Content Operations: The Key of Successful SEO
To explain why I have this article, I have observed a phenomenon in various SEO communities and groups. I noticed that people’s expectations to SEO and the questions to optimize SEO are somewhat a bit “interesting”.
Avoid the Pursuit of unreliable SEO “Tips”
Based on the questions I’ve seen, it seems like many people believe in the existence of certain “tips” in SEO. These tips are often not related to content but revolve around things like making specific changes to a website or adding certain html code, as if doing these things would make them reach higher than target. However, this is far from earth!
Content Is Still King
Google repeatedly emphasizes E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), and though it may be mentioned thousands times. In the world of SEO, “content” truly holds more than half of the importance. In fact, based on my personal experience, the importance of content might even exceed 70%.
In this article, I will share the key points of the content operation projects I would do after health checkup on a website.
Current Phase: Attract new visitors and engagement (reading). Although some may set CTAs to make it, we’ll temporarily skip this part in this phase.
This article is a follow-up to “6 Months of SEO Optimization for Vertical Media: Sharing a 64% Increase in Search Traffic,” focusing not only on the content operation methods I work in my current media industry but also including questions and discussions from marketings of different industries.
The middle part of the article will also talk about what to do when “website traffic growth goes on a slow growth.”
Categorization: Setting Article Category
Purpose-Search
As the title literally name, the content is to boost traffic via search. This part is covered in my article “6 Months of SEO Optimization for Vertical Media: Sharing a 64% Increase in Search Traffic.”
Purpose-Traffic
This is why to have morning meetings with editors. To discuss suitable topics, big events to generate contents . I will provide insights of how to prepare, such as keyword and how to extend the discussions, making articles more easier to be discovered.
Breaking the Slow Growth in SEO
1.Creating a Wide View: Topic Trees
After categorized article types, I discovered another issue. Despite articles on the website are already abundance, yet we I was making keyword and competitor research, I found that we had lacked many big topics.
We had many repetitive articles, but we didn’t have one on some essential topics. This isn’t acceptable at all. In the paid media business, we often face a tough reality when proposing to clients asking ”why your website ranking is not the top in search results?” Therefore, we must not lose every bit of traffic.
My company belongs to the user journey type mentioned below, so I initially created a topic tree for the most critical subjects. This method allowed me to quickly find materials for keyword research and was relied on by editors.
Two types of topic trees:
<User Journey Type>
This type is typical for parenting and child-focused media, which might specialize in areas from pregnancy to the first three years of a child’s life or cover the preschool to high school stages. I recommend collaborative work among the responsible teams because individual ideas are limited. Working together using online mind mapping tools helps create a more comprehensive tree.
<Thematic Type>
Magazines like “Bella” and “CommonWealth Magazine” tend to follow this type, focusing on various themes. How deeper and wider of the contents depend on position to the media.
2.Google Ads Keyword Ad
Not everyone can do this, but those who run keyword ads can give it a try. The keyword section in Google ad→check the Search Network. There are plenty of matching keywords. Trust me! You will be surprised how many new ideas for articles based on keyword network.
3.Asking Your Target Audience
This can be two types:
．SNS Q&A
This is a classic way of engaging with the audience and from interaction, editors can also organize responses(comments) to create a series of articles.
．Survey
Survey allows you for deeper range of questions. To brands, it’s helpful to identify target audience or to find how consumers making decision, similar to the marketing funnel. The best part of doing this is that it can avoid assumptions without evidence.
4 .User/consumer Interview
The idea for this method was inspired by a 2B Content Marketing friend. Most of the clients come through business development (few from converting directly through search results). After brief of product, already running out of topics. What to do afterwards?
My suggestion is to interview the customers who converted through search. Be thorough, starting from their initial Google search to the final contract signing, noting each step and process. Eventually, you can get improvements for user journey.
Which you also can get is new elements to create contents, such as problems of clients, how to compare with competitors and how to make a decision.
5.Site Search
Site search is usually be ignored, but they are a treasure box. I frequently find topics that haven’t been covered yet but are frequently searched by our TA. Regularly monitor site searches and include these keywords in your pending article topic list.
Keep on Exploration: Analysis and Optimization
Quarter Reports: Channels Characters Analysis
When I start the optimization process, I create quarter reports. Expect the daily and monthly reports required by the company. These quarter reports include:
- Channel Size
- Acquisition of New Customers
- Channel Quality Level 1
- Channel Quality Level 2 (Conversion Metrics)
For conversion metrics, I aggregate audience preferences across various channels and summarize optimization recommendations for the next quarter.
Content Rearrangement
As I mentioned above, many topics are written repeatedly, so why not use them sufficiently? Moreover, restructuring content can bring freshness to existing material, and some may even be ideal for social media. Here are some formats I frequently use:
1.Monthly Top Rankings:
Suitable for mainstream social media and newsletters.
2.Theme Sheets:
These come in two types: consolidating multiple articles on the same topic into one comprehensive piece or creating content related to “timely” and “sequential action” topics, which can also help with internal linking and targeting relevant keywords.
3.Yearly Top Articles:
Similar to monthly top rankings, these are vital for year-end summaries.
Content Distribution
This strategy is like hitting two birds with one stone, as it’s highly efficient for businesses and personal brands. There there, the core content requires the måost effort to create, and this core content can take various forms suitable for different channels.
For example, suppose you have an article titled “Top 10 Recommended Mom Bag Brands.” The core content is the article itself. On Facebook, you can use it as a link to drive traffic or post multiple images. On Instagram, create a post with multiple images and use Stories to drive traffic. The images created can also be repurposed into short videos for SEO and social media purposes.
Hope this article will be helpful, Thanks for reading !
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