When did SEO content become separate from “thought leadership content?” In my experience as both a content strategist and a writer, the best-performing content combines both. The problem with starting and ending with writing for "SEO" is that your content lacks a moat. There is no strong POV, and there is little to no original insights. This means it becomes easy for someone (or an AI bot) to replicate and outrank you. A better approach that I use with my clients as a content strategist and writer is to think about how you can ✨ build your own content moat. ✨ My Content Moat Framework has three components, but for the sake of this post, I'll just talk about the first part. ✨ What is "Content Moat Content?” ✨ 👉 Positioning - Are you clearly conveying why your brand is tied to the topic or conversation at hand? 👉 Depth - Are you covering the topic comprehensively? This isn’t about hitting a specific word count. It is about addressing any unaddressed questions while being thorough and exploring all angles. 👉POV - Do you have something unique to add? Do you have any originality nuggets, like unique experiences, specific examples, or original data, that you can add to the piece? 👉 Search Intent - Does the content you are creating match the intent behind the keyword you are targeting? If not, is there a better keyword that you can use, even if it is lower volume or <gasp>zero-volume? #contentmarketing #seo #copywriting
Good approach there, Jessica. Important to keep in mind here: word count ≠ depth. Sometimes you need more words to cover a topic comprehensively. Other times, you need to cover a topic using desert words so that it’s still indepth but concise. And the problem with SEO content here is that it’s too word count obsessed! Here’s hoping people understand the best-performing word count is about as many words as you need to answer your searcher’s questions in sufficient depth.
Fascinating way to think of this. How about adding one more angle: what’s inside the moat. As in: build your palace complex so that it has a lot of useful, variegated, and even delightful content all of which is easy to navigate through. A palace complex inside the moat!
Really like this framework.. produce valuable content that positions your brand as a thought leader within your industry, then find a way to naturally tie SEO in. The two should not exist separately.
This is great advice. I feel like depth is sometimes lost for the sake of SEO-optimization or, as you said, hitting a specific word count, and that weakens the content.
You mention thought leadership as a way to gain conversions and traffic, along with optimized SEO content, constructing the perfect blog post. I find this difficult because of how saturated the ‘Thought Leadership’ landscape is - pretty much anyone who’s been to Tony Robbins workshop is now an expert in marketing, psychology, and life. It’s a little annoying because of how many people who have actual knowledge, training and experience and are not widely acknowledged, especially on the internet. If you ask some of these people about this, they’ll probably be happy to say that they don’t want the attention, except from the people who know them within their communities. If I write a ‘good’ blog post, full of data, anecdotes, and it’s entertaining and informative, people generally will like to read it. However, because of SEO and Google, I have to change the headline, certain words, and change the structure of the content because Yoast is telling me it’s not “SEO Optimized”. That takes away from the actual writing because we want results and need to strategize because the entire industry has gamed Google, so their search result comes first. I understand this is the status quo, but I do hope it changes in the future.
It's hard for thought leadership to shine with the way the algo works. Nowadays it's optimation or thought leadership. If you thought leadership is too different from what is being regurgitated online, Google will not trust it.
I've been asking myself this question a lot as well. SEO content sounds like keyword stuffing and those top-level you come across all the time. But not every long form piece is meant to rank - sometimes it's written to be repurposed or distributed on other platforms. That's when I think the distinction makes sense.
Well said - writing for the reader is above everything else! Detailed, intent and aimed at the right audience are all crucial
Love this! In fact companies who only invest in one time website SEO and don’t keep publishing new content will distrust the concept of SEO bc they are being outranked, when really it’s because they aren’t maintaining.
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1yExcellent point! The distinction is, unfortunately, very clear. SEO content has become the low-brow member of the family, the easiest to create. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Good SEO content doesn't just rank, it also converts. And to do that it needs a unique POV and thought leadership.