How to Create a Winning SEO Content Strategy in 9 Steps

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Having prime contented that satisfies the user's intent straight impacts idiosyncratic engagement, hunt motor rankings, and authorization wrong your niche. That's wherefore contented is often the halfway constituent of galore SEO strategies. 

So, however bash you program and execute a palmy contented selling strategy to thrust rankings, integrated traffic, and leads? That’s precisely what you’ll find retired from this guide. 

We’ll not lone specify what an SEO contented strategy is, wherefore you request it, and what it involves, but we’ll besides locomotion you done the process of processing a winning strategy for your brand. 

At the extremity of this guide, you’ll beryllium capable to reply the astir communal questions astir an SEO-driven contented strategy and cognize the steps you should instrumentality to make one. 

Table of Contents:

Plus, we're offering a escaped download of our content marketer's usher to a data-driven contented strategy. This broad usher dives adjacent deeper into cardinal metrics of engagement, strategies to go a subject-matter expert, a data-driven contented strategy checklist, and more!

What is an SEO Content Strategy?

To recognize the conception fully, we indispensable see its 2 halfway elements – SEO contented and the strategy – separately. 

SEO content refers to immoderate accusation created with a azygous extremity successful caput – to fertile higher successful hunt results and found credibility and spot with your online audience.

In applicable terms, penning specified contented involves applying SEO principles (both the basics and method components) to antithetic contented types – pillar pages, merchandise pages, blog posts, infographics, slideshows, guides, videos, evergreen content, and countless others. 

Creating the contented besides involves knowing a circumstantial user intent down people keywords for the content. 

An SEO content strategy, connected the different hand, describes a program to physique an assemblage and make leads by publishing, promoting, and ranking contented that matches the user intent and delivers connected their expectations. 

In a nutshell, the strategy defines who you’re targeting, with what information, however you're targeting them, and what you’re trying to execute by doing so.

Before we spell done the process in-depth, we indispensable code 1 much issue:

Why Do You Need an SEO Content Strategy successful the First Place?

An SEO contented strategy is captious due to the fact that it ensures your contented aligns with idiosyncratic searches and preferences.

In today's integer age, Google drives nearly 93% of postulation to websites. People crook to Google for everything, from seeking accusation to uncovering products and services. 

Real_Traffic_Share_By_Engine-1

Your content, therefore, is your summons to becoming a portion of their hunt journey.

We define SEO contented writing arsenic "the matrimony of crafting a large communicative with SEO champion practices." It’s not conscionable astir satisfying your audience's interests and hunt intent; it’s astir ranking good successful the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to scope imaginable customers.

Doing truthful allows you to presumption your marque on each measurement of the buying cycle, and commencement gathering a narration with imaginable customers that is based connected the worth provided.

So if you person a bully feeling astir your assemblage and what they want, is determination a request to formalize this cognition immoderate further?

Absolutely! In fact, having a well-documented SEO and contented strategy helps your marque successful 3 ways:

1) Provides a much structured approach

Without a strategy, your ideas deficiency structure. A contented strategy transforms intuition into actionable strategies that your full squad tin leverage to pull much visitors and leads.

2) Helps make a unsocial dependable and marketplace positioning

Amidst the immense oversea of online content, a contented strategy helps you specify your ain unsocial dependable and marketplace position, mounting your marque isolated from competitors.

3) Brings absorption to your efforts and ensures success

Ultimately, having an SEO contented strategy assures you that you’re publishing contented that is really valuable. By satisfying the needs of your people assemblage and optimizing pages to item your authority, you'll beryllium rewarded with higher rankings. 

That’s precisely wherefore it is 1 of the cardinal factors that abstracted apical contented performers from laggards.

What’s Involved successful Creating an SEO-Focused Content Strategy?

Before we get into the details of readying your strategy, let’s look astatine a 30,000-foot presumption of what you’ll request to do. 

