Can you believe that we’re already in the third month of the year? It seems that the days are getting quicker and quicker! This months blog roundup is officially our most content-rich one yet – we have ten digital marketing blogs to share with you. These ten blogs have been chosen by various members of the team, so expect a huge array of topics to be covered. From recent news to design trends to content creation, these blogs have been carefully selected with your best interests at heart. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the amazing content which came to light in February 2019.
YouTube optimization: complete guide
Chosen by: Ryan Toomey, Head of Design
Description: YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, meaning it’s just as important for your content to be optimised on here as well as Google. As YouTube is a slightly more shady area when it comes to optimisation, Ivan Crnomaric from Wolfgang Digital takes you through some important steps for smashing YouTube optimisation.
Why is this blog worth reading? It’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to optimising your content on YouTube, and there are a lot of rules and speculations as to what works and what doesn’t. This guide is an absolute lifesaver for those looking to get the most out of their channel.
Gary Illyes’ Reddit AMA
Chosen by: Buzz Carter, Head of Outreach
Description: Google’s Gary Illyes hopped on Reddit & did an AMA with the Tech SEO community, talking about various subjects from E-A-T to internal linking.
Why is this worth checking out? This is probably one of the most valuable pieces of content we’ll see for a while, with lots of questions being answered by Google’s very own Gary Illyes, providing amazing insights into how Google reads & ranks websites. It’s truly an invaluable source of info.
How we became digital marketers
Chosen by: The whole of Team Bulldog
Description: As Digital Marketers, there are a few questions we get asked a lot when meeting new people outside of the industry. The most common ones are “So what work do you actually do?” and “How did you get into the industry?”. Usually, we answer the first question with something along the lines of “I use internet magic to move where websites show up in Google”, but the second one is harder to answer. So, we decided to run a survey & speak to some people from all walks of life in the Digital Marketing world to see why and how we all got into the industry!
Why is this blog worth reading? This guide is extremely beneficial for marketers looking to understand more about their industry and aspiring marketers looking for inspiration on how to get into the industry. Supported with insights from 88+ marketers, the stats in this guide are both eye-widening and interesting to digest. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed!
How to get the most out of Microsoft Office for your copywriting
Chosen by: Jordan Bines, Content Strategist
Description: When it comes to content marketing, before the content makes it to our big screens, it will be written on a separate platform beforehand. One of the most popular platforms for this is Microsoft Word, but are you aware of the hidden features it has to make your copywriting experience the most effective? Braedon Frank from Coast Digital is here to help. This blog dives deep into these features…
Why is this blog worth reading? We’ve all had to rely on Microsoft at some point in our lives, and sometimes it’s clear that we take it for granted. This guide reminds us why content is so important, and it will open your mind to some awesome hidden features found on Microsoft Word.
Internal links for SEO: an actionable guide
Chosen by: Joe Turbin, Digital Outreach Apprentice
Description: When it comes to link building, internal links are vital for SEO success, however, are often overlooked when external links steal the limelight. Joshua Hardwick, founder of The SEO Project, is putting an end to this, explaining just why internal links are so important. He even gives us a lovely guide on how to attain them!
Why is this blog worth reading? This guide gets straight to the point, discussing the importance of internal links and shining light on various ways to deal with them. If you’re looking for tonnes of methods to get the most out of your internal link building structure, look no further than this guide.
The ultimate list of tech and marketing conferences & events in 2019
Chosen by: Lee Dobson, Head of Strategy
Description? Fancy attending a marketing and tech event this year? Thanks to SEMrush, you now have a lovely calendar full of the important dates.
Why is this worth checking out? Events provide you with the perfect chance to network, learn new things and show off your expertise. With this global calendar providing you with the best conferences around, you’ll have plenty of important dates to save.
Redesigning the Spotify icon suite
Chosen by: Ryan Keeble, Graphic Designer
Description? Spotify designers Andrea Limjoco and Rob Bartlett decided that it was time to redesign the Spotify Icon Suit for a more minimal and versatile effect. This article takes you through their design choices and creative process.
Why is this blog worth reading? It was great to see how simple redesigns made a bigger impact than their more detailed variants and it was incredible to see that they had crafted over 600 icons for all platforms.
Lessons learned from launching 100+ content-led link building campaigns
Chosen by: Ellis Burke, Digital Outreach Executive
Description? James Brockbank from Digitaloft was responsible for the launch of over 100 content-led link building campaigns in 2018. From this, he learnt a lot about the world of link building. He has been kind enough to share these lessons with us.
Why is this blog worth reading? The content that we create usually has the same goal: to earn links and get good coverage. This can be tricky to achieve without a thorough strategy in place, and thanks to these lessons, we can carry out a seamless process right from design to outreach to execution. Before you start your next content campaign, check out these tips.
Do links from pages with traffic help you rank higher?
Chosen by: Buzz Carter, Head of Outreach
Description? For a very long time in the link building industry, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether getting links on pages with traffic is more valuable to your site than getting links on pages with minimal traffic. Tim Soulo from Ahrefs dives deep into these theories with the help from solid data.
Why is this blog worth reading? Although there’s no straightforward answer, this study is really interesting and highlights the fact that multiple factors determine the value of a link. We can’t pinpoint the value of a link down to just one factor, but by knowing everything that goes into the mix, we can all use this information to create a stronger link building strategy. The main points to take away from this article were to prioritise your link building efforts around:
✅ Pages with a high URL Rating (UR)
✅ Pages on websites with lots of referring domains
Oh mamma, I’m in love with gradient
Chosen by: Ryan Keeble, Graphic Designer
Description? This one is for all the gradient-loving designers out there. Using gradients can be a daunting experience, and it can be quite tricky to get the desired results. Independent designer & illustrator Ludmila Schevchenko talks us through how to get the perfect gradient and what to look out for.
Why is this blog worth reading? Anyone who knows me knows that I love gradients, so an article on the secret knowledge of how to do these was great! It was great to see how different effects and impacts can come from them.
What a month!
It seems that February was one of the strongest months yet for incredible content. Such a variety of industry topics were covered, from SEO right through to graphic design. Which was your favourite? Have you learnt something new? We’re excited to see where March takes us!