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Digital Marketing in Vietnam: Channels & Growth Guide Updated for 2026

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:18:39 GMT

Digital Marketing in Vietnam

Vietnam is a very online country. Walk into any densely populated café and there's a good chance most of the room is on a phone working, gaming, messaging or watching something.

Google is important, but Facebook, TikTok and local platforms like Zalo can play a much bigger role here depending on who you're trying to reach. That mix can look very different from what works in Western markets. So, finding the right channels starts with understanding who your target market is.

I've lived in Vietnam since 2014, working mostly with international companies or businesses targeting overseas markets. But during that time, I've also worked with Vietnamese businesses across a range of industries on organic growth projects to improve their local visibility. I even have a banned Facebook ad account to show for it.

This article was originally published in August 2021. But so much has changed since then that we’ve given it a full rewrite using our content refresh process . The new version reflects digital marketing in Vietnam today, the channels businesses should know about, and some of the lessons I’ve learned over the years.

One caveat before I go any further:

I'm a Canadian in Vietnam, so despite living here for 10+ years and having Vietnamese family, I'm still looking at the country from the outside.

That's largely because I've yet to master the language. And having studied anthropology, I'm aware of how closely language and culture are tied , and how important language is to understanding a society's values and worldview.

So, anything I say here about Vietnamese behaviour or culture should be read as respectful observations as an outsider, not someone pretending to be an expert on Vietnamese consumer habits.

How Digital Marketing Works in Vietnam Today

Digital marketing in Vietnam uses many of the same channels as elsewhere, but local platforms and buying habits can change the mix.

A local consumer brand might lean heavily on Facebook, TikTok, Zalo or Shopee at different points in the journey.

A business-to-business (B2B) service company operating in Vietnam might care much more about LinkedIn and its website, particularly if search visibility matters to how its customers find and research it.

The marketing mix can look very different depending on who you're trying to reach and how they buy.

Vietnam's digital market is much more mature than it was when I first wrote this article in 2021.

According to DataReportal, 85.6 million people in Vietnam were using the internet by the end of 2025, equal to 84.2% of the population. It also recorded 79 million social media user identities , but since one person will have multiple accounts, that figure shouldn't be read as 79 million individual people.

The important information for marketers is how fragmented that attention is.

Despite a declining user base in the West , Decision Lab's recent research found Facebook and Zalo remain central for communication and community, with TikTok becoming increasingly important among younger users. YouTube remains relevant across generations.

It’s also worth noting that Vietnam is a heavily mobile-connected market . A strategy that looks fine on desktop but is slow, awkward or difficult to act on from a phone is likely to miss a big part of how people actually experience the internet here.

But once you scratch beneath the surface, you'll find a lot more nuance. Broad claims about “Vietnamese consumers” can hide some pretty big differences between generations, locations and types of buyer.

For example, anyone who's traveled around Vietnam will likely notice considerable cultural and consumption differences between North, South and even Central regions .

So while n ational averages can be useful, they can also miss nuances that are far outside the scope of this article to uncover. It's just important to be aware of.

(I'd treat this as a menu of possible channels rather than a checklist.)

What About Email Marketing?

You’ll probably notice email marketing wasn't included.

That's because, while email can still be useful for business-to-business outreach and more formal correspondence in Vietnam, social platforms and messaging apps such as Zalo tend to play a much stronger role in how businesses reach and stay in touch with people.

In fact, there’s an argument that email is underused. A 2025 study on digital marketing in Vietnam describes personalized email marketing as an under-utilized opportunity and recommends newsletters, customer relationship management systems and other owned channels as ways to build first-party relationships rather than relying entirely on external platforms.

That fits with a point I’ll come back to later in this article. Facebook, TikTok and Zalo can all be incredibly useful, but there’s value in building channels and customer relationships you have more control over too.

In the real world, though, my experience has been a bit different.

While working with marketing teams, particularly with schools or other consumer-facing organisations in Vietnam, I’ve repeatedly heard some version of: our email open rates are so low that there’s little point sending them.

And in those teams, Zalo broadcasts are generally seen as far more effective.

Shopee and TikTok Shop Deserve Particular Attention

For businesses selling physical products in Vietnam, ecommerce platforms aren't just somewhere to complete a transaction.

They're also discovery and marketing channels.

Vietnamese consumers spent about US$16 billion across Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Tiki in 2025, according to Metric data reported by VnExpress . Shopee held about 56% of the market, while TikTok Shop had grown to more than 41%. Together, the two platforms accounted for roughly 97% of sales across the four marketplaces.

Other estimates differ slightly, but tell the same story. YouNet ECI put Shopee at 57.5% of the market in 2025 and TikTok Shop at 39.6%.

For marketers, that's interesting because the path from discovery to purchase can happen almost entirely inside the platform.

Influencers and Creators Play a Big Role Too

Influencer marketing is huge in Vietnam. And increasingly, it's tied directly to commerce.

Creators can introduce a product on TikTok, demonstrate it in a livestream, answer questions in real time and send people straight through to a purchase without them ever leaving the platform.

That combination of entertainment, recommendation and shopping is one reason influencer marketing has become such a big part of the digital mix here.

Campaign Asia reported in early 2026 that some brands in Vietnam are putting as much as 40% of their digital spend into influencer-led commerce. I wouldn't say that's indicative of an industry average, but it gives you an idea of how seriously some businesses are taking it. And I'm actually a bit surprised it's not a higher percentage.

In fact, WPP Media Vietnam has reported that 59% of advertisers it surveyed planned to increase spending on key opinion leaders (KOL) and key opinion consumer (KOC) marketing. TikTok accounted for more than 60% of interactions with sponsored content in its 2024 campaign data.

In Vietnam you'll often hear KOL and KOC . The distinction can get blurry, but broadly speaking, KOCs tend to lean more heavily on product experience and seemingly genuine recommendations rather than celebrity or a large personal following. They can be closer to what we'd call micro-influencers elsewhere , with the emphasis often on product experience and a more focused audience rather than celebrity reach.

There’s also more accountability around influencer marketing than there used to be. Changes to Vietnam’s advertising law that took effect in 2026 place clearer responsibilities on influencers, including checking information about the products they promote and making it clear when content is advertising.

So if you're marketing here with a bootstrapped budget, I'd recommend looking for people who already have the trust and attention of the audience you're trying to reach, and ask yourself whether working with them could help your target customer take the next step.

AI Is Becoming Part of Vietnam's Digital Landscape

One of the biggest changes since I first wrote this article in 2021 is the rise of AI.

A growing number of Vietnamese consumers are paying for ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

Sensor Tower data reported by VnExpress found that ChatGPT had more than 20 million monthly active users in Vietnam during the first half of 2026. With Vietnamese users spending $7.15 million USD through the mobile app during that first half of the year.

Claude is interesting for a different reason.

It had a much smaller audience of around 470,000 monthly active users, but still generated US$1.71 million in mobile revenue. Sensor Tower says its user base in Vietnam includes a lot of professionals and more advanced users willing to pay for premium features.

The number I was most shocked by was Gemini though. The study reported half the users of ChatGPT.

But on a closer look, it's simply because that reported number doesn't capture Google's full AI footprint.

Gemini models also power AI features inside Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. Someone can therefore use Google's AI regularly without ever opening the standalone Gemini app.

That's an important distinction when looking at AI adoption. Because the lines between search engines and AI assistants are already starting to blur.

And according to the research, overall spending is growing quickly too. Vietnamese consumers spent US$8.54 million on AI apps in the second quarter of 2026 alone, compared with US$4.99 million during the whole of 2024.

But again, like with the Gemini numbers, there are important limitations to these figures.

This particular study is tracking purchases made through Apple's App Store and Google Play, so web subscriptions and enterprise purchases aren't included.

Still, the direction seems similar to the rest of the world.

With AI becoming another part of how people in Vietnam work, research and find information online.

And search itself is changing at the same time, as a result. Google says AI Mode has now passed one billion monthly users globally, while AI-powered search increasingly lets people ask longer questions and follow them up conversationally.

Organic visibility is getting broader. People can still find you through Google, but they might also encounter you while researching a problem through an AI-generated answer or another AI tool before they ever reach your website.

What Makes Marketing in Vietnam Different?

Knowing which platforms are popular is only part of the job.

The harder part is understanding how the audience you want to reach uses them, what they care about, and how they research a decision.

That's why I wouldn't recommend building a Vietnam marketing strategy from national platform statistics alone.

Localization and International SEO is More Than Translation

This becomes even more important when you're marketing between Vietnam and another country.

Translating an existing page into Vietnamese doesn't automatically make it relevant to someone searching in Vietnam. The same is true for a Vietnamese company translating its content into English and trying to reach customers overseas.

International SEO involves researching each target market separately. Search behaviour can change, so the keywords and questions worth targeting in one country aren't automatically the ones that matter in another.

Good localisation also means adapting the content to the cultural and regional context of the people you're trying to reach, rather than simply changing the language. That's a recognised part of international SEO, not just a copywriting preference.

Let The Target Audience Direct Your Marketing Strategy

This is probably the recurring theme you'll notice throughout this article.

Before deciding what to publish or where to promote it, it's essential to understand the audience first.

What are they looking for?
What questions come up while they're researching?
What would actually move them closer to doing business with you?

Search data can help answer some of that, but it shouldn't be the only input.

Sometimes the best research is simply asking existing customers what was going through their heads before they bought, what nearly stopped them, and how they'd describe the problem in their own words.

That's why I built a free customer research survey generator to make that part easier. It helps you create a short survey around things like pain points, buying triggers, objections and the language customers actually use .

Those answers can then be compared with search data to help decide which topics are worth creating content around for search, social media, paid promotion and the website and how best to talk about them.

Where Does Organic Growth Fit Into Digital Marketing in Vietnam?

My own approach to digital marketing usually starts with organic growth, particularly search. But that doesn’t mean I think SEO should be the main channel for every business.

For example, if you're selling arguably the best baked goods, moon cakes, and cinnamon rolls across HCMC , it's unlikely you'll get a lot of visitors from Google even if you target foreigners and rank high.

Social media and video will have a much bigger impact in that industry and your own website is definitely more of a nice to have than a need to have.

And that's why in the case of our new family-run brand Butter and Flour , the primary GTM strategy is organic social, word of mouth, events, and micro-influencer marketing.

But in general, I still like starting with organic search because it forces you to do some useful homework and ideas about your target audience before you start creating things.

Search gives you (quantitative) evidence of what people are interested in

Keyword research with the help of Ahrefs and high-engagement posts on relevant Facebook groups and subreddits can help reveal the questions people ask and the topics they research around a problem or service.

And clickstream data can add another layer by helping estimate demand around related topics and showing how people move between searches and websites.

None of this data is perfect, and I certainly don’t treat it as a crystal ball. Again, certain industries can largely ignore this tactic.

But for most niches it can give you quantitative evidence you can combine with what the business already knows about its customers , its offer, and the market.

That makes it a much better starting point than sitting around a table guessing what people might be interested in. Or what social post could go viral.

Sometimes the research confirms what you already suspected. And a lot of time, it can change the direction completely.

The research can shape more than SEO and AI visibility

This is one reason I don’t really think of keyword research as something that only belongs to SEO.

If you discover that potential customers repeatedly research a particular problem, that insight can affect the pages you create on the website.

It might change the way you position a service.

It could give you ideas for social content or advertising.

And it might reveal questions your sales team should be answering much earlier in the buying journey.

The search data is useful because it gives you a window into what people are already trying to understand.

Build useful assets somewhere you control and own

Once you find a question or topic worth investing in, I generally like building the strongest version of the answer on the website first.

That might be an article or a service page or a focused landing page.

The advantage of this, is you’re building something on a platform you control and essentially own. Social media can ban you, restrict you, or simply limit your reach because you don't post enough.

By publishing the ideas first on your site, you can improve it over time, link other useful pages to it and use it as a destination for traffic from other channels.

There's also a less theoretical reason I'm wary of building too much of a marketing strategy around platforms you don't control.

As I mentioned in the intro, I have a banned Facebook ad account.

I can't say with certainty what caused it, but I strongly suspect a nightlife-related project I worked on in Vietnam was the culprit.

Whatever the exact reason, I lost access to an advertising channel I'd previously been able to use.

And that's one of the risks with third-party platforms:

Their rules can change.
Enforcement can change.
An account you've built around can suddenly become restricted, and you don't always have much control over what happens next.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't use Facebook ads again if they made sense for a project.

I'd just err on the side of caution and avoid relying on any single platform I don't control to be the only place the strategy lives - be that Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or even Google.

Your website gives you somewhere to store your core assets, information and customer journey under your own control.

But of course, that doesn't mean you're independent of other platforms you rely on for organic traffic. Content marketing via your website relies heavily on Google for discovery. And Google is perhaps the most ruthless when it comes to algorithm updates.

Hubspot and a number of other sites perhaps once considered 'too big to fail' have lost upwards of 80% of their traffic since 2024 .

And just like with the example of my Facebook Ads account, I'm not saying that SEO is now a channel to ignore.

As digital marketers in Vietnam or anywhere else in the world, we must put ourselves out in front of our prospects wherever they may be found. And when a platform becomes stricter or harder to appear, we must adapt and level up.

And another piece of advice I'm trying to convey regarding your content strategy and website is that if one traffic source changes, the content and pages you've invested in are still yours to access, refresh, and repurpose however you'd like.

Adapt your ideas for other platforms and mediums

Publishing the original page doesn’t mean the work is finished.

One good piece of research can give you material for several other channels:

A section of an article might become a 'zero click' Facebook or LinkedIn post simply meant to spark comments and conversations on the platform.
One of the findings could become a short video.
A customer problem uncovered during the research might become the angle for an ad.
Heck, your overall niche can become the basis of a facebook group.

For a business targeting customers in Vietnam, an idea can also be adapted for Zalo, Shopee, TikTok or another platform if that’s where the audience is.

Of course, I wouldn’t simply copy and paste the website version everywhere.

Someone searching Google with a specific question is in a different context from someone scrolling through TikTok or opening Shopee because they’re ready to shop.

But the overall topic can stay the same while the format, message and next step change.

