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Past Issues

  • #37: Content marketers need product marketing
  • #36: Google’s Helpful Content Update, in simple terms
  • #35: Make your site more browsable
  • #34: Which pages should you delete?
  • #33: Scaling up the good stuff
  • #32: No more atomic blogs
  • #31: How IS it going?
  • #30: Detective work for declining traffic
  • #29: The helpful test
  • #28: PLC = TLC
  • #27: It could be BMail
  • #26: No content weft behind 🧶
  • #25: Documenting your content strategy
  • #24: A checklist for content UX
  • #23: A new guide + tool from Ercule
  • #22: Getting aligned
  • #21: About that blog post from six years ago
  • #20: Find new content in the stars
  • #19: Why lemons deserve your attention
  • #18: Encourage your wallflowers
  • #17: Popular, but lazy
  • #16: Direct traffic, idk
  • #15: Where is this revenue coming from???
  • #14: What content people need to know about paid search
  • #13: An issue about smooth jazz 🎷🥱
  • #12: MUM = next BERT???
  • #11: The pages are *eating* each other! Is that a problem?
  • #10: Cue the dramatic hamster
  • #9: 🎶 This issue has a soundtrack 🎶
  • #8: 30% more cuddles
  • #7: SEO Speedwagon
  • #6: It's like living in the future!
  • #5: How sketchy could it be?
  • #4: Hieronymous Bosch levels of detail
  • #3: We miss you, Kid Pix
  • #2: GPT-3 is coming for your job, or it isn't
  • #1: The first one

#8: 30% more cuddles

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👋 Hey, it’s the Ercule newsletter!

We take algorithms, analytics, and spreadsheets off your plate so you can focus on storytelling, branding, figuring out whether things are candy or not, absolutely anything else.

In this issue:

  • Paid search strategy for small teams
  • Branded traffic reimagined
  • More dots to click in Google Search
  • Cacto, CRUD, and Rick Astley


🍲 Paid search from scratch

We write this blog for content people. But some of you – especially if you’re at a smaller company – may end up contributing to paid campaigns, too.

And so Vincent Barr, the mastermind behind Operator, stopped by Ercule office hours to talk about the relationship between paid and organic search.

He provided us with tips for small startups who feel ready to try a paid search campaign.

🏄 What you can do

First off: Pick one platform to start.

When choosing it, make sure of a few factors:

  • The initial costs aren’t too high – aim to start with a few thousand dollars a month
  • You can actually find your audience
  • There isn’t too much expertise required to manage a campaign there

Once you choose the platforms you want for search, begin educating yourself. Google and Facebook, for example, have really substantial documentation.


💝 Make friends with branded traffic

Branded traffic can feel like the enemy sometimes.(Speaking from experience here.)

After all, content marketers are trying to boost non-branded traffic – traffic from people who don’t know about us already.

But branded traffic is great! It speaks to your brand’s offline activities. If someone searches your name, they’ve already heard about you elsewhere: news, word of mouth, social platforms and the like.

Plus, it directs people to your homepage or product pages. And this can be an opportunity for content marketers.

🏄 What you can do

The next time you’re pulling the usual data, spend a little longer with the branded search numbers.

  • Identify the pages that branded visitors are landing on. You can optimize them for content and lead capture forms.

  • If branded traffic is on the upswing, go congratulate your peers in the PR and social media departments. They’re the ones making this happen!

These are both opportunities to place better content, and get yourself in on more marketing conversations.

You belong in more conversations!


🧸 A more cuddly search education

Up until now, the little “About This Result” link on Google Search has given quick insights into any page that appears in search results, gauging things like:

  • Basic context (via Wikipedia snippet)
  • Security
  • Whether a listing is organic or paid

It provides a little more context and assurance (or warning) before you click on a link.

But Google’s adding more. New, updated “About This Result” links are providing more and more insights into why Google selected a given link, including factors such as:

  • Keywords
  • Related terms
  • Backlink strength
  • Local relevance

Try searching Google for terms you care about, and see what About This Result says about the people who are ranking at the top. (Hopefully that’s you!)


🐝 Praise, rot, and fake tech

  • Justin Brown on the importance of telling people that you appreciate their podcasts.
  • Justin Dunham listed his favorite (fake) martech brands, and Graham Neray at Oso chimed in with his top (fake) dev brands.
  • How link rot threatens the archaeological internet and, most importantly, the cultural ritual of Rick Rolling.


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