Search Results

Author: Kyle Place Establishing yourself online is often one of the first priorities for a new brand—that’s the easy decision. The much tougher decision usually follows right after: Do you create a website and invest in SEO? Would it be easier to just run paid ads for your site? Or, could you possibly get away with managing your entire online presence through a social media profile? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution because the correct answer depends on your industry, your audience, and your particular business model. Even so, there’s a very good reason why so many brands emphasize SEO as a crucial marketing channel. Let’s take a look at why SEO is considered to be a must-have and what you need to keep in mind to get the most from your investment in it. Table of contents: 01. People use search engines to discover niche content 02. Users expect high quality content that builds trust 03. SEO helps your content reach new audiences 04. Online visitors drive offline conversions 05. Market research improves your business’s offerings 06. SEO can include UX (double the benefit) 07. The potential ROI 08. You need SEO to stay competitive How to ensure SEO is worth the investment before you get started 01. SEO is cost effective, but you’ll still need resources 02. Plan ahead for SEO maintenance 03. You know your audience 01. People use search engines to discover niche content It would not be an understatement to say that search runs the world (almost). This is truer in some industries than others, but most people turn to Google to find a product/service or to do some research before taking action on something else (e.g., looking up business hours or comparing prices). And, we have a pretty good idea of the level of demand in search for any given topic ( based on its search volume —how often a specific term is searched per month). This is true for all types of needs—products/services, brands, news, and anything else. However, it’s important to remember that search volume is not the end goal. The largest search volumes are almost always ambiguous with an unclear intent. As the clarity of the search improves, the search volume almost always decreases. To illustrate this concept, here are some keywords and their corresponding search volumes: Search query Monthly search volume User value ​ ​eCommerce 74,000 ​Low: What is this person actually looking for? ​ ​eCommerce website 18,100 Medium: Now we know they are looking for a website, but for what? To shop? To build one? For inspiration? ​eCommerce website builder 5,400 High: Now it’s clear what this searcher is looking for: platforms they can use to build an eCommerce website. This concept also applies to in-person businesses as well: Many local companies want to rank high in search results for the service(s) they provide plus their location (i.e., neighborhood, city, county). This is because the value and relevance from those searches (and more importantly, who those searches are coming from) is greater, even though the search volume is less. Here’s an example for local SEO: ​ Search query Monthly search volume User value Roofing company 33,100 Low: Roofing companies (and the needs of the people searching for them) vary by location. This means that someone searching this term in Anchorage, Alaska, will likely see different results than someone searching from Miami, Florida. Roofing company Miami 720 ​High: Search volume of “only” 720, but is much more relevant for roofing companies in the Miami area. In addition to ensuring your own website appears in search results, it’s important to create and optimize other business profiles across the internet. This can include (but is not limited to): Google business profiles Local directories Review sites Social media profiles YouTube channels When people search, they look at all types of results, so make sure your brand is in as many of them as possible to help establish your site’s online visibility. 02. Users expect high quality content that builds trust Content oversaturation in the search results is one of the biggest issues facing internet users today. The impact is twofold: Users grow increasingly more efficient at filtering out low-quality content. Going the extra mile to create high quality content allows you to stand out and build trust. The quality of your content includes (but isn’t limited to) its grammar, structure, format, and the level of expertise behind it. It could also mean creating content for every stage of the customer journey. Most searches online begin with research. Let’s say you have a plumbing related issue at home but aren’t sure where to start with fixing it. You think you might need a plumber, but you’re not sure. This might be a potential user search journey for this situation: How to fix a running toilet How much does it cost to fix a toilet Best plumbers in Miami A plumbing company could have an instructional video in the search results, transparent prices and costs for your work, and then testimonials or reviews on your site (or a third-party site like Yelp) that show up when your target customer is in the final stage of their journey. Imagine the positive impact for a brand if—for each query (search term) and stage of the customer journey—they had a comprehensive piece of content that satisfied the user’s intent . The brand would be able to prove again and again that they’re trustworthy, know what they’re talking about, and are worth doing business with. Content has the ability to shape your customer journey and to help capture their interest, trust, and business. Investing in high quality content is good for your audience and your brand, and will help you rank better in search results. 03. SEO helps your content reach new audiences Owning your own website means that you own your own content. This is different from how social media platforms work and it’s worth taking into account when planning your marketing. What does this mean and why does it matter? When you rely only on third-party platforms or social media to promote your business, that content is subject to the whims of the platform: Facebook, Instagram, etc. dictate the format and length of your content, the type of content that is permissible, and most importantly, you are relying on the fact that your audience is also on that platform. Conversely, having a website (that ranks) increases your visibility and allows your content to be shared no matter where your audience is. By pursuing SEO, you make it far easier for the widest possible audience to discover your brand, products/services, blog posts, etc. To top it all off, the unfortunate truth is that social media platforms don’t last forever (when was the last time you heard someone talking about MySpace or Google+?). When another new one becomes popular, you may have to re-establish yourself on that platform. While a strong social media strategy can be extremely valuable, the intent and the nature of user interaction is very different. A web page from two years ago can still rank well in Google, but a social media post from two years ago is so far down the timeline that algorithms no longer provide visibility. 04. Online visitors drive offline conversions There’s a direct relationship between online consumer behavior and offline marketing, which is especially relevant for brick-and-mortar businesses. Traditional advertising campaigns can influence branded search, brand awareness, and create a buzz around your company. These campaigns can also compel people to go to Google to look for your brand or visit your website directly. Online growth can lead to offline conversions as well: One of the most obvious examples is with restaurants. Restaurants that follow local SEO best practices can gain more visibility in search and attract more people. This is true for many local businesses—the businesses that show up in search results for kids trampoline park or rock climbing gym are more likely to perform well offline, too. The bottom line is that users search online for offline products and services. 05. Market research improves your business’s offerings Once your website is optimized and attracting visitors, there are so many amazing audience insights you can gain through the data available in Google Search Console and Google Analytics . Google Search Console Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool by Google. Site owners must first verify their sites, but after that, a whole world of potential opens up. ( Note: Wix site owners can verify their site in seconds with the Wix GSC integration .) In addition to the vast technical insights that GSC provides, you can learn so much from the Search Performance report. Here, you can see the number of clicks and impressions to each page of your website. Even better, you can see this information for the exact query that someone searches to get to your site (and which page they landed on). ( Note: Wix users have access to GSC data within the SEO Dashboard as well as Wix Analytics . Here are some tactical insights you can gain from this: Which service is your most popular service If you are local, what location people are looking for What kind of questions people are asking Device (desktop/mobile) and country data You can also use GSC to identify areas where you’re missing content. Sometimes, you may see a broad (or even specific) topic that is getting decent impressions but no clicks, despite the associated page barely touching on the topic. Oftentimes, the best course of action is to create a new piece of content targeting that particular topic to satisfy those searchers. Google Analytics Google Analytics is another free tool by Google, but it provides a different set of data than GSC. In Google Analytics, you can see pageviews, conversions, bounce rate, and other useful metrics that can help you understand your audience and how they interact with your site so that you may better optimize it. ( Note: Wix users have built-in access to Wix Analytics , which also provides similar data.) The time on page and bounce rate are especially helpful when learning how well your content satisfies user intent. More advanced site owners can even set up conversion tracking to see where people are converting and help drive traffic to the best converting pages. 06. SEO can include UX (double the benefit) An often-overlooked benefit of SEO is its contributions to user experience (UX), which is central to optimizing for conversions. UX is one of the most important aspects of web design and SEO contributes greatly to its goals. Here are a few nearly-universal examples: Navigation: At the most basic level, a site’s navigation should take SEO into consideration. Based on search and analytics data, you can identify your most popular products/services—these should be easy for users to reach via your site navigation. Accessibility: SEO and accessibility almost always go hand in hand. Your headers and subheaders , color contrast ratio, alt text, etc. serve a dual purpose—more context for search engines (hopefully leading to improved rankings) and better accessibility for those who need it. Conversion rate optimization: Properly structured landing pages, blog posts with clear calls to action , and intuitive site structure can come together to help you get the most out of your SEO efforts by making it easy for visitors to transition from searching to browsing to buying. 07. The potential ROI For most types of websites, the benefits of SEO can far outweigh the investment. This might be expected since SEO is a marketing channel, but SEO is unique when compared to other marketing channels (particularly paid channels). This is because successful SEO requires you to create content that helps build your authority. This content is then indexed and ranked by Google. That means one amazing piece of content can generate traffic for months and even years, which means more potential customers without any additional marketing expenses. Here is a real life example: Moz has consistently ranked in the top three search results (usually position one) for the term keyword research since at least 2015 (eight years at the time of publication). Perhaps even more important is the fact that each additional piece of relevant content helps further build your authority . Each additional related blog post, article, product page, etc. can actually strengthen pre-existing content on your website and will help indicate your brand’s relevance when you create more content on that topic in the future. 08. You need SEO to stay competitive No matter how creative, unique, or “outside the box” we sometimes want to be, it’s a mistake to overlook opportunities to market in the same channels as our competitors. This is true in many marketing channels and is certainly true in SEO. When a potential customer is searching on Google for a product or service (or researching at any level of the funnel), you want to be there. If you aren’t in the search results, your competitors will still be there and they will happily turn your potential customers into their actual customers . In some aspects, search is a zero-sum game. There is limited real estate on the Google search results, so it is either you or them. Competing against other brands in the search results can even be useful. Through competitor research , you can discover some amazing content ideas, strategies, formats, and even which specific keywords are driving traffic for your competitors. The goal on top of this should always be to add creativity, uniqueness, and value to your content to really set you apart from the competition. How to ensure SEO is worth the investment before you get started If you're willing to put in the time and effort, SEO can be a great way to improve your website's visibility and traffic. However, it's important to remember that it's not a magic bullet—and, if not planned and implemented correctly, you might not see the gains you expected. 01. SEO is cost effective, but you’ll still need resources While SEO certainly can pay off in the long run, it may not be the best channel for those who need quicker results, like PPC can provide. The reality is that SEO takes time and securing the resources and people to implement a good SEO strategy can be tricky. While organic traffic is indeed free, creating content that performs well is not free. You need to weigh out the cost and potential gain . A careful analysis is necessary because (in addition to your own available resources) your competition is another factor to consider. If optimal effort does not go into it then the optimal results won’t come out of it. 02. Plan ahead for SEO maintenance SEO provides long-term value—but not infinite value. While SEO is part of the “long game,” it requires maintenance if you want it to continue to perform for you over time. You need to optimize and tweak content, add internal links , and update your content to stay relevant. In the example above on Moz ranking for keyword research , the keyword research process has evolved between 2015-2023 and you can bet that the company updated its content to reflect this and offer the maximum value to its readers. If you can’t plan for ongoing optimizations, content updates, and new content, then (as I said earlier) a competitor that can will overtake you in the search results. New competitors arise all the time and the last thing you want is to be ranking well but let it fall between the cracks and suddenly drop off because someone else created content that’s more relevant. 03. You know your audience Finally, part of being relevant is knowing what your audience prefers. If your audience doesn’t search for things on search engines, then SEO is probably not the best option. Sometimes YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, Quora, Instagram, or one of the other social media platforms or communities might be better for reaching your target audience. When possible, combine your strategies on those platforms with SEO for brand perception but also to take advantage of rich search result features . For example, Google now shows TikTok and YouTube Shorts directly in search results and Quora has special features to show threads. Leverage SEO’s endless potential for your brand Overall, SEO can and should be approached holistically. There are many SEO strategies and ways to take advantage of organic search results, with the ultimate objective always being to grow your business. With this in mind, your goal should always be to create content that satisfies the intent of your audience and provides useful information or solves real problems. In execution, you’re going to focus on the measurable SEO benefits that align with your business’s KPIs, but it’s important to remember that SEO often accomplishes a greater mission: SEO is not just an acquisition tool, but also a powerful tool for branding and perception as well. Use it to not only tap into existing demand, but also to generate demand specifically for your brand and maximize SEO’s potential for your business. Kyle Place - SEO Specialist, Wix Kyle Place "E-E-A-Ts," sleeps, and breathes SEO. As an in-house SEO at Wix.com he creates organic growth strategies that satisfy the users (and search engines). Kyle also worked in an agency, helping both local businesses and SaaS companies to expand their online presence. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Itamar Blauer Running a successful business is all about being able to identify when an opportunity is worth the investment. SEO for your business’s website is no different. For small- to medium-sized businesses operating on tight resources, this calculus is even more crucial. But, understanding what areas of your website you need to keep an eye on (and how to do so) is typically the realm of SEO experts. In this article, I will provide a framework that embraces the 80/20 rule so that you can understand the most valuable sections of your site and how to optimize them to improve your visibility in search results—without spending endless hours researching and optimizing every little detail. Table of contents: Setting realistic goals and prioritizing High impact SEO tasks for evergreen content Keyword research On-page optimization Internal linking E-E-A-T Implementing your evergreen SEO strategy Track progress with automation Keeping up-to-date with SEO trends and opportunities Setting realistic goals and prioritizing Let’s check your expectations right now: Generally speaking, you’re unlikely to rank a newly created page or website overnight. You may have lots of competitors with a stronger SEO presence and more budget, so be realistic about what you can achieve given your niche, competition, and available resources. In terms of objectives, traffic goals are often a good start. However, the reality is that you’re not going to rank all of your web pages, so focus on the most important ones to ensure that your evergreen SEO efforts are actually making the largest possible impact. For an eCommerce site, that might be your best-selling or high-margin products, or your core service pages as a services business. High impact SEO tasks for evergreen content When prioritizing SEO tasks, you have to make informed decisions to ensure you get the most use out of your time and resources—this becomes even more important if SEO isn’t something you focus on day-to-day. Here are some relatively low-effort approaches for high-impact tasks that you can implement to ensure that the content you’re creating is worth the investment. How to find keywords for evergreen content Keyword research helps you identify demand so that you can create a content strategy based on that demand. Although it’s much better to perform keyword research on a regular basis, this is something that in theory can be done once, but sets the scope of your strategy from the offset (provided that your offerings don’t change—if they do, you’ll need to perform additional keyword research). There are relatively fast and free methods to do keyword research, one of which is to leverage Google Search itself: 01. Type your core offering into Google. If you have more than one, you can simply repeat this process for each offering. Review the autosuggest results to see what keywords Google thinks are relevant. This is a great way to find long tail keyword opportunities . Make sure to start/keep a list of potential topics and keywords that you discover during this process. 02. Analyze the top results for these queries. The idea here is to identify commonalities amongst the top-ranking results. As a starting point, consider: What type of keyword intent does Google seem to associate with this search? (In the example below, it is very transactional.) What keywords do the top results use in their titles? How are these keywords used? Are there any special search features in the results? For example, a shopping carousel is a telltale sign that Google thinks the query is transactional, as where a knowledge panel may suggest informational intent. You can also look into the “More to ask/People also ask” section of the SERP (if it’s present for your keyword) to find additional relevant topic opportunities. Whatever type of content you decide to create, ensure that the search intent aligns with the purpose of the content. As you can often deduce what search intent Google associates with a given query, you can tailor your content to match what Google would likely expect/want to rank for that particular query. That particular type of content (e.g., listicle, blog post, product page, etc.) is also usually aligned with what your potential customers will expect. 03. Take note of the most relevant content (from competitors in the search results). Your content should always be original, but you can still draw inspiration from what’s already out there and find ways to improve on it within your own pages. This is a manual process, but it’s also free. Keyword research tools are helpful to automate certain steps and find opportunities that you might have missed. Note: Wix users have limited free access to Semrush’s keyword research capabilities from within their Wix dashboard. Breaking past the basics: Seasonality The popularity of certain keywords might fluctuate over the course of a year. You can think more sustainably about keyword research by considering how this might affect your audience’s search behavior. For example, if you’re in the golf niche, you might want to target keywords related to equipment maintenance or training programs during the off season, for example. It’s important to remember that seasonality is still evergreen, as seasonal topics represent large, regular opportunities (e.g., Black Friday/Cyber Monday occur every year). “For businesses or websites that hold annual events around awareness days or holidays, keeping a single page live all year round is valuable. This means you don't have to create a new page every year, and you can keep users, and Google, up to date in the off season.” — Crystal Carter , head of SEO communications at Wix On-page optimization The point with on-page optimization is that it supports the content you’re creating. First and foremost, make sure the content is unique, relevant, and helps users fulfill their goals—whether that’s to buy a product, learn about your brand, or seek out other information. Once you have a list of keywords relevant to your most important offerings, it’s time to incorporate them strategically. It’s best to plan how you’ll use your keywords before the page goes live, but there are also a few on-page optimizations you can still make after publishing. Of course, there are nuances to this, but the point of evergreen SEO across this article is to be efficient and set things up well so that they can benefit you over the long term. The main on-page optimization areas involve: The page’s URL slug. A URL slug refers to the final part of the URL, which actually informs you what that specific page is about. Continuing from the floral wedding dresses example I started earlier, the URL slug above clearly targets the relevant keyword. It’s easy for users and search engines to understand the purpose of the page based on the URL slug alone, which is what you want to do as well. Try to keep your URL slugs short and to the point, without going overboard by adding as many keywords as you can (because that’s spammy). Title tag. Title tags help search engines understand what the page is about, and Google might also display them to users in the search results. Like the URL slug, the title tag can be very straightforward. Notice how the exact same keywords are used for both the URL slug and the title tag. This is significant because the consistency here makes it clearer to search engines that this particular page is specifically targeting floral wedding guest dresses. Meta description. The meta description displays underneath a search result and provides potential visitors with a description of what they can expect to find if they click through to the web page. Meta descriptions can be manually set, but Google can also rewrite these (especially if a meta description hasn’t been set for a page). Meta descriptions aren’t search ranking factors, but they can influence click-through rates. Try to keep these descriptive and enticing for users to incentivize them to click on your result. Header tags. The primary purpose of headers is to help you organize your content for readers, but they also serve that same purpose for search engines as well. To that end, it’s best practice to use your most important keyword in your H1 and supporting keywords in H2s. In the example above, there is a clear H1 that also uses the same keyword as the URL slug and title tag. In addition, there are also H2s that are product names. These are relevant to the floral wedding dress category but also perform double duty as internal links to individual product pages. Images and other relevant media. Uploading optimized images is always a great idea, but it’s an absolute necessity in some industries, like eCommerce. The images above include alternative text (alt text) that describe what the image is about. As an eCommerce website, this is crucial for leveraging product photos that can be found on other places across the web, such as Google Images. And, it’s simply invaluable for many customers to help them make buying decisions. Breaking past the basics: Structured data Schema markup (which is used to communicate structured data) is a type of code that you can add to a web page to provide search engines with more context about that page. For example, you can use it to tell search engines that a certain web page is a recipe, which could make it eligible for rich results . Rich results are search results that include additional information (beyond the typical URL, page title, and description; as shown above). They generally feature some sort of visual enhancement or interactive features. There is relevant structured data available for many different types of content, from “how-to” articles to FAQs to product and “about” pages. Identify the ones that are likely to make the biggest impression on potential customers and add it to your content creation workflow. Note: By default, Wix site owners have access to a range of structured data markup options, some of which are automatically added when you create a certain page type (Wix Stores product pages, Wix Bookings services pages, Wix Blog posts, Wix Forum posts, and Wix Events pages). Internal linking This is the definition of the 80/20 rule: You’re already creating the content. Next, all you need to do is funnel the SEO equity from the backlinks you’ve already earned across your content. This helps potential customers navigate through the buyer journey and helps Google understand the importance of your different pages and their relationship to one another. The easiest way to approach internal links is by simply linking relevant pages together. For example, an eCommerce category page will link to products within that category. Whatever your most important pages are, try to include them within the navigation bar in your website’s header. That way, they’re constantly accessible to visitors. For eCommerce websites, this might be your highest-selling/margin category pages. For services businesses, this might be your most popular service page(s). Breaking past the basics: Topic clusters When it comes to blog content, link relevant content together and focus on what would be contextually valuable to your site visitors. Topic clusters are a sophisticated, widely accepted strategy that can help you stay organized while improving your topical authority. E-E-A-T Over the last few