How to Write an SEO-Focused Content Short
As an SEO Manager, you're responsible for growing your company's organic search traffic. You're dealing with your dev group on some technical enhancements, but you discover a big piece of the chance lies with content. Your company has a content team, but you discover they're not using keyword research study to notify their posts. You have actually attempted to send them keyword concepts, but so far, they haven't been receptive to your tips.
Or how about this scenario?
You're a marketing director at a start-up. You know that you need content, however don't have the proficiency or time to do it yourself, so you ask your network for recommendations and find yourself a freelance writer. The only problem is, you're not always sure what to appoint them. With little direction to work off of, they produce content that fizzles.
The option in both of these situations is a content brief Nevertheless, not all content briefs are developed equal.
As somebody who lives with one foot in material and the other in SEO, I can shed some light on how to make your content briefs both thorough and beloved by your material group.
Let's begin by settling on some terminology.
What's a content short?
A content brief is a set of guidelines to assist a writer on how to draft a piece of content. That piece of content can be a post, a landing page, a white paper, or any variety of other efforts that need material.
Without a material short, you risk returning content that does not meet your expectations. This will not only annoy your author, however it'll also require more modifications, taking more of your time and money.
Typically, content briefs are composed by someone in a surrounding field-- like demand generation, item marketing, or SEO-- when they need something specific. However, content teams usually don't simply sweat off of briefs. They'll likely have their own calendar and efforts they're driving (content is one of those weird functions that needs to support just about every other department while likewise creating and performing by themselves work).
What makes a content short "SEO-focused"?
An SEO-focused content quick is one among lots of types of content briefs. It's unique in that the goal is to advise the writer on developing content to target a particular search query for the purpose of making traffic from the natural search channel.
What to consist of in your content brief.
Now that we comprehend SEO-focused content briefs in theory, let's enter into the nitty gritty. What details should we include in them?
1. Primary question target and intent
It isn't an SEO-focused content brief without a question target!
Using a keyword research tool like Moz Keyword Explorer, you can get countless keyword ideas that could be relevant to your service.
For instance, in my current task, I'm concentrated on developing content for retailer owners and others in the physical retail industry. After listening to some sales and support contacts Gong (lots of teams utilize this to tape-record client and possibility calls), I may find out that "retailing" is a big topic of focus.
I type "retailing" into Keyword Explorer, include a couple more handy filters, and boom! Tons of keyword ideas.
Select a keyword (examine your existing content to make certain your team hasn't currently composed on the subject yet) and utilize that as the "north star" inquiry for your content short.
I think it's likewise useful to include some intent details here. In other words, what might the searcher who's typing this question into Google desire? It's a great concept to search the inquiry in Google yourself to see how Google is translating the intent.
For instance, if my keyword is "kinds of visual merchandising," I can see from the SERP that Google assumes an informative intent, based on the truth that the URLs ranking are mostly informational posts.
2. Format
Dovetailing perfectly off of intent is format. To put it simply, how should we structure the content to offer it the best possibility of ranking for our target query?
To use the exact same keyword example, if I Google "kinds of visual retailing," the top-ranking articles contain lists.
You might see that your target query returns results with a great deal of images (typical with queries consisting of "inspiration" or "examples").
This much better assists the writer understand what material format is most likely to work best.
3. Subjects to cover and related questions to answer
Picking the target inquiry helps the writer comprehend the "concept" of the piece, but stopping there suggests you risk writing something that does not comprehensively address the inquiry intent.
That's why I like to include a "topics to cover/ related questions to respond to" area in my briefs. This is where I note out all the subtopics I have actually discovered that someone searching that inquiry would probably would like to know.
To discover these, I like to utilize methods like:
Utilizing a keyword research study tool to reveal you queries related to your primary keyword that are concerns.
Finding websites that rank in the top spots for your target question, running them through a keyword research study tool, and seeing what other keywords they likewise rank for
And while this isn't specifically search-related, often I like to use a tool called FAQ Fox to search online forums for threads that discuss my target query
You can also create the overview yourself utilizing your research with all the H2s/H3s currently written. While this can work well with freelance writers, I have actually discovered some writers (especially internal material marketers) feel this is too authoritative. Every author and material group is different, so all I can say is just use your best judgment.
4. Funnel stage
This is relatively comparable to intent, however I believe it's helpful to consist of as a separate line product. To complete this portion of the content brief, ask yourself: "Is somebody browsing this term simply trying to find information? Motivation? Looking to evaluate their choices? Or seeking to purchase something?"
