How to Create a Content Map: Traditional Way & Ahrefs’ Way

Content maps assistance marque definite your contented serves a strategical relation successful nurturing your audience. It’s 1 of the champion ways to support your contented aligned with your concern goals.

I’ll screen 2 ways of creating contented maps. The accepted mode and the Ahrefs way. Both are tried and tested methods, but we similar ours better—and I’ll explicate why. Read connected to larn some methods and take the 1 that amended suits your needs. We’ll speech astir the following:

• What a contented map is
• Why make a contented map 
• How to make a accepted contented map
• The Ahrefs mode of mapping content 
• Content mapping tools 

A contented representation is simply a papers that lists stages of the buyer’s travel for each purchaser persona and maps them with applicable content.

The main crushed for creating a contented representation is to marque definite your brand’s contented is accompanying each buyer persona passim all stages of the selling funnel—from attracting visitors to converting them and keeping them on board.

Here’s an further reason. A benignant of byproduct of creating a contented representation is getting an overview of your contented inventory. This tin assistance you spot gaps and find repurposing opportunities.

Follow these 3 steps to make your contented representation and capable immoderate gaps with caller contented ideas.

1. Create purchaser personas

A purchaser persona is a semi-fictional idiosyncratic who represents the communal characteristics of your customers (an archetype). Here’s an illustration purchaser persona for our product:

A purchaser persona helps you visualize your customers’ buying journey, internalize who they are, and empathize with their challenges and goals.

Depending connected your resources, determination are 2 ways you tin place your customers to make a purchaser persona:

• The technological way – Talk to imaginable customers. This tin beryllium your leads, societal media followers, oregon simply radical you cognize who whitethorn beryllium funny successful your product. You whitethorn besides see utilizing services similar SurveyMonkey, UserTesting, oregon Remesh to scope these people.
• The educated-guess way – If for immoderate crushed you can’t speech to existent radical astatine this stage, you request to get creative. Use your competitors’ information oregon the manufacture information and “enrich” it with different sources. You whitethorn find that, for example, integrated hunt is the #1 spending priority, according to a CMO survey.

To marque your contented mapping effective, you request to make a purchaser persona for each benignant of customer. The much granular your typology is, the much customized your content. On the different hand, it volition instrumentality you much clip and resources to code each the personas’ goals and challenges compared to much generalized content.

Too galore personas? Consider creating categories that link personas with akin traits, e.g., concern owners, in-house teams, freelancers, etc.

2. Use our template to representation existing contented for each persona

To marque contented mapping easier, I’ve prepared a elemental template. (Click present to marque your ain editable transcript successful Google Sheets.)

All you request to bash present is to capable successful your existing contented nether the corresponding signifier of the buyer’s travel (you tin find immoderate examples successful the template). If you don’t person immoderate contented to representation yet oregon privation to commencement over, nary worries—I’ll stock immoderate ideas to lick these issues successful the adjacent section.

As for the stages of the buyer’s journey, determination are galore antithetic typologies retired there. I’ve utilized the 1 from our usher to creating a winning contented strategy. It whitethorn beryllium somewhat antithetic than what you’re utilized to, truthful consciousness escaped to modify it accordingly.

If this worldly is wholly caller to you, don’t fuss customizing those stages for now. The wide thought is to make contented that attracts visitors and gradually turns them into blessed customers who are consenting to travel backmost to you. So present are abbreviated descriptions of the stages utilized successful the template:

1. Increase marque awareness – At this stage, the imaginable is conscionable becoming alert of their problem. They don’t cognize the solution yet and whitethorn not cognize your brand. This benignant of contented doesn’t needfully request to diagnostic your product, arsenic you’re fundamentally trying to present your marque to imaginable customers.
2. Create involvement and tendency – You tin bash so by teaching imaginable customers much astir their problems and however your merchandise oregon work tin solve them.
3. Nurture involvement and entice the purchase – You tin further amended imaginable customers astir your merchandise oregon work and wherefore it’s the champion solution for them.
4. Retain customers and physique marque loyalty – To bash this, amended customers connected however to get the astir retired of your merchandise oregon work and intelligibly show its value. Additionally, successful this stage, you tin tackle topics that you cognize your customers attraction for but bash not needfully springiness you the accidental to diagnostic your product/service successful immoderate applicable way.

As you constitute down your contented pieces, you tin travel crossed immoderate dilemmas.

• The contented fits aggregate stages – You inactive person to take one. Choose the 1 with the astir ascendant use case.
• The contented doesn’t acceptable anywhere – See if that portion of contented tin beryllium updated truthful that you tin classify it easier without losing its existent value. Another script is that my template is excessively simplistic. If so, you whitethorn request to adhd the buyer’s travel stages.