Give each channel a job

The website doesn’t always have to be the final destination either.

Sometimes you want someone to read a landing page.

In another situation, it might make more sense for them to connect through Zalo or go directly to a product listing on Shopee.

The useful question is what you want that particular channel to help the customer do next.

You’re not trying to be everywhere, at least not at first. You'll likely hear more and more people promote the idea of search everywhere optimization . And that's certainly a solid strategy for big marketing teams to use. But many companies aren't afforded the budgets necessary to achieve that.

So, instead you’re trying to understand where the right people are, what they care about, and how a target number of different channels can help move them closer to a decision.

When the Business Is in Vietnam but the Audience Isn't

As I mentioned in the intro, a lot of the work I've done from Vietnam targets elsewhere.

Companies may be based here, but the customers they want to reach are somewhere else.

In that case, Vietnam might be the operating base, but the marketing strategy closely follows what I've shared above but needs to follow the audience you're actually trying to reach.

What This Can Look Like in Practice

An example that comes to mind regarding repurposing site content into other formats is from fram^, a Vietnam-based B2B company selling AI implementation services to international clients.

First we identified a number of relevant topics for articles that can help flesh out an AI category on their site.

Then identified additional topics that could make for helpful informational videos and all complement each other.

The topics could then be adapted into different formats, rather than treated as a single piece of website content.

When I later searched Google for questions to ask your AI implementation partner, one of fram^’s LinkedIn posts appeared prominently in the AI Overview source panel.

What's interesting is that the post didn’t need huge visible engagement to appear there.

Not to say likes don’t help with visibility, or that posting on LinkedIn guarantees AI visibility.

But it does show why I like starting with useful audience research.

If you find topics your prospective buyers genuinely care about, you can build a strong answer once, then adapt it for different places where those buyers might discover it.

And sometimes those secondary formats can earn visibility of their own, even more than the original. And so long as they're all tied together, you'll still benefit regardless.

AI Makes Translation Easier, Not Market Understanding

AI has made one part of this much easier.

You can now produce grammatically decent content in another language in seconds. And you can even use AI to create video avatars for highly technical talking head explainer videos.

But that doesn't mean it'll automatically help you understand the market.

You still need to know what people care about, how they research the problem and what makes your offer relevant to them.

That's why I still come back to audience research before content production.

Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing in Vietnam

So, as mentioned before, digital marketing in Vietnam has changed a lot since I first wrote this article in 2021.

The country is more connected, eCommerce is more important, AI is changing how people search and research, and the mix of platforms people use keeps getting more complicated.

But I don’t think the answer is to chase every new channel.

I think the best strategy starts with the audience. When you focus on what they care about, what they’re already researching, and what you want them to do next. You can decide where search, social media, eCommerce, paid promotion or platforms like Zalo fit into the wider strategy.

My own preference is to start with organic growth because it forces you to do that research first. It also gives you the chance to build useful assets on a website you control, which you can then adapt for other channels where they make sense.

Sometimes that means sending people back to your website.

Sometimes the better next step might be Shopee, Zalo, a Facebook group or somewhere else entirely.

But the point is to make each channel earn its place and connect in some way that adds value to your brand and customers.

If you’re curious where organic growth opportunities show on your own site, get in touch and we'll send you a friendly, no-obligation report!

Local SEO for Higher Education: Guide for Colleges & Universities

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 08:34:28 GMT

Local SEO for Universities and Colleges: Higher Education Essentials

Local SEO for higher education helps your institution appear when prospective students and families search for programs, campuses, or services in a specific location.

Before someone books a campus tour, they usually want to know whether the school is a good fit. Students look for practical details that make campus life tangible. Parents look for proof that the institution supports students and justifies the investment.

Local search helps shape those first impressions. Because accurate location information, credible reviews, and useful campus content can build confidence before someone visits your admissions pages.

After more than 15 years in education leadership, I’ve seen how important that visibility is for institutions without built-in brand recognition. A strong local SEO foundation can help turn local searches into program discovery and enrolment confidence.

Local SEO is one part of a broader higher education SEO strategy , and its job is to help students understand the place behind the program. Doing that well starts with understanding how Google evaluates local visibility, so let's get into that.

Key Takeaways on Local SEO for Higher Education

Local SEO helps colleges and universities appear when students and families search for programs, campus visits, and other location-specific information.

To make the most of this opportunities, I recommend you:

Make every important location easy to verify. Keep your Google Business Profile , contact information, and map details accurate so students can verify the right location.
Use specific profile fields. Choose the most accurate categories, keep hours current, and complete the profile fields that help students and families verify fit.
Match local search intent. Build pages around three questions that affect action: program location, campus visits, and daily life.
Use reviews as content intelligence. Monitor reviews and respond professionally, then use recurring student and parent concerns to fix the campus information causing uncertainty
Promote timely next steps. Use Google Posts, campus tour pages, and deadline reminders where they can move searchers toward a visit, inquiry, or application.
Build local trust beyond your website. Build local authority through community partnerships, trusted listings, and verifiable source material.
Measure enrolment behaviour. Track the actions closest to enrolment: campus tour bookings, inquiries, and application starts.

What Students, Parents, and Other Searchers Want to See Quickly

Different people use local search with different priorities. Your local SEO strategy should help each group find the right information fast.

Prospective students want to know what daily life will feel like. Show campus photos, housing, and transit because those details help students picture everyday life.

Parents and families want confidence that the school is safe, reputable, and worth the investment. Make reviews, support information, and campus safety details easy to find so families can judge fit.

International students need location context they may not already have. Explain the city, housing, and airport access first because international students need enough local context to judge daily life before they arrive.

Transfer and commuter students often care about convenience. Highlight parking, transit, and program-specific campus locations so commuter students can judge practical fit.

Graduate and professional students udge fit through credibility and access. Show employers, research facilities, and professional networks that make the location valuable to the program.

Google results for universities often surface decision-critical information before a searcher reaches the website. Students and families may see cost, directions, and reviews directly in search, so those first-touch details need to be accurate.

For instance, the Georgia State University result above shows an $18K average cost after aid, a 54% graduation rate, and a 67% acceptance rate.

Local SEO keeps those first-touch details accurate enough to build confidence.

How Local SEO Works for Colleges and Universities

Local SEO helps Google choose the page that best matches the searcher's location and intent.

For higher education, that can include searches like:

universities near me
colleges in Atlanta
nursing programs in Chicago
campus tours near me
university housing in Boston
business schools in Toronto
Georgia State University directions
best colleges near public transit

Google weighs relevance and distance, while prominence reflects broader institutional trust . For colleges and universities, local visibility depends on whether the page matches the search and the campus is nearby; prominence then reflects the institution's wider trust signals.

This is why university local SEO needs location-specific entry points instead of one general page.

A prospective student may start broad and narrow the search as a campus visit becomes more likely.

Your local SEO strategy needs to make each important location easy to find, understand, and trust.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Complex Campus Environments

Your Google Business Profile is often the first place students and families see your institution in local search.

It can show the details students use to verify a location before reaching your website, making the profile part of the decision. For higher education, that makes your profile more than a directory listing. It is often a first impression.

Start with your main campus profile. Make sure the institution name, address, and website link are accurate.

Then audit whether important public-facing locations need their own profiles. This may include admissions offices, libraries, or public-facing clinics.

Separate profiles usually make sense when a location serves a distinct public purpose that searchers cannot complete through the main campus profile.

At a minimum, each active profile should include:

Accurate institution or department name
Correct address and map pin
Local phone number or correct contact route
Relevant website link
Clear primary and secondary categories
Recent campus or facility photos
A concise description
Review monitoring and response process
Updated accessibility, parking, transit, and visit details where relevant

For multi-campus institutions, this work is even more important. Each profile should help students and families find the right location, confirm key details, and take the next step with confidence.

Optimize the Profile Fields That Influence Local Visibility

Accuracy is the baseline. The next step is making sure each profile gives Google and searchers enough detail to understand what the location actually is.

Choose specific categories

Your primary Google Business Profile category matters. In the 2026 Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors report , local SEO experts ranked Primary GBP Category as the #1 Local Pack/Maps ranking factor.

That does not mean categories are the only thing that matters, of course. But it does mean colleges and universities should choose the most accurate primary category for each legitimate public-facing profile.

Many institutions set every profile to “University” or “College” and stop there. That can work for the main campus, but specialized public-facing profiles need a category that describes what searchers find there.

For example, a law school profile should use a law school category where available. A nursing faculty may be better represented as a nursing school. A campus library should use a library-specific category. A teaching clinic should use the most accurate clinic or healthcare category.

You can also use additional categories to describe other services or functions the location genuinely provides.

And be sure to review categories every six months since Google updates category options over time, and a better category may become available.

Fill Out the Services Section

The Services section can help clarify what each location offers.

For higher education, services should focus on tasks students actively search for during enrolment, especially when the relevant office is hard to find.

Use Google’s predefined services when they genuinely apply. Add custom services when Google does not provide a close match.

This is especially useful for long-tail searches where students and families need to find the right office for a specific task.

Keep Hours Accurate Where They Apply

Hours matter most for profiles tied to specific public-facing locations.

That includes admissions offices, libraries, bookstores, and clinics.

Keep regular hours, seasonal schedules, and special closures updated. A prospective student who finds the right profile but sees outdated hours may lose confidence before they reach your website.

Use “open 24 hours” only when the location truly operates that way.

For main school or university profiles, follow Google’s guidance carefully.

Some institution-level profiles do not need standard business hours because their availability is not tied to walk-in service.

Set Every Relevant Attribute

Attributes help searchers filter for specific needs.

For colleges and universities, prioritize attributes that help students verify access and practical fit.

These fields are easy to overlook, but they matter when students or families search with specific needs in mind. A campus building with accessible entrances, parking, or washrooms should make those details clear wherever the profile allows it.

Review attributes for each active profile at least twice a year.

Assign Clear Profile Ownership

Universities often have several teams touching local profiles, so clear ownership matters.

That can create unnecessary risk. Changes to core identity fields can trigger verification issues, so route them through the profile owner. The same uncontrolled changes can create conflicting profile states that weaken visibility.

Assign one owner for each profile. Route sensitive changes through that person before anything goes live.

Use Google Posts to Promote Deadlines, Tours, and Open Houses

Google Posts appear in the Updates section of your Google Business Profile.

For colleges and universities, they are useful promotional space in a high-intent search result. The people seeing these posts are already evaluating your institution, so write for decision-ready searchers.

Use posts to help them take the next step.

Strong Google Posts for higher education include:

Application deadline reminders with a clear link to apply
Open house and campus tour announcements with registration links
Scholarship and financial aid deadlines
Program highlights tied to intake periods
Standout reviews or student outcomes
Rankings, accreditations, and awards that build confidence
Public lectures, exhibitions, games, performances, and community events

Avoid filling this space with internal updates that only matter to current staff or students.

A generic internal update may suit another channel, but it rarely helps someone make a school decision.

One useful post per week is enough to keep the profile active. Give open houses and application deadlines their own posts because both create a clear next step.

And you can use the first 100 characters strategically to entice clicks, add UTM tracking to post links, and send each post to the most relevant landing page.

These posts won't directly improve rankings, but they can influence what people do after they find you. Use posts to move high-intent searchers toward the next enrolment action rather than simply keeping the profile active.

Capture Local Search Terms in Your Content Strategy

Local keyword strategy for higher education usually falls into a few recurring search patterns.

Program + Location Searches

These searches come from students who know what they want to study and are comparing options in a specific place.

This could be:

MBA programs in Boston
Engineering schools in Texas
Art colleges in Southern California
Nursing programs in Chicago

Create program pages that explain how location improves the course experience for a prospective student. Do not force the location into every heading. Use it where it helps the reader understand fit.

Campus Visit Searches

These searches come from people who are close to taking action.

Think:

How to get to [University]
Parking at [University]
Campus tours near me
Hotels near [University]

Support these searches with visit pages that remove the biggest pre-trip uncertainty: how to reach the campus.

Campus Life and Community Searches

These searches help students picture daily life.

Start with:

[University] neighbourhood
Things to do near [University]
[University] city life
Best areas to live near [University]

Create content that shows the local experience around the institution. Focus on the local details that determine whether daily life there feels workable. Topics like housing, food, transit, recreation, safety, internships, culture, and student communities.

For example, Boston University's " Living in Boston " section gives prospective students enough local context to plan around the city, including its weather... All optimized for location-specific keywords.

Strong local keyword targeting helps students understand how the program connects to the place they may actually live in.

Create Location-Based Content That Supports Enrolment

This location-based content helps prospective students understand what life will feel like beyond the classroom.

That matters because students are choosing a place to live as well as a program. A strong local content strategy should help students picture whether the surrounding community supports the life they want.

Show What Daily Life Looks Like

Create content that answers practical student-life questions.

This can be like:

Where students live
How students get around
Where students eat
What the neighbourhood feels like
Where students study outside class
What students do on weekends
How safe and accessible the area feels
What support services are nearby

This content does not need to read like a travel guide. It should help prospective students decide whether they can realistically build a routine there.

Connect the Location to Student Outcomes

The surrounding area can also strengthen your academic and career story.

For example, a university in a major business district can show how nearby employers strengthen internship access and career relevance. A health sciences program near hospitals or clinics can explain how proximity supports hands-on learning and career preparation.

This is where local SEO becomes more than visibility. It helps connect your location to the student’s future.

Build Content Around the City, Neighbourhood, and Campus Experience

Useful location-based content can include:

Student guides to the city or neighbourhood
“Things to do near campus” articles
Housing and commuter guides
Public transit and parking explainers
Local employer and internship pages
Campus safety and accessibility pages
Seasonal guides for new students
Event pages for open houses, tours, and community activities
Student-written guides to local restaurants, study spots, and social spaces

Brown University does this well with its “Life in Providence” content. The page connects the university experience to Providence by showing how the city shapes what life at Brown actually feels like.

For higher education institutions, this kind of content earns visibility by giving prospective students useful local context. And it also gives Google stronger local context while giving prospective students a clearer reason to take the next step.

Manage Local Reviews and Reputation

Reviews are one of the fastest trust signals students and families check in local search.

