#070 Content Marketing VIP Newsletter
"Don't try to do SEO on an entire website. Focus on ONE page targeting ONE keyword. Then build out from there." – Nathan Gotch.
💡 This newsletter is sponsored by Marketing Examined, a newsletter guaranteed to optimize your marketing performance.
5-minute reads that make you a better marketer, scale your startup, and are straight to the point.
👉 Subscribe to Marketing Examined (it’s free)
🎯 Actionable Insights
💡 1. TrustRadius’ process of analyzing the SERP to rank higher
TrustRadius is a review website that allows professionals to share in-depth reviews on business technology software.
TrustRadius has increased its organic traffic by almost 5 times in three years.
And their SEO strategy is one of the reasons for the huge growth.
Let’s uncover the SERP analysis process of TrustRadius that drives 829k organic visits per month.
Step 0. Google the keyword
Start the intent analysis process by tying your target keyword to Google.
Step 1. Understanding site types
Notice what types of websites (content sites, software companies, personal blogs, etc.) are ranking on the first page.
Also, the domain authority will give you an overview of the competition.
In general, if low DR sites are ranking at the top, you may also have a better chance of ranking.
Step 2. Understanding Page types
Now, you need to perform your analysis on a page level. Here, notice the type of page ranking in the SERP.
For example,
The SERP for the term ‘CRM for real estate’ is dominated by product landing pages.
It is better to match the page type (instead of reinventing the wheel) to rank for the same keyword.
Step 3. Analyzing title types
Page titles will give you hints about the content format and content angle. Some common types are:
How-to
What is
Listicle (top 10, best 7, etc.)
Also, when a majority of the page titles have the latest year, consider this as a hint for content freshness.
Step 4. Date of publication
Google prefers content with freshness and the latest updates (especially when the topic is not evergreen).
Look at the last modified page for the top pages (you can use tools like Thruuu)
For example: If most of the pages were last modified in 2016 or before, it is an opportunity for you to outrank these pages with freshness.
Step 5. Keyword usage
“If the entire SERP uses the keyword as written, we can infer that a huge number of people are writing on and searching for this topic.”
Here’s an example of a competitive search term:
Step 6. Word count/ content depth and content quality
Looking at each page's word count and topic depth helps you craft an outline and optimal content length.
“We recommend keeping a blank doc open while reading so you can take note of key ideas, useful external sources, and key terms/vocabulary that would be important to include in your post.” – TrustRadius blog.
👉 Insights from TrustRadius (Learn the SEO strategies of TrustRadius)
💬 Bite-sized Insights
💡 1. Optimize Your Laning Page CTA For Higher Conversion
“Don't tell the reader to sign up.
Invite the reader to join others just like them.” – Alex Garcia.
A comparison:
❌ Sign up now to start doing business on MicroAcquire
✔️ Join over 150,000 founders and buyers already doing business on MicroAcquire
👉 Insight from Alex Garcia (Follow him for more marketing and copywriting tips)
💡 2. Optimize your Lead Magnet's CTA Properly To Get Newsletter Subscribers
Giving away free resources to grow newsletter subscribers?
Then always consider mentioning (on the sign-up form/landing page) the newsletter and what content a user can expect in the coming days.
Otherwise, people will download the lead magnet (eBook, video course, etc.) and never open your newsletter issues.
You don't want to grow the number of subscribers if they don't open your weekly emails, right?
Here’s an exit popup example from GatherContent:
Action items
Ensure every lead magnet form or landing page highlights the newsletter and what users can expect from upcoming issues.
👉 Insight from Sk Rafiqul Islam (Follow me on Twitter)
💡 4. Building Competitive advantage in SEO
No matter what SEO strategies you follow, the long-term goal should be to build a competitive advantage. Start with available resources.
Examples:
Have access to subject experts and qualified people to create content?
Can you embed other content formats (video, podcast, etc.) to win SERP?
Got access to a great product? Why not create product-led content for conversions?
👉 Insight from Sk Rafiqul Islam (Follow me on Twitter)
💡 4. Where to host your video content for SEO?
“By hosting videos on your own domain, you can outrank YouTube videos on Google search.
Leverage your authority in a subject to be the video authority.”
👉 Insight from Dwayne Lafleur (Founder & CEO of Ezoic)
🗓️ Learning Resources and Tools
💡 1. Content Marketing Case Study of G2 (The Road to 1M+ Organic Visits)
In 2017, G2 launched a learning content hub for marketing, HRs, software, etc. And within 2 years, the G2 content marketing team has grown the monthly traffic to learning hub from 6000+ visits → 1m+ visits per month.
Interested to know about the strategies and overall content plan?
Here we go.
This case study series will help you understand how G2 planned, strategized and executed a content marketing plan to reach 1m+ visits in 2 years.
What you’ll learn:
Lesson 1: Topic Clustering and Interlinking Established G2’s Authority
Lesson 2: Building SEO strategy and dominating the SERP
Lesson 3: G2's Winning keyword research process
Lesson 4: Building a content marketing team
Lesson 5: Link building from scratch
Lesson 6: Views to clicks: conversion strategy
Lesson 7: G2's Content Community
👉 Learn G2’s content marketing strategy breakdown
💡 2. Free Keyword Research Tool To Find Trending Topics
Search Trends, a keyword research tool (freemium), helps you find trending topics, keywords, and industries.
Here's how you can find trending keywords from the competitor's domain:
Type your competitor's domain name, and the tool will show you trending and tanking keywords in a Year-Over-Year search trend.
The results:
This tool can find trending content topics, research your industry, steal keyword ideas from competitors, and more.