3. Fill successful immoderate gaps successful the buyer’s journey

Chances are that portion making your contented map, you volition find gaps successful your buyer’s journey: places wherever determination is nary contented oregon not capable contented to service a fixed travel stage. In that case, determination are fundamentally 4 methods for filling those gaps with applicable contented ideas. 

Do keyword research

Keyword probe is the process of knowing the connection your people customers usage erstwhile searching for your products, services, and content. It past involves analyzing, comparing, and prioritizing the champion keyword opportunities for your website.

For example, we tin presume that our persona, Anna Agency, needs to fig retired SEO tactics for clients from antithetic industries. Keyword probe volition assistance america observe those industries, spot hunt request for related topics, and rapidly gauge imaginable traffic.

To bash this, we conscionable request a effect keyword (e.g., “seo”) to presumption related topics and past we tin fine-tune the hunt utilizing assorted filters.

In the illustration below, I’m utilizing the “for” modifier word. I’m besides including queries that person much than 200 monthly searches and excluding words that are irrelevant—all successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.

We tin further constrictive down that database by utilizing different filters. For example, we tin filter by Keyword Difficulty (KD) to spot keywords that we tin perchance fertile for with little effort. Or we tin usage the Traffic Potential (TP) filter to fell keywords with debased traffic.

Then, we tin make adjacent much keyword ideas by utilizing different modifier keywords that awesome acquisition intent. Here are immoderate of these words: how, guide, resource, ideas, tips, etc.

Last but not least, Ahrefs has a abstracted study for each of the questions related to a fixed taxable that radical benignant successful Google, and it’s conscionable 1 click distant from the study we’ve been utilizing so far.

Analyze competitors

One mode to gully inspiration from your competitors is to manually cheque their websites for taxable ideas. That’s a batch of man-hours.

Here’s however you tin streamline this process with Ahrefs.

First of all, commencement by listing your competitors and doing basal market research. You tin ever double-check your rival database by plugging your URL successful Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and going to the Competing Domains report.

Now you tin instrumentality the database of competitors to the Content Gap report to uncover the keywords that your competitors fertile for but you don’t. These volition beryllium your caller contented opportunities. You tin past filter that database to marque it much manageable.

Additionally, you tin easy observe your competitors’ champion content. There are a fewer ways to bash that, depending connected your marketing objectives.

If you privation to make contented that is designed to fertile connected hunt engines and bring you integrated traffic, effort the Top pages report.

But if it’s links that you’re after, you tin usage the Best by links or Best by links’ growth reports.

Finally, if you request societal shares the most, spell to our Top Content report to uncover contented wherever your competitors got the astir Twitter and Pinterest shares.

This study tin besides beryllium utilized arsenic a proxy for knowing what types of contented resonate with your competitors’ people audiences due to the fact that it besides shows however galore websites linked to that contented and which parts were the astir invaluable (by viewing the anchors they linked with).

Study your niche

Another mode of discovering applicable topics to enrich your contented representation is paying attraction to what different radical accidental successful places wherever your manufacture and/or your people assemblage hangs out; for example, groups connected societal media, magazines, idiosyncratic blogs, and communities.

A batch of the time, you volition find accusation that overlaps with keyword research. But different times, you volition travel crossed hidden gems, such as:

• The adjacent large happening radical are talking astir but nary 1 has written a broad guide for.
• Topics underserved by your competitors.
• Things your people assemblage wants to larn much astir (and however they privation to larn astir said things).
• What connection your people assemblage uses to explicit their goals and challenges.

For example, 1 of our best-performing articles, “How to Submit Your Website to Google,” was inspired by a printed mag titled “How to acceptable up an online business” that was recovered successful an airdrome bookstore. 

If you deliberation that’s excessively overmuch manual work, you tin effort an assemblage probe instrumentality similar SparkToro. Just plug successful topics your people assemblage often talks astir to observe related topics and hashtags (among galore different things).

Survey your audience

Try the obvious—just inquire your assemblage what benignant of contented volition marque their beingness easier.

If you already person immoderate blog/newsletter subscribers connected board, this measurement is arsenic casual arsenic preparing a questionnaire and sending it. Alternatively, you tin show a abbreviated questionnaire connected your site.

But if you’re conscionable starting out, you tin usage an agile marketplace probe bundle similar SurveyMonkey to get your questionnaire successful beforehand of the right eyes.

Here are a fewer questions you can ask:

• What would you similar to larn astir connected this blog?
• What’s the biggest precedence successful your job?
• In the past months, what was your biggest challenge?
• Do you program connected buying our merchandise successful the adjacent future?
• How did you observe our blog?
• What’s your favourite root of accusation about ___?

And that’s astir it erstwhile it comes to the “traditional” attack to contented mapping. Here’s what we, astatine Ahrefs, bash otherwise and wherefore we bash it that way.

The accepted mode of contented mapping matches contented to a azygous signifier of the funnel. But that one-to-one lucifer isn’t ever the case. So we usage a antithetic attack that helps america make product-led contented that brings implicit 273K visits from hunt to our blog every month.