They can shape first impressions before someone visits your website. A prospective student may read reviews to judge whether everyday campus life feels supportive and workable before deciding to visit. A parent may read the same reviews for a different signal: whether the institution responds responsibly when problems surface.

That makes review management part of your local SEO strategy.

Start by tracking reviews across the places students and families already use. This can include Google, Facebook, Niche , College Confidential , Reddit, student forums, and program-specific review sites.

Then look for recurring themes. Do students mention confusing parking? Poor communication? Great faculty support? Strong campus culture? Safety concerns? Helpful admissions staff? Those patterns should shape content that resolves the same uncertainty before it becomes another review.

A good review process should include:

Monitoring reviews weekly
Responding to positive and negative reviews in a calm institutional voice
Escalating serious complaints to the right internal team
Identifying recurring concerns students and families mention
Updating campus pages when reviews reveal missing or unclear information
Encouraging reviews ethically from students, alumni, visitors, and event attendees

For institutions with multiple campuses, public-facing departments, or review-sensitive programs, this work can quickly become hard to manage internally. Our online reputation management services help strengthen the public record around your institution with clearer profiles, better source material, stronger third-party signals, and ongoing search and AI visibility checks.

A strong review process helps your institution spot recurring concerns, respond with care, and turn reputation signals into better student-facing content.

Build Local Authority Through Community Partnerships

Local links and mentions help search engines understand your institution’s role in the surrounding community.

For higher education, the best local links usually come from real relationships. These links are strongest when they come from organizations that already work with your institution or contribute to student outcomes.

Instead of chasing generic backlinks, focus on partnerships that already support student outcomes.

Useful local authority signals can come from:

Employer partner pages that mention internships, placements, or graduate hiring
Local news coverage about research, events, student projects, or community impact
Chamber of commerce or city pages that list the institution as a local partner
Nonprofit partner pages connected to volunteering, service learning, or fieldwork
Hospital, clinic, or lab pages connected to placements and research
Event pages for open houses, lectures, performances, athletic events, and community programs
Local business pages that mention student discounts, partnerships, or campus services

Use Campus Events to Strengthen Local Visibility

Campus events are especially useful at supporting local SEO when they are published as useful, location-specific pages.

A public campus event should have its own page when searchers need practical information before attending, with the event details moved into a short checklist.

Add event schema markup to important event pages so search engines can understand the event details and qualify the page for richer search results.

Write event copy with local search behaviour in mind. Include only the location context readers need to understand where the event fits.

For example, a prospective student might search for open houses in Boston, university events near downtown Toronto, or public lectures near UOT (campus name).

Cross-promote events with local venues and community partners when the event happens off campus. Off-campus events can create useful content for both organizations when the partner venue gives the event a stronger local connection.

This helps your institution build stronger local signals while giving prospective students more ways to experience the campus community before they apply.

Check How AI Tools Describe Your Institution

Prospective students and parents will almost certainly also use AI tools to research schools.

They may use several AI tools to ask questions like:

What is [University] like?
Is [University] safe?
What are the best nursing programs in Chicago?
Is [College] good for international students?
What is student life like at [University]?

These answers often draw from your website, Google Business Profile, Wikipedia, Wikidata, review platforms, news coverage, Reddit threads, forums, and third-party directories.

And if those sources are outdated, thin, or inconsistent, AI-generated answers may describe your institution poorly.

Treat this like a reputation and content audit .

Ask the Questions Yourself

Search your institution name in major AI tools.

Then test your most important program-and-location queries. For example, search for nursing programs in [city], business schools near [city], or what is [institution] like for international students.

Log the answers. Flag anything that could mislead prospective students.

Check the Sources Being Cited

Look at which sources the tools reference.

AI tools often lean on third-party sources, so prioritize those that repeatedly appear in answers about your institution.

Fix inaccuracies at the source when possible. Start with your most visible third-party profiles and any page that AI tools cite repeatedly.

Standardize Your Institution Description

Use the same clear one-line institution description wherever major search and AI sources represent your school.

This gives search engines and AI tools a consistent definition to work from.

For example:

[Institution] is a [type of institution] in [city/region] known for [core strengths], [student audience], and [specific academic or community focus].

Keep this description accurate, specific, and easy to reuse.

Keep Structured Data Current

Structured data helps search engines understand important facts about your institution.

Review only schema types that accurately describe the institution and page content. Keep structured data current whenever the underlying institutional information changes.

This supports traditional search visibility and gives AI systems clearer information to interpret.

Re-Check AI Answers Quarterly

AI answers change over time.

Review them a few times a year, especially before periods when prospective-student demand is likely to change.

Local SEO and AI visibility depend on the same foundation: information that is consistent enough for search systems and prospective students to trust.

Measure Local SEO Success for Higher Education

Traditional SEO metrics do not tell the full local search story.

A local SEO page may influence a student before they ever submit a form. They may use local search to build confidence before returning through another page to take an enrolment-related action.

That means your reporting should connect local visibility to enrolment behaviour.

Track Google Business Profile Actions

Start with the actions people take directly from your Google Business Profile.

Track:

Website clicks
Direction requests
Calls
Photo views
Review volume and sentiment
Search terms that trigger your profile
Interactions with individual campus or department profiles

These actions show whether people can find and engage with your institution before they reach the website.

Track Local Website Behaviour

Next, measure what local search visitors do once they land on your site.

Track visits to:

Campus pages
Program + location pages
Parking and directions pages
Campus tour pages
Housing and residence pages
Student life pages
Event pages
Local guides and neighbourhood content

Look for behaviour that shows growing intent. A student who visits a nursing program page, checks directions, reads about housing, and opens the campus tour page is more valuable than a visitor who only reads one blog post.

Track Enrolment-Focused Actions

Local SEO should eventually connect to admissions and enrolment outcomes.

Track actions like:

Campus tour bookings
Open house registrations
Inquiry form submissions
Calls to admissions
Program brochure downloads
Application starts
Application completions
Return visits from local search users

You do not need every metric to be perfect. You need enough visibility to understand whether local search is helping prospective students move forward.

Measure What Different Audiences Care About

Different searchers leave different signals.

Prospective students often linger on pages that make everyday campus life easier to picture. Parents spend more time on pages that show whether the institution feels safe and dependable. Commuter students care most about whether campus access fits real-life constraints such as childcare and evening schedules.

Review these patterns regularly. Then use them to improve your content, internal links, Google Business Profile details, and campus visit calls to action.

The strongest reporting connects local visibility to evidence that prospective students are moving toward enrolment.

Mini Example: How Carleton University Builds Local Search Confidence

A prominent university in my hometown where my brother did his undergrad degree is a great example of leveraging local SEO.

They implement many of the tips listed above.

Profile And Location Signals

Shows the full campus address clearly: 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON
Uses campus maps and location pins to help students find buildings and facilities
Provides practical visit information, including transit, parking, and accessibility details

Website And Content Signals

Builds location relevance around Ottawa , Canada’s capital , and Ontario
Uses campus and city content to help students picture daily life outside the classroom
Connects the university’s location to nearby government, technology, internship, and career opportunities

Student Confidence Signals

Offers a 360° campus tour so prospective students can explore the environment before visiting
Uses seasonal campus imagery to show what the school feels like throughout the year
Highlights local alumni, student life, neighbourhoods, and community connections

The real lesson here is that local SEO is about more than putting a city name on a page. It is about helping students and families understand the place behind the program.

And if that is not enough, prospective students can also see that Dan Aykroyd attended the school.

So as you can see local SEO is a key part of your overall higher education SEO strategy .

Your efforts optimizing your Google Business Profile and creating authentic location content lead directly to physical campus visits - which is for sure, the most powerful conversion point in the enrolment journey.

30-Day Local SEO Action Plan for Higher Education

As we've discussed, local SEO can feel messy for colleges and universities because responsibility is often split across teams.

So, best to start with the pieces that influence trust and student action first.

Week 1: Audit Your Local Search Presence

Review your main Google Business Profile first, then audit every public-facing location that needs its own profile.

Check whether each profile has the correct name, address, phone number, website link, map pin, category, photos, and review activity.

Flag any profile likely to confuse searchers.

Week 2: Fix Your Highest-Impact Campus Details

Update the profiles and pages students are most likely to use before a visit.

Prioritize the profiles and pages students use immediately before a campus visit (I.e. campus profile, admissions office, visit page, parking page, directions page, campus tour page, and high-traffic program pages).

Make sure students and families can quickly find:

Where to go
How to get there
Where to park
Who to contact
How to book a visit
What the campus and surrounding area look like
What reviews and photos say about the experience

Week 3: Improve Local Content

Add local context to the pages that influence enrolment decisions.

Update program pages with local details that connect the campus to student outcomes. Improve student-life pages with local details students need to judge daily fit.

Create or refresh content around local experiences that most influence whether a student can picture enrolling.

Week 4: Build a Review and Measurement Process

Set up a simple review monitoring process across the platforms students actually use.

Look for recurring themes in positive and negative reviews. Use those themes to fix the campus content creating the same uncertainty.

Then connect local SEO reporting to meaningful actions:

Website clicks from Google Business Profile
Direction requests
Calls
Campus tour bookings
Open house registrations
Inquiry form submissions
Program-page visits
Application starts
Application completions

The strongest local SEO strategy helps students and families move from reliable local information to a confident enrolment decision.

FAQs About Local SEO for Higher Education

What is local SEO for higher education?

Local SEO for higher education helps colleges and universities appear when location shapes which institution a searcher chooses.

It combines institution-controlled local information with third-party signals that help search engines verify relevance and trust.

Why does local SEO matter for colleges and universities?

Local SEO matters because students and families often research the place before they commit to the institution.

Before booking a tour or submitting an inquiry, students may use local search to decide whether visiting the campus feels practical.

Should every department have its own Google Business Profile?

No. A department should only have its own Google Business Profile when searchers genuinely need to find it as a separate destination.

Public-facing campus locations may qualify for separate profiles when they operate as destinations with their own visitor needs. Academic departments usually do not need profiles unless they serve visiting searchers.

What should a college or university include on a local campus page?

A strong local campus page should give prospective students everything they need to find the campus and decide whether to visit.

The page should help students and families understand the campus well enough to know their next step.

How do reviews affect local SEO for higher education?

Reviews can determine whether searchers keep considering the institution.

Students and families use reviews to spot recurring problems that official campus content may not make obvious. Colleges and universities should treat recurring review feedback as evidence for what student-facing content needs fixing.

How can universities measure local SEO success?

Universities can measure local SEO success by tracking whether local visibility leads to meaningful enrolment actions (i.e., tracking calls , campus tour bookings, open house registrations, inquiry forms, program-page visits, application starts, and application completions).

The strongest reporting connects local search visibility to real enrolment behaviour.

Need Help Improving Local SEO for Your College or University?

Local SEO can quickly become complicated when ownership is split across different parts of the institution.

We can help you turn a fragmented local search presence into a clearer path toward enrolment action.

Book a free site review and we’ll show you where your higher-ed SEO strategy has the strongest growth opportunities.

Content Refresh Strategy: Refresh, Rewrite, or Retire?

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:30:22 GMT

Build a Content Refresh Strategy for the Pages That Matter

One client site we refreshed grew contact-form conversions by 286% from pages they already owned. We rebuilt the value in their existing content without adding a page, changing the offer, or touching paid acquisition.*

Those pages still had value; they just weren't doing enough with it. A few had lost reader trust, some had drifted from search intent, and others ranked well yet stalled before the next step. Rebuilding that value into the pages themselves is what separates a real refresh strategy from a list of minor updates.

A refresh strategy helps you decide:

Which existing pages have lost relevance, visibility, trust, or conversion value;
Which of those still hold value worth recovering;
Whether each one needs a refresh, rewrite, consolidation, promotion, retirement, or nothing at all; and
How you'll measure whether the work actually restored performance.

Here’s where this guide fits: use it when you suspect an existing page has lost value and you need to decide what kind of fix it needs.

It will help you spot content decay, understand the likely cause, and choose the right action before rewriting a page that may not need it.

* Proof note: This came from a multi-page refresh programme using our proprietary update process . We refreshed multiple priority pages, improved internal links to reconnect orphaned content, and clarified next steps across the content set. Organic Search contact form key events rose from 15 to 58 across two 90-day comparison periods, a 286.67% lift. Organic sessions rose by 15.8%, so the conversion lift was not explained by traffic growth alone.

Key Takeaways For Your Content Refresh Strategy

Prioritize pages with value worth recovering: Focus on pages that still support a useful search query, customer decision, business result, internal path, or valuable topic cluster.
Diagnose before you edit: Work out whether the page has lost relevance, trust, clarity, differentiation, or conversion strength before changing the copy.
Choose the fix that best matches the problem: Refresh when the page still has the right role. Rewrite, consolidate, promote, retire, repurpose, or leave it alone when another action better addresses the problem.
Measure against the reason for the refresh: Track the metric that reflects what you were trying to recover, whether that is visibility, engagement, conversions, clearer query ownership, or AI visibility.

Build a Content Refresh Strategy in 7 Simple Steps

A content refresh strategy does not start with rewriting old pages. It starts with deciding which pages still matter, what they have lost, and whether a refresh is the right fix.

Use this workflow to move from “this published date is old” to a clear action plan.

When to Use This Workflow

Use this workflow when you already have one page in mind and need to decide what to do with it.

It works well when a page still ranks but no longer converts, impressions are steady but clicks are falling, two pages compete for the same topic, or an older guide needs better examples, proof, sources, or calls to action.

The goal is to choose the right action for the page.

For a deeper page diagnosis, I recommend trying our framework for how to measure content quality . It helps you score contextual understanding, credibility and freshness, user experience, uniqueness and value-add, and guidance before deciding how much work the page needs.

What Is a Content Refresh?

A content refresh is the process of improving an existing page so it matches what readers, search and answer engines, and the business need from it now. A refresh usually preserves the existing URL and any link equity attached to it, while improving what no longer matches current needs.

A refresh can range from light factual updates to more substantial improvements in how the page is structured, supported, and guided toward the next step. The right scope depends on what the page has lost: relevance, trust, differentiation, usability, or business value.