years, Google has been raving about E-E-A-T , which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. This is essentially how websites can convince users (and Google) that they’re the real deal. That means you need to think about whether your content displays these traits—not just for Google, but for your target audience. You can convey E-E-A-T on your website by featuring a thorough “About” page that covers how long you’ve been in business and showcases your team. If you have a blog, displaying authors on blog posts and creating author bio pages can also help you show off your credibility. And, you can also provide your contact details to show that you’re a legitimate business. E-E-A-T can happen off of your website too. If you are linked to/mentioned on other websites via quotes, bylines, as well as expert interviews, or podcasts, those sources can provide strong signals to Google about your credibility within your niche. Breaking past the basics: Structured data E-E-A-T can be strengthened with structured data . On blog posts, for example, you can use BlogPosting or Article schema, incorporating an Author field which covers who wrote the piece. Within your structured data, you can provide more context and E-E-A-T signals by using the about tag to link together concepts and topics that your content is about. In the example above, I used structured data to associate the term “SEO” with the Wikipedia page for search engine pptimization. Implementing your evergreen SEO strategy Prioritization is essential for an effective evergreen SEO strategy, otherwise you’ll end up focusing on the wrong things or allocating more resources than you need to. Which tasks and areas of your website you’ll prioritize will vary depending on your industry. While the homepage is typically important for just about every type of website, websites in different industries often have different needs. Here are the most common SEO focuses for some common types of businesses: Local business — Service and location pages, as well as navigation menus Online store — Category and product pages Personal professional page — Portfolio section Blog — Blog posts (prioritize each blog post as that is the crux of your website) These are some of the more common niches, but for other types of sites, identify the main thing that attracts visitors to your site and prioritize those. Remember that the best practices from the high-impact SEO tasks section still apply for these page types. Track progress with automation You’re already investing resources into an SEO strategy , so why not track to see how it’s performing over time? You want to see if your “20%” effort is actually getting you “80%” of the way towards having an optimized website that performs for your business. Many content management systems have their own built-in reporting/automation. Wix site owners have access to traffic data via Wix Analytics , and those that have a GSC account can link their Wix account for additional metrics from Google Search . Keeping up-to-date with SEO trends and opportunities For better or worse, the job’s never finished. SEO evolves frequently and there are always new things you can learn and implement. However, you might not have the time to delve into social media and/or read every new blog or documentation that Google releases. You need to be efficient at identifying what’s changing and how it impacts your website. There are a couple of ways to do this: Set Google Alerts for related terms in your niche. Get Twitter notifications for official Google accounts . Read authoritative publications dedicated to SEO news, such as Search Engine Land , Search Engine Roundtable , and Search Engine Journal —although the content they publish is written for full-time SEO practitioners, their stories can help you better understand the changes Google makes. Evergreen SEO is effective, but eventually you’ll still need to adapt The guidance above can help your pages rank and may even enable you to sustain those rankings for a very long time, depending on your competition. But, nothing lasts forever, so be prepared to revisit this workflow when your industry changes, new competitors enter your market, or you introduce new business offerings. For the best results, take comprehensive notes so that you can iterate on my tips to form your own SEO strategy, which will have the benefit of your experience (as the SEO or business owner) and will already be tailored for your business model. Itamar Blauer - Senior SEO Director at StudioHawk Itamar Blauer is the senior SEO director at StudioHawk, a specialist SEO agency. He is an SEO trainer, speaker, author, and host of the "SEO Unplugged" podcast, sharing tips and case studies across various SEO topics. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Vinnie Wong In the pursuit of scaling your content marketing , you might have created “thin content” without realizing it. While that may sound relatively harmless, the detriment happens further down the line, in your search rankings, organic traffic, and ultimately conversions. Fortunately, understanding thin content and how to avoid it is relatively easy. Let’s break down what thin content really means, how you can spot it, and how to effectively beef up your content strategy so that thin content doesn’t hold back your brand or business. Table of contents: What is thin content? How thin content can hurt your SEO What search engines and users actually want 6 examples of thin content Incomplete content Repetitive or duplicate content Raw auto-generated content Syndicated content Low-quality affiliate pages Doorway pages What word count is best for SEO? How to identify and fix thin content Run a site audit Use canonical tags Optimize underperforming pages Consolidate or prune content Share your experience or expertise on topics What is thin content? Ever come across articles that feel like they’re just ticking boxes for Google but don’t really tell you anything useful or new? That’s thin content for you. It’s the kind of writing that stuffs in keywords to please search engines, but ends up offering nothing but fluff to the actual human user. “Thin content is like a mirage. Imagine a searcher is meandering through a desert and they see a mirage. When they get up close, they feel disappointed because it’s not what they wanted—it’s bare and has little use. Instead, your content should be an oasis. Create helpful content that gives searchers what they’ve been looking for, because that’s what search engines want to reward.” — Debbie Chew , Global SEO Manager at Dialpad Google coined the term “thin content” after the Google Panda algorithm update in February 2011. Before that time, SEO was a much less sophisticated practice and the internet was rife with sites cramming keywords into every sentence (and, in some cases, I mean every  sentence). By definition, thin content not only fails to satisfy website visitors, it actually works to frustrate them by failing to provide what the user came to your website for. To improve its overall user experience, Google updated its search algorithm to weed out pages that were simply built to rank high for search queries, but didn’t provide much value beyond that. Fast forwarding to modern-day SEO, the most blatant old-school tricks might be gone, but thin content hasn’t vanished. Even now, many businesses unintentionally fall into this trap, not realizing how it diminishes their search visibility and undermines their revenue. How thin content can hurt your SEO Producing superficial content may not seem like it will do much harm. However, it’s a trickle-down effect and centers largely on rankings and your user’s experience.  High bounce rates When visitors land on a page with thin content, their dissatisfaction is immediate. This dissatisfaction quickly translates into high bounce rates, as users leave in search of better, more informative and relevant content. SEO is intimately connected with user experience, and this relationship is often shown through high bounce rates—a clear signal that the content does not meet the audience’s needs or expectations. The impact of high bounce rates  extends beyond immediate traffic loss. It affects the site’s conversion potential. If visitors aren’t engaged or finding value, they’re less likely to interact further, impacting your site’s ability to achieve its goals, whether that’s sales, sign-ups, or engagement. Now, high bounce rates on their own sometimes aren’t a bad thing. If a page answers all of the user’s query, it’s okay if someone lands on the page and leaves without further action. However, for most business websites, high bounce rates and little time spent on the page usually indicates deeper and more serious underlying issues. Thin content could be one of them. Bounce rates vary by industry. One study  suggests that a bounce rate of 90% and above is high for blogs, whereas 45% might be considered high for eCommerce websites. Don’t fixate on those specific figures, though, as (again) your industry and how your website works can influence your bounce rate. Instead, monitor bounce rates for your high-value pages and find ways to decrease it from there. Diminished search rankings Thin content is inherently less competitive in the search results because it omits key information that your audience is seeking out. As Google continues to usher website owners to create helpful content , it also seeks to eliminate thin or spammy content from the search results. So, if your content doesn’t rise to the level that the topic requires and/or isn’t comparable to your SEO competitors ’ content, you can expect poor rankings and very little traffic. What search engines and users actually want The age-old question in content creation: write for search engines or for users? While some SEOs might say these two goals are now one and the same, the key is to aim for both, focusing more on the user while meeting SEO needs. At the heart of this balance is understanding the search intent  behind each query: “People search because they want to change something (even when they don’t know it). To satisfy search engines and users, content needs to inspire or empower the specific change the reader needs. For example, the person searching for ‘Productivity hacks for busy professionals’ might not explicitly realize it, but they may be looking to change their daily routine and habits to achieve a better work-life balance. Content that satisfies this search term should go beyond providing a list of generic productivity tips. Instead, it should tap into the deeper desire  for a better work-life balance by tying the tips it shares back to the root challenges faced by busy professionals.” — Lily Ugbaja , Head of Marketing at Marketing Cyborg To get an idea of what Google considers to be robust content, analyze top-ranking pages for the queries you’re targeting to gain insights into structure and content style. Then, differentiate your piece by weaving in unique perspectives that demonstrate Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) .  Successful content fulfills search intent while showcasing your depth of knowledge. You’re aiming to become a go-to source for users. Thin content undermines these efforts, and there are different types that you could be publishing. Let’s explore some examples. 6 examples of thin content Sometimes it’s easier to show rather than tell. After all, you may have understood the characteristics of thin content so far, yet it can still go unnoticed on your own website. There are several types of thin content to look out for: Incomplete content Repetitive/duplicate content Autogenerated content Syndicated content Low-quality affiliate pages Doorway pages Incomplete content Incomplete content is like a story that’s missing important details. Could you imagine watching a Marvel film where you’re thrown in the middle of the action, but have no idea who is fighting who or why? Then the film ends, and you’re left wondering why you paid the entrance fee.  Incomplete content is much the same. Here’s an example from an article about the basics of gardening. Compared to other high ranking articles, this seems incomplete to me as it only contains links to relevant information, rather than a guide where I can learn the basics in a quick read. I also noticed the page doesn’t even mention or have a guide about the tools you need, while all the high ranking pages at least mention them briefly. This lack of depth and context is a common issue with such content, and leaves the reader with more questions than they started with. This shortfall in content depth directly affects user engagement. Visitors encountering such incomplete information are likely to exit the site quickly, contributing to high bounce rates. This not only represents a missed opportunity for meaningful engagement, but also potentially harms SEO performance. To avoid falling into this trap, it’s crucial your content covers topics thoroughly. In the case of the gardening basics article, I’d flesh it out and write at least a few paragraphs under each point. You can use information from other articles and link to them to direct a reader there if they want to learn more, but you need to suss out what the user’s search intent is. A good place to start is in the search results. If you notice the high-ranking pages for [gardening basics] talk about certain topics at length, it’s a good idea to mention the same topics in your own content. Repetitive or duplicate content When you read the same word or phrase over and over, it loses all meaning and you’ll get sick of seeing it again (it’s called semantic satiation, in case you ever wondered). Repetitive content on different web pages has a somewhat similar effect on users. It’s like when you’re scrolling through a digital marketing blog and you spot the same advice about “boosting Your SEO” or “social media engagement hacks” across several posts. The issue is there isn’t any change in the content, meaning the advice you’re reading isn’t nuanced, fresh, or relevant to that context.  This is what we mean by duplicate or repetitive content . Why does this matter for your site’s SEO? When search engines see these copy-paste jobs, they get confused about which page to show people in search results. This mix-up can make your site less visible in search results. Plus, let’s be real, it’s pretty boring for your visitors to read the same content again and again. They might start thinking your site doesn’t have anything new to offer and look elsewhere. So, what can you do? Make sure every page or post on your site targets its own unique keyword(s) with content that’s sufficiently distinct from your other pages. Even if you’re covering similar topics, try to bring a fresh angle or new info to the table. Regularly checking your site to spot and fix any copycat content is a good move, too. For example, if you’ve published a bunch of articles about email marketing, each one should dive into different aspects. Maybe one talks about crafting catchy subject lines, while another covers the best email tools. This way, each article brings something different for your readers. Raw auto-generated content A survey last year  showed that a majority of U.S. adults are aware of ChatGPT , and many digital marketers are well aware of its content creation capabilities. Yet, relying heavily on AI for content, without editing or adding insights, can lead to thin content.  “Thin content is the generic stuff that leaves you with more questions than answers. It typically offers little in terms of novel opinion, insight, or research... Content written largely by generative AI, with little supporting research, or without the input of a subject matter expert will feel flat and generic.” — Ashwin Balakrishnan , Head of Marketing at Optmyzr AI content often recycles information without adding new insights. For example, here’s a ChatGPT article on healthy eating that’s factually correct but lacks depth, sources, and nuance.  Newer AI tools can generate templated articles, like “10 Best [Product] for [Year],” yet these lack genuine product evaluations (after all, “experience” is the first “E” in Google’s E-E-A-T). The worst cases involve scraping and stitching together content from various sites, resulting in inconsistent and jarring articles. Google’s algorithms focus on people-first content , regardless of whether it was originally written by generative AI or a human writer . So, take the time and necessary steps to enhance your content to address real audience needs, which is especially important if you’re leveraging ChatGPT (or similar technologies) for content creation. Syndicated content Syndicated content is when you take content that’s already published somewhere else, like an article or a blog post, and republish it on your own site. It’s a widespread practice that can carry huge benefits when done right. But, here’s the catch: If your site only or mostly contains syndicated content, search engines might not see your site as offering unique value.  That’s because Google loves originality. If a bunch of sites all have the same article, Google needs to figure out which one to prioritize in the search results. More often than not, it’ll choose the original source. So, if your site is full of content that’s available elsewhere, you’ll likely find it hard to climb the SEO ladder. Low-quality affiliate pages Affiliate pages that focus more on sales than quality content were one of the types of thin content that the Google Panda update (and the more recent Reviews update ) targeted. Affiliate pages can be a really helpful resource for shoppers who need more information about a product. But in an effort to make a quick buck, some affiliate marketers will create pages with “product reviews” that lack the comprehensive advice, insights, or experience users look for.  If your content aims only to promote products, you risk your reputation and may incur a Google penalty for thin content . Such pages offer minimal value and can negatively impact your site’s SEO performance. For example, here’s a recent article from a reputable domain about headphones. As well structured as the article is (and as pretty as the visuals are), I felt it lacks any useful information that an average reader needs. The quote from the sound producer doesn’t add much, and the article doesn’t go into any depth to show that the authors even own their own pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones. As a reader, how can I trust the product recommendation when you don’t show any experience using the product under different use cases? I also noticed the number of affiliate links to product landing pages , but none to any individual reviews of the recommended products. On the other hand, I found this website (shown above) to have useful product reviews. After spending some time on their site, I felt more confident checking out their recommendations from similar roundup pages because I know they take the time to review each product themselves. All of their product reviews share pros and cons and several pictures of what the product looks like in use, along with the dimensions of the person wearing it so you can gauge if it’s a good fit for you. I particularly liked the timeline they share at the end of each review, as it indicates the reviewers didn’t base their conclusion on a single use but over a period of time. Now, this example of a high-quality affiliate page isn’t scalable or practical for everyone to do. Instead, the lesson to learn for these types of content is that a little effort spent sharing your experience with a product can go a long way in terms of transforming your content from thin to substantial. Rather than just listing product features, list practical applications, offer balanced reviews, and share insights that inform your readers. Offer honest reviews that discuss both strengths and weaknesses, helping readers build trust in your website and make informed decisions. Quality content should serve the reader first, with the promotion of products as a secondary goal. Doorway pages Doorway (or gateway) pages are a bit like the misleading turns in a maze. They’re designed to catch the eye and pull users towards other revenue-focused areas of your site.  These pages are often stuffed with a whole bunch of keywords, hoping to convince search engines of their relevance, but they fall short in giving users what they actually need. Like Debbie Chew mentioned earlier, you’re shown a mirage when you need an oasis. Google’s not a fan of these pages, and for a good reason—they don’t meet user needs and muddle up search results. In practice, this could look like a site with several individually indexed pages that all have the same content on the page, except a few differing words here and there. For example, a site might have several pages like “Best food for dogs in Texas,” “Best food for dogs in Houston,” and “Best food for dogs in New York,” all leading essentially to the same content or product. While this approach worked in the past, it’s frowned upon and your site could be penalized if search engines detect that you have doorway pages. This tactic might yield some ill-gotten clicks and conversions, but it won’t win any trust or loyalty from your audience. What word count is best for SEO? So for your own blog or site, how much should you write? Thankfully, there isn’t a magical formula:  “It depends. I know that’s some sort of SEO joke, but it really just depends. Being thorough and succinct is an art form that pays dividends. There’s ‘clearly too little’ content and ‘clearly too much fluff’ content. Finding the happy medium is the key. Writing as if you’re speaking to a human is the best way to find that happy medium.” — Tess Voecks, VP of Operations at Rickety Roo If you’ve been following along so far, you’ll have noticed that search intent is a common theme. On a very fundamental level, the basic intent behind many search queries is that the user is looking for an answer. How long should the answer be depends on the breadth and depth of the question being asked. For example, if you were in conversation with someone and you asked, “What’s the speed limit in California?” you’d expect a brief answer (65mph on a multilane highway, 55mph on a two lane undivided roadway, in case you needed to know). If the other person spent 20 minutes talking about California’s history, you’d be taken aback by this information overload. Likewise, if you asked which is the best country to live in, which is a subjective and broad topic based on multiple factors, you’d be surprised if someone responded, “The USA. It’s the best.” These are facetious examples, but if you treat content the same way, you’ll have a better idea of how much content you need to answer a search query in full. How to identify and fix thin content There are several ways to tackle thin content and shore up the gaps to improve your SEO. Run a site audit First things first, you need to figure out where the problems are. Running a site audit  is like doing a health check for your website and can help you pinpoint areas you need to address.  Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to scan your site for thin content. These tools can highlight pages with low word counts or duplicated content across your site. Each tool will have their own interface and pricing plans, but you want one that can show you a content or SEO gap analysis . Use canonical tags Canonical tags  help you tell search engines which version of a similar page is the “main” one. Let’s say your site has multiple pages that are similar in content. Without canonical tags, search engines might get confused about which one to prioritize, leading to SEO issues like diluted page authority. By using the rel="canonical" tag, you effectively say, “Hey, this is the main page I want you to pay attention to.” Alternatively, where you have duplicate content that serves a purpose for your users but might not be ideal for search engines, consider using the noindex tag. This tag tells search engines not to include these pages in search results. After you’ve done a major content overhaul, especially if you’ve addressed issues like duplicate content, using canonical tags is a good way to let Google know. You can do this through a reconsideration request via Google Search Console . This step can be important if your site received a penalty in the past. Optimize underperforming pages Found some pages that aren’t pulling their weight? It’s time to give them a content refresh . Look for pages that have high bounce rates or low engagement and spruce them up.  Refreshing content doesn’t just mean republishing it with a new date. It’s about making meaningful updates. This could include:  Analyzing competing URLs to see what they’re doing differently Finding new rich snippet  opportunities Identifying relevant keywords to expand your content Updating screenshots and videos Revising time-sensitive data like stats and dates Updating your CTAs  and forms to align with your current conversion strategies How often should you refresh content? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but a general guideline is the 25% rule. If you’re adding new content regularly, try to focus about a quarter of your efforts on updating existing material. This approach helps ensure a balanced content strategy, keeping your site fresh and relevant. Consolidate or prune content Sometimes, less is more. If you’ve got several short blog posts on similar topics, each one is like a puzzle piece, offering a bit of the picture but not the whole story. Consolidating these posts  creates a comprehensive guide that not only provides more value to your readers but also strengthens your SEO. While SEO should not be the only consideration when merging content (business considerations come into play as well), if your content is cannibalizing keyword performance , then it’s certainly something you should look into. On the flip side, if you’ve got content that’s outdated or no longer relevant, it might be time to prune it. This helps keep your site fresh and focused. Think of it as tending to a garden—you want to nurture the plants that are thriving and remove the ones that aren’t. Both consolidation and pruning are about optimizing the quality and relevance of your content. By consolidating, you enhance the depth and value of your content, and by pruning, you refine your site’s focus and clarity. This approach can not only improve user experience but also aligns with search engines’ preference for comprehensive, high-quality content.  Remember, in the world of content, it’s not just about quantity—it’s about the richness and relevance of what you offer. Share your experience or expertise on topics Nothing beats a personal touch. If you’re knowledgeable about a topic, don’t hold back. Share your experiences, insights, and personal stories. Search engines actively reward and prioritize pages that demonstrate expertise.  Where you can, you want to convey E-E-A-T. To that end, treat your content the same way you’d share information with someone to show you’re knowledgeable and trustworthy. For instance, if you’re writing about travel, don’t just list places to visit—add stories from your travels, tips you’ve learned, and insights only you can offer.  There are many ways to signal E-E-A-T , but perhaps one of the most potent for your overall SEO might be to build links  to your most valuable content. Users don’t care for thin content—write with them in mind Thin content can easily fly under your SEO radar, but left unchecked, it could cause deeper issues and knock-on effects that become more difficult to fix. Remember, Google’s not trying to make life harder for website owners. It’s just championing the cause of valuable, rich content that serves readers. Whether it’s avoiding the pitfalls of duplicate content, optimizing your underperforming pages, or bringing a personal touch to what you write, the goal is the same: provide real value. Vinnie Wong - Founder and Chief Strategist at Content Cartography   Vinnie is a content expert with over 5 years of SEO and content marketing experience. He's worked with Ahrefs, Empire Flippers, and is committed to crafting exceptional content and educating others on the symbiotic relationship between content creation and effective link building. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Cari O’Brien Roles abound within content marketing , from the junior copywriter to the content marketing manager all the way up to the chief content officer (in some organizations). Each role carries its own core responsibilities, preferred qualifications, and qualities—all of which should be considered when you’re on the path to advancing into a managerial or strategy-focused role.  