#075 Content Marketing VIP Newsletter
The only way to stand out from AI tools and cheap writers is by adding personal experiences and strong opinions. That’s the only thing they will never be able to copy. - Andrea Bosoni (marketer).
🎯 Actionable Insights
💡 1. Content categorization to reduce crawl depth (For larger sites)
The site (greenhouse. io) has over 500+ articles, and the blog home page shows the latest 8 articles.
Yes, they have a filter to select a specific category. But there are some serious issues to fix.
Here's what and how 👇
First, it is important to understand that: Web crawlers follow links from one page to find other website pages and so on...
In this case, the crawler has to follow 69 clicks to visit the oldest articles on the site.
Now, this is an issue.
Why? 👇
Because: the crawl depth is too much here, and this may hint to Google that old pages aren't as important as the new ones.
Also, this type of pagination link is not user-friendly (since they have topic filters, it will be okay for users).
As Matthew Henry of Portent says,
"When content is buried hundreds of links deep, it sends a strong message to the search engines that you don’t think the content is important.
The pages will probably be crawled less often, if at all, & they probably will not rank very well."
Better approach?
Categorize your content inventory by topics, years, type, etc.
This way, you give crawlers a shorter path to crawl older posts.
The goal should be to make the crawl depth as low as possible without compromising the UX.
And, when it comes to pagination links, adding a midpoint link in the pagination can significantly reduce the crawl depth (even for a site with 2000+ pages)
I recommend reading Mathew Henry's experience and results on pagination: How Site Pagination and Click Depth Affect SEO - An Experiment.
TL;DR
Categorize your content (by topics, time, format) when you have at least 50-100+ pages
Reduce crawl depth
Adding a midpoint link is a great solution for larger sites
👉 insights from Content Marketing VIP (Get a yearly subscription to VIP club only at $25)
💡 2. How James Clear Grew His Newsletter To 1.5M Subscribers
The prolific author, James Clear, known for his book Atomic Habits, is building one of the largest newsletters written by an individual.
Here is his growth over the years:
Nov ‘2012 – 0 subscribers
Nov ‘2016 – 360,000 subscribers
Currently at 1.5M+ subscribers
His main two levers for growth are:
SEO
Conversion Rate Optimization
This year, James’ traffic peaked at 933,630 in organic traffic.
And is currently on track for 641,117 visits this month.
Let’s break down how he did it.
Part I. SEO strategy breakdown
1. Home Page
James Clear’s home page is the second most visited page.
And when you land on it, there is a crafted lead magnet structured to convert traffic.
Here’s why:
2. Article Page structure
His third most popular page is his article page.
This traffic has a purpose — to learn.
And this page is structured to give each visitor an extension of learning — but via email.
Here’s how:
Part II. Conversion strategy breakdown
James uses two different structures to convert traffic into email subs, and this is based on the content.
Articles optimized for conversion
Anytime the piece of content is a standard article, James uses:
A CTA in the header
A standard CTA for his newsletter at the end of the article
2. Comprehensive Guides
But when it’s a comprehensive guide, James shifts his approach.
He uses:
The same CTA in the header
His 30-day email course on building better habits
Why?
Because someone who consumed comprehensive content only wants more comprehensive content.
In this case, James Clear provides the map with his guide and then offers to walk you through it for 30 days.
3. Newsletter Page
Lastly, his newsletter page.
Crafted to convert.
Example →
And, just like that, James Clear crafted his website to convert traffic and build one of the most popular newsletters in the world.
Like this breakdown?
Then You will enjoy the marketing examined newsletter.
“5-minute reads that make you a better marketer, scale your startup, and are straight to the point.”
👉 Subscribe to Marketing Examined Newsletter (free)
💡 3. Learn how to prioritize content updates in 5 simple steps
Learn how to find content update opportunities using the Google search console in 5 simple steps.
Step 1. Open Google Search Console.
Step 2. Navigate to Search Results → Pages
Step 3. Compare the last 3/6 months to the previous period
Step 4. Sort results by Click Difference
Now you will get to see the list of URLs with a declining traffic trend.
There could be many possible reasons for this, such as:
Outdated content
Lack of content freshness
Declining search demand for the keyword
Poor backlink profile
Step 5. Update the pages
Start optimizing the pages that lost the most significant amount of organic traffic within that time.
This way, you can improve the underperforming articles to improve organic traffic and rankings.
Instead of thinking of advanced tactics to increase organic traffic, try to pursue the low-hanging fruit strategies.
Less effort, less time. More results, fast.
👉 Insights from Irina Maltseva (Growth lead at Aura)
💬 Bite-sized Insights
💡 1. How to find interesting content ideas from Reddit (by Kyle Rushton McGregor)
Kyle has shared insights on how to find content ideas from Reddit using a simple Google search.
Here’s how:
First, ensure that your niche has a particular subreddit. If so, perform the following Google searches:
site:reddit.com/r/[your-subreddit] "how do i"
site:reddit.com/r/[your-subreddit] "what is"
You can try other variants for different content ideas.
Here’s an example:
This will give you plenty of interesting content ideas to cover in your blog.
👉 Insights from Kyle Rushton McGregor (Senior SEO consultant)
💡 2. Optimize your content for featured snippets
Here’s a simple tip to win featured snippets:
Repeat the question at the beginning of the answer.
Example 1 →
Question: What's the difference between X and Y?
Answer: The key difference between X and Y is …
Example 2 →
Question: What's the most popular X?
Answer: The most popular X is …
Example 3 →
Question: What is X?
Answer: X is a …
Then make sure you:
Write the snippet paragraph in 40-50 words
Include specifics (e.g. numbers and facts)
Keep it concise and fluff-free
Master snippets and watch your content 10x in traffic.
👉 Insights from Jake Ward (Founder of content growth)
🗓️ Learning Resources and Tools
💡 1. Library of Custom SEO Illustrations Explaining Complex SEO Concepts
The quote "a picture is worth a thousand words" is a perfect example of this SEO image library.
Learn about different SEO terminologies with an illustration.
This includes concepts like:
Canonicals
301 redirects
Flat site architecture
Topic clusters, and many more.
Here’s an illustration example to understand the concept of Hreflang:
👉 Access the collection of SEO illustrations [by Sam Underwood]