A content refresh sits between a full content audit and a page-level rewrite.

Use this guide when you already suspect an existing page has lost value and need to understand what kind of problem you may be dealing with.

Use our content audit guide when you need to review a larger content library, compare page performance, and prioritise updates across dozens or hundreds of URLs.

Use our content quality assessment framework when one important page needs a deeper score before you decide whether to refresh, rewrite, promote, repurpose, or retire it.

Use our content update services when you already know important pages are underperforming and need help turning them into stronger search, AI, and conversion assets in the safest possible way.

Why Content Decays for Reasons Besides Age

Content decay is the gradual loss of organic traffic, rankings, relevance, conversions, or visibility after a page has been live for a while. Age can make that more likely, but the real problem is usually that something around the page has changed.

A five-year-old page can still work perfectly well. While a much newer page can lose value quickly when search intent moves, stronger competitors appear, its evidence ages, or the next step no longer fits what readers need.

It could be any number of things:

Search intent shifts: The current search results may reward a different format, angle, or stage of the buying journey from the one your page was built around.
Competitors improve: Other pages add clearer answers, stronger proof, better examples, or more useful first-hand insight while yours stays the same.
Information ages: Statistics, screenshots, product references, pricing, tools, and source links can become outdated even when the main argument still holds.
Trust signals weaken: Dated proof, old case studies, thin evidence, or unclear authorship can make a once-useful page harder to trust.
Conversion paths decay: The page may still attract the right reader while its offer, internal links, proof, or call to action no longer support the next decision.
Search experiences change: Search features and answer engines can satisfy more of a query before the click, which can reduce a page’s traffic even when its ranking remains stable.

For example, a 2026 Ahrefs study found that AI Overviews correlated with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page (up from 34.5% in its 2025 study). That doesn't mean every query will lose the same amount of traffic, though. But it does mean ranking position alone will no longer tell you whether a page is still creating the same value.

The common mistake is treating the visible symptom as the diagnosis. Traffic falls, so more copy gets added. Rankings slip, so the introduction gets rewritten. A page looks old, so a few statistics get replaced.

We have tried plenty of those quick fixes across more than 1,000 page updates . Sometimes they work. But when they don't, it's usually because the page had a different problem underneath the surface level analysis.

A page may still answer the query but no longer compete with what ranks now. It may still rank but no longer give the reader enough confidence to continue. Another URL may have started competing for the same job.

That is what a content refresh strategy is meant to prevent. And that's why, before editing the page, it's important to establish whether it still matters, identify what has weakened, before then choosing the action most likely to recover its value.

Which Pages Are Worth Refreshing?

Not all old pages deserve a refresh. This section answers the first question: does the page still matter enough to diagnose?

The best candidates are pages that still support a business result or a customer goal. In practice, that usually means favouring topics with a next step: comparison, evaluation, implementation, risk, pricing, examples, templates, or a decision the reader cannot fully complete from the search result alone.

So, start with the page’s job, not the graph. A page may be worth protecting because it helps readers compare options, understand a problem, trust your offer, support a service page, or move toward a decision. It may also deserve attention because it ranks for a useful query, earns links, or supports an important internal path.

Metrics help you find possible refresh candidates, but they should not make the decision for you. Traffic decline, weaker click-through, falling conversions, or ranking movement are clues that something may have changed. They still need to be weighed against the page’s role.

That is why a low-traffic page can still be worth refreshing, while a declining page may not be worth saving. Before judging a page by the graph, check what job it is meant to do.

You can usually spot refresh candidates before the loss becomes obvious. Once you know the page still has a useful job, the signals below help you decide whether it is worth a closer diagnosis. But remember that they are clues and not the decision.

Common signals include:

Outdated proof, examples, screenshots, or references
A page that no longer matches the dominant search intent or expected format
Competitors covering the topic more clearly, credibly, or completely
UX friction that makes the page harder to use or trust
Weaker conversion performance even when rankings hold
Declining visibility or weaker click-through despite stable relevance

None of these signals should make the decision on their own. The point is to spot patterns that suggest a useful page is losing search fit, commercial value, or its ability to help the reader take the next step.

Use this table to separate symptoms from the real refresh problem:

The point is not to rely on a single metric. It’s to identify patterns that suggest the page is losing usefulness, commercial value, or search fit. Pull these signals from free tools: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft Clarity, and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.

One weak signal is usually a reason to monitor the page, not rewrite it. Several weak signals on a page with business value are a reason to diagnose what changed.

Zoom Out: Which Topic Clusters Does Google Already Trust You On?

Page-level signals matter, but larger sites should also look at topic-level patterns before deciding what to refresh.

We worked with a large site with content that covered a wide range of topics for various products. The page quality was fairly consistent across the site, but we noticed that the ranking and visibility patterns weren't. Google rewarded certain topic clusters with steady top-five positions and largely ignored others, even when the individual articles were just as strong.

That pattern can help play a role in shaping your refresh strategy. If Google already treats your site as a trusted source for a certain topic, updates within that cluster are more likely to compound. Likewise, if Google has never rewarded a topic cluster, the same level of effort may produce very little, even when the update itself is good.

This means a weak page in a strong cluster is often a good refresh candidate. And a weak page in an ignored cluster may be a better candidate for consolidation, retirement, or no further investment. So, before you spend time improving the page, make sure the broader topic is still worth protecting.

For smaller sites, this may not matter much. If you only have a few dozen pages, it is usually better to stay focused on page-level performance. But once your site has enough content to form real topic clusters, start by identifying which clusters deserve the effort, then diagnose the individual pages inside them.

What a Refresh Diagnosis Should Consider

A refresh diagnosis sits between a full audit and the actual edit. You are not evaluating the whole site or scoring every detail of the page. You are trying to find the part of the page that no longer matches the job it needs to do.

That usually means looking at a few practical questions before deciding what to touch.

Use the advice and questions below to help determine where the page may have lost value before deciding what to change.

These map to the five factors in our content quality assessment framework . Use that guide when you need to score a page in full.

A useful gut check: Ask yourself objectively, if this page vanished, would anyone notice a real gap in what's available? In many competitive SERPs, original assets such as proprietary data, tools, research, or distinctive first-hand evidence can strengthen a page’s defensibility.

One study found these assets were common among 92.9% of winning sites , but the exact effect will vary by query and vertical.

Refresh, Rewrite, Consolidate, Retire, Promote, or Repurpose?

Once you know which pages deserve attention, the next step is choosing the right action. Not every declining page needs a refresh. Some need a rewrite, some should be consolidated, and some may deserve more promotion instead of more editing.

For example: Two blog posts, one titled "What Is a Content Audit" and another "How to Run a Content Audit," end up ranking for the same queries and splitting clicks between them. Merging them into one guide and redirecting the weaker URL can reduce intent overlap while also concentrating links, internal signals, and relevance. But the decision should be based on your audit of query, backlink, and conversion data.

Use the table below to avoid defaulting to “refresh” when the page may need a different action.

As a rough guide to effort, promotion and retirement are usually quick, a refresh often takes an hour or two, heavy revision runs several hours, and a full rewrite can take one to two weeks.

This table shows the possible directions. It does not replace a site-level decision. Consolidation, redirects, retirement, and cannibalization decisions need a wider view of backlinks, internal links, rankings, business role, and URL overlap.

Teams often keep a page alive purely because it holds a ranking, even after it stopped contributing to the business. This is simply sunk cost fear, losing a number that used to matter. If a page isn't earning its keep, its traffic history isn't a reason to save it.

Not sure whether your key pages have a traffic problem, trust problem, conversion problem, or overlap problem?

Check out our free, no-obligation site check . We’ll help identify the first few pages most likely to have refresh upside and show you whether they need a light update or heavier revision.

What's the Difference Between a Content Refresh and a Rewrite?

A content refresh improves a page that still has a useful foundation. A rewrite replaces most of the existing content because the page’s structure, intent, argument, or coverage no longer does the job.

Refresh a page when the core topic and search intent are still right, but parts of it have become outdated, incomplete, or less competitive. Rewrite it when fixing the page would mean rebuilding most of the answer from scratch.

The simplest difference is how much of the existing page is still worth protecting.

A useful rule of thumb: if you can clearly identify what should stay before you start, you probably need a refresh. If almost every major section needs replacing, treat it as a rewrite.

For an important or high-business-potential page, you can should make that decision more systematically.

For instance, you can measure the content quality of your pages using our 5-factor framework. If it performs poorly across core areas such as contextual understanding, credibility and freshness, or uniqueness and value-add, a targeted refresh may not go far enough. So, the page likely needs a heavy revision or full redo instead.

How AI Search Changes Refresh Priorities

Updating for AI search means making the page clearer, more current, more trustworthy, and easier to understand outside the context of the full page.

In practice, this changes the emphasis of a refresh more than the fundamentals.

Make important answers and natural follow-up questions easier to find, especially when AI systems expand the original query into related sub-questions.
Keep sections interpretable on their own, not just in full-page context
Support factual claims with current, credible sources
Use specific entities, examples, and terminology instead of vague generalities
Improve structure where comparisons, definitions, or decision points need to be clearer

This is where section-level clarity takes priority. A refreshed page should still make sense when someone lands on one section instead of reading from the top.

The idea is not new. Nielsen Norman Group has been teaching section-level chunking for many years because it helps readers understand information in smaller, self-contained pieces. AI search has simply made that discipline more important. When answers are extracted, summarized, cited, or linked from outside the full-page context, each section needs enough clarity to stand on its own.

But it's important to note that none of this guarantees inclusion in an AI Overview, ChatGPT, or any other answer engine. AI search is just another audience reading the same page you already improved for readers.

Why a Ranking Page Can Still Need a Refresh

A page can rank for the right query and still stop doing its job.

Ranking means the page is still visible. But it doesn't mean the page is still persuasive. The page may answer the search query, but no longer give readers enough confidence to take the next step or explore other pages on your site.

A few things cause this:

Old testimonials weaken trust
Dated case studies make the page feel less current
Generic calls to action may no longer match what the reader needs before they act. HubSpot found that personalized calls to action performed 202% better than basic CTAs after analyzing more than 330,000 CTAs over six months.
Stale screenshots and examples make the offer feel outdated
Competitors show stronger proof or clearer positioning
Internal links send readers to the wrong next page, or nowhere at all

A service or product page can still rank for a valuable query while its case studies go stale, its proof no longer reflects the current offer, or its CTA simply says "Contact us."

Good refresh work looks at visibility and conversions together. Judge a page by qualified traffic, leads, sales, signups, and enquiries. Rankings are one signal among several.

Example from our own refresh work: as mentioned in the intro, one high-ticket service client saw contact-form conversions rise 286% after we refreshed existing pages instead of publishing new ones. The lift came from improving what those pages were missing: building trust, supporting the offer, and moving readers toward the next step. We break it down further in our case study .

How Often Should You Refresh Old Content?

There’s no universal refresh schedule, but many teams use review cadences like the following as a practical operating rhythm.

The right update schedule depends on topic changes, search competition, business value, and if organic SEO performance is dropping. More competitive keywords often decay faster, since more sites are actively updating content to compete for the same query.

Freshness also matters when the query itself has a time-sensitive angle. Google has multiple query-deserves-freshness systems designed to show fresher content when current information is expected. That does not mean every page needs constant updates. But it does mean pages about fast-moving products, tools, pricing, recommendations, or reviews should be checked more often because stale examples, old screenshots, dated recommendations, and expired data can make them less competitive when freshness is part of the intent.

Commercial pages deserve regular review because offers, proof, competitors, and buyer expectations all shift over time. Evergreen guides can usually go longer between reviews, but they still need a check whenever rankings, clicks, conversions, or search expectations shift. Larger sites with 100+ content pages also benefit from periodic mini-audits, especially when commercial pages depend on supporting content underneath them.

As a general guide, tie refresh cadence to where the page sits in the journey:

Decision and commercial pages (BoFu): every 3 months, or sooner when offers, proof, or positioning change
Consideration content (MoFu): every 3–6 months
Evergreen and awareness content (ToFu): every 6–12 months, or when performance slips
Large libraries: recurring mini-audits to surface the pages with the strongest upside

Update because something meaningful changed.

How to Tell If a Content Refresh Worked

A content refresh worked if the page improves against the reason it was refreshed. Judge the result against the original problem, rather than whichever metric happens to move. A page refreshed for weak conversions succeeds on lead lift even if rankings stay flat.

Match the performance metric to the goal:

Visibility: Track search impressions and rankings. Use clicks and click-through rate to see whether that visibility is producing visits.
User engagement: Track scroll depth and onward clicks. Interpret bounce rate and CTA interaction against the page’s purpose and previous performance.
Conversion: Track CTA clicks and form submissions. Use assisted conversions and lead quality to judge downstream value.
Consolidation: Look for one stronger page taking clearer ownership of the intended queries instead of two URLs competing for them.
AI visibility: Check whether the page is mentioned or cited in relevant answers. Track whether it appears for the prompts that matter to the topic.

Search performance only tells part of the story. A refreshed page should also help readers complete the next useful task. That may mean comparing their options, moving to a relevant service page, or submitting an enquiry.

Not every refresh is chasing a conversion. Some pages exist to shape how a brand appears in search and AI answers. That includes the language used to describe it, the context it appears in, and whether the page becomes a cited source.

A refresh that improves the metric tied to its original problem has done its job.

Use 30, 60, and 90 days as general checkpoints. User experience and conversion changes may appear sooner. Search improvements can take longer depending on crawl frequency and competition.

If nothing meaningful improves by those checkpoints, revisit the diagnosis. Do not assume the page simply needs more time.

When to Get Help With Content Refreshes

Some refresh work is safe to handle internally. Broken links, outdated screenshots, old statistics, minor formatting issues, and small wording fixes do not need a deep strategic process.

Expert help becomes more useful when the page still has value, but the problem is not obvious. A page with rankings, backlinks, conversions, commercial relevance, or an important role in the wider site can be easy to damage if the wrong thing gets changed.

