SEO Content Tutorial

Key Takeaways

in this video I'm going to show you my exact step-by-step process for creating keyword targeted pages that consistently rank on the first page of Google in fact I've used this exact process you're about to learn to rank on the first page of Google for super-competitive ecommerce keywords like testosterone booster BCA best pre-workout fat burner and even best fat burner I'm Nathan GOC the founder of Gaucho SEO which is where marketers come to learn how to get more free traffic from search engines and today I'm going to show you my step-by-step SEO content creation process that will give you the ability to predictably produce first page rankings and drive loads of free organic search traffic to your website and make sure you watch this entire training video because I'm going to share my complete SEO content creation procedure that I only share with my team and members of gotcha SEO Academy keep watching [Music] so like I did in video 1 this training series I'm going to walk you through the process of how I would create a keyword targeted page so for this demonstration I'm going to select go mad diet as my target keyword phrase so the first step of this process is to establish your search intent strategy simply ask yourself a series of questions what is this person looking for when they search this keyword phrase what problem are they trying to solve and what solution do they want these questions will help you step into the shoes of the searcher but I also want to help you avoid guessing so here are the primary categories of searcher intent the first type of searcher intent are going to be informational queries and informational search queries are usually at the top of the funnel so some examples include what is SEO or how to build backlinks searchers at this stage of the funnel are probably not ready to buy so that's why you need to create educational based content that satisfies this type of intent the second type of intent are for comparison queries searchers at this stage are deeper into the funnel and they're trying to figure out what solution they want to choose an example would be Nike shoes verse adidas shoes the third type of intent is transactional which means that the searcher is at the bottom of the funnel and they're ready to buy an example in a transactional search query is by Nike baseball cleats the fourth times of intent is navigational which means the searcher already knows the brand or as a customer of the brand for example when someone searches Gaucho SEO they already know my brand and are navigating to it pretty much every keyword phrase will fall under one or two of these categories so after you've thought about that all you need to do is analyze the ranking results for your target keyword so if the majority of the results are blog posts you know you need to create a blog post if the majority of the results are product pages then you know it would be wise to try to rank a product page so now let me show you this in practice ok so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you how to satisfy search intent for this specific keyword phrase which is go mad diet so what you want to do is just scan through the results and look for some common themes that we're seeing here so in this case what you're going to notice right is that the first three results are articles so that's a good sign and now as we scroll through here looks like the fourth result is an article and then another article and then we have a forum thread and then we have another article so in this case it would make a lot of sense to create an in-depth article about this particular topic because Google is showing us how they are satisfying intent for this particular keyword phrase so that's really all that you need to know for going through and trying to figure out how you're actually gonna satisfy the intent if you see a lot of articles then you know that you need to write an article if you see a lot of product pages you know you need to write a product page if you see a lot of home pages then you know that maybe you should try to rank your homepage so you get the point but the key here is to focus on the actual intent around this keyword so in this case go mad diet is an informational keyword phrase so you're gonna see a lot of articles which are gonna be primarily crafted to educate and give information to this person who's looking to learn more about gomad diet the main takeaways that you need to avoid following the blanket advice that you should just write 2,000 word articles what matters is satisfying search intent sure more content is usually a good idea but that doesn't mean it needs to come in the form of blog posts now the next part of this process is to develop your content strategy and the truth is developing an intelligent strategy is the most important part of this process in my formula for being the competitors is simple create a page that is substantially different and 10x better than what's currently ranking and the different part is the most critical part of the strategy that's why I'm going to show you several ways to differentiate your content from your competitors however before we get into that you must see what you're facing and you must analyze your competitors to see what their strengths and weaknesses are and I recommend you do this before you even think about creating your content because it's gonna make the whole process a lot easier you'll want to analyze a few key elements number one media are your competitors using images videos or audio and if not these are all strategic advantages for you do what they aren't doing articles are easy to create but creating other forms of media is challenging and the more challenging something is the less likely people are willing to do it number two word count remember that satisfying search intent is the most important action to take however in most cases a higher word count is a good idea get an average workout for your top five competitors and then double it that should be your target word count for example if the average competitor has 1500 words on its page you should aim to create a 3,000 word content asset number 3 readability can you make your content easier to read and digest this is achieved with headings short paragraphs efficient writing and most importantly multimedia the truth is Internet users are repulsed by big blocks of text and another readability point you want to analyze is the simplicity of the content is the content written for the average person or is it written like a dissertation simple and easy to read content performs better on all fronts now since the bulk of your audience is average in any given industry you need to write to them not to the experts in your industry the only exception is if your target market are the experts within a given field number for design and UX some websites focus on monetization instead of UX and this is your advantage websites that perform well in organic search are usually user and content centric you have to remember that searchers are coming to your website because they're looking for a solution to a problem it's your responsibility to help them not distract them from what their objective is and you'll get the opportunity to sell them something if you give them the value they requested now you know what to look for but let me show you this in practice ok so now what I'm going to do is I'm just gonna look through each of these competitors for gomad diet and see if there's anything here that we can do better if