A coagulated SEO contented strategy focuses connected 5 cardinal areas:

  1. Market and assemblage research which helps you recognize who you’re targeting better, larn astir their needs, and recognize however to fulfill them. 
  2. Topic and keyword probe that helps you observe what problems oregon topics volition present the biggest ROI from your efforts. 
  3. Content ideation to specify what each contented portion is going to beryllium about. 
  4. Editorial calendar that prioritizes contented passim the full strategy (or 12 months, astatine least).
  5. Content instauration and optimization erstwhile you constitute your contented and sprinkle on-page SEO connected it to marque definite it tin outrank the contention (while delivering insane worth to readers).

Content Strategy_Pie Chart v1.0

Let’s spell done each measurement successful turn. 

Note: To simplify the process, I grouped the 5 elements supra into 2 stages. The archetypal 1 focuses connected mentation and research. The different defines however to constitute and optimize your content. 

Stage I. Preparation and Research

Below, you’ll observe what steps you request to instrumentality to:

  1. Collect each the indispensable insights for your strategy.
  2. Identify circumstantial contented opportunities - topics, keywords, and ideas to create. 

Please note, what follows is simply a generic overview of each measurement successful the process. However, wherever applicable, I shared elaborate guides that volition assistance you larn much astir a circumstantial step. 

Step 1. Determine Your Niche oregon Industry

The archetypal measurement successful creating a winning SEO contented strategy is to specify your people niche oregon industry. 

Your champion customers usage antithetic keywords, absorption connected antithetic intents, and question antithetic accusation depending connected your market. 

Content Strategy_Circles v1.0-1

For example, let’s unreal that you devise a contented strategy for a hoops apparel store. 

At archetypal sight, it whitethorn look that you could constitute astir everything pertaining to the crippled and inactive pull applicable integrated traffic. 

And yet, erstwhile I analyse the taxable done Topic Explorer, I observe thing interesting. Of the full 80 1000 keywords relating to basketball, lone 10000 are utilized successful transportation with the apparel niche!

Total Keyword Opportunity

Basketball Intelligent Match Topic Explorer

Keywords successful the Apparel Niche

Keywords successful  the Apparel Niche - Topic Explorer

So, what astir the rest? These are phrases relating to thing from sports discipline, hobbies, wellness to jobs successful the industry, electronics, and a batch successful between.

By identifying your people manufacture oregon niche, you trim the anticipation of targeting keywords that are irrelevant to you.

Step 2. Define Your Target Audience and Their Pain Points

Next, determine who you’re targeting with the content. This is simply a captious measurement arsenic knowing your circumstantial assemblage and their symptom points ensures that the contented you nutrient volition ever beryllium relevant. 

There are galore ways to place the audience. I ever urge the following: 

  • Evaluate your existent champion customers and look astatine what they person successful common. You tin besides survey those radical to recognize their needs and desires better. 
  • Conduct competitory research and place who those companies effort to attract. You tin bash truthful by evaluating their apical keywords, the content, and their societal media following. 
  • Create purchaser personas based connected the information successful your lawsuit basal coupled with immoderate demographic information you tin find online. 

Step 3. Topic Research

At this stage, you person each the insights to commencement researching imaginable keywords for your content. But that wouldn’t beryllium wise.

You see, the mode we hunt for accusation has changed tremendously implicit the past fewer years. In the past, Google wasn’t susceptible of evaluating analyzable queries. As a result, we had to usage well-defined keywords. 

We had to benignant “best moving shoes” oregon “best runners.”

Today, with RankBrain and the Hummingbird update, the hunt motor tin recognize adjacent the astir analyzable queries and present the close information. 

So, you tin look for “running sandy formation shoes” and you’ll find precisely what you’re looking for. 

But this alteration besides means that customers tin present usage ANY query to find information. As a result, we tin safely presume that determination are countless imaginable keywords they could benignant into the hunt box. 

All those keywords, however, beryllium to an entity we notation to arsenic topics. The thought of topics successful keyword probe is vast, exceeding the accusation that we tin see successful this guide. Don't worry, though: I’ve listed immoderate recommended speechmaking to assistance you larn much astir it below.

In general, however, topics are overarching ideas astir the taxable of the hunt (i.e. “SEO,” “basketball,” Jogging”)

Topics bash not specify what the idiosyncratic is searching for, specifically. Instead, they specify circumstantial areas of involvement of your assemblage and let you to beryllium highly circumstantial with the keyword research. 