In this article, I’ll explain what businesses typically look for when onboarding a content marketing manager. If you’re considering this role or something similar for your career, read on to learn what the role requires and how to achieve success.  Table of contents: What is a content marketing manager? The 7 core content marketing manager responsibilities Preferred skills and qualifications The average content marketing manager salary How to become a successful content marketing manager What is a content marketing manager?  Content marketing managers (CMMs) are responsible for driving a business’s overarching content marketing strategy and ensuring it aligns with the company’s goals. The CMM is also often the direct manager of the content marketing team, overseeing the daily efforts of:  Content strategists SEO specialists Copywriters Editors Social media marketers Etc. It’s up to the content marketing manager to ensure their team employs tactics that deliver the desired results. This ranges from building a strong brand to driving qualified leads across the content spectrum (e.g., email, website, paid ads). The CMM will determine which channels to focus on, plan the content calendar, and implement workflows to make it happen.  In addition to collaborating with their team to compose and apply the ideal strategy for the business, the CMM also works closely with management and usually reports to the chief content officer, head of marketing, or chief marketing officer. The CMM tracks and analyzes all content marketing campaigns and creates reports  on those campaigns for management. The CMM is then responsible for extracting insights from those analyses and adjusting campaigns accordingly. What’s the difference between a content marketing manager and a content manager? You may find job postings for content managers when searching for content marketing manager positions. While the two roles are pretty similar in name, they can be vastly different in scope and scale. Generally speaking, here are some key differences between the two: Content marketing manager Content manager Core responsibilities Strategy and goal-setting Brand alignment Team management Data analysis Content creation Editorial and optimization Publication and distribution Project management Key qualities Strategic thinker Strong leader Clear communicator Creative Organized Collaborative Preferred skills Audience development Competitive analysis Strategy development Budget management Performance analysis and reporting Writing and editing Keyword research Content optimization Social media marketing Content distribution and promotion Measures of success Return on investment (lead generation) Content quality and engagement In summary, a content marketing manager leads the strategy for the content team while the content manager implements that strategy.  The 7 core content marketing manager responsibilities After reviewing content marketing manager job descriptions on various job boards and company websites, it's clear there’s a set of core competencies that span most listings. Here are the seven content marketing manager responsibilities you should expect to see as part of any position you apply for.  01. Content strategy development Core responsibilities: – Crafting a compelling content strategy that fits the company’s brand  – Aligning content with overall business objectives – Determining key performance indicators (KPIs) As a prospective content marketing manager, your work largely centers around the ideation, creation, and execution of the company’s overarching content strategy. This strategy should include all channels of content that matter to the company, from copywriting to search marketing, podcasting  to video marketing, graphic design to email marketing, and more. “When I was managing content at Codementor, I would regularly remind our team that content was really 20% copy and 80% distribution. Don't just spend time on crafting good content—you have to work on getting it in front of your target audience. If good content is the tree that falls in the forest and no one sees it, is it really good content?” — Debbie Chew , Global SEO Manager at Dialpad Most importantly, the CMM must know how to align the content strategy to the company’s growth goals. You’ll need to have a keen ability to see the big picture while also being able to create a measurable path forward. This includes identifying the primary metrics by which to measure success . 02. Competitor and audience research Core responsibilities: – Conducting competitor research  – Defining the ideal audience(s) to target with content You need to be crystal clear on the audience you’re pursuing and understand where the business stands in the competitive landscape to create a worthwhile content marketing strategy.  The CMM will lead the way in competitor research and ideal audience definition. That research then serves as the basis for content planning and execution. 03. Content planning Core responsibilities: – Selecting marketing channels  – Setting budgets Once the CMM creates the strategy and defines the competition and audience, the next step is to provide detailed direction regarding which channels to pursue to reach the brand’s audience. Having identified the channels and the scope of work for each channel, the CMM then sets the department budget accordingly and keeps track of expenses to stay within budget. 04. Team management Core responsibilities: – Creating job descriptions and setting performance expectations – Hiring and managing team members The content marketing manager’s responsibilities include hiring and managing their own team, so proven leadership skills and management experience are prerequisites. This team could be a team of one or a multi-departmental team of numerous specialists within various departments. “Success in content marketing is deeply intertwined with collaboration. Every time I get on a call with my manager, we feed off each other and brainstorm or validate ideas we can implement for the Moz content team. I encourage new managers to build relationships with other team members, including the wider marketing team.” — Chima Mmeje , Senior Content Marketing Manager at Moz Since the CMM determines the content marketing strategy, they are crucial to identifying the team members needed to implement the strategy. The CMM will craft job descriptions, run performance reviews, lead the team in group meetings, one-on-one conversations, and everything in between. 05. Content oversight Core responsibilities: – Creating efficient content marketing processes – Ensuring high-quality content creation that aligns with company goals and branding The CMM not only oversees the teammates implementing the content strategy, they also oversee the work itself. The CMM will build the processes necessary to implement the strategy (e.g., writer selection, publishing cadence, editorial workflow, periodic reporting, etc.), emphasizing brand standards and working towards the business’s overall goals. 06. Search engine optimization Core responsibilities: – Implementing SEO best practices  in content creation – Monitoring and adapting to search engine algorithms Every content marketing manager should be comfortable with search engine optimization. It’s imperative that the CMM stays up-to-date with SEO best practices and emerging trends (e.g., generative AI ) and can translate that knowledge into actionable tactics. “SEO is the primary distribution channel I invest in for most of my clients, it’s also the channel I understand most and I can’t overstate the importance of it. However, basic SEO knowledge may be sufficient for some content brands. Let’s say you’re creating a new category, people need your product but they don't know what they should be searching for. In that case, basic SEO best practices would suffice while you focus your attention on awareness content on discovery platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn.” — Lily Ugbaja , Founder and Head of Marketing, Marketing Cyborg 07. Performance analysis and reporting Core responsibilities: – Using analytics tools to assess content performance – Generating reports and adjusting strategies based on data – Presenting data and results to leadership A CMM’s success ties directly to the success of the strategy and tactics they set in place. So, a skilled content marketing manager must know how to use analytics  tools to gain insights into which tactics are working (and which aren’t).  The CMM must also regularly interpret analytics data for the company’s leadership and identify how to adjust efforts when the results aren’t as expected.  Preferred skills and qualities for content marketing managers “ Every content marketing manager has specific experiences, but in my case, the skills that served me well (thus far): – Curiosity (constantly asking questions and wondering why things are) – Asking good questions – SEO – Writing – Knowing how content ties into business goals – Knowing how to give feedback on drafts” — Si Quan Ong , Senior Content Marketer at Ahrefs Knowing what content marketing managers are responsible for helps you gain clarity around which skills and qualities would make you a strong candidate. Let’s walk through several content marketing manager skills you’ll want to emphasize on your resume. Hard skills   Here are a handful of hard skills mentioned across numerous content marketing manager job descriptions and why they matter. Research: To create a comprehensive strategy, you must know how to research everything from your company to your competitors to your audience. You need to know how to find information quickly and how to use that information to gain a competitive advantage. SEO:  You’ll need a solid understanding of search engine optimization. Show that you have experience with various keyword research tools and website CMSs and that you’re comfortable with various aspects of optimization, including both on-page  and off-page efforts . Analytics and reporting: The CMM reports on content performance to leadership. In this role, you must be comfortable and confident with using analytics tools (e.g., search engine analytics, email marketing analytics, social media analytics, etc.) to gauge ongoing performance. Writing and editing: Strong writing skills are a necessity, whether you’re writing all the copy or only a few thought leadership pieces each year. You’ll need to be able to differentiate between good writing and bland content, both during the hiring and publication processes. You may also be in charge of editing content, so having an editing portfolio is also a good idea. Soft skills While hard skills are imperative to your success as a content marketing manager, they can be taught. Soft skills, on the other hand, can only be developed—they can’t build from nothing. The following soft skills will put you ahead of the pack when applying for CMM positions. Leadership: While management experience may not be a prerequisite for a content marketing manager role, leadership skills are. You need to convey yourself as someone who can influence, direct, and define processes and people. Communication: Excellent communication skills are paramount. These include clearly communicating information to others and actively listening and soliciting input. You’ll need to show you’re a good communicator in writing and orally and that you can communicate well with all stakeholders (e.g., leadership, direct reports, clients, strategic partners, etc). Problem-solving: Content marketing managers must consistently review the team’s efforts and make adjustments on an ongoing basis. Your ability to think critically, analyze situations, identify potential solutions, and make informed decisions will undoubtedly help you stand out from other candidates. Adaptability:  From the release of new marketing platforms to expanding privacy concerns to groundbreaking new technologies , the digital marketing industry changes constantly. You must be comfortable with change and have the ability to adapt your approach to keep your strategy relevant and effective. What is the average content marketing manager salary? The average content marketing manager salary can vary greatly depending on location and experience.  According to Payscale , the average salary is just over $74,000, whereas Glassdoor  says the average is just under $88,000 annually. Both platforms suggest that the low-end annual pay is between $51,000 and $65,000, and the high-end ranges between $105,000 and $113,000. How to become a successful content marketing manager  Here are some steps you can take to maximize your chances of success as a content marketing manager. Some may take much more time than others, but they’re each worth your time and effort.  Get a good education A majority of employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree (or higher). If you can invest in a college degree, do it. While some employers prefer candidates with marketing degrees, many others don’t state a preference. If a four-year degree is out of the question, you can also gain the necessary education from hands-on experience. The more years of experience you have in content roles and specific areas of content marketing, the more you can show a proven track record of success, and the less important a college degree becomes. Write, write, and write some more Writing and publishing your own work is the bread and butter of content marketing. This will help build your reputation as a thought leader in your niche. It will also help build your portfolio to show prospective employers your strong writing and editing skills.  Ghostwriting can be as important here as writing under your own name. With ghostwriting, you can show your ability to adapt your writing to different voices, platforms, and industries. This versatility can be just what you need to ensure your application stands apart. Learn SEO and analytics A growing number of content roles require experience with SEO and analytics tools. Start to play with these tools in your free time if you don’t use them for your day job.  There are numerous places you can start your journey, including right here on the Wix SEO Learning Hub . There are also numerous guides and courses online to help you use search analytics tools like Google Analytics  and Bing Webmaster Tools. Take advantage of these resources to help build your hard skill set.  Get familiar with popular marketing tech tools Aside from SEO and analytics tools, you’ll also want to become familiar with popular tech tools that companies rely on to market their products and services. With over 11,000  marketing tech tools available to you, there’s no way you’ll be comfortable with everything. However, it’s a smart idea to get familiar with a tool or two within each of these primary areas:  AI content generators (e.g., ChatGPT , Jasper) AI image and video generators (e.g., Dall-E 3, Synthesia.io ) Research (e.g., Qualtrics, BuzzSumo) Collaboration (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Slack) Content management system (e.g., Wix, etc.) Document and file management (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox) Image and graphic design (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Canva)  Project management (e.g., Asana, ClickUp) Email marketing (e.g., ActiveCampaign, MailChimp) Social listening and brand monitoring (e.g., Brandwatch, TweetDeck) Social media marketing (e.g., Hootsuite, SproutSocial) Video marketing (e.g., Streamyard, Wave Video) Build your personal brand and network The more you get your name out there and the more recognizable you become, the easier it’ll be to land the job. Publishing content on your own blog or popular platforms like LinkedIn or Medium is a great start, but there’s so much more you can do. Consider making networking a regular part of your schedule. Attend industry conferences, join a professional association, and reach out to close connections on LinkedIn every once in a while. And, if you’re not afraid of public speaking, apply to present at a local event or national conference.  Seek leadership opportunities  If you have limited management experience, there are still many opportunities to showcase your leadership abilities. Consider starting small at your company by asking for a special project to take the lead on. Spearhead a local initiative in your community. Volunteer for board service.  No matter how you gain leadership experience, understand that being a leader means more than delegating work. It means showing you can act with integrity, empathy, conviction, passion, and positivity. It means being a positive role model who doesn’t shy away from doing the work or making the tough decisions. Get comfortable with change Digital marketing is ever-evolving, and you must also be willing to evolve to remain relevant. Stay up to date with what’s happening by reading industry publications such as blogs and newsletters. Adjust your processes and tools as needed to stay current. And always approach this work with an open mind and keen curiosity.  It’s also a good idea to keep a record of how you’ve successfully navigated industry changes in the past, as potential employers may look for that reassurance. Opportunities abound in the world of content marketing When it comes to defining what a content marketing manager’s role is, not all job descriptions are the same. However, nearly all require strategic planning, team management, campaign direction and oversight, and performance monitoring and reporting. Some (especially smaller companies) require content creation, publication, and distribution, as well.  Regardless, there’s a strong demand for individuals who can provide the direction and management needed to develop a robust brand, define and implement a strategy, and drive sales-qualified leads.  Cari O'Brien - Chief Word Nerd & Founder at Custom Content Solutions   Cari O'Brien is Founder and Chief Word Nerd at Custom Content Solutions , a digital content agency. She’s the creator of the Connection Copywriting Method and the online course, Write That Site. She’s a frequent speaker on branding and copywriting. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Miriam Ellis The low-code revolution of recent years has quietly but profoundly changed how local businesses market themselves online. Just a decade ago (when I was still hand-coding websites in HTML and CSS for small- and medium-sized brands), a need for basic programming brought many business owners to my agency. Companies struggled to achieve a professional digital presence without substantial help from designers and programmers, and if budget drove them to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) content management system, the available solutions often lacked essential SEO capabilities. This could create a cycle of failure for the owner, whose poorly optimized website wouldn’t be able to achieve their organic search visibility goals or contribute to their local search rankings. Ultimately, that would mean fewer opportunities for revenue, which could become a major cause of business closure. Gradually, and without much fanfare, that dynamic has changed completely. For someone like me, a local SEO consultant, the big shift has meant transitioning from website design to consulting. For local business owners, this evolution can best be described as moving from a challenging place of needing to know code to a softer spot of needing to know tools . The learning curve has become much less steep, and today, we’ll look at the two major causes of this metamorphosis, and provide you with a useful tutorial on the three foundational elements it takes to succeed in the modern SEO and marketing of local businesses. Why low-code platforms are great for most local businesses The first thing all local business owners in search of success should do is clearly define the amount of revenue they will need to earn to call their venture a winner. This figure will be unique to each situation/business. For example, I live in a rural part of Northern California, where many of my neighbors succeed at earning a little pocket money by selling vegetables or eggs at honor-system roadside stands. Their revenue goals are so modest that no phone number is needed, no website has to be built, and no SEO is required. They simply hang a sign at the end of their driveway to start enjoying microbusiness-sized rewards. Talk about low-tech! For most small businesses, though, revenue goals will be higher and achieving them will require some investment in online marketing. The surprising thing is how few assets you actually need to begin winning customers. Two key factors are the chief contributors to this low-code phenomenon: 01. Easier, better content management systems As discussed earlier, older content management system (CMS) solutions often produced low-quality websites lacking basic SEO components. Today, there are multiple platforms with excellent website development software that enable small business owners to publish and publicize an online presence that not only looks professional, but that can be substantially optimized for maximum search visibility . The low-code revolution has helped level the playing field in this regard. Putting programmatic needs behind the scenes allows SMBs to focus on telling their unique stories and communicating with their customers, instead of trying to become programmers in their very limited spare time. 02. Google has cemented a low-code approach to local search marketing In 2005, Google launched its local search offering—Google Maps. Since then, it has grown to become the solution of choice for most customers navigating the local commercial scene. Google Business Profiles (listings of local businesses in Google’s search results) now drive more local business leads than organic results—as much as six times more leads in some industries . Business owners don’t need to know any code to create and optimize a Google Business Profile, and they only need tiny snippets of code to fully track performance. Even more than improvements in CMS SEO capabilities, GBP’s centrality to local business revenue goals has cemented the low-code approach to local search marketing. Unless your business plans to custom-develop apps or other high-tech solutions, your SEO and marketing plan will rely substantially on three major components, and we’ll look at these next. The three SEO factors of local business success Achieving visibility for your local business means you must ultimately understand and fulfill the intent of searchers in your area. It can be useful to think of this activity as consisting of three buckets that work together like the parts of a water wheel—continuously in motion, contributing to one another with a unified purpose. Bucket #1: Optimize your website for customer intent As mentioned above, a modern CMS removes the burden of needing to know code or hire programmers in most small business cases. Just be sure that the solution you choose doesn’t limit the amount of content you can publish and enables you to optimize all of the following elements: Page URLs Title tags Menus/ internal links Header tags Meta description tags Alt text and tags Images Sitemaps (Note: Wix automatically updates and optimizes sitemaps for users) Robots.txt configuration URL status codes (300 and 400 codes) Your CMS should make managing each of these elements possible with a few clicks, but it’s what you actually do with these elements that can influence how many leads your business receives from the web. You may not need to know code, but you do need to become skilled at using these two approaches to understand and fulfill local intent on your website: Market research Polling and surveying the community you serve is the most direct method of discovering exactly what they need and want . If you have already grown a social media following on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok, regularly poll your audience to discover unmet needs and grow your products/services to include them. If you do not yet have a social following and have never conducted a poll before, some options include: Handing out survey cards at your place of business Embedding a survey on your website with a small reward for participants Conducting an email-based survey (if you have begun to establish an email database) Starting a phone- or text-based survey campaign Hiring a company like SurveyMonkey to conduct a professional survey for you (provided your survey group can have geographic limits placed on it) Keyword research You will want to take all of the data from your polls and surveys and combine it with formal keyword research . There are good free keyword research tools like Answer the Public and Google Keyword Planner , as well as a variety of sophisticated paid tools. The only drawback of standard keyword research tools for local businesses is that they cannot be accurately refined to a limited geography (like a smaller city). If you live in a major city and want to know how many people are searching for organic vegan tacos san francisco , the numbers keyword tools show you may be somewhat accurate, but if you’re doing business in a small town, volume estimates will not be reliable. Instead, the best practice is to do your keyword research without geographic modifiers (like city names, neighborhood names, or zip codes) to get an overall sense of demand. Then, add back in those geo-modifiers when you optimize your website for these terms. The key to deriving the most benefit from both types of research is to pay attention to exactly how potential customers talk about and search for the goods and services you offer (or may offer in the future). These are the terms you will use to optimize the URLs, titles, tags, internal links, and text of your website. While little or no code may be needed, outstanding knowledge of your community is a necessity! Bucket #2: Optimize your Google Business Profile for success To build a powerful Google Business Profile (GBP)—one that’s not hindered by novice mistakes—you should familiarize yourself with Google’s guidelines for representing your business . These guidelines determine your eligibility to be listed in Google’s local platform, and tell you what you can and can’t do with the various components of your listings. Local businesses looking to compete should fill out every possible field in the new merchant experience editor. GBPs bring us to one of the key moments in the low-code scenario, because in order to track the performance of your listings, you will need to know something about URLs and Urchin Tracking Models (UTMs) . When you add UTMs to specific elements of your listings and a user interacts with those elements, it will be recorded in your Google Analytics for analysis. For the best tutorial on all the places you can utilize UTMs on your Google Business Profile, watch Claire Carlile’s excellent presentation . Beyond this, no code is absolutely required, and there are five crucial elements of your listing that directly impact its rank in Google’s local results: Business title Google’s guidelines state that you should list your business by its real-world name with no additions (with some special rules for scenarios like co-located businesses and multi-practitioner firms). However, because the name of the business has been shown to influence its local search rankings, local business owners may be tempted to add extraneous keywords to their business titles . If detected, Google may remove these words from the title. The best practice is to follow the guidelines. If, however, your business name is in some way holding you back from achieving your visibility goals (as in the case of a business named “San Diego Tacos” opening new branches in multiple cities), you always have the option to formally rebrand your company. Categories Your keyword and market research should inform the categories you choose for your business . Miscategorization may result in invisibility in Google’s local packs, finders, and Maps. To that end: - Read Google’s tips for choosing categories - Use a browser extension like GMB Spy to see all the categories your local competitors are using - Select as many categories as are relevant to the business while avoiding redundancy For example, if you are marketing a Mexican restaurant, there is no need to use “restaurant” as well as “mexican restaurant” for your categories. The more specific category is generally the better choice. Website When filling out your GBP, you have the option to link it to a page on your website. Typically, the homepage of a small business website will have accrued the most authority and is the best choice to link to from the listing. However, there are cases in which multi-practitioner or multi-location brands will link from each listing to its respective page on the website to provide a more streamlined user experience. The fact that the website URL contributes to local search rankings strongly highlights how crucial it is for small businesses to have a professional, SEO-enabled website. Services One recently discovered local search ranking factor relates to the services that Google auto-suggests to certain businesses while the listing is being created. This is not to be confused with geographic service areas. You can read more about adding services to your listing in this Google support doc , and it’s a best practice to select as many of the suggested services as are relevant to your business model. Reviews The number of reviews a business earns has been shown to impact rank. Current thought leadership in the local SEO industry asserts that the first ranking impact can be seen when a business earns its first ten reviews, with diminishing returns following that. It’s theorized that there is a subsequent benchmark which could possibly be achieving 100 reviews, but this is a matter of debate. The ideal approach to reviews is to avoid any of the forbidden tactics outlined in Google’s prohibited content guidelines , and to receive a steady drip of reviews over time (rather than a big wave all at once). Getting too many reviews too quickly can cause Google to flag them. Taken altogether, these five factors will go far towards contributing to your lead and revenue goals, and the last factor is of such importance that it goes in its own bucket below. Bucket #3: Acquire and manage reviews Google-based reviews not only impact Google’s local search rankings, they are also an SEO and conversion factor . On the SEO side, Google excerpts language from reviews and displays it within the local search results in a feature known as “justifications.” So, if a searcher is looking for great food near me, and one of your reviewers has written “great food!” (as shown above), Google may embellish how your business appears in the local packs by including that review language in a highly visible spot in the local pack. From a conversion standpoint, a recent large-scale survey I conducted at Moz found that 96% of US consumers read local business reviews and 86% say reviews are either the most important or a somewhat important contributor to whether they give a specific business a try. Reviews can become strong contributors to meeting your revenue goals when you take the following approach: 01. Understand that excellent customer service is required to earn positive reviews. What happens in your store and on your website is what customers will write about when they review your business. Investing in customer satisfaction via staff training and generous consumer guarantees are essential for earning a positive, lucrative reputation. 