How to Write an SEO-Focused Content Short
You're working with your dev group on some technical improvements, however you notice a huge piece of the opportunity lies with material. Your business has a content group, however you notice they're not using keyword research study to inform their posts.
Or how about this circumstance?
You know that you need content, but don't have the know-how or time to do it yourself, so you ask your network for recommendations and find yourself a freelance writer. With little direction to work off of, they produce material that misses out on the mark.
The service in both of these circumstances is a content brief Nevertheless, not all content briefs are created equal.
As someone who lives with one foot in content and the other in SEO, I can shed some light on how to make your material briefs both detailed and cherished by your content team.
Let's start by settling on some terms.
What's a content brief?
A content brief is a set of instructions to assist a writer on how to draft a piece of material. That piece of material can be a blog post, a landing page, a white paper, or any number of other efforts that need content.
Without a content quick, you risk getting back content that doesn't fulfill your expectations. This will not just annoy your author, however it'll likewise require more revisions, taking more of your time and money.
Typically, content briefs are written by someone in a nearby field-- like need generation, item marketing, or SEO-- when they need something particular. Content groups generally do not just work off of briefs. They'll likely have their own calendar and initiatives they're driving (material is one of those odd roles that requires to support almost every other department while likewise producing and carrying out on their own work).
What makes a content brief "SEO-focused"?
An SEO-focused material brief is one among many kinds of material briefs. It's distinct because the objective is to advise the writer on creating content to target a particular search query for the purpose of making traffic from the organic search channel.
What to include in your content short.
Now that we understand SEO-focused material briefs in theory, let's get into the nitty gritty. What information should we include in them?
1. Primary question target and intent
It isn't an SEO-focused material quick without a query target!
Utilizing a keyword research tool like Moz Keyword Explorer, you can get countless keyword ideas that might be appropriate to your organization.
In my existing job, I'm focused on developing content for retail store owners and others in the brick and mortar retail industry. After listening to some sales and assistance calls on Gong (numerous groups utilize this to tape-record customer and prospect calls), I may find out that "retailing" is a big topic of focus.
So I type "merchandising" into Keyword Explorer, include a couple more practical filters, and boom! Lots of keyword ideas.
Pick a keyword (check your existing content to make certain your group hasn't currently composed on the topic yet) and use that as the "north star" query for your content short.
I believe it's likewise practical to consist of some intent information here. In other words, what might the searcher who's typing this inquiry into Google desire? It's a good idea to browse the inquiry in Google yourself to see how Google is translating the intent.
For example, if my keyword is "types of visual retailing," I can see from the SERP that Google presumes an informative intent, based on the fact that the URLs ranking are mainly informational short articles.
2. Format
Dovetailing well off of intent is format. In other words, how should we structure the material to give it the very best opportunity of ranking for our target question?
To use the very same keyword example, if I Google "types of visual merchandising," the top-level articles contain lists.
You might see that your target query returns results with a great deal of images (typical with inquiries consisting of "inspiration" or "examples").
This much better assists the author comprehend what content format is most likely to work best.
3. Subjects to cover and related questions to respond to
Choosing the target query helps the author comprehend the "concept" of the piece, but stopping there suggests you run the risk of writing something that doesn't comprehensively address the question intent.
That's why I like to consist of a "topics to cover/ related questions to respond to" section in my briefs. This is where I list out all the subtopics I've discovered that someone browsing that question would most likely wish to know.
To discover these, I like to utilize approaches like:
Utilizing a keyword research tool to reveal you inquiries connected to your primary keyword that are concerns.
Looking at the People Also Ask box, if one exists, on the SERP your target inquiry triggers
Discovering websites that rank in the leading spots for your target query, running them through a keyword research tool, and seeing what other keywords they likewise rank for
And while this isn't particularly search-related, in some cases I like to use a tool called Frequently Asked Question Fox to search online forums for threads that discuss my target question
You can also create the summary yourself using your research study with all the H2s/H3s already composed. While this can work well with freelance authors, I've discovered some writers (especially internal material online marketers) feel this is too authoritative. Every writer and content group is different, so all I can state is simply use your finest judgment.
4. Funnel stage
This is fairly comparable to intent, but I think it's valuable to consist of as a separate line product. To fill out this part of the material short, ask yourself: "Is someone searching this term simply trying to find information? Motivation? Wanting to examine their options? Or aiming to buy something?"