The risk is not that an internal team cannot edit the page. The risk is that the edit weakens something that was still working, or treats the page as a copy problem when the real issue is intent, proof, overlap, internal linking, or the page’s role in the buyer journey.

8-Bit Content helps identify the pages with the strongest refresh upside, then updates the page so the copy, structure, proof, internal links, and next step match the job it needs to do.

Choose the Right Next Step

A content refresh strategy only works when the next action matches the page’s actual problem.

Use one of these three paths depending on what you need to decide next.

1. Run a full content audit

Use this when you need to review a large content library, compare page performance, spot decay patterns, and prioritise updates across dozens or hundreds of URLs.

Start by asking:

Which pages should we update first?
Which pages should we consolidate or retire?
Which pages are losing traffic, leads, or strategic value?
Where are we wasting crawl budget or maintenance effort?

Read our full guide if you'd like to know how to do a full content audit yourself.

2. Score one important page

Use this when one page matters, but you are not sure whether it needs a light update, heavy revision, or full rewrite.

Review your priority pages while asking yourself these key questions:

Does this page still satisfy the search intent?
Is the page credible, useful, and fresh enough?
Does it add anything competitors do not?
Does the page structure offer a great user experience?
Does it guide readers to the right next step?

Use our content quality assessment framework to score the page before you rewrite it.

3. Get help refreshing priority pages

Use this when you already know which pages matter, but need help turning them into stronger search, AI, and conversion assets.

Start here if you need help with:

Reworking structure and search intent alignment
Updating old examples, claims, and sources
Adding missing proof, expertise, and internal links
Improving CTAs and next-step guidance
Refreshing pages without losing the value they already have

Book a free site check and we’ll help identify which pages deserve attention first.

Content Refresh Strategy FAQ

Should you refresh content or create new content?

Refresh when the page already has search history, backlinks, or relevance worth preserving. Create new content when the topic, intent, or audience need is different enough that an existing page can't reasonably stretch to cover it, and a new page would strengthen your topic cluster.

What is information gain, and why does it matter for a refresh?

Information gain is the practical idea of adding something useful beyond what already ranks: a new example, original data point, expert judgment, screenshot, framework, or implementation lesson.

Google has patents related to estimating information gain , and its current guidance also encourages unique, non-commodity content. So even if you treat information gain as an editorial standard rather than a confirmed ranking lever, it is still one of the best ways to make a refresh more valuable.

Do you need to change the URL when refreshing a page?

No, in almost all cases, you should not change the URL when refreshing a page. Keep the existing URL whenever possible. It's already carrying backlinks, indexation, and ranking history you don't want to lose. Redirect the URL only when you're consolidating it into another page.

How do you use Google Analytics and Search Console data to choose which pages to refresh?

Google Search Console shows the pages losing impressions, clicks, or ranking position over time. Analytics shows which of those pages are still getting traffic but converting or engaging worse than before.

Cross-referencing both turns page selection into a data decision instead of a guess. Our content audit guide walks through the specific reports and engagement metrics to pull.

Can a content refresh hurt your rankings?

A content refresh can hurt your rankings if the refresh changes the page's core topic or intent too abruptly, or removes content that was already ranking well for secondary queries. A staged rollout and before/after tracking reduce that risk.

Is it safe to use AI to help refresh content?

Yes, AI can help with a content refresh, but it should not be the refresh. Google’s quality guidance focuses on whether the page shows useful effort, originality, accuracy, and value for readers.

So an AI-assisted refresh is fine when it helps you improve the page. A refresh that only paraphrases what is already ranking, without new proof, examples, or judgment, is unlikely to make the page meaningfully stronger.

Should I change the publish date after a content refresh?

Usually, keep the original publication date and add a separate “Last updated” date when you make substantial changes to the page.

Do not change the date for minor edits or simply to make an old page look fresh. If your content management system supports both fields, keep the original publication date and record the meaningful refresh in the updated date. Keep those visible dates consistent with your datePublished and dateModified structured data.

Refresh the Pages That Already Have Value

A good refresh protects the pages you have already paid to build. An older page has often done the hard part already: it earned links, got indexed, and found a place in your topic.

That is why the decision matters. The wrong refresh wastes time. The right one protects the page’s existing value and gives it a better chance of contributing again.

Start with a free site check. We’ll review your live pages, identify where refresh work is most likely to produce meaningful upside, and show you which pages deserve action before you spend time updating the wrong thing.

Get your free site check!

How To Measure Content Quality: 5-Factor Framework (+ Checklist)

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:04:29 GMT

How to Measure Content Quality: An Effective 5-Factor Framework

Great content does more than answer a reader's questions. It also gives them context to trust the answers and direction to act on what they learn.

This guide introduces a logic-based 5-factor framework for assessing content quality so you can improve the page where it matters most. It helps you see whether a page earns trust and gives readers enough value to stay engaged.

Here’s what you’ll get:

The 5 factors that drive content quality
A 0–15 point scoring system to assess pages quickly
Practical checklists for each factor
Advice on how to prioritize improvements
A rough timeline for seeing results

This framework sits between our guide on how to do a content audit and our guide to building a content refresh strategy . Use a content audit to prioritize pages across your site. Use the refresh strategy guide to diagnose what the page lost and decide how much intervention it needs. Then use this framework to assess the quality of each priority page in more detail.

You can also download the Content Quality Assessment Checklist below to apply the same framework in a practical, repeatable way.

How To Use This Guide

Start with the quick-start breakdown for the fast version. Use How To Score A Page and What Your Score Means when you are assessing a specific page. Use the five factor sections when you already know a page is weak and need to diagnose what to fix first.

Disclaimer: We'll explore AI optimization in this article, but it's far too new to claim expertise or mastery. So, that's not the framing or positioning here.

We simply wish to share a content framework that works for our clients and may be helpful for you. It uses tried and true content marketing fundamentals and adapts and integrates new AI tactics from trusted industry sources working at the forefront of AI search.

And since this field is evolving rapidly, we'll continue testing and refining our approach with curiosity and an open mind.

What Determines Content Quality?

Content quality is subjective, but a good page should satisfy the right reader’s needs with clear, trustworthy information.

This framework is for marketers, SEO teams, founders, and content leads responsible for deciding whether a page deserves more investment and what level of intervention it needs. Score each page across five factors for a total out of 15, then use the final score to choose the right action.

Strong content usually does five things well:

It matches intent . We call this contextual understanding to determine whether the page answers the main query quickly and covers the follow-up questions a reader is likely to ask next.
It earns trust . This is credibility and freshness: the content earns trust through current evidence and clear authorship.
It is easy to use, also known as a great user experience : the page structure helps readers stay engaged and find answers without working too hard.
It adds something original . This is uniqueness and value-add : the page includes experience, examples, data, opinions, or frameworks that competitors cannot easily copy, giving readers something genuinely useful.
It gives the reader direction . We refer to this as guidance : the content makes a useful next step clear when the reader actually needs one.

Use the framework below to score one priority page, find the weakest factor, and decide what to fix first.

The 5-Factor Scorecard

How to Score a Page

Use this framework to assess one page at a time. The score measures the quality of what’s on the page while performance metrics show what happens after people find and use it:

Choose a page that matters to your business or is underperforming in search.
Score each of the five factors from 0 to 3 for a total out of 15.
Use the final score to decide how much intervention the page needs, from rebuilding weak content to extending the reach of strong content.

For the fastest wins, start with pages that already show traction but have one clear weakness holding them back.

If the page is worth saving but the right fix is unclear, use our content refresh strategy guide to diagnose what changed before choosing the intervention.

What Your Score Means

Map The Main Query And Follow-Ups (Contextual Understanding)

Search has shifted from target keyword matching to understanding complete user intent. Your content must address your audience's primary question AND the logical follow-up questions they'll explore next. That's because of the query fan-out technique .

What Query Fan-Out Means For Your Content

AI search uses query fan-out techniques which immediately generate dozens of related 'subtopic' searches from a single query.

These systems expand the query landscape by using context to infer what a searcher is likely to need next.

Key Takeaway: Your content must address the primary query AND logical follow-up questions specific target users will likely want to explore next.

Map Follow-Up Questions

To make your content more useful for both readers and AI-assisted search, map the user journey and anticipate the follow-up questions people are likely to ask next. This means thinking beyond the single query to address the logical next steps users will want to take throughout their entire decision-making process. Proactively addressing these relevant content connections ensures complete coverage.

For example, someone assessing content quality will likely also want to know which pages matter most before deciding where to invest their time and resources.

Practical Tip: Map out 5-7 related questions users may ask after consuming your main topic. Use tools that uncover real follow-up questions like AlsoAsked , then prioritize paths people engage with (like on subreddits and facebook groups) rather than collecting every possible branch.

Account For Audience Behaviour

Search systems can use behavioural signals to shape results when context suggests that different readers need different answers such as beginner versus expert, mobile versus desktop, or research versus decision-stage needs.

Action Item: Focus your content on what your target users actually need.

Ask yourself: "Would your ideal customer find this useful enough to return to when the same problem comes up?"
Our job as content creators is to encourage these positive user behaviours that signal value to both users and AI systems. This focus helps you decide how much depth a reader needs and which format will make the answer easiest to use.

Scoring: "Does your content address the user's primary question plus their likely follow-up questions?"

Quick assessment checklist:

□ Intent mismatch - Your content doesn't address the core user problem or skips follow-up angles users will want to explore

□ Buried answers - Main answer not in first 1-2 paragraphs, missing or unclear TL;DR

□ Incomplete coverage - Doesn't address related FAQs, PAA terms, or relevant keyword variants that users expect

□ Shallow depth - Less comprehensive than top competitors on the SERP, missing key subtopics

□ Missing context variations - No consideration of user circumstances, experience levels, or consumption contexts (mobile vs desktop, beginner vs expert)

□ Weak content relationships - No explanation of how the topic relates to broader concepts, prerequisites, or next-step implications

Scoring : 0 issues = 3 points | 1-2 issues = 2 points | 3-4 issues = 1 point | 5-6 issues = 0 points

(Please make note of the Scoring Guide above!)

Helpful Tools To Assess Contextual Understanding

Google Search Console (GSC) (Free) : Lets you see which queries already earn visibility and compare impressions, clicks, and positions before deciding where coverage needs work. The goal is to have at least 15+ relevant queries per page (with high impressions and in high positions).

AlsoAsked (Freemium) : A valuable tool that shows you likely follow-up questions users ask. And because it uses a mind map style design (although they all do, since AnswerThePublic), it's great for spotting missing coverage areas and understanding the full search query landscape.

Frase (Paid) : An NLP content optimization tool that surfaces PAA questions and scrapes real questions from Reddit and Quora, giving you one place to spot missing follow-up coverage. This way you can get a full view of the subtopics your target audience may want to know as you create.

Quick test: Ask your preferred large language model what follow-up questions a reader may have after your content. The gaps they identify show where your coverage needs work. We've been also been experimenting with the follow up questions provided by Perplexity as a source.

Content gap analysis : Search your main topics on conversational AI platforms. Note what information appears that you haven't covered. This reveals content opportunities your traditional keyword research might miss. But we'll get into this more a in the 'Which Criteria Will Deliver the Fastest Results?' section below. With a full video walkthrough on how to set up your own free analysis thanks to a senior SEO at TripAdvisor.

How To Apply Contextual Understanding

Before creating: Define your target audience's core query and analyze 3-5 competing content pieces for gaps. Seek out at least 5-7 highly relevant subtopic ideas your user will likely also want to know.

During creation: Write clear, engaging, and conversational titles that match the style user may search. Place critical information under each header. And be sure to address sub-intents, common PAA questions, and contextual variations.

Success benchmark: When users (or AI agents) can find everything they need without additional searches. And you're visible for at least 10-15+ related long-tail queries beyond your primary keyword.

Use Fresh Sources And Clear Authorship (Credibility And Freshness)

Your content needs to earn trust from readers. Clear sourcing and evidence can also make its claims easier for AI-assisted search systems to evaluate and reuse.

What Makes Content Credible

Content earns trust when its evidence is current and its authority is easy to verify. Well-supported claims may also be easier for AI-assisted search systems to surface or cite when they are relevant to a query.

This includes:

E-E-A-T signals that build trust with users and search algorithms
Clear attribution and current information from well-sourced content
Expert bylines and credentials

Key Principle: Combine your own testing with credible external evidence, prioritizing sources with the strongest authority for the claim.

Show External Validation

Not really an on-page factor but critical to note: external validation from third party links and mentions of your brand can reinforce whether search and AI-assisted discovery systems see a source as credible.

Content quality and engagement signals alone aren't always enough. As with traditional search, external recognition (links, mentions) can reinforce broader trust signals. This is especially true in competitive niches and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) industries , which may influence which sources search and AI-assisted systems surface.

Strategic approach: Aim for steady growth in referring domains and branded mentions. Track this through SEO tools like Ahrefs Webmasters Tool or SEOUtils for backlink analysis.

And set up Google Alerts for your brand name plus "according to" or "research from" to catch instances when other websites or AI systems cite your brand or content.

Key insight: Monitor these mentions as a new form of brand visibility measurement. They can show where AI platforms already associate your brand with a topic.

Make Each Section Clear Enough To Stand Alone

Each section should make sense even when a reader, search engine, or AI-assisted search system encounters it out of context.

That means each section should make its subject and claim clear enough to understand without relying on surrounding text. Do not make readers search elsewhere on the page to identify the subject or understand why a claim is credible.

Use this checklist when editing each section:

Name entities clearly . Write “Apple Inc. (technology company)” when the context could be confused with another meaning of “Apple.” Add enough identifying detail to distinguish an entity when the surrounding context would otherwise leave it ambiguous.
Use actor-action-object sentences. Write “ Our content update services increased client leads by 286% ” instead of “Client leads were increased through content updates.”
Keep evidence beside the claim. Keep the strongest supporting evidence beside the claim so readers can verify it without breaking their flow. Google and Bing both point to clear sourcing and evidence as ways to make claims easier to understand and trust.
Use the phrases your audience actually uses when they clarify meaning, not simply to create keyword variation. Like “customer retention” and “reducing churn.”