02. So long as it does not violate the guidelines of the review platform, actively ask for reviews at the time of service, or via email or text shortly thereafter. 03. Respond to all reviews . In the survey mentioned above, I found that the majority of reviewers want to hear back from you within two or fewer days. In the case of negative reviews, the quicker you respond, the better. An apologetic, problem-solving owner’s response to a negative review can salvage your relationship with the customer and your good name in the public eye. 04. Promote your best reviews . Republish them as Google Posts , social media posts, on your website, and on in-store signage. I’ve found that only 11% of the public trust what brands say about themselves as much as they trust what consumers say, so put your customers’ praise everywhere you can. Low-code is the best of both worlds for local businesses With all three buckets on your water wheel feeding into one another, your local business will have covered all the elements essential to succeed in search. And you will have done it all with little or no knowledge of code. The journey isn’t over, though—you need to keep your water wheel going to ensure you stay ahead of competitors and continue to reach new audiences. Miriam Ellis - Local SEO Subject Matter Expert at Moz Miriam Ellis is a local SEO columnist and consultant. She has been cited as one of the top five most prolific women writers in the SEO industry. Miriam is also an award-winning fine artist and her work can be seen at MiriamEllis.com . 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Author: Krystal Taing Your business’s website and its Google Business Profile are considered the mainstays of local SEO . But, simply covering the essentials leaves a lot on the table for your competitors to take advantage of. Extending your local business’s online presence to Apple Maps enables you to create an entry point in one of the only digital ecosystems that rivals Google’s. Whether you’re new to Apple Maps or eager to learn more about how to better optimize your listing with Apple Business Connect, my goal is to equip you with the knowledge and strategies you need to attract and convert more customers on Apple. Get ready to dive into everything you need to know to harness the power of Apple Business Connect and make your mark on Apple Maps. Table of contents: What is Apple Maps? Apple Business Connect and its place in your local SEO toolkit What makes Apple Maps unique for local SEO? The launch of Apple Business Connect A guide to Apple Business Connect for local businesses Creating your business with Apple Business Connect Apple Business Connect features: Completing your Place Card Measuring your success on Apple Maps with performance data What is Apple Maps? Launched in 2012, Apple Maps is a feature-rich navigation app that is available on Apple’s iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS operating systems. In addition to providing driving directions, Apple Maps includes a variety of tools to help users plan their routes and explore their surroundings. Users can search for nearby restaurants, shops, and other businesses, and view ratings, reviews , and photos from other users. Similar to other search engines and navigation sites (e.g., Google Maps, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc.), you should ensure that your business information (address, phone number, hours of operation, website URL, etc.) is accurate and up-to-date on these platforms so that it is easier for potential customers to find you. Apple Business Connect and its place in your local SEO toolkit It’s never been more important to meet shoppers where they are. That having been said, there are many platforms to choose from when determining where to focus your local SEO efforts. In terms of search market share, Apple Maps has been the default navigation app on all iPhones and iPads since 2012. This accounts for a potential active user base of over one billion devices worldwide and makes Apple Maps one of the most widely used navigation applications in the world. With the number of users searching on Apple Maps every day, ensuring your business profile appears accurately and is engaging is imperative. “Apple crossed the 1 billion active iPhones milestone [in 2021], after selling its billionth iPhone in 2016 and then hitting 900 million active iPhone users in 2019.” — Tom Warren, The Verge Apple Maps has continued to innovate its features over the last 10 years, with a focus on improving user experience. The launch of Apple Business Connect is in line with this trend and delivers more relevant information to searchers and provides a much improved experience for businesses as well. The level of effort to claim, update, and publish your business on Apple Maps for a single location is fairly minimal, but the potential impact is high. As an additional local citation , Apple Maps should definitely be one of your top considerations. What makes Apple Maps unique for local SEO? The ways in which a consumer may search for a business or product information depends on where they are in their buying journey. At its core, Apple Maps is a navigation application, which sets it apart from the likes of Google, Bing, and Yelp (which are search engines). This means that when users go to Apple Maps, they typically have some type of destination or action in mind, and are ready to plan out their trip. At this stage though, there is still an opportunity to present searchers with information that can have an influence on their buying decision. This is why it’s critical to complete your business listing on Apple, as potential customers are in a critical buying stage. One limitation, however, is that Apple Maps currently only supports brick-and-mortar businesses. Local businesses that provide their service at their customer’s locations, and do not display their address, are not eligible for a listing (e.g., landscapers, electricians, etc). The launch of Apple Business Connect In January of 2023, Apple launched Apple Business Connect , making it easier for businesses to claim, manage, and optimize their Apple Maps listings. The much anticipated launch of Apple Business Connect replaced what was previously known as “Maps Connect,” which was a more rudimentary interface that allowed businesses to update their basic location information. Although Maps Connect has been available for businesses to manage their location data, Apple Maps also relies on data from third-party partners like Foursquare, Yelp, and Tripadvisor to provide business information, ratings, and reviews. Apple will continue to maintain its integration with Yelp, which allows customers to see Yelp photos and reviews in the business details (also known as “Place Cards”). Apple Business Connect takes this even further, allowing you to enhance your business listings with important details that were previously lacking and providing you with performance data (more on this below), enabling you to create better optimized and richer listings. A guide to Apple Business Connect for local businesses Apple has been gathering and publishing business data for years, so it’s entirely possible that your business information already exists on Apple Maps. Business Connect makes it easier to take control of that business information, further enhancing your profile with all of the details you want to share with customers. While the availability of features may be limited by region, Apple Maps is available in over 200 countries around the world, so the majority of businesses globally can use Apple Business Connect. Apple Business Connect also supports businesses of all sizes, whether you have one location or thousands. Creating your business with Apple Business Connect Apple categorizes businesses into two types in order to get started on Apple Business Connect. You can either be: One business with fewer than 25 locations One/multiple businesses with more than 25 locations For businesses that fall into the second category, Apple Business Connect offers the ability to delegate profile management to a third-party. This means if you are leveraging an SEO agency or third-party tool to manage your listings, you can continue to do so on Apple Maps as well. The agency or third-party just needs to be approved as an API partner and then you can delegate (or share) your business with them to manage on your behalf. When you’re ready to configure your accounts and listings, proceed to Apple Business Connect and select the blue “Get Started” button. 01. The first thing you need to do is log in or create an Apple ID that will connect to your business on Apple Maps. Once you’ve created and logged into your account with your Apple ID, you will be prompted to begin setting up your business. Be aware that Apple requires some information in order to verify your affiliation with the business. To begin, you need to provide: Your business’s legal name (this does not have to be the customer-facing name if that differs; you will have the opportunity to set your display name once your business is verified.) Your business’s country or region Your business’s physical address Your business’s phone number (used for verification) You should also add more details about your location (including descriptions, images, and so on) once you’ve created and verified your business. 02. Once logged in, Apple will prompt you to select your business type. Your options are: a. Small Business — As mentioned above, these can be individual businesses or franchise-style businesses with between 1 and 24 locations. b. Enterprise — Businesses with 25 or more locations. c. Third-Party Partner — This category is for tools and agencies that manage Apple Maps listings for other Small Businesses and Enterprises. 03. Next, Apple Business Connect will walk you through the five-step process for creating your business. You will need to search for your business to determine if it already exists on Apple Maps. If you find the correct business, select it and proceed to the next step. If it doesn’t already exist on Apple Maps, select “Add a new location with this name.” 04. Next, you will fill out or confirm the rest of your business details, as well as confirm the location of your entrance (on the map). 05. You will then be prompted to add your operating hours, including holiday and secondary hours. These hours (as well as any additional details) will not be published to your Apple Maps Place Card until you complete all steps and verify your business. It’s still important to ensure this information is accurate as Apple will review your information during the verification process. 06. Once you have completed these steps, you will be prompted for verification. Based on the information provided, Apple may give you a few options. You can: Skip verification — You will be taken to the Business Connect portal where you can continue adding information about your business. However, you will need to return to complete verification at a later date in order to publish this information. Verify your business by phone — Apple will provide a verification code to the phone number you provided earlier, so make sure this is a phone number you have access to in order to receive the call. Verify your business by uploading documents — You will be prompted to upload legal business documents (such as a lease or utility bill). In order to be eligible, these documents should have the same legal name and address you provided in the first steps of setting up your business. Otherwise, you may risk failing verification, which will delay publishing your information to customers on Apple Maps. Apple states that the verification process may take up to five business days. Once your listing is verified, it will begin to show on Apple Maps to searchers and potential customers. Apple Business Connect features: Completing your Place Card Once your business is verified (or while you wait for the verification process to complete), you can begin optimizing your listing, or Place Card. ' Much in the same way that you might invest time to optimize your business details on other sites and search engines, you want to add as much rich detail about your business as possible so potential customers have everything they need to make a decision. Review Apple’s photo and text standards and guidelines prior to completing your Place Card to ensure that your data complies with Apple’s standards. Place Cards allow you to publish the following information about your business: Place card header: A business photo and logo Display name: The real world name of your business Call to action: Buttons that allow users to take an action. You should choose the most relevant calls-to-action to add to your business profile. The options include: “Add Photos” “Add to Favorites” “Add to Guide” “Call Now” “Get Directions” “Rate Us” “Save as Contact” “Share this Place” “Website” Showcase: You can add special offers and events to your profile that will stay published for 30 days. Showcases can include: A brief title or headline (up to 38 characters) A description of the offer or event (up to 58 characters) An additional action button About: A description of your business and this specific branch/location Photos: Additional photos of your business, service, or products Address: Complete address of this location (which may be the same one you used to verify your account) Phone: The direct phone number for this location Hours: The hours this location is open for customers Website: The website for this business or specific location App: The link to your app in the App Store Categories : The type of business this is (you can find the full list here ). Good to know: You can select applicable attributes from the list below. Wheelchair Accessible Street Parking Parking Garage Pets Welcome Accepts Credit Cards, Contactless Payments, Accepts Apple Pay Status (whether the location is open, permanently or temporarily closed) For official documentation about completing your Apple Place Card, review the Apple Business Connect User Guide . Measuring your success on Apple Maps with performance data Referred to as “Insights,” performance data about how users interact with your business on Apple Maps is a new feature of Apple Business Connect. This can inform the types of information you publish by cluing you into the details that are more (or less) important to users, as well as other success indicators. Apple Business Connect Insights include data for search and the Place Card. Insights are not available until up to three days after a location is verified, and data remains available for up to 12 months if the listing was previously published on Apple Maps. If you just created and published your business on Apple, the Insights data will begin reporting after that date. Insights from search includes data on two core metrics: How many times a business was tapped on in search results What users searched before selecting your business. This is broken into the following categories: Name or Brand Searches (a name or brand associated with this location) Category Searches (a product, service, or business category related to this location) Other Searches (basically all other types of searches either related to an address or city, as well as anything that doesn’t fall into the brand or category searches) Place Card Insights (shown below) show data about what happens once a user views your Place Card and the types of actions they take. You can see the number of views and taps to action buttons on your Place Card. This data is likely the most valuable of the Insights as it shows how many potential customers you are driving to your business. Remember, local SEO doesn’t just happen on Google What happens if your business’s Google rankings start to decline? Investing heavily in one search ecosystem has its benefits, but smart businesses know to cover their bases so that their success doesn’t hinge upon a single platform or algorithm. That’s why it’s important to continuously monitor and refine your listings to ensure accuracy and effectively engage potential customers—whether they’re on Apple Maps, Yelp, Google Maps, or another local platform. Now that you’ve gotten started, continue analyzing the performance of your listing and adapt your strategies as needed to stay ahead. By staying proactive and responsive, you can maximize your business's local SEO potential. Krystal Taing - Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions, Uberall Krystal Taing is the Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions at Uberall. She is a Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert and faculty member at LocalU. She helps brands at managing hybrid customer experiences. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Judith Lewis Communicating your value to decision makers or potential investors can feel like trying to hit a moving target—after all, pleasing everyone involved with the project is crucial, but different roles will care about different aspects of your work (i.e., implementation, results, etc). So, to demonstrate the great work that your team does, your reports need to communicate the right information to the right people as effectively as possible.  In my experience, the more senior-level stakeholders you report to, the more they focus on the bigger picture. I once presented a report to a group of vice presidents; what they focused on and asked questions about was completely different from what the subject matter experts asked about. While you might take a lot of interest in the minutiae of your data and results, a more senior-level stakeholder could find this irrelevant, distracting, or a waste of time. To create reports that hit the mark—regardless of who you’re delivering them to—you’ll need to: Create an organizational chart Share insights that align with business impact Demonstrate success via KPIs Customize reporting to reflect the C-suite’s vision Make your stakeholders look good Include an executive summary Consider creating tailored reports Put additional data and details in an appendix Create an organizational chart  Before you begin your report, work with your stakeholder (the person who you report to) to create an organizational chart that helps you understand who might view the information.  An organizational chart is a way of positioning your stakeholder within the company at large. Whether you are in-house or at an agency, map out who you are reporting to as well as their manager (or whoever they report to). You may report to a marketing manager, brand manager, etc. who then needs to report to more senior-level decision makers. By understanding everyone’s roles, you can determine who is likely to read your reports, which enables you to reflect their priorities in both your campaigns and your reporting. Share insights that align with business impact In your reporting, focus on delivering unique insights and recommendations that will have a business impact.  Why? Because any tool can tell you how your rankings or traffic changed this month. What you (as an expert) are delivering is insight into:  Why those changes happened What you’re going to do to keep improving Future opportunities and risks  You are the expert and this is where you will shine. If you share your reports with subject matter experts (SMEs), they’ll often require more data around actionable insights. These insights need to be specific and tied to business outcomes.  That means that if, for example, the business has specific targets for volume of sales, leads, etc., then you should focus on them in your reporting. These data points should cover a specific reporting period and illustrate the value of your SEO work.  Use KPIs to demonstrate success Subject matter expert reporting should focus on agreed-upon key performance indicators (KPIs) that: Measure outcomes that result from the specific actions you take and the specific way in which they are implemented. E.g., the rankings and traffic gains from title tag optimization. You can even contextualize your KPI by analyzing it against (in this case) the time it took to A/B test  the new title tag structure and compare that against the revenue impact of having not made those positive improvements. Track the progress you (or your client) are making towards business goals.  When KPI targets aren’t met, you’ll know that you need to adjust course. For example, when I optimize a web page for a client, a key performance indicator would (for some clients) be an increase in traffic and/or an increase in keyword rankings. If the page decreased in rankings or traffic (and no other factors were to blame), that indicates that the actions I took failed to meet the target KPI. KPIs may seem stressful or difficult, however they are an excellent way to agree with your manager or client on a minimum definition for “success.”  Focus your SME reporting  on the agreed key performance indicators. While you can include some of the detail behind your approach to meeting (but hopefully exceeding) target KPIs, this is not always necessary or useful within the main report (but, you can include some of these details in an appendix, which I’ll discuss later ).  When reporting on work in-progress, you can still demonstrate your progress using the same KPIs. In house or agency, do not be afraid to challenge, reset, or add more KPIs in order to ensure you’re able to demonstrate success. Customize reporting for your C-suite For stakeholders at the executive level (such as the CMO, CEO, or similar), your report should focus on the bigger picture of the overall business and how your work fits into those objectives. So, you need to design your reports differently for this higher-level view of the business.  While KPIs can be helpful for reporting back to the CEO or similar, this is not always practical as they may be too specific to one business unit, without a clear enough picture of how important that metric is in the grand scheme of the business.  Work with your stakeholder to establish what the business goals and desired outcomes are, then identify how your work feeds into these goals to demonstrate success. Sometimes reporting to the owner of a business can feel like reporting to a CEO, and sometimes it is like reporting to someone who believes they’re a subject matter expert. Whatever the situation may be, it’s on you to understand the business, discover what the stakeholder (or client) wants, and create reports that work for them so that you can get the recognition you deserve. Make your stakeholders look good Remember, your job is not just to do great work and brag about it in your reporting—you also need to make your stakeholder contact look good to their boss. If you’re in-house, this can help you secure more buy-in in the future and advance your career; if you’re at an agency, this can help you maintain a client over the long term, which can be crucial depending on your agency pricing model .  To do this, you need to understand the KPIs, OKRs (objectives and key results), and any other metrics by which your stakeholder is measured.  For example, I once had a B2B client whose key performance indicator for his annual bonus was tied to how many subscribers he could gain for a mailing list. My team used white papers and paid media to direct more people to the landing page and managed to gather more new subscribers to the mailing list than at any time in the company’s history.  That made the stakeholder look good in front of his boss and got him his annual bonus, but was only a small part of the work we did.  It can be very advantageous to understand your stakeholders’ key performance indicators—not just KPIs for the campaign overall.  Include an executive summary Reports might get read months after they were created or used to bring new staff up to speed. This means that your reports can be read entirely out of context, without you, and possibly out of order. To ensure that the reader has some context for your efforts, include a table of contents as well as an executive summary. I really cannot overemphasize the importance of an executive summary that references business imperatives so that someone unfamiliar with the report can read and understand it.  An executive summary is a paragraph or two that concisely summarizes the contents of the report. It should not simply regurgitate what is in the report, but rather shine a light on the overall outcomes.  In some cases, though, there may be reason to include specific data. For example, I had one client who suddenly, in one month, doubled their visitors to one specific page. This warranted a call out in the executive summary not only because it was abnormal, but because we built backlinks  to that page, which helped drive that performance.  Generally speaking, the executive summary should not be too specific, though. Show how your results tie into individual and business objectives and ensure that the KPIs are clearly stated with their relevant metrics next to each one.  The executive summary is just that—a summary, and it needs to reflect its purpose. After reading the executive summary, stakeholders should be able to glean the essence of the report and, most importantly, possibly make important business decisions after reading only it. Consider creating tailored reports In certain circumstances, it might be useful to create different reports for your key stakeholder, the subject matter expert within the business, or the senior stakeholder that sits above the person you’re directly in contact with.  