using data to create topics bots & visitors will love

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.

www.greenlaneseo.com

twitter.com/billsebald bill@greenlaneseo.com