Recommended Reading: Why Topic Strategy Matters Most successful Keyword Research

Step 4. Keyword Research 

With the topics astatine hand, you’re yet acceptable to probe keywords to people with the content. 

In short, you’re looking for phrases that subordinate to your people topics, and person the accidental to pull visitors to the tract (measured by the keywords Search Volume, among different factors.)

During the probe process, you besides measure each keyword for the idiosyncratic intent to guarantee that you supply applicable information.

Recommended Readings:

Step 5. Develop Content Ideas

This is the measurement erstwhile you devise circumstantial contented ideas based connected the probe you've conducted truthful far. 

I recognize that it’s not casual to observe what to constitute connected each topic, truthful fto maine connection immoderate advice:

Review the top-ranking contented for each keyword manually. See if determination are patterns among those pages. This mightiness shed immoderate airy connected the audience’s expectations. 

Use Content Fusion. This AI-powered contented editor analyzes the keyword against galore information points and delivers insights to assistance you authoritative content.

In summation to generating contented briefs based connected the top-ranking contented for your people keywords, it adjacent uses generative AI to automatically make contented outlines and paragraphs based connected your customized contented profile. 

Basketball Clothes - Content Fusion


Step 6. Define Your Angle

Companies often walk a important magnitude of clip connected knowing their audience, their symptom points, and truthful connected to make applicable content. Yet, they seldom see however they could differentiate it from the competition. 

But with thousands of caller contented pieces published each day, the lone mode to link with the assemblage is by having a chiseled angle. 

Now, it doesn’t mean that you person to constitute wholly unsocial information. With truthful overmuch contented retired there, it wouldn’t adjacent beryllium possible. 

Finding a unsocial space means defining your communicative oregon attack to what you’re penning about. 

Take us, for example. No substance what we constitute astir – keyword research, SEO content, nexus building, you sanction it – we ever attack those topics from a circumstantial angle. 

We go a azygous root of everything a lawsuit could perchance request regarding endeavor SEO. From technology, support, training, consulting, and beyond. That level of attraction and the willingness to stock our insights shows successful our penning too. 

So, find your angle. It volition springiness your contented a chiseled voice, and link you with the close customers.

Step 7. Audit Your Existing Content

Most of the proposal we’ve shared truthful acold has revolved astir identifying your market. The remaining 3 points successful this conception spell 1 measurement further.

They absorption connected preparing your circumstantial contented ideas. And the process should statesman with a thorough valuation of your existing assets – an SEO contented audit

Why audit your content? 

First of all, you privation to recognize what assets you already person and however they’ve been performing truthful far.

With this information, you can:

  • Identify which topics person engaged the assemblage the astir (and the ones your readers support ignoring).
  • Discover which pages to amended and boost their hunt performance. 
  • Pinpoint assets to trim from the site. 

Step 8. Assign KPIs to Measure Success

In this step, you request to take the champion metrics to show however good you’re achieving the main goals of your contented strategy. These metrics are known arsenic your KPIs (key show indicators)

If you purpose to summation marque awareness, you mightiness privation to way integrated postulation and online marque mentions. When you purpose to make leads, your KPIs would revolve astir the fig of caller visitors to the tract and their conversion rates, and truthful on. 

Recommended Reading: The Most Important SEO KPIs to Track for Enterprise Business (and Which Ones Aren't Worth Your Time) and Highlight Your Wins With Custom SEO Dashboards - Examples Included!

Stage II. Content Creation and Optimization

In this section, you’ll find proposal connected however to make afloat optimized, SEO-driven content. 

Just similar with the conception above, what follows are generic overviews of each measurement successful the process. However, you’ll besides find recommended speechmaking to assistance you larn much astir the applicable steps and observe however to instrumentality them successful practice. 

The activities I urge paying attraction to erstwhile creating contented include:

Step 9. On-page Optimization

Most of your optimization relates to on-page elements.

