Helping founders and lean teams fix their positioning and craft messaging people actually read and respond to I Speaker I Podcast Host
I've written well over a thousand blog posts (Not an exaggeration!), and here is something that I think a lot of content marketers and writers get wrong. Now, I love using SEO tools like Frase, Clearscope, and Surfer. However, in my experience, I think many content marketers and writers use them wrong. They use them as a crutch to figure out what to write about for the topic at hand. (Often times, because they are generalists with no subject matter expertise, but that's another post!) The end result - a new piece of content that "simply reports" on the current top articles. A much better approach in my experience is take the time to come up with a unique POV and add the necessary context for the topic you are writing about first. Then, during the editing process, throw your draft into one of these SEO tools. The end result will be stronger, harder for someone else to knock off, and it will still rank well. #seo #contentmarketing #writing
And the best way to come up with a unique POV on a technical topic is an interview with a subject-matter expert with years (or even decades) thinking about the topic, and answering customer questions. That's where I always started with SEO articles when I was a copywriter.
Adding your POV with facts helps the article to stand out among the sea of general articles
I love adding my own spin on SEO optimized content. But, in the words of Captain Barbossa—“they’re really more of a guideline.” Same with any other tool, like Grammarly. Take it with a grain of salt.
Thanks for this! Got me thinking about two principles/things that have been helpful for me personally along these lines: 1. Reverse engineer what's already ranking on Google then take it to the next level -- because you're so right, a new piece of content that "simply reports" isn't good enough, great content needs unique insight/true expertise/valuable information from experience that raises the bar of what's in the SERPs 2. Great content consists of having something valuable to say and the ability to say it -- when a content marketer/writer doesn't have a unique POV because they're not a subject matter expert, they need to partner with someone who has the expertise and perspective and originality that would a) still meet the intent of a given query and b) actually bring something new and valuable to the table.
SEO research tools are valuable to figure out your competitor's marketing strategies. All content should be generated for the sake of providing value to your buyers. Content for the sake of SEO or just for making sales does nothing to help brands stand out or keep engagement high.
Thank you! You're also being kinder to your content consumers and adding quality content to the thousands of copycat, nearly useless pieces that all say the same thing that they have to wade through to learn or find what they're looking for.
I use MarketMuse but I never start with it.
Agree with this so hard Jessica, it's frustrating to go through the first page of Google results only for every single result to effectively say the same thing. BORING. And who stands out? No one.
Will be fun to see the helpful content update rolling out this week 😈
The CEO's Public Speaking Coach | ex-Fortune 500 | 3-time TEDx speaker | Public Speaking Professor at Central European University | LinkedIn Learning Instructor | Keynote Speaker | ICF-Accredited
2yMakes so much sense. Generic content is SO boring to read.