And here's how you can label your answer:
Top-of-funnel (TOFU or "issue conscious") is a suitable label if the query intent is informational/educational/inspirational.
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU or "solution mindful") is a suitable label if the question intent is to compare, assess choices, or otherwise indicates that the searcher is already knowledgeable about your service.Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU or "solution all set") is an appropriate label if the question intent is to make a purchase or otherwise transform.
5. Audience sector
Who are you composing this for?
It seems like such a standard question to address, but in my experience, it's easy to forget!
When it pertains to SEO-focused content briefs, it's simple to presume the response to this concern is "for whoever is browsing this keyword!" What that stops working to address is who those searchers are and how they fit into your company's personas/ perfect client profile (ICP).
If you do not know what those personas are, ask your marketing group! They must have target audience sectors easily available to send you.
This will not just assist your authors much better comprehend what they ought to be writing, however it likewise helps align you with the remainder of the marketing department and help them understand SEO's connection to their objectives (this is likewise an important part of getting buy-in, which we'll discuss a little later).
6. The goal action you want your readers to take
SEO is a means to an end. It's not just adequate to get your material ranking or perhaps to get it making clicks/traffic. For it to make an impact for your company, you'll want it to add to your bottom line.
That's why, when creating your material brief, you not only require to think of how readers will get to it, but what you desire them to do after.
This is a terrific opportunity to deal with your content marketing and bigger marketing group to comprehend what actions they're attempting to drive visitors to take.
Here are some examples of call-to-actions (CTAs) you can include in your briefs:
Newsletter sign-ups
Gated asset downloads (e.g. totally free templates, whitepapers, and ebooks).
Case research studies.Free trials.
Request demo.Product listings.
In general, it's best to utilize a CTA that's a natural next step based on the intent of the short article. If the piece is top-of-funnel, try a CTA that'll move them to the mid-funnel, like a case study.
7. Ballpark length.
I'm a company believer that the length of any post ought to be determined Extra resources by the subject, not approximate word counts. However, it can be practical to provide a ballpark to prevent bringing a 500-word blog post to a 2,000-word battle.
One tool that can make coming up with a ballpark word count much easier is Frase, which to name a few things, will show you the average word count of pages ranking for your target query.
8. Internal and external link opportunities.
Given that you read the Moz blog, you're most likely currently intimately knowledgeable about the significance of links. This details is frequently left out of content briefs.
It's as simple as including these 2 line items:.
Appropriate material we ought to connect out to. List out any URLs, particularly by yourself site, that could be natural fits to connect out to in this post.
Existing content that could connect to this new piece. Note out any URLs on your website that discuss your topic so that, after your brand-new piece is live, you can go back and consist of links in them to your new piece.The second product is specifically crucial, since adding links to your new post can assist it get indexed and begin ranking quicker. A fast way to discover internal link opportunities is to use the "site:" operator in Google.
For example, the following search would reveal me all posts on the Moz blog site that discuss "content brief." These might be terrific sources of links to this article.
9. Rival content.
Search your target query and pull the leading three-or-so ranking URLs for this section of your material quick. These are the pages you require to beat.
At threat of developing copycat content (material that's basically a re-spun variation of the top-level short articles), it's a great idea to instruct your writer on how best to utilize these.
I like to include concerns like:.
What's our distinct point-of-view on this topic?
Do we have any special information we can pull on this subject?What specialists (internal or external) can we ask for quotes to consist of on this topic?
What graphics would make this more aesthetically compelling than what our rivals have?You understand!
10. On-page SEO cheat sheet.
Something I always like to include in my briefs is some kind of an "SEO cheat sheet"-- suggestions and resources for assisting your authors with important on-page SEO elements.
Here's an example of one I've utilized in the past:.
Some content teams are very bullish on SEO (business like G2 and HubSpot come to mind), so the authors may not require much help in this area. For others, SEO is relatively new to them.
What to avoid when writing content briefs.
Regretfully, "SEO" has actually ended up being an unclean word to lots of authors. Understanding why will help us avoid the major pitfalls that can lead to ignored briefs and interdepartmental stress.Do not offer suggestions after that possession has been written.
When composing for search, we're creating the output. The keyword is the input. In other words, target inquiries are questions to be responded to, not something to be stuffed into copy that's currently been written.
Google wishes to rank content that answers the query, not just duplicates it on the page.