This does not mean repeating keywords or over-explaining every sentence. It means making each section specific enough to stand on its own without depending on the rest of the page.

Add Relevant Structured Data

Use structured data strategically . Match structured data to the content type: use FAQPage for genuine question sections, HowTo for real processes, and Article for editorial pages. And interlink related entities using consistent phrasing (anchor texts) across pages.

Action step: Use consistent phrasing sitewide when inconsistent naming would make an entity harder for search platforms to recognize.

Scoring: "Can a reader verify the content and trust that its evidence is current?"

Quick assessment checklist:

□ Lacks current data - Stats over 12 months old; missing 2024-25 events or trends

□ Claims without proper citation - Stats or strong assertions with no source link

□ Unclear authorship - Means no byline or author bio for readers to easily verify who created the content or why they are qualified to cover the topic.

□ Outdated tools or examples - References deprecated methods or dated screenshots/UI

□ Lacks human verification - When generic advice gives readers no evidence of editorial judgment or first-hand scrutiny.

Scoring : Start at 3 points, then deduct a point after the first, third, and fifth issue.

Tools To Assess Credibility And Freshness

Google Fact Check Explorer (Free) : Cross-check controversial or technical statements against credible outlets. A great, underused tool we also use in our executive online reputation management service .

PubMed or Semantic Scholar (Free): Find peer-reviewed studies for citations. Academic sources outweigh blog content for authority signals.

Ahrefs Webmasters Tool (Free) : Detect outdated or broken links on your website. Because broken links can damage user experience and 'credibility scores'.

Your CMS plugin directory: Search for schema markup plugins specific to your platform. Some CMS like Duda does this automatically. While WordPress users should try Schema Pro or RankMath. These help automate structured data without requiring coding knowledge.

Write with confidence: Replace tentative language with direct statements backed by evidence. Change "many businesses find" to an exact linked stat like "73% of surveyed businesses report."
Aim to remove unnecessary qualifiers from factual claims when the evidence supports a more direct statement. But for regulated industries, lead with the direct answer, then add disclaimers. And be sure to actually fact-check what you declare - your brand and even AI training data depends on it.

How To Apply Credibility And Freshness

Before writing: Prioritize recent evidence and choose sources for their authority on the specific claim, not their domain suffix. On average, plan to include 3-5 high-quality sources.

During creation: Link every major claim to supporting data. Use phrasing like "we found that" to separate fact from interpretation. Include author credentials and transparent methodology wherever appropriate.

Success benchmark: Every major claim has supporting evidence from multiple reliable sources. Your content cites recent data and includes clear author credentials.

Make The Page Easy To Scan (User Experience)

Strong content should make its main answer easy to find and understand. Readers should quickly find the main answer and move through only the sections that matter to them.

The authority of user experience, Nielsen Norman Group research has consistently found that people tend to scan online content instead of reading every word. They rely on strong visual and structural cues like descriptive headings, summaries, lists, bolded text to decide which parts of a page deserve their attention.

Core goal: Reduce the effort readers and search crawlers need to understand and use the page.

Keep Sections Focused And Scannable

Aim for roughly 100–300 words under each heading as a practical editing guideline.

The exact length should follow the reader’s need. A simple definition may need two sentences. A detailed comparison should use as much space and structure as the decision actually requires.

Give each section one clear job. It might answer a question or help the reader make a decision, but it should not try to do both at once.

Start a new section when:

The reader moves to a different question.
The topic or task changes.
You introduce a different audience or use case.
The page moves from explanation to implementation.
The section becomes difficult to summarise in one sentence.

Start each section with its clearest answer or takeaway. Then add only the context the reader needs to use that answer with confidence.

Use paragraphs of two to four sentences where possible. Longer paragraphs can work when the idea requires them, but dense blocks of text make useful information harder to find.

Quick test: Can you explain the purpose of the section in one sentence? Split it when the answer contains two separate ideas.

Write Headings Readers Can Scan

Headings should tell readers what each section contains. Descriptive headings let people scan the page and move directly to the information that supports their task.

Nielsen Norman Group calls this the layer-cake scanning pattern. Readers move through the headings first, then stop to read the sections that appear relevant. The pattern works when headings stand out visually and accurately summarise the text below them.

Use question-style headings when they reflect how readers naturally ask about the topic. Use statement-style headings when they communicate the takeaway more clearly.

For example:

Question: How Often Should You Refresh Old Content?
Statement: Refresh High-Value Pages Before Low-Traffic Posts
Instruction: Compare Performance Before And After The Update

Avoid vague headings like “Learn More” or “Key Considerations” because they hide what the section covers. Readers should understand the section without reading the paragraph below it first.

Quick test: Read only the H2 and H3 headings. Do they communicate the page’s main argument and help you find a specific answer?

Use Different Formats When They Help

Choose the format that makes the information easiest to understand.

Use:

Bullet points for related items.
Numbered lists for steps or sequences.
Tables for comparisons and decision criteria.
Callout boxes for warnings, examples, or key takeaways.
Diagrams for processes and relationships.
Screenshots for interfaces or visual instructions.
Short videos when movement or demonstration matters.

Useful formatting should reduce reading effort by making the structure and most important information easier to spot.

Add a format because it reduces reading effort or explains something better. A fixed visual cadence can add clutter when the content does not need another format to explain the point.

Make visuals useful and accessible. Add descriptive captions where they provide context. Use appropriate alt text for every image so people using assistive technology and search crawlers can understand what the visual adds to the page.

Scoring: "How easily can readers find, understand, and use the content on desktop and mobile?"

Quick assessment checklist:

□ Poor content structure: Readers work harder when the page buries its hierarchy or asks one section to do too much.

□ Mobile or visual issues: Flag anything that makes the page difficult to read or use without zooming on a phone: small text, weak contrast, overflowing tables, unreadable screenshots, or layouts that require zooming.

□ Poor readability: Flag writing that makes readers decode the prose before they can understand the idea: unexplained technical terms, or unnecessary jargon.

□ Missing visual support: Flag a complex process or comparison when text alone makes the information harder to understand.

□ Lacks helpful elements: A long or complex page needs support that helps readers orient themselves or complete the task without unnecessary effort.

□ Missing engagement support: An interactive element is worth adding only when it materially reduces effort or helps the reader complete the task.

Scoring: 0-2 issues = 3 points | 3-4 issues = 2 points | 5 issues = 1 point | 6 issues = 0 points

Interactive elements are not a requirement for every page. Record an issue only when the missing element would clearly improve the reader’s ability to understand the content or complete a task.

Tools To Assess User Experience

Hemingway Editor (Free) : This free tool simplifies your writing for better content readability.
In fact, this tool, combined with reading Rudolf Flesch's 1946 classic The Art of Plain Talk , made me a better writer and a better person. For most business content, we use a Grade 9–11 reading level as a directional editing benchmark. The right level still depends on the audience, subject, and purpose. Use it to identify sections where the writing is difficult enough to interrupt comprehension.

Microsoft Clarity (Free) : Watch how users scroll, click, and navigate. Spot where behaviour suggests the page is creating friction for readers. You can use it to monitor scroll depth. Compare scroll depth with similar pages on your site. We often use 60% as a directional benchmark for long-form content, but page length, intent, and traffic quality can change what good performance looks like.

PageSpeed Insights (Free) : Monitor load times. Use it to identify mobile loading problems that delay access to the main content or interrupt reading.

Mobile review: Check the page on a real mobile device. Review the mobile page for readability and interaction problems, especially forms or tap targets that become difficult to use.

Headings-only test: Read the H2 and H3 set without the body copy. Confirm that the page’s structure and main argument still make sense.

Quick test: Can someone scan your page and understand the main points in 30 seconds? If not, add clearer headings or summary sections.

How To Apply User Experience

Before writing: Organise the outline around the reader’s questions and decision sequence. Give each section one clear purpose.
During creation: Lead with the answer. Use structure to reduce reading effort, with each section organized around the reader’s immediate need.
Before publishing: Review the page on desktop and mobile. Check the finished page for anything that makes content harder to read or navigate across desktop and mobile.
Success benchmark: A reader can scan the headings and understand the page’s main points. They can locate the answer they need without reading every section or struggling with the layout.

Add Proof AI Cannot Copy (Uniqueness And Value-Add)

First-hand expertise strengthens the page because it adds evidence and judgment that generic synthesis cannot reproduce credibly.

Your unique perspective and real-world experience are harder for AI systems to reproduce from existing content alone. LLM platforms can summarize existing material, but human expertise can show what the evidence means in practice.

Use Lived Experience And First-Party Proof

Your strongest advantage against AI synthesis is evidence that comes from work or knowledge competitors cannot reproduce. Information that is unavailable elsewhere adds value because it gives readers insights, perspectives, or data they cannot get from other sources.

Prioritize what you can offer that AI cannot create from existing content:

First-hand testing results,
Conditional recommendations based on specific scenarios,
Cross-industry insights that require human judgment,
And real-world application examples.

Include original research or contextual advice drawn from a market position competitors cannot reproduce.

Key principle: This unique value-add becomes your content strategy's competitive moat against AI synthesis. Your unique perspective and real-world experience cannot be replicated by AI systems trained on existing content.

Strategic advantage: Focus on experiential knowledge that comes from doing the work, especially where experience changes the decision or exposes a practical constraint. These human elements provide the authenticity and depth that LLMs cannot manufacture.

Implementation: Document the parts of your process where real outcomes changed your approach, then show the conditions that shaped the decision. Make your expertise tangible through concrete details rather than general principles.

Scoring: "Does your content offer distinct value and demonstrate expertise in ways AI cannot easily replicate?"

Quick assessment checklist:

□ No distinct viewpoint - Feels like AI-generated content or a stylistic copy of existing content without original perspective.

□ Lacks testing or evidence - Recommendations have no practical proof or limits.

□ Missing nuanced judgment - Recommendations ignore tradeoffs or when the right answer changes.

□ Single-discipline focus - Stuck in one lens (SEO-only) without cross-industry insights or broader business considerations.

□ No human author presence - Missing clear evidence that the advice comes from a named person with relevant experience with "we found that" language grounding the advice.

Scoring : Scoring: Start at 3 points and deduct one point for each issue until the score reaches zero.

Tools To Assess Uniqueness And Value-Add

Comparison test: Compare your draft to the top 3 ranking pages. What perspective, data, or experience do you offer that they don't? Add personal commentary or proprietary insights if you can't identify clear differences.

Grammarly or ProWritingAid : Polish grammar and style without losing your unique voice. Because beneath all these factors, clean writing helps originality shine through. To help you along the way be sure to check out our copyediting process guide .

Quetext : Verify originality against existing content. Avoid accidentally duplicating competitor insights.

Validate with academic research. Find relevant, authoritative research to reference from sites like Base-Search.net to support your content. And include phrases like "Recent studies indicate..." or "Research from [institution] confirms..." when making claims about user behaviour or search patterns.

How To Add Unique Value

Before writing: Ask yourself what makes your content irreplaceable? Include original data from your experiments, client work, or testing results. Plan expert-level analysis around the tradeoffs that change what you would recommend in different situations. Add author credentials that validate expertise for your specific topic.

During creation: Use language like "We found that..." or "In our testing..." to ground advice in actual implementation. Share specific results, failure points, and lessons learned. Include conditional advice like "best for teams under 50" or "avoid if budget is limited."

Success benchmark: Readers get insights they can't find elsewhere. Meaning, your content gives readers evidence or judgment they cannot get from competing pages, whether it comes from your own work or overlooked research.

Guide Readers To The Next Step (Guidance)

Strategic guidance and customized calls to action (CTAs) aligned with user intent converts 42% more visitors than generic "contact us" CTAs. So naturally, your content should create a natural progression from information consumption to meaningful action.

Search platforms innately want users to keep coming back. And like traditional Google search, conversational systems tends to favor content that resolves the query while making genuinely useful follow-up paths easy to find.

Core insight: Conversational AI favours content that anticipates user needs and provides clear pathways forward because it leads to higher user satisfaction.

Align CTAs With User Awareness Stages

Match your calls-to-action to the general awareness stage of the content's core topic:

Problem-aware users need educational resources.
Solution-aware users want templates, demos or consultations.
Decision-ready users need pricing and implementation details.

Quick framework: Ask "What would someone naturally want to do next after reading this?" and design your guidance around that answer.

Scoring: "Does your content guide users toward a relevant next step or conversion opportunity?"

Quick assessment checklist:

□ No clear next step - The page gives readers no obvious way to continue when further action would be useful.

□ Fails to anticipate user needs - Recommendations ignore constraints that materially change the advice, such as available time or technical capability.

□ Misaligned content depth - Advanced content without context for beginners, or oversimplified content for expert audiences.

□ Generic advice without options - The recommendation never shows when a different reader type should choose a different path.

□ Missing decision support - Readers get no framework or resource that helps them compare options and choose.

Scoring : Start at 3 points and deduct one point as guidance problems accumulate, reaching zero when four issues are present.

Tools To Assess Guidance

Google Analytics 4 (Free) : Track CTA clicks with event tracking. And measure internal click-through rates - aiming for around 25% clicks to related content. You'll be able to see where users engage and where they drop off. (It's a pain to set up and has a steep learning curve but it's a 'necessary evil' for all websites.)

HubSpot (Freemium) : A good starter CRM to monitor lead generation. Let's you connect content performance to actual business results.

ConvertBox (Paid) : A/B test and deploy journey-aligned, behavior-triggered CTAs that match user intent and reading patterns. Plus it's cheaper than alternatives like Unbounce, and as of writing this, they have a lifetime deal.

CTA alignment test: Match your calls-to-action to reader awareness stages:
Problem-aware users need educational resources.
Solution-aware users want demos or consultations.

How To Improve Guidance

Before writing: Define the reader’s awareness stage so your guidance matches their decision readiness. Map the objections that could prevent the reader from taking the next useful step. Plan resources only when they reduce friction in the reader’s next decision.

During creation: Match each CTA to the reader’s awareness stage rather than rotating through generic conversion prompts. Address objections where they arise instead of defaulting to an FAQ. End with a descriptive "What's next?" direction that links to follow-up action or related content.

