Content Marketing Newsletter #14
“10 years ago, more content creation was better for SEO. Not anymore. Amazing, consistent content wins in SEO every time.” - Joe Pulizzi.
📢 Big Announcement for our members:
Last week, I launched content marketing VIP, a platform made for content marketers.
> Access Content Marketing VIP (No Sign Up required)
After days of research, I curated the best content marketing stuff (over 100+ lessons) and organized it in a structured way.
In short, you’ll get everything to become a better content marketer.
And, It’s free forever.
Hope you like it and if you can help me share it out at all it would be much appreciated :-)
Actionable insights ↓
💡 1. Optimize The Most Important Page For Lead Generation
In most cases: The home page of your site is the most visited page by users.
So, if your homepage isn’t optimized to capture leads, you’re missing out on an opportunity.
Two things you can do right away:
The First thing is to remove every distraction from the home page that doesn't encourage users to subscribe or SignUp.
Here’s an example from thetilt:
The home page of thetilt contains only the signUp form and other necessary information such as benefits and who’s this for.
Nothing else.
That means removing every element/distraction that doesn't encourage the user to sign up or subscribe.
These elements could be:
Latest blog posts
Services
About section, etc.
Note: If your products/ services have complex features, this might not be the best way.
The second way is to add the sign-up form above the fold and the rest of the elements below the fold (if necessary).
An example from Notion, where they added the Sign-Up form above-the-fold and other information such as product explanation, features below-the-fold.
NOTE: Depending on your primary goals and the nature of your product/service, optimize the home page.
Most of all, test the conversion rate and even use heat-mapping before permanently leaving this as it is.
💡 2. How Ahrefs Used Product-led Content Marketing to Build an 8-Figure Online business?
Familiar with Ahrefs (SEO tool)?
If so, then you'll know how helpful their content (YT videos, Blog Posts) is for every SEO and marketing professional.
But did you notice one thing?
Almost most of their content addresses the pain points of SEO professionals (like growing traffic, link-building).
And, these content pieces also show the solution (like how to get traffic, quality links) by using their SEO tool.
A real example:
There is an article by Ahrefs: "13 Proven Tactics to Increase Your Blog Traffic," where 7 out of those 13 tactics involve Ahrefs tool to increase the blog traffic.
This is called Product-led content marketing, where your product is woven into the content.
Why product-led content?
By introducing your product in the early stage, you’re shortening the buyers’ journey.
Hence, you’re winning leads & customers faster than usual.
Final words:
Yes, It's much easier to apply product-led content in a SaaS business than a service-based business.
Consider integrating your product within the content to provide the right solution to the right problem of your core audience.
It's a win-win situation for you and your audience.
To take your learning further, I recommend going through this amazing article on product-led marketing by Dr. Fio.
💡 3. Use SERP Analyzer to prepare a better content brief
Analyzing the SERP for your target keyword gives you a clear understanding of the searcher's intent.
Plus, it helps you in preparing a content brief based on the top-ranking pages.
Usually, a content brief includes:
Primary target keyword
Related search keywords
PAA questions
Avg. word count
Core audience
Search intent
Title and headings of the top pages
Sub-topics, and so on...
If you’re doing SERP analyzing manually, then you’ll find this tool helpful.
It’s called thruuu, a free SERP analyzer.
What I liked most about this tool is:
It shows you the average age of the SERP pages.
Why is this helpful?
Because old pages are more likely to have outdated information and data. Consider this as an advantage if you see a SERP like the below one:
For the above example, pages with less than 800 words are also ranking in the top 10.
Though word count isn’t a direct factor, it shows the lack of content depth of the web page.
Use thruuu to analyze SERP (it’s free)
Free resources ↓
💡 1. How to Use Research-Backed Content to Fill the Pipeline
Probably you already know the benefits of content in driving business goals.
But knowing is one thing and making content work for your business is another.
Learn about the content-driven ABM strategy that makes your content marketing successful.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
How research-backed content can help to fill the pipeline
Which format of content you should be producing for prospects
How to follow-up to turn prospects into paying customer
From: OrbitMedia
Date of the webinar: May 25, 2021
💡 2. Let's Talk Content Strategy with Jesse Lowe
Does your content strategy improve the user experience?
If not, your users will struggle to interact with the product with ease.
Fix this issue.
Learn why and how to plan a content strategy to improve UX.
Date of the webinar: May 26, 2021
From Jesse Lowe (Director of UX at Barracuda)
💡 3. How to Exploit Site Search to Improve Your eCommerce Results
Are you using site search features the right way?
There are many SEO and UX benefits of using site search, especially in eCommerce sites.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
Benefits of using the advanced site search
How to improve primary KPIs and user experience on eCommerce
Ways of strengthening eCommerce SEO strategy
Date of the webinar: May 27, 2021
From Semrush
Latest happenings↓
💡 1. Page experience is now coming to desktop as well
Last year (November), Google announced that the page experience would be launched as an essential factor to rank sites with the best information and superior page experience.
Until the Google I/O event, it was considered that the update would be applicable for mobile results only.
However, at Google I/O, Jeffrey Jose, a product manager on Google Search, announced, "Today, I am happy to announce that we are bringing Page Experience ranking to desktop."
Here’s how important is this page experience update:
“In cases where there are many pages that may be similar in relevance, page experience can be much more important for visibility in Search.” - Google Search Central.
Page experience includes the following signals:
Core-web-vitals
Mobile-friendliness
Safe browsing
HTTPS
No intrusive interstitials (Popup Ads)
💡 2. Google MUM: New Technology For Complex Search Queries
Google is upgrading its technology (called MUM) to solve complex search questions.
It is said that MUM (Multitask Unified Model) is going to be 1000 times more powerful than BERT with the ability to provide results for complex searches in a new way.
Here's what the official of Google said,
“Today's search engines aren't quite sophisticated enough to answer the way an expert would.
But with a new technology called Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, we're getting closer to helping you with these types of complex needs.
So in the future, you’ll need fewer searches to get things done. ”- Google
💡 3. Google is expanding its partnership with Shopify
At Google I/O, Google announced that their partnership with Shopify would help Shopify merchants to feature their products in Google with a few clicks.
Here’s what mentioned by the Google officials at I/O:
“This new collaboration with Shopify will enable merchants to become discoverable to high-intent consumers across Google Search, Shopping, YouTube, Google Images and more.”
Now, the question that many marketers have raised is that:
Will this partnership give Shopify an unfair advantage over Woocommerce?
Your thoughts?
Expert Quotes ↓
💡 1. Best advice you’ll read today on ad copy
“Content is an investment - not an expense.
When nurtured and treated as such, it can provide amazing returns in the long run.
Grateful for leadership that understands this."
- Amanda Todorovich (Sr. Director of content marketing @ Cleveland Clinic)
💡 2. Best advice for creating great content?
"Produce thought leadership (strong opinion) or became the primary source (original research)... Invest in visuals… Collaborate with influencers…
Update old articles without changing URLs.”
— Andy Crestodina (Co-founder of Orbit Media)