Finding/Building Content Strategy
-
I'm looking for two things: 1. Some top notch articles on building out a content strategy for a blog (coupon blog is more relevant). 2. Tools that can help to determine target keywords to focus on (Most I've seen are where the keywords start with me, are their any that will help to predict which keywords are relevant for our blog & that would be great to target).
Any feedback/discussion on either is greatly appreciated!
-
Ok, I think I've got a good outline of what needs to be done. I guess I left out one thing in my question, is that I'm not going to be the one putting together the content. Do you have any suggestions on how to hire or train someone a good content author? Or any good services that I should look into?
-
Determine the basic core knowledge needed for success in your topic area.
Decide where you have writable expertise.
Do some keyword research to see what people are asking about.
Write where you can produce best-on-the-web content that will be valuable to visitors.
For me there is so many possible topics to write about I spend my time between... A) basic core knowledge needed in the topic area... and B) what is fun to write
"B" gets most of my time because I am more productive doing work that is fun.
-
Excellent thanks for the articles & tools. The Long Tail Pro does look a little spammy, it appears the owner hangs out with the 'Biz Opp' crowd which always scares me a bit.
I'll dig through the articles & see what I can find...thanks!
-
There are a ton of great resources with in the SEOmoz blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/content-and-blogging
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-increase-the-odds-of-your-content-going-viral-whiteboard-friday
-
Yes, I understand that approach, but that's basically sitting down with a blank piece of paper in front of me & guessing on that data.
What I'm looking for are more of a written out approach & how to get to your conclusions, but have valuable data in front of me (either my own from our analytics, or another tool that can help to guide us where opportunities lie). I'd like to have some information in front of me that helps me to better determine all 5 steps that you map out above. Does that make sense?
-
In my opinion, a content strategy should be based upon.....
-
what people in your topic area are searching for
-
what you think those people should know (beyond what they are looking for)
-
your ability to produce content for topics that overlap 1 and 2
-
what content is fun for you to create
-
what content is going to advance your business goals or make money
If nobody is searching for the stuff in your topic area then you might need a new project. If lots of people are searching but the content is hard to monetize then you might need a new project (unless you are doing this as a hobby).
The best situation when you have a convergence of 1, 3, 4 and 5.
-
-
I'm going to answer your second question first. I am a HUGE fan of www.longtailpro.com to come up with keyword ideas. You simply enter in 4 or 5 base keywords and it automatically generates thousands of other relevant keywords using the Google AdWords keyword tool. The best thing about LTP is that it also determines organic search volume and competitiveness as well as the SEOmoz API to determine keyword difficulty so you can uncover keywords with decent search volume and low competition to instantly rank well and start getting traffic from. I've praised LTP many times before in this forum but I feel like it still hasn't really caught on in the mainstream SEO community, probably because I think the webpage looks kinda spammy. But I promise it's legit so it's certainly worth checking out.
I also want to recommend checking out http://www.hittail.com/ which analyzes your current organic traffic and uncovers long tail keywords that you could rank higher for if you create more content to target a particular keyword.
Here are some content strategy resources I have found useful
http://overit.com/blog/content-strategy
http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/the-content-marketing-manifesto (the above article also links to this)
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/07/31/blog-content-strategy-101/
http://thecouponproject.com/2011/02/blogging-series-five-ideas-for-hooking-your-readers.html
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I know whether the content angle of my article is good enough to outrank or not?
Search intent is the core of writing and content marketing; its essential to know the best answer. To analyse search intent, I analyse top 10 ranking pages, see which content format is used on top 10 ranking pages and at last asses content angle. My question is, how can I come up with a unique content angle that's worth ranking and outrank existing articles and what's the points should I consider while implementing my unique content angle.
Keyword Research | | WaliullahWalid0 -
How to do proper keyword research to content URL-mapping?
Hi to all, If you can share your ideas on how to do a proper setup, it would be great. Cheers
Keyword Research | | joel.cortez0 -
Best way to find the best keywords to write Q&A
Hi All, Best way to find the best keywords to write Q&A I have a celebrity website where people ask questions about Movies and celebrities. Now how can i create some content based on keywords so i can get some better traffic? Or is this method a waste of time?
Keyword Research | | jomin740 -
Homepage keyword changing strategy
Hi! We're a spanish construction company and we've been positioning our home with the keyword "wooden homes". We also have a specific landing page positioned with that same keyword. Right now we are getting out of a penguin and panda penalization and we're doing well. As part of a rebranding strategy we are thinking of changing our homepage keyword to "luxury homes". We are still going to hace the "wooden houses" landing page but this keyword is just going to be present in its own landing. The new keyword has much more volume of search than the one we have right now. Is there a strategy you can recomend us for this rebranding? Thanks
Keyword Research | | Canexel0 -
How Do You Find the Total Search Volume for an Industry?
Currently my company is working on trying to find the total search volume (read: search potential) for our industry, but aren't sure how best to go about it. Obviously GWT data and Keyword Planner data came to mind, but those are not all encompassing (at least we don't think they are) -- GWT only has data for terms you rank for and the Keyword Planner only gives you volume if you already know the queries. Is there some quick and easy way to go about finding this that we haven't thought of? One thing to note is that our business is nationwide, meaning that all our terms will have a geo-identifier associated with them for each location i.e. [city] + search term -- this just makes things even more complicated. Any advice on to approach would be much appreciated!
Keyword Research | | sparefoot0 -
Can using an exact sentence from your content as meta description hurt?
Hi Mozzers! I'm uploading some press releases and the first sentence makes a perfect meta description. Would using the exact same wording ever hurt my rankings? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Travis-W0 -
Does adding the suffix "-ing" affect ranking for a keyword? E.g. "build" vs "building"
In other words, let's say the keyword I wanted to rank for was "building a home" but the SERP only showed sites ranking for "build a home". If I specifically optimized my page for "building a home" would that increase my chances for ranking for "building a home"?
Keyword Research | | JanssenM.0 -
Do building sites on expired domains help?
Many times I have wondered whether building sites on expired domains, which are sold at popular domain auction websites like TDNAM(Godaddy),SEDO etc. Is it of any worth ? Buying domains with existing parameters such as PR,Alexa ranks etc. and already indexed pages where these expired sites rank on keywords which one is looking forth and then building sites on these domains to promote your other sites. How successful would this trick be?
Keyword Research | | 99fusion0