they’re faced with in their daily work: front end development challenges, helpful features in Google AdWords and Google Analytics.
Average # of posts per week: 1
Average # of shares per post: 140
Average # of comments per post: 6
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 932,100
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Ian Lurie
Posts you might like to read:
Get Found, Make Money: Optimizing Apps for Search
Why Web Professionals Hate SEOs
10. Koozai
Great thing about the Koozai Blog is that it appears they have the whole team involved in writing content on topics they major at. Hence, all the posts are opinionated and full of practical value. With new posts coming out 5 times a week on average, the Koozai blog is a real treasury of helpful content on SEO, paid search, social media, analytics, and industry news. Koozai team also features industry events, the most recent being SES London.
Average # of posts per week: 5
Average # of shares per post: 101
Average # of comments per post: 4
Monthly traffic (according to Traffic Estimate): 1,085,300
Person behind this agency and blog you probably know: Mike Essex
Posts you might like to read:
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