Success benchmark: Each CTA feels like the logical next step based on the high-quality content users just consumed. Readers know exactly what to do next without confusion or friction.

When To Keep Or Split Subtopics?

Comprehensive single pages can work well when related subtopics support the same user intent and the page remains easy to use.

Or at least that's what the man at the forefront of understanding AI search , Michael King said when I asked him. And it does make sense, given energy constraints, that such query fan-out techniques prefer one robust page over many smaller ones.

Keep Subtopics On The Page When...

Related subtopics support the main query (even if individually searchable)
User journey flows naturally from topic to subtopic
Combined content stays under 6,000 words
Subtopics answer logical follow-up questions

This approach captures more synthetic queries on one optimized page.

Split Subtopics Into New Pages When...

Subtopics serve different user intents or funnel stages
An individual subtopic needs around 700-1,000 words
Page length hurts user experience (over 6,000 words total - having said that, there are exceptions like our guides on content audits and SEO for higher education - they're a bit much but they're a labor of love)
Search data shows strong demand for standalone topics

Link Related Pages With Clear Anchor Text

You can connect related content for AI systems with internal links that map relationships between concepts, not just navigation paths.

Use descriptive anchor text that explains the relationship between pages instead of relying on generic navigation language. Replace 'click here' with phrases like 'learn how to avoid fluff content ' or 'the difference between content marketing vs SEO .'"

Create content clusters around core topics. Use hub pages for broader topics or commercial offers, then use spoke pages to answer specific supporting questions. Link them with descriptive anchor text so readers and search systems can understand how the pages relate.

For example, this article links to our Content Update Services page as the commercial hub. It also connects to our guides on how to do a content audit and content refresh strategy which cover broader audit strategy and links back to this framework for page-level quality assessment.

This way, our commercial hub page gets linked from multiple highly relevant mid-funnel supporting pages that are also helpful for users and provide a glimpse into our processes.

How to Test This Approach

Check your rankings for related queries. If multiple pages compete for similar terms (cannibalizing), consolidate them. If one comprehensive page ranks for dozens of related searches, you've found the sweet spot.

But keep in mind, as conversational search has grown, ranking position tells only part of the visibility story. And with passage-level retrieval techniques, we'll need to see if cannibalization is still a thing.

Bottom line: Start with comprehensive coverage on single pages. Split only when user experience or intent clearly demands it.

To apply this decision to your own page, download the content quality checklist and score whether each subtopic should stay, split, or link to a supporting page.

Which Fixes Deliver The Fastest Results?

So, which pages should you prioritize first and for how long?

Which Pages To Fix First

Focus on revenue-driving pages before traffic-building content. Prioritize pages closest to revenue because improvements there have the clearest path to business impact.

Priority 1: Service pages, product descriptions, homepage (ideally, weeks 1-4)
Priority 2: Resource guides linked to offers, comparison pages (weeks 5-8)
Priority 3: Blog posts and educational content (weeks 9-12)

The Fastest Fixes By Factor

Start with pages scoring 8–11 points . These pages usually have enough value to keep, so focus the update on the factor creating the biggest reader gap.

For each page, fix the factor creating the biggest gap between what the reader needs and what the page currently delivers.

Contextual understanding

Use this factor when the page misses the searcher’s real question or buries the answer too deep.

Add a direct answer in the first 1–2 paragraphs.
Add missing follow-up questions that readers naturally ask next.
Rewrite headings so they match real searcher questions.
Add beginner, intermediate, or advanced context when the advice only fits one reader type.

Credibility and freshness

Use this factor when the page makes claims but gives readers little reason to trust them.

Update dated evidence and examples when they make the page look less trustworthy or current.
Add credible external sources for factual claims.
Add author details, reviewer details, or relevant experience signals.
Replace vague claims with specific proof, examples, or dates.

User experience

Use this factor when the page has useful information but feels hard to read or navigate.

Move the main answer higher on the page.
Break long sections into shorter paragraphs, bullets, or tables.
Add a table of contents for long guides.
Cut repeated sections, filler intros, and generic explanations.

Uniqueness and value-add

Use this factor when the page sounds similar to every other result on the topic.

Add first-hand evidence that shows how the work changes your recommendation in practice.
Include a useful comparison that competitors do not explain clearly.
Name a tradeoff, limitation, or situation where the advice does not apply.
Add original data, expert input, or a practical framework readers can use.

Guidance

Use this factor when the page answers the question but leaves the reader unsure what to do next.

Add a clear next step near the end of each major section.
Link to the most relevant next page in the reader’s journey.
Match the call to action to the reader’s awareness stage.
Summarise what the reader should do before asking them to take action.

How Long Each Content Update Takes

Content quality work takes longer as scope grows, so budget differently for a single page than for a full content library.

Use these estimates for planning, not as fixed delivery times. Page complexity and review requirements matter most because they determine how much analysis and approval the work needs.

New content creation

For new content, budget around 15–20 minutes to check the framework while writing. Then allow 30–60 minutes for a final quality review before publishing.

This timing depends on how complex the page is and how rigorous its editorial review needs to be. A short informational article needs a lighter review than a detailed guide, service page, comparison page, or page making strong factual claims.

You may also be interested in our guide on how long it takes to write 1,000 words .

Existing content optimization

For existing content, use the page’s score to estimate the likely effort.

These ranges help remove ambiguity during planning. A page scoring 8–11 usually needs targeted improvement, while a page scoring 6–7 often needs a deeper rewrite before promotion makes sense.

Methodology note

These estimates are based on our experience managing and updating content across websites with very different publishing models.

Some content programs publish 100+ shorter pages per month , with each page averaging around 2,000 words . Others publish 4–5 highly in-depth guides per month , with each guide averaging around 6,000 words .

That means content quality work needs to be judged case by case. A short article may only need a tighter structure, fresher examples, or clearer internal links. A long-form guide often needs a deeper review because weaknesses in its intent or evidence can affect the entire structure.

Use the timelines below as planning benchmarks, not fixed rules.

Comprehensive audits

For a multi-page audit, expect around 6–8 hours for every 10–15 pages, with extra time for complex pages that carry greater business value.

Prioritize revenue-driving pages first. Then move to supporting content based on how directly it helps readers progress toward a business-relevant decision.

When To Get Professional Help

One strong signal that you’d benefit from professional help is having multiple high-value pages scoring below 8 points. That usually points to a process problem, not just a few weak pages.

A specialized team also brings fresh and objective eyes to content and can complete comprehensive audits and updates faster than internal efforts thanks to proven frameworks and dedicated focus.

How To Find Competitor Content Gaps

Start with your most important business pages, let's say your main service page. Then find your top 2 competitors' equivalent pages. Score all three pages using the 5-factor checklist.

Simple comparison:

Your page: 7 points
Competitor A: 11 points
Competitor B: 9 points

Identify the gap and fix the biggest weakness first. Look at which factor creates the clearest competitive gap, then identify the specific reader benefit behind it before copying any visible tactic.

Focus on those area where both competitors beat you. Get your page to 11+ points, then move to the next priority page.

But don't get lost in the weeds, give yourself 15 minutes per comparison. Because as we've discussed, external factors like brand mentions can also play a substantial role in visibility.

When Results Usually Show Up

Content quality updates usually need several weeks of monitoring before you can judge the outcome.

Google may recrawl updated pages within days or weeks, depending mainly on page importance and technical accessibility. Rankings and AI visibility can also shift because competitors and search systems keep changing what content they surface for different users after you publish.

For 2026, treat AI visibility as a directional signal, not a guaranteed timeline. Test your priority queries after publishing, then monitor the same set throughout each month wherever your buyers actually search and compare information.

Track four signals together:

Whether the page gets crawled and indexed after the update.
Whether impressions and ranking queries improve in Google Search Console.
Whether the page appears for more related long-tail queries.
Whether AI platforms mention, cite, or summarize the page more often over time.

Do not draw conclusions from one test or one prompt. Results can change between checks because user context and the competitive landscape keep moving. Use monthly checks to spot patterns, then refresh the page again when the weakest factor changes.

How To Measure Content Quality Improvements

Traditional metrics like page views don't tell the complete story anymore. You need Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure how well your content serves users in an AI-powered search landscape.

Core Metrics To Track

Focus on metrics that show whether readers find the page useful and whether it is being discovered across search and AI-assisted platforms. Track signals that show whether the page satisfies the reader and is structured clearly enough for retrieval.

Query Diversity Shows Content Coverage

Use query breadth as a directional signal rather than a fixed target. Compare the relevant queries a page earns before and after the update, then look for growth that matches the page’s intended scope. Check Google Search Console Performance reports and filter by page to review all ranking queries.

When your single page captures as many relevant user intents as possible, you've built something valuable for users and AI systems (via the fan-out technique).

A clear section structure can make individual passages easier to retrieve and understand independently.

Sections must offer standalone completeness: Because AI-assisted search may retrieve or cite individual passages rather than relying on the full article, so each H2 or H3 section should make sense without surrounding context.

User Behaviour Reveals Content Value

Use your own site as the baseline. For long-form content, we often use 50-60% scroll depth as a directional benchmark, but page length and traffic quality can change what good performance looks like. Compare bounce rate and onward clicks with similar pages rather than applying universal targets.

Monitor this through Google Analytics 4 Engagement reports or Microsoft Clarity for scroll depth and screen records. High engagement across multiple metrics indicates you've anticipated user needs.

Here's what strong content engagement looks like in practice (from one of our client sites):

80% engagement rate with 2 leads from only 25 sessions. This shows users finding complete value. Although granted, this is a small number of sessions and an exception more than an average.

Side note - I believe it can also be an indicator that brand mentions in LLMs are seen almost like a 'word-of-mouth' recommendation by users.

Particularly in a B2B context where decisions rely less on emotion or gut feelings.

It's of course too early in the technology to say definitively, but there have been some interesting related studies with similar findings like a study from 2020 in the Journal of Marketing, Artificial Intelligence in Utilitarian vs. Hedonic Contexts: The “Word-of- Machine” Effect.'

This is not always the case though, and other client sites may do quite well with referral traffic from these LLMs but have room for improvement with engagement rates (where they're hovering in the 50% range).

Measure AI Platform Performance

Search your main topics monthly on the AI platforms your audience actually uses, then compare whether your page appears consistently. Document whether your content appears in generated responses. Track this alongside traditional metrics like organic traffic and rankings.

Conversion Alignment Shows Business Impact

Your content-to-conversion rate should match or exceed your funnel benchmarks. Again, track this through GA4 conversion tracking with content attribution.

A content marketing strategy that both educates and converts demonstrates complete user journey optimization.

Red Flags to Monitor

Watch for these signs that the page still has a quality problem:

Impressions can rise without more clicks when the search result fails to earn attention, so fix the element suppressing click-through.
Clicks can rise while engagement falls when the page disappoints the searcher, so check whether the opening matches the query.
Readers may scroll without clicking onward when the page gives them no compelling reason to continue, so strengthen the next-step guidance.
Rankings for irrelevant queries usually signal that the page’s focus is too broad, so tighten the angle before changing individual headings.
AI platform mentions appear once, then disappear: treat it as noise until the pattern repeats.

The goal is not to prove that one edit caused one metric to move. The goal is to see whether the page now helps the right reader more clearly, earns more trust, and creates a stronger path to the next useful action.

Benchmark Targets By Content Type

Use these as directional targets, not universal benchmarks. Your own baseline matters more than a universal benchmark because the meaning of good performance changes with context.

For blog posts, prioritize growth in relevant search visibility and evidence that readers continue into related content.
For landing pages, judge performance against your current baseline by whether the page loads cleanly and converts more visitors.
For product or service pages, prioritize commercial visibility and conversion clarity because those measures show whether qualified demand can become action.
For resource guides, prioritize assisted conversions and meaningful onward engagement because both show the guide is supporting a larger decision.

Set quarterly reviews to assess these metrics. Prioritize your most valuable content types first, then focus improvements where you see the biggest gaps.

Apply This Framework To Your Content

Ready to assess your content systematically? Our Content Quality Assessment Checklist scores each factor and shows you where the page needs the most attention.

Download the checklist now and start improving your content immediately. This systematic approach identifies gaps and prioritizes improvements that drive measurable performance gains - whether you're optimizing existing content or creating something new.

Get Help Improving Your Existing Content

Already have great content that needs optimization and want some outside help? Our content update services use this framework to systematically improve your existing pages for better search rankings and AI platform visibility.

We handle the work from diagnosis through implementation so you can focus on your strengths.

Learn more about our content update services here!

How to Do a Content Audit that Delivers Results [W/ Template]

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 15:52:18 GMT

How to Do a Content Audit that Delivers Results [+ Template]

Your website may have hundreds or even thousands of underperforming pages working against you.

There's no shame in it - in fact, it's very common. We've updated nearly 1000 pages for clients and have learned one universal truth: every website can benefit from the occasional content audit.

They reveal hidden problems and opportunities from your existing content library. But they're so often tedious, messy, and put on the back-burner.

So, in this guide on how to do an SEO content audit, you'll learn:

The 100% free tools you'll use to extract data (and how)
The exact step-by-step auditing framework
How to identify issues and prioritize your action plan
Practical tips for achieving quick wins with your new insights
And more ;)

You can also use our content audit template below - the same framework we just used to grow a clients traffic by 30% in just one quarter!

Content Audit Process at a Glance

This guide covers the full content audit process. It's a big article, so please use the table below to see what each step produces and the decision it supports.

Jump to the full sections when you need the tools, criteria, formulas, or implementation instructions.

The audit is complete when each priority page has a clear recommendation, an implementation priority, an owner, and a review date.

Use the content audit template as you follow the steps.

Why Content Audits Matter

If you've been around for a while, you likely have tons of site content from years past. (Including the early days when you were just figuring things out.)

As a result - your website may have several underlying issues working against your business goals.

Things like:

Competing pages where 2 or more pages target the same search intent - a lose-lose where Google struggles to choose which page to rank (keyword cannibalization).
Missed business opportunities from poor SEO performance of high-potential/value pages that should be driving conversions (leads, email signups, etc.).
Outdated content that's thin or inaccurate, meant to guide potential customers through your sales funnel. But instead tarnishes your credibility.
Wasted crawl budget on underperforming pages consuming resources better served with medium-to-high business value content. (Important to note that worrying about this is typically only worthwhile if your site has 1000s of pages.)