we're gonna create a content asset around this particular topic so this is the number one ranking result and it's a pretty good piece of content pretty long it's very easy to read it has bullet points as bolded words it has internal links going to other pages on the site he actually does link out to other web sites as well which is good for on-page optimization and in general this page I'm assuming loads pretty quickly because it doesn't have a ton of media on it so this is actually one thing that you could definitely do better if your creating an asset around this keyword as you could first of all add more images second of all you could add more video and number three you could actually custom design this page if you really wanted to get serious about it so those are three things you could do because right now he just has one image that's a stock photo so obviously you can create a custom image and make this a lot more visually appealing what I recommend doing is just adding that into this section here and you can just write doesn't have custom images video or custom-designed pages that's just the first competitor that if we look at the second one which is actually the same person you'll notice that both of these content assets were created in 2015 so they're definitely dated so you can take advantage of that as well and then the third competitor here got all kinds of stuff going on so right now this is all bad for user experience so obviously you wouldn't want to be doing this because I haven't even scrolled on this website and I'm already getting hit with a pop-up so it means that they haven't really optimized their user intent for this pop-up so this is something you would want to avoid and in the long run this is gonna hurt them because interstitial pop-ups are definitely something Google's targeting and they have another one here for push notifications so X out of these and then we'll go ahead and just look at this content overall and it's definitely a good piece of content it has internal links it has external links it's well formatted it's easy to read has a nice table of contents and then it has stock photos so once again we want to try to avoid using stock photos and try to use nothing but custom images if possible these all look like stock photos and once again this looks like a pretty good piece of content but definitely something that could be beat so the fourth competitor here they have a custom image which is great but the overall readability of this content isn't great and then they have another stock photo here so there's a lot that can be improved on this page as well so really as we examine these competitors it's pretty obvious that the way to beat these competitors is to just create custom images maybe create video for this topic and then embed it on the page and then also maybe even consider Korea a custom-designed page as well so these are things you just need to look at when you're trying to target a keyword you want to see what they're not doing well so you can do even better than they're doing and of course with this particular competitor we know that they're using aggressive pop-ups so that's something that we'd want to avoid so that we have optimal user experience on our website so now that you have a firm understanding of your competition you need to figure out how you're going to differentiate your content the good news is that it's easy to differentiate your content and why is that it's simple your experience is unique and different from everyone else on this planet and no one has ever walked a day in your shoes so good content is the product of real-life experience to put that in perspective people are attracted to my content on gotcha SEO calm because I have real life experience in SEO and that shows in my writing in my videos and in my teaching real experience is obvious and you cannot fake it the main takeaway and mindset you need to have when you're creating your content is that number one you're different and number two since your experience is unique just be yourself don't try to emulate other influencers in your industry you can of course learn from them but always be yourself because that automatically makes your content different so now that my rant is complete here are some practical ways to make your content different number one use unique case studies with quantitative data case studies and unique data are an excellent way to deepen your content and there are two ways to go about doing it first you can create your own case studies which is the best route alternatively you can reference existing case studies or data from authoritative resources each method will strengthen your content and add another level to it if you want to find niche relevant case studies go to google and enter the following search string your niche plus case study example would be SEO plus case study now what if there aren't case studies in your industry well that is a golden opportunity for you to lead the way case studies go hand-in-hand with my next differentiation method which is to inject relevant stories relevant stories make your content more relatable and engaging and they're a powerful tool for teaching and persuading as well I always tell the members of GOC SEO Academy that need to build a story database and that means sitting down and brainstorming your experience in your industry and if you're living then you have stories and you just need to flush them out now what if you're new to an industry and don't have many relevant stories to share no worries because a story is a story and that means you can borrow stories you've listened to from friends customers competitors or anyone else any relevant story can deepen your content and make it more impactful the next method is to leverage all media types I truly believe that more media types you can add your content the better it'll be everyone digests content differently online some people love articles while others love video and audio you have to cater to these preferences not only that but it makes your content deeper and more unique and the truth is most businesses won't go through the effort of recording videos creating audio etc it's easy to sit behind a computer and write an article but it's intimidating and logistically challenging to record high-quality videos in audio just don't be afraid because you can blow past their competitors if you leverage different media types it's definitely tough initially but it gets much easier once you've built system and there's one huge point that I want to emphasize here all of your content on your website should be 100% unique and that includes your images your videos your charts etc and this adds levels to your content it makes it substantially different from your competitors some media types to include in your content include images graphics diagrams charts videos audio files gifs and infographics so now you know what you need to do to differentiate your content but how do you make it better than your competitors well it's actually much simpler than you probably think if you want to be your competitors simply do this one thing add more value for example if your competitors are ranking with a 2,000 more article then you need to 5x or 10x their value by creating a 10,000 word or 20,000 word resource if all the ranking results are tools or software then you need to create a tool or piece of software that's 10x more valuable than what's ranking or if all the ranking results are product or services pages then you need to create a product or service