Finding content marketing opportunities that influence search performance

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Content marketing is a broad term that can be interpreted in multiple ways within the greater marketing spectrum. For some, content marketing is a blog post, for others, it could be large, interactive pieces. For John Deere, content marketing took the form of a print magazine all the way back in the 1800s!

Regardless of the format or type of content being marketed, presenting useful or entertaining information to your audience – in a way that speaks to them – has always been an important part of good marketing. Things are no different within search, where content marketing equates to promoting your webpages (content) to relevant audiences online (marketing via social media and other websites).

Today I want to walk through the process I use to help clients identify and capitalize on the content marketing opportunities available to them. Let’s dive in!

Start with existing content

The best place to start when searching for content marketing opportunities is with your existing pages – these are the opportunities that will take the least upfront investment as the content already exists.

You can easily identify your top pages – in terms of organic traffic – in Google Analytics. While it’s important to understand how your site is earning traffic, we’re looking for new opportunities – your best pages are already performing, and to achieve growth you need to capture new opportunities.

Find new opportunities with existing pages

To find fresh content marketing opportunities, start with Google Search Console. In GSC, you can analyze which keywords or queries are associated with your website and see how many clicks and impressions they’re earning in Google search. You can also analyze clicks and impressions for your individual pages.

Compare queries and pages to ensure you have pages that are good matches for your top queries. Are these the pages you would expect to be earning clicks and impressions? Do you have a better page that isn’t showing in Google Search Console? Ask yourself these questions as there may be an opportunity to optimize and promote an existing page that could rank better and earn more clicks than the page Google currently associates with a given query.

If you have the budget, there are also some great tools available that can help you identify your top pages and those that are barely missing the mark. Tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush all offer various ways to analyze your content.

These tools will help you find your most successful content, but more importantly, you can find pages ranking on the first page. Often, some light optimization (tweaking titles, header tags, etc.) and updating can be the difference between page two rankings and appearing on the first page.

It’s much easier to update existing pages than create new content, so you should always start by analyzing current rankings to see if you have any of these opportunities available.

Updating, repurposing, and promoting existing content

Once you’ve identified new content marketing opportunities for your existing pages, it’s time to execute.

Most, if not all, of your content marketing opportunities for existing pages will require some level of updating or reformatting or both. In some instances, you might find a page that was simply underpromoted and needs more links to perform better, but for the most part, you will need to do some on-page optimization as well.

Updating content

Updating your pages means more than changing the publish date.

To improve search performance for an existing page, you need to make substantial updates in terms of depth and recency of the information on the page. For example, I recently found that a guide I had written that was ranking for a few keywords. To help push it onto the first page of the search results, I updated the post.

These updates included:

Restructuring the content for improved scannability and a clear hierarchy of information.
Deeper research into the topic to provide more actionable information.
Rewriting outdated sections to offer more accurate information.
Adding relevant links to authoritative external sources.
Fixing and updating broken external links.
Adding internal links to related pages.
Adding fresh, high-quality images.

Making these updates was a significant time investment, but still took less time and effort than generating a new content idea and writing a post from scratch. And best of all, the updates helped push the post at the top of the results I was targeting!

Repurposing and reformatting content

Along with updating your pages, repurposing or reformatting content can also improve rankings.

Converting content to a new format or adding new formats to an existing page can often help that content perform better in search. For example, if you notice there are multiple video results for the term your page is targeting, chances are your page could benefit from adding video content. Some other reformatting options include:

Adding a concise definition or bulleted list at the top of the page for informational queries to optimize for rich snippets.
Creating complementary interactive elements such as a tool, quiz, game, etc.
Converting long-form text into an easily digestible infographic.
Developing high-quality, original photography and imagery.
Transcribing video or audio content into a blog post.

Repurposing content not only breathes new life into a page, but it can also improve that page’s performance in organic search if it creates a better user experience and better answers searcher intent.

If you have pages that rank well but not on the first page, consider analyzing the current top results to see if you can identify trends in formatting – if your page is missing these elements, adding them could help your page rank better.

Finding opportunities for content creation

While optimizing existing pages is the path of least resistance, to sustain long-term success in organic search you will also need to create new content.

Content inspiration can come from a variety of sources, but if you want to build content that performs in search you should focus on niche analysis and competitive research.

Niche analysis

Niche analysis for content marketing involves researching how your audience is searching online and which topics they interest them.

You need to understand how your audience searches for topics related to your business and the language they use. Subtle differences in word usage can equate to large differences in search volume and you want to optimize your content for the terms your audience is using.

For example, look at the difference between the search phrases [coffee mug holder] and [coffee mug rack] (using Moz’s Keyword Explorer):

This small distinction between “holder” and “rack” equals a difference of ~2,000 in terms of monthly search volume. If you had asked me which had more volume, honestly, I would have guessed “rack” – therefore, it’s critical to understand the language your audience is using to find information relevant to your brand.

Paying attention to formatting is important during niche analysis too. If you notice that your audience prefers a certain format – and that is demonstrated in the top search results – make sure you build your content in that format as well.

Competitive research

Competitive research is one of the best ways to identify gaps in your content marketing. If there is a topic that is driving organic traffic to multiple competitor sites, and you don’t have a page that addresses that topic, you have a gap in your content marketing.

SEMrush is one of the best tools for competitive research as it will give you a report on which keywords and pages are earning the most traffic (in terms of a percentage) on competitor websites. If you export these reports for a handful of competitors, you can compare trends and find opportunities to create new content that will bring a relevant audience – since you share the same audience as these competitors – to your site.

The key point here is to look for trends across multiple competitors because that confirms the topic is something that resonates with your audience.

Another important point is to review the quality of your competitors’ pages. Can you realistically create something that is equal or better? If the answer is no, move on to another opportunity because that is the bar you will have to meet if you ever want to rank for the associated terms.

Conclusion

Content marketing opportunities are easy to find if you know where to look.

Start with your existing pages and identify where you have opportunities to make small changes that can have a big SEO impact. These opportunities typically involve some form of repurposing, reformatting and updating.

After exhausting the available opportunities with your existing pages, glean content inspiration from analyzing your audience and niche, as well as researching top competitor pages.

Following this simple process will fuel your content marketing for years, ensuring you’re building content that will perform well in search and help your site earn organic traffic.

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