Certain clients that work with different agencies for different channels may also ask you to work together. In this scenario, it’s useful to create a specific, larger “all-hands” type of report that is then used by other agencies to present to several stakeholders. If your clients tend to outsource their digital marketing , website, social media, etc. then a template for this style of report could certainly save you time. This will not often be the case, as the reports you create should be digestible for all stakeholders with only small adjustments. Ideally, your reports can be read by almost anyone who is senior enough to understand the key business objectives of the company, as well as a little bit about your deliverables. Put details in an appendix Simplify and focus your report on elements that have a business impact. I have said this before, but it is really important to confine the minutiae of the report to an appendix. Do not clutter slides with detailed graphs or words. If you really need those graphs, put them in the appendix. The appendix is your friend.  I promise you, some of my appendices are longer than the main report, so I am not practicing what I preach every time. One presentation I did for a CEO had more than double the slides in the appendix than in the main body of the presentation. Why? The appendix enabled me to present detailed charts, detailed data tables, and detailed results that were excessive in the main body of the report.  The appendix gave me what I needed to back up all the assertions in the main report. That meant I could be efficient with the content I delivered to the client, but could still answer all questions without needing to load up a tool and take forever to get the required data set up and displayed. This does not mean I am advocating for appendices that are longer than reports, only that I am saying you can do it if you need to.  Multi-stakeholder reporting makes more people aware of your success A good report clearly communicates the results of the work undertaken. A great report adds context to that data and tailors it for the person reading it, whether they’re an SME or a member of the C-suite.  It may sound like a lot of extra work and consideration to compile your reports this way, but it’ll pay off when it's time to review your performance (or renew your contract), as everyone involved will feel like you understand their priorities and accounted for them in your efforts. Judith Lewis - Founder CEO at Decabbit Consultancy Judith is a renowned international speaker and digital media consultant, specializing in digital technologies to help businesses innovate and optimize. With over 25 years of experience, she runs her own consultancy delivering actionable business insight for M2B, B2B, and B2C companies. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Ray Martinez SEO agency owners and freelancers need to protect their margins to ensure scalability and profitability—especially as generative AI and other developments disrupt the industry. To accurately assess your agency's profitability, it’s essential to understand your earnings relative to expenses. After all, your team might produce top results for your highest-billing client while losing money for the company.  As VP of SEO for Archer Education, I’ve felt the pressure of both having to price my services accurately and the pain of not knowing how to price a project appropriately. How do you balance what it takes to win versus what it costs to get there? So, how can you set competitive pricing to safeguard profits and margins? Below, I’ll walk you through multiple considerations and steps to take to define your SEO agency pricing with the goal of creating a healthy profit margin.  Table of contents: Determine your value proposition Examples of UVPs for various agency types Pricing models for SEO agencies Monthly fixed-rate pricing Hourly pricing Project-based pricing Retainer-based pricing Performance-based pricing SEO agency pricing model table Define your statement of work Communicate pricing and expectations to clients Evaluate and adjust your pricing model Benchmark and iterate to scale your pricing and grow revenue Determine your value proposition The first step to defining your SEO pricing model is understanding what makes your agency valuable to potential clients.  Determining your unique value proposition (UVP) will help you better contextualize pricing for your products or services. Your UVP is a statement that communicates your business, product, or service’s key benefits—it’s essentially a “why” statement. As in, “Why should this client sign with your business?” Examples of UVPs for various agency types Below is a general breakdown of UVPs for the most common types of SEO agencies/service providers. Agency type Unique value proposition (UVP) Independent contractors/Practitioners Cost-effective and highly tailored SEO solutions, ideal for small businesses, startups, and individual brands seeking dedicated attention and customized strategies. Small boutique agencies Customized SEO strategies that are agile, adaptable for rapidly changing market conditions, and done at scale. Their focus on niche markets allows for deeper understanding and expertise.  Mid-sized agencies Tailored strategies with a focus on scalability and growth. Offers a mix of specialized and general SEO services suitable for mid-level markets. Enterprise-level agencies High-end, data-driven SEO campaigns leveraging cutting-edge technology and extensive research capabilities. Suitable for large enterprises with complex needs. To understand your agency’s UVP , assess the factors that help set you apart from other SEO service providers.  One factor might be the composition of your team and their strengths—in this case, you might build your UVP based on breadth or depth of expertise, diversity, capabilities, etc. Does your agency focus on a niche, product, or industry? If so, that should probably be part of the UVP you communicate to potential clients. For example, at Archer Education , we specialize in higher education enrollment marketing. We have years of experience in the industry, can speak to historical trends, as well as forecast future trends. As a team, we can look at a university’s down-funnel metrics and diagnose the critical issues behind underperformance pre- and post-lead. That type of expertise translates to real value, which we convey through our UVP.  Now that you’re on your way to pinpointing why a client would be interested in your SEO services, it’s time to look at how your value proposition, pricing, and benefits compare to competitors in your space. In doing so, you can identify the critical benefits of your products or services (or a competitor’s), enabling you to make better informed decisions on agency pricing.  Pricing models for SEO agencies Now that you have a deeper understanding of the value your agency provides clients, it’s time to determine the most appropriate pricing model for your agency. Monthly fixed-rate pricing For SEO agencies, a fixed-rate pricing model involves setting standard prices for specific services or bundles, offering simple billing and transparent upfront costs for clients.  However, my experience at a small business-focused SEO agency revealed challenges with this pricing model, especially for lower-tier clients paying $500 (or less) monthly. The effort required to generate results for these clients often exceeded the value of their payment, leading to overextension and financial strain for the agency. This situation highlighted the risks of over promising and under delivering, as it impacted client retention and the agency’s financial health due to a lack of clear expectations set from the start. Hourly pricing The hourly rate  model calculates pricing based on the amount of time your agency spends on SEO tasks, making it critical for freelancers, consultants, and agencies. It allows for flexibility and compensates you for all work performed. However, it can lead to unpredictability in billing for both the provider and the client.  For freelancers and consultants, your hourly rate is heavily influenced by the market cost for similar services, making pricing straightforward. Check out the hourly rate (including the high, median, and low ends) on sites like Salary.com , Glassdoor , and Indeed .  “A drawback to this pricing model is it can open up an avenue for clients to begin scrutinizing the amount of time billed for certain work. Many times, this can be solved with some additional client education, but that will depend on the client-agency relationship.” — Mary Carroll, Managing Director, Partnerships at Archer Education If you set your hourly rate on the high end, be prepared to justify that cost. If you set a rate on the low end, this affects the way people perceive your agency or services. You may also see high turnover with clients on the lower end due to budget constraints and perceived value.  To calculate your agency’s hourly rate, you’ll first need to calculate your hourly cost  by dividing a project’s total cost (not including your profit margin) by billable hours.  Profit margins will vary based on your financial goals and funding.  This method requires that you know the actual cost to provide your products or services—not just the price the client pays. Track the time spent on each part of a project to calculate average completion hours, then multiply by your hourly rate (excluding profit) to estimate the cost.  Undertaking this detailed process, as I did in 2023 with the help of project managers, is essential (especially when managing numerous deliverables), and you should prioritize it for your organization. Project-based pricing This model bases pricing on the complexity, duration, and resources required for individual projects. The agency (or freelancer) evaluates each project individually and sets a price according to the project’s specific requirements. This model is suitable for one-off projects or when the scope of work is clearly defined from the start, such as technical SEO migrations or other specialized projects. The most critical piece of project-based pricing is developing a scope of work. If a new need arises, this will be outside the scope of work, leading to three potential outcomes:  Creating an addendum to cover the additional costs The client handling the additional need independently The agency absorbing the cost Any of these options can lead to friction in a client relationship. If you offer project-based pricing, it’s best to ensure that the language in your scope of work enables you to avoid scope creep.  “One approach to that out-of-scope language is including an hourly rate for out of scope work that may need to be covered. This is a simple way to prepare clients for the fact that changes may arise throughout the project and to ensure you can invoice for your SEO team’s work!” — Mary Carroll, Managing Director, Partnerships at Archer Education Retainer-based pricing This approach involves providing ongoing SEO services for a fixed monthly or quarterly payment. Retainer-based pricing provides agencies with a stable income, while ensuring clients receive continuous support for their SEO strategies . In my current role, we deploy a similar model. The retainer model creates tiered pricing based on the number or types of programs we support. For example, we may work with a university with multiple bachelor’s degree programs. As the number of programs we support grows, so does the budget. So, for a school with one program, we might start at a $10K per month retainer; as they add two programs, spending will ramp up to $25K per month or more.  Since we know that the relationship with the client will continue through the contract period, we can plan for the future and set quarterly strategies, enabling us to tackle new needs and opportunities. This model differs from a fixed-rate contract, which offers a set list of services. The retainer model allows for more customization and flexibility for a partner.  “Ensuring clients get what they paid for (from an hours and deliverables standpoint) is a vital component of this pricing model,” Carroll said. “This model can also leave an agency vulnerable to dependency on fewer clients, which is a significant financial risk,” she added, noting, “If one or two large clients leave, expect a significant drop in total revenue.”  Performance-based pricing Performance-based pricing ties your compensation to achieving specific, measurable SEO outcomes, such as rankings , traffic increases, or other KPIs. It incentivizes agencies to deliver results but requires explicit agreement on targets and measurement methods  to ensure accountability. Performance-based pricing models, while potentially lucrative, differ across industries. For instance, online program management (OPM) companies that offered services like marketing and admissions to support online education growth initially benefited universities by attracting more students and enhancing technology access. However, these revenue-sharing agreements, which often locked in long-term commitments, have been criticized for exploiting universities and burdening students with additional costs. Recently, the US Department of Education’s scrutiny of such deals  has led to the downfall of major OPM providers.  Let’s take a look at some common performance-based SEO pricing structures and the agency types that use them below: Performance-based model Description SEO agency type Revenue sharing Sharing of profits and losses between parties Mid-sized agency Enterprise Dollar amount per sale Fixed amount for each sale Freelancer Boutique agency Commission-based Percentage of sale value as commission Mid-sized agency Enterprise Affiliate marketing Earnings from promoting others Freelancer Boutique Agency Cost-per-action (CPA) Payment for specific actions (sign-up, purchase, etc.) Freelancer Mid-sized agency Cost-per-click (CPC) Payment for each click on an ad Freelancer Boutique agency In specific industries, we’re seeing a higher adoption of performance-based models because of their lucrative nature. The publishing side of the SEO industry is an excellent example of this. Companies like Archer and Red Ventures offer clients a cost-per-click or cost-per-action pricing model. They use relevant owned sites to drive organic traffic and conversions for clients across various industries and/or verticals. In higher education, this translates to offering university leads that become enrolled students. Niche.com is another company that combines the CPC/CPA approach with affiliate marketing and links. Both Niche and Red Ventures have a massive footprint that extends across multiple verticals.  SEO agency pricing model table Pricing model Pros Cons Suitable agency types Fixed-rate Predictable pricing Price may not reflect actual effort Boutique Niche/specialized Hourly Flexibility in billing Unpredictable costs for clients Freelancers Consultants Project-based Customized pricing Potential for scope creep Boutique Niche/specialized Retainer-based Stable, predictable income Potential for dependency on a few clients Full-service  Enterprise-level Performance-based Lucrative for high-performing agencies Complex to define outcomes/expectations Enterprise-level  Niche/specialized Refer to the pricing models mentioned above to decide the most suitable model for your agency, but keep in mind that your agency might also need different pricing models for different client types. And, before you finalize your pricing, remember to familiarize yourself with any laws, regulations, or caveats that could affect your business.  Now that you are closer to providing actual quotes to clients, let’s discuss how you can protect your pricing—by defining the scope of your work. Define your statement of work A statement of work (SoW) is a document produced during your sales and contract period that outlines a project’s: Work activities Deliverables Timelines Milestones Goals A good SoW combats scope creep and sets reasonable client expectations. When building your statement of work, ask the right questions. If it’s a technical SEO project, for example, I like to ask things like:  Who’s tackling implementation for technical SEO?  This is important because you need to understand the implementation resources and the hours you’ll need to charge for them. Are you expected to manage uploads in the CMS?  Getting your hands dirty in the front end of a CMS can take time and effort, which can hurt your profit margins. What products, programs, or services do we support, and what is their priority?  Some products or services are more challenging to compete for than others, which will dictate a need for spending. For example, due to a product's complexity, you may need to hire a specialized writer who charges more per word. What problem are you looking to solve?  Are you looking for lower cost per acquisition, lead, or revenue goals? Understanding the client’s needs allows for detailed scoping by addressing their core issues.  In my experience, asking these questions builds trust with your client and sets your agency up for success. When these questions aren’t asked, you (or the client) will absorb unexpected costs. Schedule detailed discovery meetings to help avoid this situation and inform your SoW.  Communicate pricing and expectations to clients The next step is to communicate the statement of work you’ve built to your clients.  Use a document, a pitch deck, or a spreadsheet. This representation of work protects your organization and readies your client for what’s coming down the pipeline.  Whatever method you choose (I prefer pitch decks), I recommend connecting deliverables and tactics to a particular goal or objective—this enables you to provide transparency and build trust with your clients. I use quarterly strategies to adjust deliverables for my clients to allow us to be agile with our application of a data driven approach. These strategies align us with our priority programs and let the clients know how their money is spent.  In my deck, I’ll refer back to the previous quarter’s goals and benchmarks to show a complete path: If we’re down in traffic and conversions, here’s what went wrong. If we’re up, here are the tactics that got us there. In both instances, we set up what’s coming next and why.  Evaluate and adjust your pricing model Once your agency pricing is established and working, it’s time to measure success. You’ll want to understand if what you’re charging is profitable at a deliverable level. Is your agency making money from the pricing model? Are you running over on costs?  There’s no secret formula here—compare your estimated expenses to your actuals to stay on top of costs and get an accurate measure of your profit margins. In addition, your sales team should review the number of deals closed since implementing this pricing model. Are you winning new business, and is that business retained? Keep in mind that your pricing model can (and should) change under certain circumstances. It may be more efficient to provide different pricing if you find that your client base has shifted. Your profit margins may adjust depending on the demand for your services, and even that can affect what’s profitable for your agency to offer. Benchmark and iterate to scale your pricing and grow revenue After you’ve settled on a pricing model, it’s time to test it with benchmarking. After all, the only way to craft a pricing strategy that resonates with your agency and clients is by diving deep into the figures and getting your hands dirty. When you launch your new pricing, track your deals in whatever CRM you use. Compare your deals won/closed rate to the previous period to gauge the success of your new pricing structure from a client perspective. On the backend of a deal, track internal and external costs to ensure that your products or services are profitable.  And, compare your pricing to your competitors to get insight on your strengths and weaknesses. Understand your costs, team strengths, competitors, and your brand strengths. By doing this, you’ll be well on your way to scaling pricing that helps you sustain and grow revenue. Ray Martinez - VP, SEO at Archer Education Ray Martinez is the VP of SEO at Archer Education, where he leads a dedicated team comprised of senior analysts, specialists, and project managers. Together, they craft, implement, oversee, and evaluate SEO strategies for prestigious higher education institutions across the globe. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Aoife McIlraith Industry awards can elevate the perception of your agency or in-house team, making you more attractive to potential clients or helping you gain recognition in your organization. Crafting a winning award entry, however, is inherently competitive. So, where do you start? What should you know before you begin? And, how can you distinguish your award entry from the competition?  As an industry judge that has spent many years and hundreds of hours reviewing entries and awarding winners (at the US, UK, and European Search Awards, Global Marketing Awards, European Paid Media Awards, and more), I thought it would be a great opportunity ahead of the European Search Awards this year to lend some critical learning and tips on how to craft a winning entry. Since awards entries are evaluated on both the quality of the work as well as the quality of the application, that’s the lens through which I’ll share both what I’ve seen as well as insights from other industry awards judges as well. Let’s get started. Table of contents: Why teams apply for industry awards Before you apply: Research awards, categories, and past winners How to craft a winning digital industry awards entry What judges look for: The bare minimum for awards entries What to include and avoid for the best possible awards entry Introduction Objectives and budget Strategy, target audience, and creativity Tactical implementation and challenges Results Supplemental content Why we should win Before you submit your entry Digital awards entry do’s and don’ts Why should your agency or in-house team apply for an industry award? For winners, digital industry awards serve to: Elevate your team , adding to your agency’s credibility and in-house team’s visibility with management.  Awards highlight your team’s strategic and creative strengths, making your skills more visible to potential clients, partners, and bosses. Winning or getting nominated not only boosts team morale, but also showcases your expertise on company websites, sales collateral, and across social media platforms. Make you stand out against competitors.  Showcasing  awards on your website can illustrate expertise, experience, authority, and trust  to the industry, current and potential clients, and search engines. Submitting an award entry is one of the only ways you can independently benchmark your work against the best in the business, encouraging continual improvement and innovation. Additionally, nominations and wins can open you up to new partnerships with complementary agencies and clients who are interested in the highest, award-winning campaign quality and implementation. Feedback for future campaigns and award entries.  Most awards provide critique and feedback for entries by expert industry judges. This feedback often highlights really impressive aspects of the work and provides critique on areas to improve (both from a campaign perspective and the quality of the entry). Where else can you receive this type of independent expert review? If leveraged properly, this feedback is a gold mine. If you didn’t secure the win this year, this critique can also help you ensure next year’s award entry is elevated with an increased chance of winning. Before you apply: Research awards, categories, and past winners  To enter and win awards, you need to gather a bit of background information. Look to gain real insights into: Who runs the awards The awards categories available The standard and criteria for entries  Decide which award(s) to submit entries to Awards are a way of illustrating that you and your team are at the top of your field, so take the time to do the research.  Become a student—find details of the past winning campaigns, agencies, and in-house teams. This gives you a benchmark and helps identify what stands out in your field. Also, take a closer look into the companies that run the awards; are they reputable, well-regarded, and trusted in your industry?  This ensures that the awards you choose to enter (and may win) are respected and carry weight. Remember, your research may also benefit from looking beyond your own country to understand global standards and expectations. After you gather this information, decide on what types of awards and categories best align with your team’s efforts in the past year. It takes considerable time and expense to craft great entries, so make sure that that time and money are worth investing . Understand the standard you must meet To understand what judges expect, review the list of past winners. Review some of these top agency and in-house teams in your niche, see which awards they have won, and find the winning case studies. While you may not have access to their detailed submissions, many winners share case studies or highlights on their websites. It’s also beneficial to occasionally extend your research beyond your immediate geographical area to capture a broader view of industry standards. If you see common tactics and methodologies for illustrating the value of work, then you should ensure that you are replicating those techniques in a comparable way for the categories that you enter. Also, look at these companies’ social media accounts, which award events have they attended? Ask yourself, who are the award nominees and winners that are currently working with your dream clients? This will help you gain insights into the current standard those dream clients expect.  Judge’s top tip:  Don’t restrict your research to just your own geographical area. For example, if you are based in the UK or Sweden, research awards based in the USA and Europe. Half of the judges I know judge awards globally—not just in their own country or region. This is key to understanding that there is a consistency in judging, regardless of country. If there is considerable consistency in judging, you can expand your research to gain insights into winning entries in other countries and regions. “To compete for the top spot in your category, several standards need to be met at once: There are of course the results, which usually are essential to even be considered as a winner, but remember that a big part of the entry is storytelling. No matter how good the campaign was, it needs to be sold to judges. Make sure you speak to the judges on all possible levels—like the creativity, the data, and the process. Each judge is different and needs convincing in a unique way. The winning campaigns tend to speak to all possible judging profiles and backgrounds at the same time.” — Natalia Witczy, Global, European, and UK Search Awards judge and CEO at Mosquita Digital Ensure your project matches award criteria When judges evaluate entries, one of the primary criteria is that they meet the brief. If you are not able to satisfy the brief, then you should look for a different category or even a different award to apply for. For instance, if you are applying for an award in the small business category, but you are working with a multinational corporation, you may very well be out of the running simply because the project does not satisfy the category criteria. “Sometimes, awards are won by process of elimination: After an initial review of all applications, I would eliminate the ones that didn’t meet essential criteria, then work backwards to identify the campaign that most accurately reflected the spirit of the award. Those who didn’t follow the category criteria/application instructions were the easiest to rule out of consideration, which is unfortunate because sometimes, aside from the one critical error, the quality of the campaign might have made it a serious contender.” — George Nguyen , Search Engine Land Awards judge  (2019-2021) and Director of SEO Editorial at Wix How to craft a winning digital industry awards entry Let’s now go over what the judges are looking for in your submission as well as the best ways to approach the standard sections of an awards entry. What judges look for: The bare minimum for awards entries In essence, an application is very similar to a case study. You want to illustrate the work that you did, the thinking behind it, and how you created great results.  Across your application, it is important to remember that you are judged on your work as well as the application itself.  