that's 10 more valuable and I'm sure you get the point by now but to be better you have to be more valuable it's as simple as that always ask yourself what can I do to enrich the lives of my prospects and add as much value as possible given my existing time and resources so now that you know how to make your content different and better at a 30,000 foot level let me introduce you to a few tactics for keeping your prospects obsessed with your pages or content these are what I like to call engagement hacks and the methods I've shown you so far are the high impact actions that will keep your prospects engaged but here are some additional micro tactics you should be taking advantage of number one write to an eighth-grader I always say that you shouldn't create your content for experts and most people within a given industry our average proficiency that means your content should be easy to read and understandable for the average person you're not writing a dissertation I highly recommend you take advantage of the flesh reading score metric so your content is easier to understand I personally try to write at an eighth grade level or lower keep in mind the your content isn't about displaying your knowledge design your content to help people achieve a goal or solve a problem no one cares about how smart you think you are people are only concerned about how you're going to help them simplify complex problems and make your content easy to understand number two care about grammar and spelling do your best to clean up your grammar and spelling and the best way to do that is to use grammar early and Hemingway writer because it helps a ton you can also hire an editor if you have the budget number three use short paragraphs big blocks of text go unread on the internet so your paragraph should be no more than one to four sentences and if you're having trouble writing shorter paragraphs then you probably need to cut the fat from your writing or simplify it and the next method is to keep your content above the fold keep your content above the fold is particularly important for organic search visitors that's because they came to your site looking for a solution to their problem and you should attempt to give them a solution as soon as possible without them having to scroll anything that pushes your content below the fold is usually a distraction and doesn't add value to the reader the next method is to use headings that tell a story I personally learned this method from Frank Kern but most internet users scanned content before committing to reading it and that's when headings come into play a reader should be able to understand what your content is about only by reading your headings next method is to use pattern interrupts you have to use every tool your disposal to keep your reader engaged that includes multimedia bullet points numbered lists influencer quotes or quotes in general gated content quizzes polls etc are all methods you can use to break up your content the next method is to eliminate distractions most websites are filled with distractions that add little or no value to the user some of these distractions include your sidebar ads or irrelevant pop-ups respect your users attention and give them what they came to see and avoid anything that takes away from their problem being solved and you have to remember that the experience a user has on your website is what makes him or her come back or not come back the truth is short-term conversion focus thinking usually leads to a poor experience stay content and user centric and your site's experience will start to improve now that you know all the strategies and tactics you can use to create effective SEO content it's time to actually create it I highly recommend that you build a content production process even if you're the only person creating it's so important to establish a system early on because you'll be able to scale much faster when you start to add new members to your team so here are the positions you need for an effective content production team number one a project manager a p.m. oversees the project and make sure that everyone knows what's going on number two a Content strategist a/cs is the mastermind behind the content strategy number three is a copywriter than the copywriter simply writes the content number four is a graphic designer the GD designs all the custom graphics for your content and remember unique is always better and number five is a subject matter expert the SME is the person that verifies the accuracy of the information now you may occupy each of these positions early on your company and that's totally okay now here's how a Content production workflow looks with these positions in place Stage one create a Content brief the content brief is an overview of what you're trying to achieve with a Content asset it's also where you should strategize as well some key points to include in the content brief are your target keyword your target word count competitor weaknesses that you'll end up capitalizing on differentiation techniques you're going to be using data or research that you'll end up using and a Content outline or anything that can help the copywriter do his or her job better stage two is to send the brief to the writer Stage three is to assign graphics to the designer Stage four is to have the subject matter expert review the content writing and graphics and Stage five is to complete all the revisions now there might be one other stage in this process if you're creating custom pages for your SEO content which may involve having a web developer and a web designer to create those pages but in most cases for most of your content assets you probably won't be doing custom designs but it is important to mention that because some keywords will require a more advanced strategy where you create a custom page so after you get through all of these stages it's time to optimize your content now I could create an entire video just for page level optimization but here are the key points you need to understand number one it doesn't matter how much you optimize your page if your content is low-quality focus on the content quality and then optimize it now the most important action is to optimize a page our number one keyword placement your keyword should be in the URL title first sentence and sprinkled a few times throughout the content number two keyword variations use Google's suggested results to find keyword variations to place within your content and in headings number three page loading speed and mobile friendliness these are no-brainers where your page should load fast and it should be mobile-friendly the next method is to use external links linked up to trustworthy sources in your niche or super trustworthy sources from ddu or gov websites this adds a level of trust to your content now keep in mind that your content production process will vary depending on the type of content for example creating a text-based asset requires a different process than creating a video or audio asset after you've optimized your content you're ready to publish and so that's it right you just sit back and watch your rankings just climb well I wish it was that simple creating the asset is only the first stage you then need to promote your content asset and the good news is that I'll be showing you exactly how to do that in video 3 in this training series and as I mentioned before I have a few free downloads for you below including my SEO content optimization checklist and an example of an SEO content brief we'll talk soon