And here's how you can identify your answer:
Top-of-funnel (TOFU or "issue conscious") is a proper label if the query intent is informational/educational/inspirational.
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU or "option conscious") is a proper label if the inquiry intent is to compare, assess alternatives, or otherwise suggests that the searcher is already aware of your solution.Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU or "solution ready") is a proper label if the inquiry intent is to buy or otherwise convert.
5. Audience sector
Who are you composing this for?
It looks like such a basic concern to answer, but in my experience, it's easy to forget!
When it pertains to SEO-focused content briefs, it's easy to assume the answer to this question is "for whoever is browsing this keyword!" What that fails to answer is who those searchers are and how they fit into your company's personas/ ideal customer profile (ICP).
If you do not know what those personalities are, ask your marketing team! They need to have target audience segments easily available to send you.
This will not only assist your authors much better understand what they need to be composing, but it likewise assists align you with the remainder of the marketing department and help them comprehend SEO's connection to their goals (this is also an important element of getting buy-in, which we'll speak about a little later).
6. The objective action you want your readers to take
SEO is a method to an end. It's not just sufficient to get your material ranking or even to get it making clicks/traffic. For it to make an effect for your company, you'll want it to contribute to your bottom line.
That's why, when creating your content brief, you not just need to consider how readers will get to it, however what you want them to do after.
This is an excellent chance to deal with your material marketing and larger marketing group to understand what actions they're trying to drive visitors to take.
Here are some examples of call-to-actions (CTAs) you can consist of in your briefs:
Newsletter sign-ups
Gated possession downloads (e.g. totally free templates, whitepapers, and ebooks).
Case studies.Free trials.
Request demo.Item listings.
In basic, it's finest to utilize a CTA that's a natural next step based upon the intent of the article. For example, if the piece is top-of-funnel, attempt a CTA that'll move them to the mid-funnel, like a case research study.
7. Ballpark length.
I'm a firm believer that the length of any article must be dictated by the subject, not arbitrary word counts. Nevertheless, it can be helpful to offer a ballpark to prevent bringing a 500-word post to a 2,000-word battle.
One tool that can make coming up with a ballpark word count simpler is Frase, which to name a few things, will reveal you the typical word count of pages ranking for your target question.
8. Internal and external link chances.
Considering that you're reading the Moz blog, you're most likely currently thoroughly familiar with the value of links. Nevertheless, this details is commonly left out of content briefs.
It's as easy as including these 2 line items:.
Appropriate content we need to connect out to. Note out any URLs, specifically on your own website, that might be natural fits to connect out to in this short article.
Existing content that could link to this brand-new piece. Note out any URLs on your site that discuss your subject so that, after your brand-new piece is live, you can return and include links in them to your new piece.The second product is particularly crucial, since adding links to your new post can help it get indexed and begin ranking quicker. A fast method to discover internal link chances is to use the "website:" operator in Google.
The following search would show me all posts on the Moz blog site that discuss "content brief." These might be great sources of links to this article.
9. Rival material.
Search your target inquiry and pull the leading three-or-so ranking URLs for this section of your content quick. These are the pages you need to beat.
At danger of producing copycat material (material that's essentially a re-spun variation of the top-level articles), it's a good idea to advise your writer on how finest to use these.
I like to consist of questions like:.
What's our unique point-of-view on this subject?
Do we have any unique information we can pull on this topic?What specialists (internal or external) can we request 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.
One thing I constantly like to consist of in my briefs is some kind of an "SEO cheat sheet"-- tips and resources for assisting your writers with essential on-page SEO components.
Here's an example of one I have actually utilized in the past:.
Crucial caution: Writers have differing levels of SEO know-how. Some content teams are really bullish on SEO (business like G2 and HubSpot enter your mind), so the writers might not need much help in this area. For others, SEO is fairly brand-new to them. Determine what's needed for your distinct situation so that you can avoid over or under-prescribing in this area.
What to avoid when composing content briefs.
Regretfully, "SEO" has ended up being a filthy word to many writers. Comprehending why will help us prevent the significant mistakes that can cause overlooked briefs and interdepartmental stress.Don't supply ideas after that possession has actually been written.
When writing for search, we're developing the output. The keyword is the input. In other words, target inquiries are concerns to be answered, not something to be stuffed into copy that's currently been composed.