Although determination is nary one-size-fits-all look for penning SEO content, determination are definite elements a well-written and well-optimized portion indispensable include:

  • Use the keyword successful the meta rubric and description.
  • Feature the keyword successful the H1 tag (and successful H2 too, ideally).
  • Create a logical headings operation that helps radical to scroll to immoderate accusation interests them the most.
  • Make your contented applicable by including semantic-related keywords passim the copy.
  • Verify you've covered the taxable with implicit authority.
  • Include accusation that matches the idiosyncratic intent for the keyword. This besides means avoiding stuffing the contented with unnecessary oregon irrelevant information. 
  • Strong and engaging meta rubric and statement that captures users' attraction successful the SERP.
  • Include a unsocial constituent of presumption wrong your content.
  • Ensure a precocious engagement complaint with your contented (more connected this successful the adjacent step,) and overmuch more. 

Recommended Reading: How to Write Optimized Page Title Tags

Engagement

Dwell clip – however overmuch clip radical coming from the hunt motor walk connected your leafage – plays an incredibly important relation successful rankings and driving your idiosyncratic further into your site. In fact, arsenic some SEOs constituent out, it’s the engagement signals that get you to the apical of the SERPs.

The astir communal ways to summation engagement see featuring videos, visuals, infographics, and different elements that pull the reader’s attraction and clasp them connected a leafage longer. 

Recommended Reading: 8 Tricks to Creating Engaging Content

But engagement shouldn’t hap by accident. It should beryllium the effect of cautious readying to supply an optimal idiosyncratic experience. Here are immoderate ideas to assistance you execute it:

  • Review whether different top-ranking contented features immoderate engagement elements (videos, visuals, graphs, etc.)
  • Analyze your URLs with the highest dwell clip to place which elements prosecute the assemblage the astir (hint: usage a heatmap bundle connected those pages to find retired wherever users walk the astir time,)
  • Ensure that you screen the taxable in-depth, leaving nary accusation out. Such a leafage is bound to clasp readers for longer. Use Content Fusion to place the accusation your transcript should include, and physique it from that. 
Interlinking

Internal links link pages connected the aforesaid domain. They assistance constituent readers to other, applicable accusation to find retired much connected the topic. 

But internal links besides assistance SEO. Thanks to them, Google tin discern the contented of the linked page. Not to notation that interlinks walk nexus equity betwixt pages, allowing you to fortify caller contented by passing the authorization from higher-level assets. 

Topic clump   graphic

As portion of the SEO contented strategy, I urge identifying interlinking opportunities for each caller contented asset. By creating those interior connections, you’ll assistance to found that leafage successful your taxable clump and boost its chances of ranking well.

How to Use the Content Strategy Effectively

First of all, your SEO contented strategy indispensable pass assorted content-related workflows wrong the business. The strategy defines each aspects of the content, but also, the contented production. Based connected that information, you tin specify who is liable for its assorted aspects, when, and however they should proceed. 

With that, you’ll person nary problems with converting your enactment into a well-oiled contented machine. Coincidentally, this is precisely what sets the champion contented performers from laggards apart. 

Another mode to usage the strategy is to simplify the decision-making. Every clip thing wrong the enactment changes - a caller merchandise gets launched, for illustration - and the alteration affects your content, the strategy volition support you grounded, and assistance marque the close decisions faster. 

All successful all, you usage the strategy arsenic the instauration for everything content-related that you do, from ideation to accumulation to ensuring consistency and productivity.

Conclusion

Here is simply a run-down of each of the steps connected however to make a winning SEO contented strategy:

  • Stage I. Preparation and Research
    • Step 1. Determine Your Niche oregon Industry
    • Step 2. Define Your Target Audience and Their Pain Points
    • Step 3. Topic Research
    • Step 4. Keyword Research 
    • Step 5. Develop Content Ideas
    • Step 6. Define Your Angle
    • Step 7. Audit Your Existing Content
    • Step 8. Assign KPIs to Measure Success

  • Stage II. Content Creation and Optimization
    • Step 9. On-page Optimization

Looking for a instrumentality to assistance you plan, deliver, and amended your contented selling strategy? Book a demo to spot however seoClarity tin level up your strategy.