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As Community and Brand manager, Ann Smarty’s work is focused on both regularly contributing to the Internet Marketing Ninjas blog and serving as an internal SEO resource for the team. Ann Smarty has been involved in various high-profile roles in the SEO industry for more than ten years. Her background includes working as Editor-in-Chief at Search Engine Journal and being a regular columnist at some of best-known Internet Marketing online publications including Moz, Mashable, Social Media Examiner and more. Ann's search and social experience ranges from content creation and social media marketing to SEO reporting and consulting. Ann's expertise in Internet Marketing tools also helps in internal tool development and testing process.
I have been working in various areas of the Internet Marketing for 10 years. I come from Ukraine where I got a degree in English and German.
I started working in SEO field when still in high school: All I needed was a part-time job to train my English knowledge. I never thought that was going to be my career...
I have never had to look for a job ever since.
I have always enjoyed learning English and writing and thus I have found huge passion in SEO blogging. I have blogged in English (which is not my native language) for 4 years and have become a well known SEO authority and writer.
I've blogged on my personal blog seosmarty.com. I've also been a guest author at the most prominent Internet marketing blogs including SEOmoz, Mashable, Social Media Examiner etc. I've been interviewed for multiple blogs and books. I am contributor for Search Marketing Standard magazine, a premium online marketing publication delivered via print.
Throughout my Internet marketing career I've been involved in all sorts of related tasks and projects: I have a huge experience in team building (I managed teams both in-house for a Ukrainian company and from abroad as a Director of the large department in the U.S. company).
I have been successfully engaged in social media marketing as well and have built highly-networked and influential online presence and personal brand.
Currently I've joined Internet Marketing Ninjas as the Community and Branding Manager. My work is focused on both regularly contributing to the Internet Marketing Ninjas blog and serving as an internal SEO resource for the team.
My main goal is to to turn our blog into the leading free Internet marketing resource uniting SEO experts from all over the world.
I am also going to help operate all the communities we own: DevShed forums, Cre8site forums and WebmasterWorld forums.
Speaker: Ann Smarty • Location: Salon F
Speaker: Ann Smarty • Location: Salon C
Ann is a genius in her own right. Her deep insight on online marketing has enabled her to carve a niche for herself within the industry. Widely respected, and acknowledged as one of the sharpest brains in SEO, Ann is a delight to work. Being a fantastic colleague and a super person comes naturally to her.
Rajiv Karran, Production Manager, BlueGlass Interactive, Inc.
It isn't just that Ann is very knowledgeable--which she is--but she's a great person to work with too: she shares her expertise freely and is always pleasant to be around online. Rare combination! Ann is also a superb team leader. It looks effortless when she gets everyone to do what they need to be doing, but anyone who has ever managed a team knows how difficult it is. She's great at what she does.
Patricia Skinner, Contributing Writer, Search Engine Journal
Twitter can be used for pretty much anything. You can launch a political campaign, start a non-profit hashtag movement, spy on your competitor, track down your long lost friend… it is a world of opportunities on a single open platform. It is no surprise that people have been turning to it for professional uses over the years. Prospecting is one that has been a little controversial, with some claiming it… [Read More…]
The search industry is evolving fast: We have Google updates and core algorithm changes being announced and we see new awesome tools being launched regularly. It’s one of the most exciting industries to work in. As-you-type search suggestions can be an awesome source of content inspiration because they provide a valuable insight into what people tend to search for when typing in their base term. It’s nice to see different… [Read More…]
Your brand is delicate. It can be compared to rare lily, having to be coaxed carefully and softly into full bloom. What does that mean for your brand? You have to very deliberately curate and grow it, avoiding the many pitfalls that even big brand often fall into. One single brand image problem and you could lose a chunk of your user base. A good strategy for cultivating a strong… [Read More…]
Whenever you are trying to talk to your clients about actually attracting links (versus building them), there are always two types of excuses: either the niche is too boring, or there are no technical capabilities (in terms of a good design team and experience). I don’t believe in boring niches – neither do I believe in the absence of design skills that would be able to prevent you from building… [Read More…]
According to Wordstream, by 2019, 80 percent of the global web traffic is going to be video traffic (and this doesn’t even include video exchanged through peer-to-peer (P2P)). Moreover more than 100 hours of video are being uploaded to YouTube every minute (Source: Facts.zone). Video content has been on the rise for a few years now. Unless you are joining now, it’s going to be pretty crowded pretty soon. Note:… [Read More…]
There are so many visual marketing tools out there that it is turning what used to be a rather arduous task into a simple process anyone can do in half the time. No one has a single excuse for why they aren’t implementing visuals of all kinds into they social media and website content. It is just so easy these days, and it takes hardly any effort at all. But… [Read More…]
Since the start the web anonymity has been quite a hot controversy in social media world. On one hand, everyone has the right to remain anonymous online to avoid personal attacks. On the other hand, social media networks have been trying to promote “real” connections which resulted in many of them forcing “real name” policy on their users. Let’s see what the “real name” policy is these days: 1. Facebook:… [Read More…]
An editorial calendar is where you keep track of what you plan to publish, how, where, and why over time. It enables you to think ahead, remember creative ideas, and plan your time wisely. Most people have an editorial calendar of some kind, even if it is only their ideas for the next week in their head. However, not having an editorial calendar can result in missed deadlines, a lack… [Read More…]
Nowadays we are all community managers to some extent (many of us own blogs, moderate Google Plus communities, participate in Facebook groups, etc.) We interact with our readers daily trying to learn from them, we tweet to our mentors, we collect feedback, help to promote our friends’ posts while sharing our own, we kill spam, we do lots and lots of *tiny* things every moment… What about if we do… [Read More…]
Researching niche questions is a great way to come up with awesome content that spreads, especially when it comes to timely and seasonal content. Here’s an example of question research that will come in handy for your next year’s content planning. Guys from Serpstat collected the most outstanding questions with the words “New Year” and “Christmas” for Google US. The data was obtained using “Search questions” feature which is something… [Read More…]
I would like to start this post off with, fittingly enough, one of many expert quotes about social media: “Social media allows us to behave in ways that we are hardwired for in the first place – as humans. We can get frank recommendations from other humans instead of from faceless companies.” ~ Francois Gossieaux, The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media An oversimplification, maybe, but a… [Read More…]
For a few years now you can add clickable links (calls-to-action, additional info, contact details, etc) right inside your Youtube video to direct viewers to your site, project, product page, etc. The problem is, while the topic is covered quite well inside Youtube guidelines, it’s scattered so much around the place that you’ll have trouble finding answers to your questions even if you know what you are looking for. Let’s… [Read More…]
What exactly is keyword clustering? To cluster keywords means to group your long overwhelming keyword lists by relevancy. I have done an article explaining keyword clustering in a most easy-to-understand way. At the heart of it, keyword clustering is what it sounds like: you take relevant keywords and arrange them together into groups. Use these keyword clusters to: Better understand your topic Optimize your content for several keyword phrases instead… [Read More…]