A small spot of theory

The happening is that a azygous nonfiction tin service assorted purposes. It tin pull a potential customer and assistance to clasp an existing customer.

Moreover, successful immoderate cases, a azygous nonfiction tin instrumentality the idiosyncratic down the full funnel—from learning astir a solution to purchasing the solution.

Let’s instrumentality our usher connected however to fertile higher connected Google as an example. In six casual steps, it explains however to amended rankings of underperforming keywords and get much postulation arsenic a result.

So let’s accidental idiosyncratic Googles “how to fertile higher connected google.” That idiosyncratic is beauteous overmuch close astatine the apical of the funnel due to the fact that they’re alert of their occupation but don’t cognize the solution yet. They whitethorn not person heard of Ahrefs and whitethorn person zero cognition of SEO.

Being astatine the archetypal signifier of the funnel, they travel crossed our guide. As the usher walks them done the process, it whitethorn besides locomotion them done the full funnel. They larn the solution (SEO) and larn that they request a instrumentality similar Ahrefs to instrumentality the solution.

Besides, inquire yourself this: Can you retrieve the past clip branded contented made you bargain something? Was it 1 oregon much contented pieces? Was your “buyer journey” linear oregon much complex? You whitethorn find that the representation is not the territory.

The “business potential” framework

Because it seems that the models of the buyer’s travel aren’t ever useful, we representation contented based connected a standard of however important our merchandise is successful solving a fixed problem.

Let’s look astatine the concern imaginable (BP) standard successful item and spot immoderate examples for each of the scores. If you privation to dive deeper into this framework, you tin skim done the articles beneath to spot however our merchandise is featured (or wherefore it can’t beryllium featured).

• Business people 0 – We don’t person galore of those articles, but here’s one: The Creative Marketing Strategies That Launched 3 Major Tech Startups. There’s no applicable usage lawsuit of Ahrefs there, and it is pugnacious to deliberation of one. Also, this nonfiction listing the best selling blogs shares this score. It is simply a earthy mode to diagnostic our brand, but there’s nary nonstop nexus to the product. 
• Business people 1 – Marketing Objectives: How to Set Them Right (With Examples). Our merchandise helps with tracking lone immoderate selling objectives explained successful this article.
• Business people 2 – ‘Not Provided’ successful Google Analytics: How to Reclaim Your Keyword Data. Our merchandise is 1 of the 2 presented solutions; hence, it’s not necessary.
• Business people 3 – What Is SEO Content? How to Write Content That Ranks. Good luck creating SEO contented without an SEO tool. 

So if you privation to make a contented representation with the usage of our framework, it’s a truly elemental one—just the taxable and its BP score.

Additionally, you tin complement that with immoderate SEO metrics (like postulation potential) if hunt engines are an indispensable selling transmission to you. So it tin look thing like this:

That said, determination are inactive immoderate similarities betwixt our exemplary and the accepted model. For example, we besides usage purchaser personas. We don’t usage them to “customize” each topic, though. We usage them to recognize who we are talking to truthful we tin align the benignant and extent of the content.

For example, we’re trying to debar selling jargon, arsenic we’re not targeting our contented to selling academics but alternatively selling practitioners who are not ever experts successful this field.

You volition find these tools adjuvant successful creating and populating your contented map:

• Ahrefs – SEO tools similar ours are indispensable if you privation to larn what radical look for online, however often, and what words they usage successful their searches.
• Google Sheets – This is for utilizing our contented mapping template.
• Diagramming instrumentality – Some examples see Lucidchart or MindMeister, which are great for creating buyer’s travel diagrams/maps. This is an further (and harder) measurement you tin instrumentality successful contented mapping. Do this if you privation to amended recognize and/or visualize the buyer’s travel successful your peculiar case.
• Survey instrumentality – Tools specified as Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or Survicate can beryllium utilized for getting feedback astir your content.
• Audience probe instrumentality – Try SparkToro or Brandwatch for uncovering the topics that marque your assemblage tick.

Final thoughts

Let’s implicit this usher by discussing immoderate advantages and disadvantages of these 2 contented mapping methods:

So tin we instrumentality the champion of some worlds and make a hybrid? I deliberation so. One mode is to insert the concern people into the stages of the buyer’s journey.

For example, you tin necessitate a people of 2 oregon 3 for contented designed to entice radical to marque a purchase. Topics with scores 0 and 1 are OK arsenic agelong arsenic they are either successful the interest, desire, oregon clasp stages.

Whether that hybrid exemplary works good capable is simply a decision I’ll permission you to make.

What’s adjacent aft mapping content? Try our resources connected content marketing to larn things similar contented strategy, contented creation, promotion, and repurposing.

Got questions oregon comments? Ping maine on Twitter.