So if you are not able to follow the application instructions and if you fail to demonstrate your work, you might not win even if the campaign was exceptional. Respect all instructions and follow them strictly. One example is word count; if the maximum word count is 1,000 words, do not exceed that. Judges might be reviewing over 50 applications for three days straight, so respect their time. It is very frustrating for judges when instructions are not followed and it is such a simple way to get points deducted. So, stick to all instructions and give the judges every reason to score you highly. Be very aware that judges have signed NDAs and the award process is completely confidential. Don’t risk losing points by not including crucial campaign information. Ea ch section of your awards application may be weighted. Do not ignore this weighting if it’s provided; if it’s not, then take an educated guess that all elements may be graded equally.  Regardless how small or simple a section of the application may seem, if the weighting of that section is worth the same as the other sections, it is worth investing time to ensure that all the content that you submit is robust. Don’t ramble but don’t be shy, either—you have an opportunity to showcase your work. Your competitors will illustrate their exploits in great detail, if you are too brief or too long in comparison, you will look as if you’ve undersold yourself.  When entries are similar, those that take the time to invest in the often-overlooked sections of the application can gain precious points that can put them over the top. In a tight race, the highest standard of information in each section can sometimes make the difference between a winner and a runner up. “Show the judges the unique elements because we already know the basics. All judges are experts, so don’t tell us that you did keyword research. Instead, tell us how you researched topics for the target audience and (having identified a sweet spot your client has a product/service for but no content) you filled the gap, structured the internal links  well, and doubled their sales. We need to understand what makes this award-winning, not just what you did.” — Judith Lewis, European, UK, and US Search Awards and Founder at Decabbit Consultancy Now that you understand the approach you need for filling out your awards submission, let’s look at how you can best translate your success story into the application. What to include and avoid to maximize the strength of your awards entry Most industry awards applications are divided into the following sections: Introduction Objectives and budget Strategy, target audience, and creativity Tactical implementation and challenges Results Supplemental content Why we should win Let’s explore how you can approach each of these sections to create a winning entry. Introduction (Agency/client or company overviews) At the start of most awards applications, there is a summary section that pertains to your agency/client or your company (if you’re an in-house team). Use this section to provide a short, informative introduction to your campaign. Set the scene on who your client is, the industry, and maybe even explain the competitor landscape. Take the time to help the judges understand the nature of the business. This is easier with large corporations and household names, but is especially important if you work with a smaller client. This section gives the judges critical background information to better understand your entry and campaigns as they read on, so mention details that are crucial to your success story, but do not go overboard as this is supposed to be a preview to the rest of the application. Objectives and budget I n this section, you need to be direct, to-the-point, and ensure that you include all information (but also limit it to just what is asked for). State the challenge that led to this campaign. List the set of goals you received from the client. Clearly state objectives, goals, and KPIs, both at the start and at the end of the campaign. Use bulleted lists to keep it succinct. Breakdown the budget, based on instructions provided, in clear currency figures. If you can not provide real budgetary figures (i.e., you’re bound to an NDA), you should at least provide an estimated range and then a breakdown of percentages of the budget as per instructions. If you are entering a regional award (e.g., Europe-wide), provide figures in both your local currency and the most relevant converted currency (e.g., Euros).  Remember, judges cannot judge what isn’t clearly measured or described. “State what your goals were before you took on the project, what budget and requirements you were given for the project, the outcome of the project, and the overall timeline of all those events.” — Barry Schwartz , Search Engine Land Awards judge  and CE O at RustyBrick Strategy, target audience, and creativity Strategy:  Describe the plan to reach specific campaign goals.  State the strategy of the campaign.  Link the strategy directly to results, demonstrating clear cause-and-effect. Describe any adjustments made to the strategy in response to unexpected market shifts or challenges. Do not  provide a list of campaign tactics under the strategy section. Target audience:  Getting judges to understand the target audience is crucial for aligning the campaign’s design and execution. Detail any research you carried out. Provide demographics and target audience behaviors. Explain how insights into the audience informed the choice of channels and messaging. Explain how the campaign was tailored to resonate with and engage the target audience. Creativity: Highlighting creativity distinguishes your campaign to judges in both conception and execution. Describe the creative process, from brainstorming to final concept and execution. Highlight examples of creative concepts, processes, and innovative use of technology. Discuss how creativity addressed specific challenges and boosted the campaign’s impact. Judge’s top tip:   Winning entries excel by showcasing a clearly defined strategy, an in-depth understanding of the target audience, and standout creativity. By effectively communicating and outlining how these components drove your campaign’s success, your submission will highlight not just its effectiveness, but also the innovative team behind the campaign.  Tactical implementation and challenges Tactical implementation  is where your strategy meets action, bringing the campaign to life. This is where you should detail the tactical planning, processes and execution. Explain the specific actions you took to execute the strategy, including the platforms and digital tools used. Describe the sequence of operations, showcasing how each tactic aligned with overarching goals. Highlight any innovative practices or unique methods that were crucial to the implementation process. Challenges:  Addressing unique challenges with creative thinking often separates the good award entries from the great ones. List major obstacles encountered during the campaign and explain how you overcame each. Discuss adjustments made to the original plan to accommodate unforeseen circumstances or results. Illustrate how overcoming these challenges contributed to the overall success and resilience of the campaign. Avoid  listing challenges that every agency or in-house team faces (e.g., “getting client or management buy-in” or “tight deadlines”).  A detailed account of your tactical implementation shows how you effectively executed strategies, while discussing challenges highlights your team’s adaptability and problem-solving skills. Together, these sections underscore your campaign’s innovative execution and resilience. “Remember the power of storytelling: problem, unique strategy, conflict, and results. A captivating story hinges on your unique approach and the challenges you overcame to achieve extraordinary results. Many entries miss this, so the results just end up looking ordinary.” — Miracle Inameti-Archibong, Search Engine Land and Drum Search Awards judge and Head of Search at John Lewis & Partners Results Clearly state how you achieved your results. No matter how fantastic your results are, if you are not able to show how you got there and back that up with first-party data and screenshots , it’s almost impossible to validate the results and get awarded high scores for your entry. I can not tell you how many times a lack of clarity and proof has let down entries I’ve judged.  Map the results back to the stated objectives—this should be obvious but is often (and surprisingly) omitted. Use hard figures where at all possible. Providing only percentages may harm your entry.  “We increased conversions by 450% in six weeks,”  is really not telling the whole story— 450%  of what? “We increased sales by 450%,” without illustrating how you contributed to that outcome is also not particularly useful. Never exaggerate your results. Judges are experts and will use third-party tools  to dig deeper if they feel your results are not what they appear. (Yes, it happened to me and yes, they got heavily penalized.) Hard figures are the standard, but if you are restricted by an NDA and need to use percentages, make sure that you provide extra details and prove your results.  Proving and illustrating your results is fundamental to whether or not your entry is high quality. The judges you’re presenting to are people who have been working in the industry for some time and will understand that there can be many reasons why a campaign may or may not succeed. By illustrating how you contributed to the outcome, you can give judges a good reason to advocate for your campaign and skills. Judge’s top tip:   Include a quote from the client on the success of the campaign and how it contributed to the business overall. This is a great extra layer of validation in the results section for the judges to review. Supplemental content Make sure your application shines on its own. Your application should be compelling without over-relying on supplemental documents. Enhancement—not dependence: Use supplemental documents to enhance the narrative of your application, not to house essential data or key points. For example, one thing you can do is show the judges the stages of your creative assets (how they looked at the start versus how they looked at the end). Simplicity and clarity: Aim for clarity and conciseness in both your main application and supplemental materials to avoid giving judges any reason to deduct points. Mind the word count: Remember that words in supplemental documents count towards the total entry limit. Do not lose points by trying to outsmart the rules by adding a ton of extra words in a PDF. Honestly, this will lose you precious points with judges. Judges review many applications quickly, and if yours relies too heavily on supplemental content, it complicates their evaluation. The judges are interested in the data and the evidence, not how pretty the supporting documents are. Why we should win This is one of the most overlooked sections (and one of the hardest to complete). This section is your chance to really show the judges the impact your campaign had on your client, customers, and audience.  Tell the judges why you think your entry deserves to win. Don’t assume they’ll pick up on you implying why you should win. Winning an award for achieving results you were paid to achieve is not award-winning—that’s just doing your job. What was exceptional about these results? What was unique and challenging about this campaign?  If possible, include a client testimonial to emphasize the value of your work. “In a couple of lines, you should be able to summarize the crux of your entry, why it’s innovative, unique and, most importantly, memorable for the judges.” — Crystal Carter , EU Search Awards judge and Head of SEO Communications at Wix Before you submit your entry Perform a final review.  Go back to the application instructions and make sure you checked off every single thing required. Review everything in detail and make sure you stay within the word count; if not, consider another round of editing. Review your screenshots, did you contextualize them? Judges may view your content from a number of different perspectives. While you may use one particular tool every day, that doesn’t mean that the judges who are evaluating your entry are familiar with that particular tool. Explain what your images illustrate and why you are showing them. Qualify your data, screenshots, images, and charts with insights that support your case. Remove screenshots or graphs that don’t back up a stated point. Get an unbiased, expert opinion.  Ask someone that you trust—an expert that has no connection to the campaign you are entering—to review your submission. Ask for their honest critique and feedback. They may very well spot opportunities to improve the entry. Have a native speaker write or review your application. Ensure that your entry is reviewed by someone who is a native speaker of the language you’re being judged in. Judges are likely to be fluent in the application language and will expect a clear and coherent entry that showcases you in the best light. I’ve seen some great cases of work, but the language quality ultimately let them down—a native speaker can help reduce this risk. Digital awards entry do’s and don’ts Do’s: Research thoroughly : Understand who won previously and the standards in your industry globally (not just locally). Adhere to guidelines strictly:  Follow every instruction meticulously and respect the word count and judge’s time. Focus on clarity:  Ensure your entry is clear and concise, making it easy for judges to understand your achievements. Illustrate your strategy and results : Clearly link your strategies to tangible results and demonstrate their effectiveness. Invest in every section:  Treat all parts of the application as critical. Provide proof of results: Back up your achievements with hard data, including charts and first-party data screenshots where appropriate. Use supplements wisely : Enhance your entry with supplemental materials, but don’t rely on them to carry essential information. Review and refine:  Have your entry reviewed by an expert and a native speaker to ensure it’s free from errors and clearly communicates your value. Don’ts: Overlook simple sections:  Don’t neglect parts of the application that seem less important; they could be decisive if entries are similar. Be vague: Specificity in your objectives, strategies, and results is crucial; vagueness can undermine your entry. Exceed word limits:  Stick to the word count to avoid deductions and demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively within constraints. Forget the client perspective:  Including testimonials or client perspectives can significantly enhance the credibility of your results. Miss the final review:  Double-check your entry against the submission guidelines and ask for feedback to catch any overlooked errors or opportunities for improvement. Rely solely on digital proof: While digital metrics are important, contextualize them with qualitative insights to paint a fuller picture of your campaigns impact. And, the campaign of the year goes to… Remember, every entry is an opportunity to showcase your team’s achievements, benchmark against the industry’s best, and highlight your innovative approaches. Ensure you approach each submission with the aim to impress and captivate the judges, demonstrating the excellence and impact of your work. Aoife McIlraith - Managing Director at Luminosity Digital Aoife McIlraith is owner and MD of Luminosity Digital marketing agency and founder of Searchmastermind.org and Speakerlineup.com. With 22+ years of international marketing expertise, Aoife helps brands get the right content to the right audience at the right time to drive sales. Linkedin

Author: Erika Varangouli Experienced content creators and SEO s know that the gap between creating some  content and creating efficient  content is enormous. After all, you’re pouring dozens of hours into planning, creating, editing, and optimizing without necessarily understanding where in the search results your content will show up. Instead of investing all your resources before your content goes live, you can scale more quickly and get a better idea of the steps you need to take to improve content performance by adopting the Content MVP Framework.  It’s a strategy that I’ve gradually developed to allow teams to create content that delivers results regardless of the available resources or budget. The framework is based on two simple ideas:  Knowing when your content is ready enough to be published makes all the difference. Success with content is an iterative process. Let’s unpack these ideas so you can put them to work for your content program. Table of contents: Why content is pivotal for online success (and why you’re struggling to nail it) Google’s response to chronic mediocre content and AI Content marketing is neither easy nor cheap Start treating content as a product The Content MVP Framework How to build your content MVP 01. Choose your main topic 02. Identify subtopics to cover 03. Define your content’s unique value proposition 04. Incorporate your product/service 05. Assess content for quality thresholds 06. Set your goal and KPIs 07. Iterate Why preparation is everything What I’ve learned from applying the Content MVP Framework Why content is pivotal for online success (and why you’re struggling to nail it) Before we get into the strategy, let’s recap some crucial context. Google accounts for 82% of the search engine global market share on desktop. If you’re marketing your business online, that means you want to be visible on Google.  This is typically achieved by creating content (at least, in 99.9% of the cases I know). Here’s a great paradox you have to work with in this scenario: To perform well on Google… you shouldn’t create specifically for Google. Successful content isn’t about trying to please bots or algorithms.  This comes straight from Google. The company’s advice  is to “focus on creating people-first content to be successful with Google Search, rather than search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings.”   For years, Google has consistently evangelized the same approach to content. From the Panda algorithm update in 2011 to the Helpful Content system in 2022 and everything in between, Google keeps urging online publishers to create content that answers people’s needs. In practice, though, this seemingly simple advice can become really complicated:  What does “helpful” mean in each case? What might be helpful to one person might be useless to another. What does “ people-first ” involve? Does that mean I’ll get penalized if I optimize for search engines? (Before you condemn this as a daft question, I’ve been asked this in real life.) What if I’m using AI to create content ? Do I stand no chance of ranking? I’m not one to sugarcoat things, so below are a couple more considerations that further complicate things. Google’s response to chronic mediocre content and AI For years, SEOs and content marketers have created content based on a simple formula: Identify target keyword Analyze the top ranking pages Replicate/paraphrase the content from the top ranking pages (same format, topic, and subtopics covered) Sprinkle in a few more graphs if possible And for a few years (or for a few websites), this approach seemed to work.  Which is why we ended up with millions of SERPs  (search engine results pages), the content of which, when stripped of SERP features, would be mind-numbingly repetitive. I think you’ll agree with me that this is not a people-first approach.  Google seems to be onto this, too.  In 2022, Google was granted a new patent on “information gain scoring.”  Essentially, this patent demonstrates how Google can calculate and score the uniqueness of a content piece compared to the rest of the content on the same topic. And, at the time of writing this article (March 2024), Google was in the midst of rolling out a core and a spam update in combination with handing out a number of manual penalties.  In its own words:  “We believe these updates will reduce the amount of low-quality content on Search and send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites. Based on our evaluations, we expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.” — Google , March 2024 This comes as a response to what has transpired in the last 12 or so months: The rise of generative AI tools (like ChatGPT ) has allowed unhelpful, unoriginal content to scale and spread like never before.  Content marketing is neither easy nor cheap  The top five challenges content marketers face (according to Semrush’s 2023 State of Content Marketing report ) are Attracting quality leads via content Creating more content faster (and finding resources for it) Generating content ideas  Generating enough traffic via content Generating ROI and sales via content So, here we are now, in 2024: Google SERPs seem seriously repetitive and broken. More AI-generated content  keeps getting added to the sea of existing mediocre content out there. Content marketers struggle to come up with ideas (or ideas that generate value).  How do we deal with the situation? Start treating content as a product Best practices suggest auditing your published content regularly to refresh , consolidate , or prune it.  But, what SEOs and content marketers rarely talk about is: “Is our content ready to be published? How do we know how little is too little or how much is too much to begin with?” The consensus nowadays is that you have to have the best content possible in order to rank. But, how can you deliver this the first time, every single time? This puzzle is what led me to approach content creation differently—by identifying its similarities to a product launch.  To be successful, content and product both need to: Target a specific audience  Meet this audience’s needs Involve a unique value proposition (UVP) Offer a great user experience  Be marketed efficiently Go through iterations/revisions This last part (going through iterations) took me back to product development 101:  Minimum Viable Product (MVP): A simpler or stripped down version of a product that you can still market and expect to see results.  MVPs help businesses explore new ideas without dedicating huge budgets or resources to produce the end product. They allow you to collect feedback, understand product-market fit, iterate, and much more.  So, what if we applied this approach to content creation? The Content MVP Framework In simple terms, the Content MVP Framework helps you determine the minimum quality and information required in a piece of content in order to generate results post-launch/publication.   Similar to an MVP, the Content MVP allows you to launch a viable content product that can serve its purpose and its audience (so, it’s viable), but that might not be the end product.  You launch it to monitor how well it will perform. Based on the insights you gain, you can focus your resources and optimizations more strategically. This approach also allows you to publish content faster (especially when your resources are limited). “Results” here depend on your goals and your subjective measure of success. That may mean organic traffic, rankings, engagement, or something else. Whatever it might be, the Content MVP Framework relies on two simple ideas: You don’t have to (and perhaps you shouldn’t from the outset) invest all your content budget and resources into your first content iteration. The first version of your content needs to be good enough to generate some  results. Based on those results, you can plan your next iterations.  The Content MVP Framework is about efficiency and effectiveness  in content marketing.  And while this may sound like something that’s not for you (wink: editorial teams or companies that strive for “excellence”), I challenge you to continue reading.  Consider this: Content MVP doesn’t mean thin content. Or sloppy content.  In fact, I developed this framework in an attempt to put an end to all the sub-par content I used to receive from writers and editors. In the next sections I’ll explain how you can build a content MVP. You’ll discover that it has nothing to do with lower quality standards and everything to do with maximizing your resources and your results.  How to build your content MVP For a lot of workflows and content (especially evergreen content), there’s a general notion that once it’s published, you probably won’t have to do any major updates on it for a while. This mindset is actually counterproductive when using the Content MVP framework because this strategy is all about process and gradual improvement. Here’s the exact process I follow to build my content MVP:  Choose your main topic Identify relevant subtopics  Define your unique value proposition  Incorporate your product/service naturally  Review your content based on quality marks Set your goal and KPIs Iterate It’s important that you understand the entire scope of the process before getting started. Let’s dig in. 01. Choose your main topic  Let’s say, for example, you’re a mattress seller and you’ve identified the query [how to clean a mattress] as relevant to your audience (Semrush shows 14,800 monthly searches for this query). (Note: If you’ve already performed keyword research and created your content strategy, great. If you haven’t, you need to conduct keyword research  first and build your keyword and content strategy around target topics. Now, back to the rest of this guide.) This is the main target keyword for the content you want to build.  Next, identify close variants you will target within the same piece of content. If you use an SEO tool  like Semrush, you can use its keyword analysis features to gather these terms.  For example, Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool shows [how to clean mattress] (9,900 monthly searches) and [how to clean your mattress] (1,600 monthly searches) are both close variants that you can target with the same piece of content.  And if you don’t have access to an SEO tool, it’s still relatively easy to identify close variants manually. For each of these queries, the SERPs are quite similar (for example, the top results may be exactly the same, or upwards of 60% of the SERPs may be the same, even if the ranked pages are in a different order).  02. Identify subtopics to cover  Next, look for queries that are semantically relevant  and/or indicate very close or complementary keyword intent  to the main query.  There are different tools that you can use to get these (both free and paid). If you don’t have a paid tool subscription, you can use generative AI (like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini) to help you here.  You can use a simple prompt (like “Propose 10 semantically related terms for [ how to clean a mattress] ”) or a slightly more complex prompt (like “I want to write an article to target the term [how to clean a mattress]. Propose 10 keywords I should also target in this article”).  Using the examples above, ChatGPT (I’m using ChatGPT4) returned the following results: Terms ChatGPT generated from the simple prompt Terms ChatGPT generated from the more complex prompt Mattress stain removal Deodorizing a mattress Deep cleaning a mattress Removing odors from a mattress Cleaning mattress spills Mattress disinfection Vacuuming a mattress Freshening up a mattress Mattress care and maintenance Sanitizing a mattress Mattress cleaning tips Removing stains from mattress Mattress deodorizer methods DIY mattress cleaning Best mattress cleaners Mattress hygiene practices Urine stain removal mattress Dust mite removal mattress Natural mattress cleaning solutions Bed care and cleaning Explore variations of these prompts as well as commonalities between Google SERPs in order to decide which ones to include in your content brief  and content MVP.  I also use AlsoAsked and a bit of good ol’ Google Search to discover relevant search terms and questions people ask around my main topic. AlsoAsked, provides two-level deep insights if you don’t have an account (on the paid subscription you can dig deeper).  Here’s what it returned for my main topic:  And on Google, my search for [how to clean a mattress] returned the following filters: As well as the related searches below: There are also numerous paid tools you can use at this stage, from MarketMuse and Frase to Semrush and Inlinks and so many more.  