Google wishes to rank content that responds to the question, not simply duplicates it on the page.
For this reason, I would avoid having an optimization step after your writing action. If you don't, you risk the content not matching the intent of the question, which indicates it has little-to-no likelihood of ranking, and you'll likewise likely disturb your authors, who don't wish to lower their editorially outstanding material by packing keywords into it.
Do not prefer keywords with high volume over high intent match.
I when saw a brief where the SEO Supervisor asked for that the writer use a particular expression rather of another phrase since it had search volume while the other didn't.The problem? While relatively comparable, the keywords in fact had totally different intents.
Don't do this.
At best, targeting keywords purely for volume's sake can result in vanity traffic that never transforms. At worst, you'll be attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole and most likely missing intent-match totally.
Keyword tools are handy, but they're not perfect reflections of search need. Because they're not always updated extremely often, you might mistakenly believe a question has no demand when in fact it has a heap.
A good example of this is COVID-19 related keywords. As a freshly trending subject previously this year, lots of keyword research tools didn't sign up that they had any search volume, when in fact they did. If you would have blindly followed the tool, you might have missed out on the chance.
To resolve for this, you can utilize tools like Google Trends and even Google Search Console (if you have material on a trending subject or similar subject on your website currently, you should have the ability to see impressions/interest spiking within a couple of days).
Do not instruct writers to "include these keywords" (specifically a specific number of times).
When noting out the target inquiry (or questions) in your content brief, it is necessary that we instruct our writers that this is the primary concern to answer rather than this the word I need 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, advise your writers to concentrate on answering the intent of the searcher's concern comprehensively.
Don't attempt to jam keywords into posts that weren't meant for search discovery.
Organic search is not the only channel for material discovery. As someone coming from an SEO background, this took me a while to learn.
That indicates including search content to your content calendar, not trying to stuff keywords into everything on the calendar.
While it is necessary to get the on-page SEO fundamentals right (title tag, heading tags, links, and so on) for every single piece, not every piece provides itself well to organic search discovery.
If we only developed content based on keywords that a tool informed us gets browsed a certain number of times per month, we 'd never ever write about brand-new principles. It takes a lot of thought management off the table, in addition to things gold coast seo specialist like case studies and interview/feature story pieces.
Organic search is powerful, however it's not whatever.
Tips for getting your content team bought in.
Even the very best material briefs won't make an effect if your content group refuses to utilize them-- and I have actually become aware of plenty of scenarios where that takes place.As an SEO, it can be mind-boggling that your content team does not wish to utilize this: "Don't you want traffic?!" However as someone who leads a content team, I understand why they're typically turned down.
Fortunately, in most cases, this can be prevented by taking the following actions.
Include them in the planning procedure.
No one likes to be micromanaged, and thorough material briefs can in some cases feel like micromanaging. One excellent way to prevent this is by bringing them along for the process. Make content briefs a collaboration between SEO and Content.
Connect with the Material Lead and see if they 'd be willing to sit down with you to produce the content quick design template together. By each of you bringing your special competence to the table, it can feel less like dictating and more like cooperation (plus, you'll most likely wind up with a much better brief design template that way).
Make it clear that not all material needs to be search content.
SEO Managers live and breathe the natural search channel, however content teams have a more different diet. They take a multi-channel technique to material, and in some cases are even composing material to support post-conversion groups like consumer success.When working with your material team on this, make sure you highlight that this is a brand-new material type that can be added to editorial preparation. Not something that'll replace or need to change the types of material they're already composing.
Respect their knowledge.
Composing is hard. Doing it well needs enormous skill and practice, however unfortunately, I have actually heard many SEOs speak about writers as if they didn't know anything, even if they do not understand SEO.
As an SEO, you'll get far with your material department just by appreciating their competence. Simply as lots of SEO Supervisors aren't authors, it's unjust of us to anticipate authors to have the SEO understanding of a full-time SEO professional.
Before you implement a material brief process, sit down with the Material Lead and members of the content group to gauge their search maturity. What do they in fact need your aid with? Trust them with the rest.
Show outcomes.
One of the best methods to get and preserve buy-in is by showing outcomes. Show your content team how much of their traffic is coming from organic search and how, unlike numerous other material discovery channels, that traffic is staying consistent gradually. Provide the author a shout-out when you see their short article ranking on page one.