using data to create topics bots & visitors will love
TRANSCRIPT
Using Data to Create TopicsBots & Visitors Will Love
“You don’t own your website; Google owns your website!”
- Avinash Kaushik
“The future of SEO is here: understanding and marketing to specific and defined audiences through search engines!”
- Adam Audette
“Content Is King!”- Everyone
What Did “Content Is King”
bring us?
NOISE
SEOs started writing for the sake of text and keywords.
Real content strategists shook their heads in disgust.
There are various avenues to write within: • Product Marketing• Information / Studies• Branding• Company Culture• Mission Marketing• etc.
• No tweets, 1 FB share, no other social media play• 2 backlinks (from Geeksquad and bestbuy.ciculaires.com)
• 10k Facebook, 57 Linkedin, 441 Twitter – 11.3k total shares• 2,449 backlinks (including spin.com and time.com)
The content may not be tied to direct conversions, but is tied to SEO success.
Mission Marketing (aka Mission-Based Marketing) is Marketing To Aid The Mission Of A Company
This mission opens up a huge variety of topic options
Mission Marketing is one great way to support a boring industry. It allows for topics with more mass-appeal.
The Examplehttp://blog.bufferapp.com/the-ideal-length-of-everything-online-according-to-science 22,560 social shares, 1,742 links
http://blog.bufferapp.com/free-image-sources-list – 22,624 social shares, 24,625 links
Buffer is a SaaS tool that helps you schedule social updates…
But it’s also a “tool that helps marketers!”
A huge win beating outfierce competition.
All signs point to trustthrough their missionmarketing.
Wisita recognized therewere only so many waysto write about videohosting – so they got
If you want content marketing to work for you, you may have to break open tight brand restrictions!
Think Outside The Box
This is not a
good idea…
… no proof!
Avoid Flying Blind With Data
• Skip topic generators• Don’t blindly copy competitors• Don’t write with an “inside baseball” voice
It’s Time To…
Start Digging.
Step 1. The Wheel Of Needs• Who are the target consumers? • What are business goals?• What is the company’s mission?• What do targets care about?– What do they care about that ties directly with goals
(bottom funnel)– What do they care about that ties loosely with goals (top
funnel)• Ask business stakeholders!!!• Create a visual - Doesn’t need to be fancy –
Powerpoint will do
Step 2. Competitive Research• Choose your “search” competitors• Look them up in SEMrush – very easy to spot
well ranking topics!
Step 3. More Competitive Research• Repeat with more competitors (the more, the
better).• Aggregate everything you find together into one
large list of various competitor posts / topics.• Bonus step: Classify and categorize based on
what goals – this helps prioritize later.• SEMrush provides rankings, but use URLprofiler
to get more metrics.• Use Screaming Frog to get more details about
the content.
Step 4. Analyze• For every URL, you now have enough data to
evaluate if the post was a hit or a miss:– Ranking position vs. estimated searches– Link counts (high counts may suggest popularity)– Social metrics (also may suggest popularity)
The only data you don’t have is actual traffic and conversion numbers.
Step 5. Make It Better10x Content
https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday
Other Ingredients of Better Content• Appeals to search engines and users equally• It is holistic– Topics have sub-concepts. Be thorough!– Hummingbird update wants this
• It’s easy to read– Usability as a signal
• It has a goal. The user will do something after consuming the content.
Final Thoughts• Aim Big.• The web is a huge, messy, noisy place.• Aim small and you’ll only hit small. SEO needs more
attention!
• Aim Big. • Build the team that takes the time to generate and
bring big ideas to life. Don’t skimp!• Do the research. Promote the data. Fire!!!
•Aim Big.