Using a paid tool like Semrush, I obtained these semantically related keywords:  Dust mites Dish soap Hydrogen peroxide Memory foam Mattress pad Learning how to clean Upholstery attachment Spot clean Stain remover Dead skin All the data above provides me with great ideas to consider while planning and creating my content. In many cases, some of these ideas warrant separate content pieces.  At this point, sift through the data and clean it up so that you end up with only the queries and subtopics you definitely want to target within this one piece of content.  03. Define your content’s unique value proposition To perform well in search and make an impact on your audience, your content doesn’t just need to be high quality and helpful—it also needs to differ from the rest of the content out there.  At this stage, you need to define the unique and additional value you’ll bring to readers with your content.  Start by analyzing the top-ranking pages for the keyword(s) you identified earlier. Once again, you can do this using free or paid tools (or manually, but this will take longer). If you have a paid SEO tool like Semrush, MarketMuse, Clearscope, Inlinks, etc. you can get this information directly from the platform. Each software provides these insights in a different format, but the important thing here is to be able to conduct a gap analysis of your SERP competitors . Once you’ve gathered this information, cross-reference it with the insights you gathered in steps one and two. Search for gaps between the content covered by your SERP competitors and the relevant terms you discovered during the initial steps of your research.  Any topics that are not covered by your competitors present great opportunities to add unique value with your content. I’ve often found that top-ranking pages involve similar content, but: Either none of them include all of the relevant subtopics (lack of breadth) Or, they don’t go into the necessary detail to analyze their topic sufficiently (lack of depth) You can address these gaps with your content. Or, you can come up with a whole new approach to the topic.  Assess whether content in the SERPs addresses the main user intent. Then, come up with new ways to add value for readers . Some examples of this involve:  Leveraging original data Publishing an opinion-led piece (thought leadership) Using a case study as a basis for content Dispelling myths around a topic Collecting insights and quotes from experts Making your content way more visual than the rest of the content out there You can also use generative AI to explore gaps in the top-ranking content. Simply define your reader (audience) and the topics/subtopics covered by the top-ranking pages, then ask it to propose new angles or ways to address the reader’s needs.  04. Incorporate your product/service Demonstrating how your product or service is relevant to the main topic is crucial.  Connecting the dots between what  you’re writing about and why  you’re writing about it is paramount in helping readers make subconscious associations between your brand and the problems you help them solve. The big bet at this point, though, is to do so in a natural way that doesn’t come across like you’re trying to sell them your product now-now-now.  Do : Include screenshots/GIFs of your product in the content naturally to demonstrate a solution to a problem or to show a practical aspect of it. Use graphs/charts/tables leveraging original data from your product/service to strengthen an argument. Share workflows and use-cases to make a complex idea digestible. Add relevant CTAs (calls-to-action) .  Don’t : Use promotional and salesy language to talk about your product/service. Include your product/service in the content if it’s not organically connected to the point you’re making. Feature sales materials (promotional videos, battlecards, etc). Overdo it with the CTAs / use multiple CTAs throughout the page. Here’s an example from Wix . The article is about on-page SEO for eCommerce websites. For the sections that Wix offers a suitable solution, the author includes a breakdown of how the user can use Wix’s feature to complete the step.  05. Assess content for quality thresholds  It sounds like the most logical thing in the world, yet the number of times I’ve seen a content piece fail at this stage is way higher than I like to admit.  Here’s why: Editors, SEOs, email or social media managers (or anyone else getting involved with creating and approving content) often focus on grammar, spelling, or syntax.  These things are important, but they should not be the A to Z of your editorial standards. A content MVP is good to go if—at a minimum—it also passes the inspection for: Covering the main topic and subtopic efficiently Delivering on the unique value proposition Balancing information and demonstrating the value of your product/service Cohesion and logical flow Content formatting Including a table of contents for skimability Including a summary and the most important information/takeaways at the top Including visuals to make complex points simpler and engage readers Adherence to your brand’s tone of voice and style Language that is easily comprehensible by your audience There are more criteria you can include in this stage. The main challenge is to distinguish between the content elements you need to run during pre-launch versus the “nice-to-have” elements that can wait until the first iteration.  The former are essential in order to launch a viable  content product.  To that end, create an editorial checklist before you get to work on any new content. This checklist should include the practical checks each stakeholder has to run from creation (usually the author) to editing (the editor) to publishing (which may include an SEO strategist, a designer or a developer, etc).  Ensure that: You define each check clearly so it's easy to understand for everyone involved. You group elements to check according to their type (editorial, SEO, etc.) for the associated stakeholder. Every check is marked complete before publishing. 06. Set your goal and KPIs For the Content MVP Framework to succeed, it’s not enough to just set overall goals and KPIs for the whole of your content program. You need to set a clear goal and KPIs for each content piece  before launching your content MVP. This is central to assessing whether your MVP is actually viable, how well it delivers on its potential, as well as how many (and what kind of) iterations you’ll need. This part of the process is particularly important when a piece of content is part of your wider content marketing program, as it helps you quickly spot the content outliers and address issues efficiently. At this stage, complete the actions below: Define the goal for a given piece of content: This can be the same as your website’s overall goal (e.g., increase organic traffic) or it can be different (e.g., attract new audiences through word of mouth). I avoid setting more than one goal per piece of content as this often leads to creating content that tries to tackle multiple topics, intents, or needs—ultimately underdelivering on all fronts. Set only appropriate and necessary KPIs : Based on your goal, determine the set of KPIs you need to track. For example, if I want to increase organic traffic, I will track organic clicks, organic rankings for my main keyword(s), and potentially organic impressions and CTR. But, if I want to attract new audiences via word of mouth, I need to measure referral traffic, and potentially social shares/mentions and backlinks . The main point here is to not only choose appropriate KPIs, but to also avoid the temptation of picking too many KPIs. The fewer KPIs you set for your MVP, the clearer the picture you will get once it goes live. Skip every metric that could be considered a vanity metric.  Benchmark : Once you’ve picked your KPIs, you can create your benchmarks. The way you approach this will most likely depend on:  The type of content The content’s goals/KPIs Whether the MVP is a new content piece or an update to an existing one The popularity of the topic The popularity, relevance, and authority of your domain Etc.  The dataset you use to create your benchmark is critical. Let’s say you’re creating a blog post to target a topic that gets a few hundred searches per month. It could be a mistake to benchmark based on the average traffic all your blog posts get (regardless of the popularity of their topics, their age, etc). A different approach would be to benchmark against your average ranking position for blog content after one, two, or six months and set expectations accordingly.  For example: “I will consider this piece successful if it ranks within the top five after one month, as this is a 20% improvement on my current performance.” Or, if you want to set an ambitious goal around traffic, you can benchmark against the performance of your top content (e.g., using the 80/20 rule). So, you can say: “I will consider this piece successful if it generates X clicks within the first three months, as this is a 30% improvement on the average performance of the top 20% of my content.” 07. Iterate  This is the final and most important part of the workflow because adopting the Content MVP framework means planning for iterations further down the line.  Before publishing your content, you need to define: How long you’ll wait until you review your MVP’s performance — This may vary depending on how big/authoritative your website is or the type of content you publish. From the outset, define the timeframe you’re going to monitor your MVP against set KPIs. Avoid setting a timeframe that is too narrow to allow you to extract meaningful insights or too long, which will lead to a delay in reaching high performance sooner.  What the first iteration may look like — Create hypotheses to establish an initial approach for future content revisions/iterations. For example: “If the piece fails to rank within the top five for [keyword], then review SERP changes, page title, subheadings, secondary keywords, and topics coverage.” “If the piece fails to rank within the top five for [keyword] after [1 month] from the first iteration round, then review internal links  and backlinks.” Hypotheses help you create a plan of action and set internal expectations around what may need to happen and when. In turn, this allows you to plan your resources in advance, which is essential in small businesses or teams with limited headcount or skills.  The one thing I waited this long to tell you: Preparation is everything In my experience, the Content MVP Framework can prove hugely successful or  disappointingly useless. What determines success or failure is how much research and work you front load—meaning what you put in place before  you start creating your content.  Although the preparatory work may differ across industries, businesses, or content types, here are the assets I put in place to ensure my content MVPs work.  Keyword and topic research : This provides me with a wider view of the topics that are relevant to my audience and my business. Keyword strategy : This helps me prioritize my topic list based on reach or conversion potential (or both). Content strategy : This shows how each content piece is linked to the rest and to the overarching goal, which allows me to assess the types of resources I’ll need and acquire ahead of launching my content program. Editorial guidelines : These form a nice basis for everyone involved to work off of. I create guidelines that go beyond the typical “we spell things this way” or “we use ‘we’ versus the brand name.” These are all essential and good to have, but I’m looking for things that really help writers and editors achieve the writing style and quality I’m aiming for. Think along the lines of: “Only one point per paragraph” or including tons of examples, like “Don’t write ‘Here are a few steps to help you accomplish [X]’, instead write ‘Here are the exact 5 steps [person, brand] used to achieve X’,” etc. Templates : These help ensure a minimum quality standard for every content piece and help me speed up the process. The first template I put in place is the content brief . Depending on the content type and the goal, each content brief adopts a relevant template that includes all the necessary information. Additional templates you can create include… Article templates based on article type (e.g., listicle, how-to, etc.)  Landing page templates Email templates Social media post templates (based on type of content shared) Testimonial / quote template Visual assets templates Reporting templates  Etc. What I’ve learned from applying the Content MVP Framework I’ve used the Content MVP Framework for over 10 years now. It has helped me achieve great results for my clients and my employers—and often with very limited budget or resources (or both). At Semrush, for example, it helped my team to increase the blog’s organic traffic 7x within less than a year. Here are my top takeaways after years of successful (and unsuccessful) applications of the framework: “Content MVP” does not mean thin, rehashed, or AI-generated content. This framework does not mean that content is created fast or that it requires minimal effort. It’s better to carry out substantial work during the research and preparatory phases, instead of waiting for the content production phase to do most of it. Templatizing as much as possible helps speed up work and ensure certain standards are met every time. Setting clear goals and KPIs is pivotal to launching the right content and for planning for the right iterations. Explaining the framework to all stakeholders (including the leadership team) is key. You need to address all the different ideas around what “great,” “perfect,” or “ready to go,” content means and get everyone on the same page. You also need to get buy-in from management . If they’re not clear on the expectations for this content, having to iterate a few months down the line can (and will) be seen as failure or damage control in many cases. I hope this framework helps you and your teams create content that works—faster and better than ever before. Erika Varangouli - Head of Search, Riverside.fm Erika Varangouli is responsible for growing Riverside.fm’s organic visibility. Before Riverside, she led organic and brand teams at Semrush. She has worked with companies like Capterra, Symantec, Travelex, Asics, HSBC etc. She is a guest speaker, webinar host, and awards judge. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Crystal Ortiz SEO  and influencer marketing teams typically sit far apart at the metaphorical lunch table. But, what might seem like an unlikely pair might just be an untapped opportunity for greater ROI for your brand. Both channels seek to drive potential customers to your website and into your marketing funnel, and the teams that work on these initiatives possess data that often has implications for the entire business—not just their specific campaigns. Let’s break down these silos to see how social and SEO teams can work in tandem to seize opportunities and add value across your customer journey. Table of contents: SEO and influencer marketing: Why they’re better together How SEO can add value to influencer marketing campaigns How influencer marketing can help SEO campaigns Ways to align SEO and influencer marketing Potential challenges SEO and influencer marketing: Better together SEO teams are fluent in complex data and analysis, while influencer teams are creative and work closely with target audience segments. Collaboration between the two teams can provide practical business benefits via: Data-driven campaigns for influencer teams Better reach for SEO Teams More evergreen marketing campaigns Complementary campaigns that lead to better website experiences Data-driven campaigns for influencer teams Influencer teams make daily decisions around the creativity of their campaigns, who to partner with, and what they’re looking for audiences to experience.  SEO teams can aid influencer teams with these decisions via their ability to find data points about what their potential customers are interested in and searching for.  This might include:  Search volume Seasonal fluctuations Emerging trends Specific personas or buyer audience segmentation Etc. These insights can be incredibly valuable for audience and interest segmentation (e.g., pet enthusiasts, travelers, booktok, etc.), trends and seasonal influxes, and overall understanding of consumer behavior and interests.  For example, when we check beauty and hair trends, we can see that Google searches for [oval face haircuts male] are trending up by 127% YoY. This might be an interesting topic or angle that influencer teams can use to shape conversations or campaigns for clients in the hair and beauty industry. This data reveals that more people are trying to find the right hairstyle for their face shape, which could potentially inspire a series of videos, posts, and social media content, as well as SEO campaigns or products that help people find hairstyles and products according to their face shape.  “Hair styles by face shape” could be an interesting SEO- and influencer marketing-aligned initiative, given that [oval face male haircuts] has a monthly US search volume of 720. The variations around those keywords add up to 11,600 searches per month (the largest being [short haircuts for oval faces male], at 5.4K monthly searches).  SEO teams can validate and plan for website support and architecture to align with influencer campaigns, help create messaging that includes relevant keywords, and even find unique selling points or hooks around widely searched topics (such as in the example above). The influencer team could then align on the most common face shapes are and create content to help people find the right hairstyles for their face. This could lead to conversion content, like online quizzes, blog content, and email nurturing. Ultimately the goal would be to understand what problems consumers face when it comes to deciding on “style,” then building on that campaign to inspire purchases and pull people into the buying journey.  Better reach for SEO teams SEO teams like to focus on getting backlinks  to their websites naturally. While social shares might not directly correlate with an influx of backlinks (or provide any real value in terms of SEO link equity), it’s possible to create campaign buzz via influencer marketing. This can be a great opportunity for influencer/social marketing and SEO teams to partner to align on what pages (if any) the campaign will need as brand or campaign mentions rise.  For example, if a dog food company launched an influencer campaign about safe eating for pets, they could prepare pages in advance to share with influencers and on social media.  Those pages would also serve as the primary SEO pages for capturing the influx of traffic from the campaign. Hopefully, with enough amplification, the pages could earn additional backlinks and generate more in the future.  More evergreen marketing campaigns The value of SEO typically increases over time, meaning that creating pages inspired by influencer partnerships can grow website traffic beyond the initial influencer campaign.  If you create that campaign, you’ll have a destination to send visitors to during the launch, but you can continue to extract value from the campaign by keeping those pages on the website to gain additional traffic and backlinks over time. You can also revitalize and test campaigns that were previously successful, and you’ll be able to replicate those launches with high-converting pages.  For example, if you create an influencer campaign to launch a set of cooking pans, you can probably create a complementary SEO strategy to send traffic from the products themselves to any additional pages you want customers to visit as they make their purchasing decisions (i.e., buying guides, comparisons, how-to, etc) .  Complementary campaigns that lead to better website experiences Many marketing teams tend to think about the website experience only through their own lens. But, when SEO and influencer marketing teams think collaboratively and strategically, your website experience improves and users benefit. After all, SEO teams need content to support their goals, while influencer teams need website resources to support theirs. Here are some examples to illustrate my point: Landing pages not only support conversion goals from influencer initiatives, but they can also rank for keywords that bring in search visibility and traffic.  When influencers develop their product lines or collaborate with your company, you can publish creator pages that rank for their branded terms (Maddie & Kenzie Ziegler’s American Eagle line comes to mind). Regardless of campaign timing, people can search and find their collection on the AE website. As you can see from the Semrush data below, this influencer collection page generates an estimated 1300 visits per month across its 164 ranking keywords.  SEO teams should keep influencer initiatives top of mind, especially considering how those pages fit into the overall site structure and where internal linking  opportunities might exist.  How SEO can add value to influencer marketing campaigns If you’re on an SEO team (or if you’ve focused solely on SEO to this point), the first thing to do is check in with the social team to sync on their priorities (and yours). Using your SEO skills to complement influencer marketing goals while improving your website’s search visibility requires some creative thinking, so ask the right questions when you meet with the influencer team. Here are examples and tips to help you start the collaboration smoothly: Ask which campaigns you should familiarize yourself with to help you understand your audience and gain insights from the team. Get a sense of what your customers respond to best, their comments and questions, and any inside knowledge about the community. Social media teams are often the closest to customers, hearing directly from them on a daily basis. Find out what influencer categories work best for your business type, industry, and social media channels.  Follow social media trends and use the social platforms your company or clients are active on. Stay active on these platforms to make your conversations with the social teams more productive. Identify relevant, trending searches and evergreen keywords to provide to your social media team for consideration. Researching and positioning opportunities this way can help you bring in more traffic/conversions, which are generally KPIs for both teams. Influencer and social media teams should also know about SEO, how it works, and what they can look for or think about so you can validate ideas with research and data to help the team make better decisions. Consider educating the team with basic principles on this topic . Remember, the point here is to learn all about the social team’s plans and goals, especially surrounding overarching themes or topics that can seamlessly integrate with your SEO efforts. Communication between teams is really what you’re after, since this collaboration can play out quite differently depending on your business model and team structure, so prioritize transparency and trust if you want to reap the combined benefits of both influencer marketing and SEO. How influencer marketing can help SEO campaigns If you’re on a social media or influencer team and you’re curious about what a path to SEO collaboration looks like, here are some first-step suggestions to consider: Learn more about SEO, how it works, and how it relates to social media. SEO is becoming closely associated with social media as people are starting to use social platforms to search, plan, and get inspired. Similarly, search engines are integrating more social media signals into their results , so understanding how SEO and social media are intertwined will serve you well.  Ask which SEO campaigns are in the works and at which stages. Take a look at some of the data around how your audience searches to spark ideas for creative collaborations, social campaigns, or conversations within your community. Some social platforms, like Facebook  and TikTok , offer tools to help you monitor trending search terms that can inform your content in real-time, which can give you a headstart on the competition as traditional keyword research tools may not update as quickly. Ask the SEO team how they approach the website architecture, categories, traffic flow, and SEO tools. Educate and train the SEO team on social media best practices, your point of view, and insights into your customer activity. Your insights into customer pain points and interests are considerably valuable. Keep the SEO team informed about social media trends so they can help you put together data that helps validate search visibility opportunities for new topics. Finally, think about the areas of your business that need support and how influencers might be able to drive links or traffic to support those SEO goals. As I mentioned previously, communication between teams will always be the foundation of your success, so ensure you’re communicating regularly and often. Ways to align SEO and influencer marketing There’s no right or wrong way to approach collaboration. Most people think of influencer marketing as sending influencers products and trying to get people to buy from sponsored posts. But, that’s the last stage of the funnel.  You also need to think about SEO and influencer collaborations at the top of the funnel and amplify pages, search terms, products, and brand—not just the product.   The ultimate goal should be to get people from one stage of your marketing funnel to the next, so use these channels to generate awareness and align on messaging. That way, when you do get your product in front of customers (whether organically or via influencer marketing), it’ll be a brand they’re familiar with and are therefore more likely to buy from. Starting with an SEO idea In SEO, you often see groups of keywords that then turn into more extensive SEO campaigns.  For example, perhaps you want to create a cluster of pages surrounding a topic , and you think it’d be great to have influencer marketing support.  SEO product ideas (such as the release of new product libraries, templates , and educational resources) are another potential campaign that would pair nicely with influencer marketing. Once you’ve identified or developed a new SEO product, you could present your case to the partnerships team and discuss potential creative ideas and planning. If you’re further down on the communication chain (or if you prefer to present projects that are further in the pipeline), regular check-in meetings are a great way to update colleagues on the status of upcoming or existing products so social media teams have time to decide if those products align with their immediate goals.  Starting with an influencer marketing idea Starting with an influencer campaign can be equally beneficial to both teams.  For example, perhaps you’re looking to reach a new audience and you’ve developed a social media strategy in which influencers help you increase your visibility to this new audience (this is a very common strategy for TikTok creators—just think about how many times you’ve seen a sponsored placement for a pajama set, water bottle, or ring light — in your feed).  SEO can help provide research on the topics  that an audience segment is interested in, enabling you to better shape the ideas and messaging around the campaign. If your new audience consists of pet parents, for example, you could provide a list of topics you’ve identified as potential starting points for the SEO team. These ideas can turn into keyword research and a search intent  assessment, allowing you to provide a business case to stakeholders.  You would then have the SEO team support you in creating SEO-focused content to help move customers down your funnel.  Potential challenges to consider While a partnership might sound lucrative, both teams will naturally focus on individual initiatives that don’t necessarily overlap. Separation between the channels can make it hard to justify spending company resources on a joint campaign.  