For this reason, I would avoid having an optimization step after your writing step. If you don't, you run the risk of the content not matching the intent of the inquiry, which means it has little-to-no probability of ranking, and you'll likewise likely disturb your writers, who don't wish to undervalue their editorially exceptional material by packing keywords into it.
Don't favor keywords with high volume over high intent match.
I when saw a short where the SEO Manager asked for that the writer utilize a certain phrase rather of another expression since it had search volume while the other didn't.The problem? While relatively similar, the keywords actually had absolutely different intents.
Do not do this.
At finest, targeting keywords simply for volume's sake can result in vanity traffic that never converts. At worst, you'll be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and likely missing intent-match totally.
Do not blindly follow keyword tools.
Keyword tools are handy, but they're not perfect reflections of search demand. For example, due to the fact that they're not always updated exceptionally frequently, you may erroneously think an inquiry has no demand when in reality it has a heap.
A good example of this is COVID-19 associated keywords. As a freshly trending topic earlier this year, many keyword research study tools didn't sign up that they had any search volume, when in truth they did. If you would have blindly followed the tool, you may have missed out on the chance.
To fix for this, you can utilize tools like Google Trends or perhaps Google Search Console (if you have material on a trending topic or comparable subject on your site already, you need to have the ability to see impressions/interest spiking within a couple of days).
Do not advise writers to "include these keywords" (particularly a specific variety of times).
When noting out the target inquiry (or queries) in your content brief, it's important that we instruct our writers that this is the main concern to address instead of this the word I require you to spray throughout the material.There's no magic number of times you can stick a keyword in your copy so that it ranks for that term. Instead, instruct your writers to focus on answering the intent of the searcher's question comprehensively.
Don't attempt to jam keywords into posts that weren't intended for search discovery.
Organic search is not the only channel for material discovery. As someone originating from an SEO background, this took me a while to find out.
That implies adding search content to your content calendar, not trying to cram keywords into everything on the calendar.
While it's important to get the on-page SEO essentials right (title tag, heading tags, links, etc.) for each piece, not every piece lends itself well to organic search discovery.
For instance, if we just developed material based on keywords that a tool told us gets searched a certain number of times per month, we 'd never ever discuss new concepts. It takes a lot of idea leadership off the table, in addition to things like case research studies and interview/feature story pieces.
Organic search is powerful, however it's not whatever.
Tips for getting your material group bought in.
Even the very best material briefs won't make an impact if your content group refuses to utilize them-- and I've become aware of plenty of scenarios where that occurs.As an SEO, it can be mind-boggling that your material group doesn't want to use this: "Don't you want traffic?!" But as someone who leads a content team, I comprehend why they're typically declined.
The good news is, in a lot of cases, this can be prevented by taking the following actions.
Include them in the preparation procedure.
Nobody likes to be micromanaged, and extensive material briefs can often feel like micromanaging. One great method to prevent this is by bringing them along for the procedure. Make content briefs a joint effort in between SEO and Material.
For example, get in touch with the Material Lead and see if they 'd want to take a seat with you to produce the content short design template together. By each of you bringing your unique proficiency to the table, it can feel less like determining and more like collaboration (plus, you'll probably wind up with a much better short design template that way).
Make it clear that not all material needs to be search material.
SEO Managers live and breathe the natural search channel, however content groups have a more different diet plan. They take a multi-channel method to material, and in some cases are even composing material to support post-conversion teams like consumer success.When working with your content team on this, make sure you emphasize that this is a new material type that can be added to editorial planning. Not something that'll replace or require to change the types of content they're already writing.
Regard their know-how.
Composing is hard. Doing it well needs immense skill and practice, but sadly, I have actually heard many SEOs speak about writers as if they didn't understand anything, even if they do not understand SEO.
As an SEO, you'll get far with your material department simply by respecting their proficiency. Simply as numerous SEO Managers aren't authors, it's unfair people to expect authors to have the SEO knowledge of a full-time SEO professional.
Prior to you carry out a content short process, take a seat with the Content Lead and members of the content team to determine their search maturity. What do they in fact require your assist with? Trust them with the rest.
Show results.
Among the best methods to get and maintain buy-in is by showing outcomes. Program your content group just how much of their traffic is coming from natural search and how, unlike numerous other material discovery channels, that traffic is remaining consistent over time. Give the author a shout-out when you discover their post ranking on page one.