That said, settling into silos will put you at a disadvantage against competitors that can align their teams for collaborative campaigns that make a larger splash. Additionally, there may be external factors to consider, such as regulations, legal compliance, and advertising disclosures. Given the potential of SEO and influencer marketing to extend your brand’s reach, however, these challenges are worth addressing. Here are some potential challenges to think about when running SEO and influencer marketing campaigns in tandem. “Important” means different things to different teams Teams may have differing opinions on the importance of a particular aspect of a campaign. This may sound obvious, but it’s important to align with all stakeholders before taking action. While each team needs to have a firm understanding of their audience, SEOs might prioritize data and research, whereas social teams might prioritize creativity and customer connection. Whatever the case may be, you should let the customer data dictate your priorities over trying to be right based on your narrow own experience and viewpoint. Business goals should be top-of-mind Social media and SEO efforts should ultimately support revenue goals over short-term gains.  Remember, influencer marketing can be pricey, and SEO and development costs are expensive as well. The activities you support with influencer marketing and SEO should ultimately tee up the larger objectives of the business.  Consider whether you would execute a given campaign if the other channel wasn’t involved.  “Is this campaign a strong enough idea on its own, that I’d be proud to present as a channel effort if the other channel wasn’t involved?”   Additionally, you might have a good idea, but not the right idea to support what your business/audience needs at the moment. Focus on the ideas you strongly believe in; there’s nothing wrong with working through an idea only to put a stop to it if there are signs it might not be a worthy investment (or even worse, potentially result in wasted resources while moving you away from your goals).  For example, you may have developed an idea but it’s not aligned with the overall messaging your customers respond to on social media, or you ran a small test that doesn’t provide a strong enough case to roll out on a larger campaign (like with more influential creators or across multiple platforms).  ROI projections may look different Putting together a business case (as you would when obtaining buy-in at the individual channel level) has similar importance and weight in a joint effort. But unlike a singular effort, there are added benefits to combining influencer initiatives and SEO.  For example, you could present an SEO business case where you share the total volume, potential, traffic share, and expected business impact (such as revenue over a specific time period). If you’re adding an influencer campaign into the mix, you can add successful campaign ideas and data surrounding those campaigns to help illustrate how these two channels can propel one another.  For an influencer campaign, you can create your business case as you normally would, citing the overall promotion, creative direction, audience, potential reach, and ideal influencers. You could then add SEO data as an additional selling point to stakeholders. By demonstrating an added growth benefit, you can demonstrate how your campaign will progress beyond the initial launch.  Be aware that ROI in influencer marketing campaigns is measured differently than in SEO, which makes aligning on the business benefit that much more important.  In influencer marketing, you’ll generally look at the impressions, engagement (likes, comments, saves, and DMs), and revenue generated. However, conversions aren’t always clearly measured. For example, a consumer might be shown an influencer campaign once, twice, or three times before converting (and there are many definitions of conversions).  Similarly, ROI for SEO  can be a little ambiguous, especially considering the length of time it takes from launch to visibility and traffic generation. Thankfully, an influencer campaign can provide amplification for SEO initiatives.  Legal compliance Social media and legal teams will have more familiarity with legal compliance, such as FTC rules. SEOs should consider turning to those teams for understanding and education in this area.  Influencers are also considered brands of their own and may require legal language for using their image or likeness in certain areas beyond social media posts. Again, this is something for SEO teams to be aware of while working on influencer campaigns. Combine SEO and influencer marketing to minimize risk and maximize ROI Digital marketing is constantly evolving with consumer preferences, technology, and regulation. The businesses that worry the most about how to recover from an algorithm update  or losing visibility in social media feeds are the ones that tend to rely on a single channel to reach their potential customers.  By going multi-channel, you insulate your brand from overreliance on a single platform. And, by focusing on SEO and influencer marketing together, you can even go beyond simply avoiding risk to create campaigns that add ROI at every stage of your funnel.  Crystal Ortiz - SEO Consultant   Crystal Ortiz is an SEO consultant with experience across fashion, health, travel, automotive, and fitness. She teaches digital marketing classes at various universities across the US. Crystal lives in Indiana with her husband, son, and dog. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Ross Simmonds I’m sure that, right now, you have a story that is worth sharing. It might be a story about your business. It might be an update around one of your new sales. It might be a how-to blog post that you spent hours writing but haven’t promoted for more than five minutes. This is the reality for many, often leading to an unsustainable cycle of creating new content just to achieve similar performance as an effective distribution strategy. To boot, new content is generally more resource intensive to produce, making it less cost effective than distributing your existing content. Over the last decade, I’ve helped brands that have been stuck on the “content creation hamster wheel” see 10x more traffic on their content simply by distributing it. In this blog post, I’m going to help you learn the ins and outs of content distribution as a way for you to get better ROI out of the content marketing assets that you’re already creating on a regular basis. Let’s dive in. Table of contents: What is content distribution? Why content distribution matters The types of content distribution Owned distribution channels Earned distribution channels Paid distribution channels Content distribution strategies Content repurposing Content resharing Content syndication How to distribute your content effectively What is content distribution? Content distribution is the act of amplifying, repurposing, resharing and promoting your content online. Content distribution  is an often overlooked yet ridiculously valuable part of content marketing. It’s not just about putting your content out there; it’s about strategically placing it across a variety of platforms—be it social media, blogs, email newsletters, or even podcasts—to ensure that it reaches your target audience, engages them, and, most importantly, prompts them to take action. Why content distribution matters Content distribution matters because, amidst all the content that makes its way to your audience on a daily basis, it helps your content  get seen and heard by potential users or customers via the channels that they prefer.  It’s not enough to press publish on a piece of content and share it once or twice on social media. Every business that is looking to generate ROI from their content marketing should invest time and energy into distributing their content after it goes live. The key to getting better value and performance from your content lies in matching the right content formats and distribution channels. Let’s take a look at what you need to know about the latter. The types of content distribution Although there are many platforms and methods you can use to distribute content, they typically fall within these categories: Owned distribution channels — As the name implies, these are channels that you can control directly. Earned distribution channels — This refers to unpaid content distribution that you typically have to earn. Paid distribution channels — This involves payment for distribution on third-party platforms. It can include, but isn’t limited to PPC, social media ads, influencer marketing, display ads, etc. For this guide, I’ll focus on organic methods: owned and earned distribution channels. Owned distribution channels Owned distribution channels are platforms and assets you control, such as your website, blog, email newsletters, and social media profiles. You can distribute your content on these owned channels by promoting it to your followers or subscribers. Here are a few examples: Email list distribution Email lists are a staple in content distribution. Building an email list of your target customers and using that list to share your content is a powerful tactic. Email marketing gives you a direct line to your audience’s inbox. This personal connection allows for you to break through the clutter and drive these individuals back to your content on a regular basis.  So, if you write a blog post about your latest deal, share it over email. If you write an update about a new feature, share it over email. If you record your very first YouTube series, share it over email. The ability to communicate with your audience over email in a 1:1 way is incredibly valuable and a major leverage point as a content distribution play. Imagine being able to tailor your content to meet the specific interests of individual email subscribers, or segmenting your audience to deliver highly relevant articles, updates, and offers directly to them.  Here’s a tactical example:  Imagine you run a short term rental bed-and-breakfast business and send an email to 100 of your past guests. In most scenarios, a lot of these people will unsubscribe immediately because they only stayed at your rental because they happened to be in town at that time. But here’s how email personalization can be a super power: Let’s say that when these individuals signed up to receive emails from you, they self-identified their current address. You can now send 40 emails instead of 100 to only  the people who stayed at your venue as a staycation. This increases the likelihood of tailoring your message to the right people with the right story.  Social media distribution Social media distribution is one of the most effective ways to get your story out there to the masses. Unlike email, distributing your content on social media isn’t isolated exclusively to those who opted into your messaging.  Social media offers a viral network that gives your content a lot more chances to break out and spread from one person to many (or, ideally, many to many). Imagine you're scrolling through a social media channel, like X, and come across this: It’s a post from Wix that lives on their blog getting amplified to their social following. This post on X has more than 48K views, pushing the audience to read the blog post on Wix’s domain. This is the power of distribution. With growth-focused blog distribution  tactics, one blog post can reach thousands simply because they took the time to share it on social media. With social media, you can share your content and engage with your audience in real-time. From X (Twitter) to LinkedIn to Instagram, each platform offers its unique benefits, audiences, and opportunities for content distribution. Take advantage of them by creating compelling content and amplifying it. Website content distribution Your brand’s website acts as the central hub for your content distribution, offering a plethora of avenues to engage visitors and share your vibrant content landscape.  By integrating features like pop-ups, chat boxes, and strategic calls-to-action (CTAs)  throughout your site, you can leverage new dimensions of interaction and content promotion. Below is an example of website content distribution from the team at Gong. If you visit their homepage, you will see that halfway through the site is a collection of blog posts, eBooks and resources that they showcase to visitors. Placing content that you have created on different sections of your site is a form of owned channel content distribution. It’s especially successful when these pages are already generating a significant amount of traffic from people who may not know that these assets exist. Other on-site distribution tactics include things like pop-ups. The team at Briogeo has a pop-up on their site asking people to fill out a hair quiz: Pop ups like this can grab a visitor's attention at just the right moment, offering them valuable content such as a quiz (that can also double as a method of lead generation). You can do this with eBooks, white papers, or even a subscription to your email newsletter allowing for future distribution directly to their inbox. Earned distribution channels Distribution through these channels is gained through your efforts and are not paid for. Some examples of earned content distribution are:  Customer reviews Organic search (AKA SEO) Media mentions, press mentions, and social media shares Word of mouth These channels tend to be highly trusted by consumers and offer a sense of validation and social proof for your brand, making them invaluable assets for content distribution.  Customer review sites Customer review sites are pillars of earned content distribution, and for good reason: People trust reviews. The majority of people trust independent review sites more than any other source, according to a consumer online survey from Software Advice: Consumers consistently rely on these platforms to understand what brands/products others trust and also to voice their experiences and opinions on products and services. This presents you with a unique opportunity to harness the power of organic testimonials. Platforms like Yelp, Google Business Profile , and industry-specific review sites provide you with valuable feedback from users and serve to amplify your brand’s visibility and credibility. Encouraging happy customers to share their positive experiences can significantly enhance your reputation, driving more traffic to your content and, ultimately, your offerings. Engaging with reviews, both positive and negative, demonstrates your brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement, fostering a trustworthy and relatable image in your industry. Organic search (SEO) Owning a top position in the search results when someone looks for your brand or offering on Google is a huge opportunity. Search engine optimization (SEO) provides you with the ability to show up in organic search rankings without paying Google for your spot. The search engine results page ( SERP ) is the page that Google serves up after you type in a query, like [Best Spas in Georgia]: In the SERP above, three spas have earned top placements when someone goes to Google to type in this phrase. You may notice that what is actually ranking here is their GBP account, with star ratings, links to their respective websites, and directions—this is why customer reviews  are so important. At the top of the SERP (above the map) is an article from the Exploring Georgia tourism website. This website likely generates a ton of traffic from searchers and the benefactors of this are the spas that happen to be listed on that page.  This same basic principle applies for all types of businesses with an online presence. For example, eCommerce businesses can create how-to or buying guides  to educate audiences about their industry and how to use their products, and make that content available on-demand via search engines. Media coverage & press mentions When your content or brand stories catch the eye of journalists and news outlets, the articles talking about your brand can increase your content’s reach. Coverage not only brings your content to a broader audience, it also has the ability to send referral traffic directly to your site. Engaging with the press, journalists, writers, and media creators  (whether through press releases or direct outreach) opens up a distribution channel for your brand/content to get highlighted on platforms where you traditionally may need to pay big bucks to get a little bit of ad space. In addition, organic media coverage carries an element of trust that you just can’t buy with paid ads, even when those ads appear in the same publication. Word of mouth Word of mouth has always been incredibly persuasive for audiences, and with the rise of social media, it has become even more influential. Positive word of mouth can have an exponential effect on your brand’s reach and credibility, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to spread your messaging as it relies heavily on satisfied customers and engaged brand advocates. Encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations through reviews, referrals, and social media mentions and shares can help you reach audiences that you may not have been able to connect with otherwise. On social media, one of the most effective ways to increase word of mouth is to include a CTA in the original content asset you’re distributing. For example: Tell people on X to retweet Tell people on YouTube to hit share Tell people in their inbox to FWD the email Tell people on LinkedIn to leave a comment All of these little CTAs can drive meaningful returns. Bookmark this guide and reference the table below for a quick overview of the content distribution channels mentioned above: Content distribution channel Suitable for Metrics to monitor Email newsletter A range of businesses (eCommerce, B2B, D2C, publications, etc.) Various types of content, including informational posts, new products, etc. Open, subscribe, and unsubscribe rates The types of content that get clicked on Social media Engaging with a broad audience in real time Sharing timely content to reach a large consumer base Engagement rates Follower growth Social referral traffic Website Every brand (both small and large businesses) Capturing leads from your ideal customers Building and establishing brand excellence Website traffic Bounce rates Conversion rates Customer review sites Brands where decision making includes customer research Building social proof and trust Review referral traffic Total number of reviews Ratings SEO Increasing organic visibility in search Attracting your target audience at various stages of the marketing funnel Keyword rankings Organic traffic Click-through rates Media coverage Brands looking to reach a broader audience Establishing brand credibility Number of quality mentions Sentiment of coverage Word of mouth Service-based businesses Leveraging customer advocacy amongst your ideal customers Net Promoter Score (NPS) Referral rates Customer lifetime value Paid distribution channels Paid distribution channels involve paying to promote or distribute your content on third-party platforms. These distribution channels are not limited to Facebook, Instagram, and Google though. Paid distribution channels also include opportunities for amplification like paid influencer partnerships, podcast ads, or even newsletter sponsorships. We would be here for hours if we tried to describe all of the ways in which paid distribution can happen. The channels are plentiful, the formats are extensive, and the ways in which you can run your paid media campaigns are diverse. From PPC to fixed rates, the world of paid distribution is one that is vast and significant. Content distribution strategies You can approach content distribution by: Repurposing your existing content Resharing your existing content Syndicating your content on third-party platforms Content repurposing Content repurposing is the practice of reshaping existing content into different formats or fresh pieces to expand its reach and lifespan (i.e., performance). It’s about taking the core ideas or data from your content—be it a blog post, video, podcast episode, webinar , infographic, etc.—and adapting it for various platforms and audiences.  For example, you could transform a comprehensive research report into:  A series of blog posts Infographics Short videos Social media posts This strategy maximizes the value of your original content investments while allowing you to engage with different segments of your audience (via the different distribution channels), catering to their unique preferences and consumption habits.  By repurposing content, you enhance its visibility and effectiveness, ensuring your message resonates across multiple channels and touchpoints. To repurpose your content effectively, you need to understand your target audience and how they consume content. Once you identify this, consider adapting your existing content into different formats that align with those preferences.  For example, if you find that your audience prefers visual content, consider repurposing written pieces into infographics or videos. Additionally, think about ways in which you can make your content more interactive and engaging, such as hosting live Q&A sessions or creating polls and quizzes. Content resharing Content resharing is taking something that you created in the past and sharing it over and over and over again. This method is popular with marketers who use it to improve the performance of evergreen content .  Resharing evergreen content allows you to reach new audiences and drive ongoing traffic to your website or blog without having to invest the level of time and resources required to create entirely fresh content.  It’s also a great way to repurpose content, as you can share it on different platforms and revamp its formatting from time to time. For example, if you wrote a comprehensive guide on how to start a business last year, you can reshare the blog post for months to come. To effectively reshare your content, consider scheduling posts in advance using a social media management tool like Buffer or Hootsuite. Keep in mind different time zones when you're scheduling your content especially if you have a global presence. Now beware: Don’t use this message as permission to reshare the same thing every day. I’ve seen some brands and people make the mistake of thinking that just because they can reshare content that this is the only thing they should do—that’s a mistake. Resharing is one of the many distribution strategies that you can embrace. Find a mix of repurposing and resharing to maximize the power of organic distribution. For example, if you have a social media calendar the ideal mix might look like this:  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Week 1 New content New content Repurposed content New content Reshare from Monday New content Week 2 Reshare from last Tuesday New content Repurposed content Reshare from last Thursday New content Repurposed content Content syndication Content syndication is the strategy of republishing your original content on third-party platforms or websites to reach a wider audience. This could mean taking an article that first appeared on your blog and having it published on a larger publication’s site, or sharing your infographic with a partner website that serves a similar target audience. The beauty of content syndication lies in its ability to expand your brand’s reach beyond your immediate followers or subscribers to include the syndication platform’s audience as well, introducing your content (and thereby your brand) to new eyes. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement; your website gains additional exposure and potential traffic, while the host site enriches its content offerings without producing new content firsthand. If you do decide to embrace content syndication, it’s important to understand best practices. Ensure that your syndicated content hosted on other sites canonicalizes  back to your original content (on your domain). This helps search engines understand which version they should send searchers to. How to distribute your content effectively Like other digital marketing strategies, you’ll need to research your audience, plan your execution, and report on progress in order for content distribution to yield consistent results. Step 1: Content distribution research Understanding who you’re trying to reach—their interests, pain points, and where they spend their time online—informs not only the type of content you create but also the channels through which you share it. Start by analyzing your customer data and social media habits to build audience personas. These personas should include:  Demographic information Professional info Content preferences Etc. Once you define personas for your audience, you will have a clear picture of the channels they spend time on and the types of content they want on those channels. This research is crucial for developing a content distribution engine that drives consistent and meaningful results. Here are a few ways to conduct this research: Audience research tools: Leverage software like Sparktoro or Audiense to conduct research that gives insight into the exact channels your audience spends time on. You can learn who they follow, what they talk about, and even what podcasts they listen to. Content research tools: Use content research tools like BuzzSumo to better understand what content your audience shares and engages with online. Native social research: Deep-dive directly into the channels your audience is spending time on and look at how they’re behaving, what content they’re interacting with, and how they’re amplifying (sharing) content in these channels. Step 2: Content distribution planning Now that you understand your audience and where they spend their time, you need to plan how you will distribute your content. Start by identifying the channels you want to target and determine which types of content will resonate best on each platform. For example, visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest  may be better suited to infographics or images, while LinkedIn may be a better fit for long-form articles or thought leadership pieces. Next, create a content distribution schedule that lists when and where you will share your content on each channel. This can include both organic and paid distribution efforts. Consider utilizing social media management tools to schedule posts in advance and track performance across channels. Step 3: Execute and report on progress Great content distribution is not just about spreading your content for the sake of it. It’s about driving impact. Here are some key metrics to track and analyze to gauge the effectiveness of your content distribution strategy: Reach and engagement : Evaluate your content’s audience reach and interaction levels, such as likes, comments, and shares. High engagement rates often signal content relevance. Referral traffic : This refers to the visitors directed to your site from shared content. Assess both traffic volume and visitor behavior to gauge traffic quality and relevance. Leads/Contact generation : While not always applicable, monitoring lead generation from distribution efforts can be crucial. This encompasses actions like form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, or any engagement indicating potential customer interest. Audience growth : Quantifies the expansion of your audience across platforms. A growing audience signifies effective content distribution and brand connection. By tracking these metrics, you can paint a picture of your content's performance, make informed decisions, and continually refine your content distribution strategy for optimal results. Channels may change, but the value of content distribution is constant Distribution changes regularly. It’s not realistic to assume that the channels we’re distributing content on today are the channels that we will use in 5–10 years. The channels always change. But one thing that doesn’t change is the value of distribution. Great distribution is the key to a successful content initiative. This is why I wrote an entire book dedicated to distribution called Create Once, Distribute Forever . It’s a complete guide to how to embrace not just the tactical elements of content distribution, but also the theory and strategy behind why distribution is one of the most powerful forces in the digital world. I hope you check it out. I hope you also send this along to your team, colleagues, or friends. I’m confident that someone out there you know would benefit from reading it. Let’s get more people off the “content creation hamster wheel” and get more people to realize the importance of distributing their work. Ross Simmonds - CEO of Foundation Marketing Ross Simmonds is the founder of Foundation Marketing, a B2B SaaS Marketing agency that works with some of the worlds most successful brands. He's also the author of Create Once. Distribute Forever: How Great Creators Spread Their Ideas and How You Can Too . Twitter  | Linkedin