5 Key Benefits of a Proper Content Audit

Your content audit is your action-plan for content updates and plays a key role in your overall content marketing strategy efforts.

A high-quality content audit helps deliver 5 key benefits:

ID'ing quick wins via low-hanging fruit opportunities (ie. pages ranking in positions 4-25) or increasing conversions (ie. pages with high business potential/value and traffic but unclear calls to action).
Clear prioritization by way of a data-backed roadmap for which pages to improve, remove, etc. to drive the fastest return on investment from your content marketing efforts.
Strategic overview with a high-level understanding of your content assets and gaps you can fill in with future content.
Resource optimization to avoid wasting time and money on ineffective content approaches that have historically not worked - or will no longer work in an age of fewer clicks due to AI Overviews.
Problem detection identifying actual content issues to your performance, again, based on the data rather than assumptions.

Real Results

A B2B software development company we recently worked with saw a 31% jump in organic traffic within Q4 alone after implementing changes from our content audit.

Key pages stuck on page 2 and even 3 moved to page 1, and overall engagement metrics improved across the site.

(Granted the work with this client evolved beyond just an audit, including setting up proper tracking for conversions and updating service and supporting pages. You can learn more in our case study .)

But even more impressive, their conversions from contact form submissions via organic search increased by 300% in the following quarter.

So let's get into how to do a successful content audit.

Step 0: Define Your Audit Goal

A content audit should start with the decision you need to make and not the data you can collect.

So it's best to define what the audit should improve, which pages it will cover, and who will act on the findings. This prevents you from exporting unnecessary data or reviewing pages that have little connection to your business goals.

Complete this short audit brief before moving to Step 1:

If you already know which pages are underperforming, you can use our content refresh strategy to diagnose what they have lost and decide whether to refresh, rewrite, consolidate, promote, repurpose, retire, or leave them alone.

Your objective will determine which data matters.

A traffic-recovery audit may focus on clicks, impressions, rankings, and query coverage. A conversion audit may give more weight to calls to action, form completions, internal clicks, and qualified leads. A consolidation audit may focus on overlapping intent, backlinks, internal links, and competing URLs.

Output: A written audit brief that defines the goal, page set, success metric, scope, and owner.

Step 1: Data Collection

You'll need access to 3 essential data sources to make the most educated decisions possible.

Google Search Console (GSC)

This is where you'll find your data regarding Google search impressions, clicks, and search queries driving traffic to your site.

To export this data:

Go to Performance → Search Results
Set date range to last 28 days and compare year-over-year
You can choose either 28 days or 3 months. The shorter window will give you a quick idea of current performance and any issues. A 3 month timeframe will give you a better idea of trends and avoid anomalies from seasonality, etc.
(But just note that with Ahrefs' free webmasters tool your Site Explorer is limited and unable track very far - so, for the purposes of this guide we'll stick to last 28 days.)
Export the data as Sheets or CSV or whatever else you like.

(If you have a particularly large site, you may want to check out SEOGets . It's a freemium GSC dashboard tool with a free version that lets you bypass the sometimes frustrating 1,000 row limit.)

And a quick note on GSC - once you export, and as you'll see later - you'll want to include a % for the click difference.

Here's how to do that in case you need.

Add a column next to the 2 click dates. Set that column to percentages. And then Divide the last 28 days clicks with last years.

Optional: Check Your Generative AI Visibility

As of 2026, Google Search Console also has a Generative AI performance report . If your site has access, it shows which pages are earning impressions across Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.

I treat this as an extra visibility signal rather than a replacement for your normal Search Results export. It can help you identify pages already appearing in Google's generative AI features, which you can later compare against their business value and content quality.

Google currently lets you break the data down by page, country, date, and device . But just note that Google is still rolling the report out, so you may not see it in your Search Console account yet. I see it in some accounts and not others.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Don't just settle with GSC. It’s increasingly important to consider
additional traffic sources.

By checking out Session sources you can see which pages are getting traffic from Bing, DuckDuckGo, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Flipboard, etc. (but don't include this in your export as it'll get confusing).

To see your different sources click + -> Traffic source -> Cross channel (Session scoped) -> Session Source.

With GA4, you also get user behaviour metrics and conversion data (so long as they're set up properly).

If you're after leads from form submissions I recommend this great video by Mike Friedman of The SEO Pub (and checking out his other stuff too - he has a great SEO newsletter ).

But lemme get back on track.

Here's how to export your data from GA4:

Navigate to Reports → Engagement → Pages and Screens
I like to set this as Page path and screen class (so that it's URL slug)
Match your GSC date filters

And quick note: By default GA4 shows Views. But for the purposes of our audit - we'll want to add Sessions. (You can learn all about the differences between Views and Sessions here !)

So, go to Customize report in the top right.

And under Metrics -> click Add Metrics and search for Sessions.

Then move it to the top of your list of Metrics and click Apply and Save.

Now you're ready to export.

Ahrefs (Free Webmaster Tools)

With the free Ahrefs' webmaster account, you can get a quick idea of each page's (so long as they have) top keyword, its top position, as well as number of referring domains and internal links they have.

This is my primary use for it however there's a ton you can do with it.

So, once you're signed up - find the page explorer page (inside the audit section).

Just note, before you export, you’ll Definitely want to customize the columns - and I also recommend ensuring your 'Pages' are set to Internal: All Pages.

Here are some possible options you may want to include in yours:

Page Content and Metadata

Use these fields to understand what each page contains and spot basic on-page issues:

Title
Title length
H1
Content word count (No. of content words)

You can also pull some of these directly into Google Sheets. For example, =IMPORTXML can fetch a title, while =LEN(cell) can calculate its length.

Links and Site Structure

These fields help you understand how important a page is within your site and whether other websites are linking to it:

Depth
Number of internal links pointing to the page
Number of referring domains

Technical Status

These fields can surface canonicalisation, duplication, formatting, and performance issues:

Is self-canonical
Canonical URL
Number of H1s
Number of pages with the same title
Number of pages with the same H1
Loading time

Search Performance

Last but of course, not least, you'll want to include the basic search data Ahrefs associates with each URL:

Top keyword
Top keyword position

You don't need every available Ahrefs column. The goal is to collect enough information to help you make decisions later in the audit without turning your spreadsheet into a data dump.

Step 2: Data Compilation

I'm partial to Google sheets but of course feel free to use Excel ;).

But regardless, for sanity sake, I recommend organizing them in groups in a master sheet. Keeping tabs with the different data sources for various =VLOOKUP formulas.

The content audit spreadsheet (template) that's available in this article has everything already set up for you - and may just save you hours of your life ��.

Here's what I recommend:

Basic Page Info

URL
Title Tag
Character Count
Last Updated
Content Type

Performance Metrics

GSC Position
GSC Impressions
GSC Clicks
GSC Click YoY Change
GSC CTR
GA4 Sessions
GA4 Key Events (Whatever conversion you're after - form response, newsletter signup, etc.)
GA4 Session YoY Change
GA4 Key Events (%) YoY Change
I recommend conditional formatting to highlight issues. Use a colour-scale for these 2 GA4 YoY columns (and if you think it'll help, the GSC Click YoY Change column - but of course feel free - heck you could format them all ;):
Minpoint number 0% red,
midpoint 50% yellow,
and Maxpoint 100% green (or 300% if needed).
# of Referring Domains

Content Strategy Context

Tag / Category
Top Keyword
Top Keyword Position
Awareness + Intent
Business Potential (Auto-fills based on Awareness + Intent column)

Content Quality

Contextual Understanding
Credibility & F reshness
User Experience (UX)
Uniqueness and Value-Add
Guidance
Overall Content Quality Score (I highly recommend, again using the colour scale used for the YoY changes here.)
Content Recommendation (Helpful to set =IF parameters based on the overall quality score)

Action Plan

Content Action (What you choose to do with the page based on the info you now know)
Action Priority (This will depend primarily on a page's Performance metrics, Business Value, and Overall Content Quality Score - but you'll find out soon)
Status
Completion Date (This way it's also an implementation doc)
Note

How Much of Your Site Should You Audit?

Now something you may have astutely noticed is that this a lot.

And you're very right to think this process sounds quite time consuming. It certainly is pal. But as with most things, improvement take effort.

And just know that you can always bypass some of these headaches via help from an objective and experienced third-party like us!

But let's get back to it...

For smaller sites (sub 100 pages), a full content audit within a month is usually reasonable.

But for larger sites, I'd definitely recommend taking a more piecemeal approach:

Section-by-section: Audit one key business category at a time (most profitable products, services, etc.) - typically good option for big enterprise sites.
Priority-based: Focus first on revenue-driving content types - good for SMEs hoping for quick wins. For example, Portent schedules their content audits differently based on awareness stages:
Awareness content - every 6 months
Consideration content - every 3-6 months
Decision/Conversion content - every 3 months (regular content audits)
Retention content - audited annually
Performance threshold: Another way is to start with pages getting at least 100+ impressions monthly

As you'll find below when we get into our prioritization framework - we learned the hard way that a system largely reliant on Performance metrics can have limitations.

But, in general, the right approach for you will depend on your site size, resources (be it team or money), and immediate business goals.

Step 3: Quantitative Content Analysis

Now you've got the goods all set up, it's time to start analyzing.

First let's cover the quantifiable analysis since it's very straightforward thanks to the 'Performance Metrics' columns.

It'll also save you time when it comes to the qualitative stage - as you'll know which pages to look into that can deliver quick wins.

Simply look at each page's row, to get an idea of each page's performance (this is where the conditional formatting helps).

Performance Metrics That Drive Action

Here are some of the 'Performance Metrics' you'll want to keep an eye on as you look through your different pages:

Traffic trends (28-day/3 months and year-over-year)
Click-through rates versus impression volume
Conversion performance (Key events and any YoY change)

Here are the Content Actions that are helpful to choose from.

Which Pages Are Worth Updating?

Performance data helps you narrow down which pages deserve a closer look. But these aren't hard rules. I'd treat the numbers below as starting points for sorting. Then adjust them based on your site's traffic levels, business model, and the value of each page.

Some useful update signals include:

The page is relevant to your offers or customers, particularly at the middle or bottom of the funnel.
It already drives some traffic or has converted visitors in the past.
Important queries are ranking around positions 4–25, where an improvement could move them onto page one or higher.
The page earns meaningful impressions but relatively few clicks.
A high-business-value page gets traffic but converts poorly.
Traffic, clicks, or conversions have declined year over year.
The content is old enough that its accuracy, examples, search intent, or competitive landscape may have changed.

For an audit, I look for a minumum of 100+ monthly impressions, rankings in positions 4–25, and content older than six months as useful starting filters. A larger site may need much higher thresholds, while a smaller or niche site may need lower ones.

But again, the numbers help you decide what to investigate first. They don't tell you what action to take on their own.

Which Low-Performing Pages Can You Remove?

Low traffic alone isn't a reason to remove, consolidate, or redirect a page. Performance data tells you which pages deserve investigation. Before taking a page out of search, check whether it still serves a business purpose, supports another page, attracts valuable links, or answers a useful customer need.

A stronger removal candidate usually combines several weak signals:

Fewer than 100 impressions over the past 28 days.
Little or no traffic from Google Search Console or Google Analytics.
No conversions or meaningful role in the customer journey.
No backlinks or useful internal-link value.
No clear business, navigational, or strategic purpose.

Again, treat 100 impressions as a triage threshold rather than a universal cut-off . For a niche service business, a page with 50 impressions on a commercial term could signal far more value than one with 5,000 irrelevant ones.

Just note that some of these pages with poor performance may indeed have valuable content that be repurposed into different formats. So you may want to consider whether to:

Turn them into lead magnets (checklists, templates)
Transform them into visual assets (infographics, carousels, etc.)
Potential for video
Better served as a series of social media posts

Which Pages Need a Full Redo?

Some dead pages deserve a second chance.

These are dead pages that could be super valuable to your business - and it's a shame they aren't performing.

Think supporting pages to your most profitable offers. Or even offer pages that have slowly died.

These should be marked for a full re-do. And when you assess content quality you'll want to keep an eye out for intent mismatch or freshness issues (we have a helpful framework for this below).

If the existing URL slug is solid and only includes the target keyword - you could keep the same page and just resubmit the URL in GSC when you're done the rewrite.

But if it's a messy URL, might as well redo it on a new one and redirect.

Which Pages Should You Redirect?

Some of these pages may have served a purpose and garnered backlinks in the past but simply fell off. You can find these via the '# of Referring domains' column.

Where these pages match the same criteria as those that should be removed - and not deserving of a full redo, you can 301 redirect them to a similar page with greater business potential.

But just note that all of these 'Zombie' pages could have internal links pointing to them which should be swapped out to other relevant but better pages.

Here's how to quickly find these:

Site Audit
Link Explorer
Internal: All Internal href links
Export ( Optional - But if you do, be sure to add a Column 'Is Link Internal' so you can filter for just internal links to and from the dead pages. )

Are Multiple Pages Competing for the Same Search Intent?

Usually you'll find at least one instance of multiple pages competing for the same search intent.

(Granted - this will be more likely found during your qualitative analysis but I just mention it here to keep all the 'Content Actions' together.)

This can cause Google to struggle to determine which page to rank.

Sometimes finding it can be as easy as looking at 2 page titles.

But you'll typically need to dig a little deeper.

You can use GSC to check the last 12 months and see if important queries have 2+ pages with fluctuating clicks and impressions over that time.

Another way is within Google search:

site:yourwebsite.com “important keyword”

(Using “” to find that exact keyword)

site:yourwebsite.com important keyword

(Without “” for more variance)

However, the key here is ID’ing the user’s need and purpose of their search (which is actually good a lead in for what we'll cover soon in Step 4 - qualitative assessment.

Just as an example - for context - here are 2 articles with the same intent (despite different wording), likely to cannibalize if on the same site:

Best Cameras for Beginners in 2025
Top Entry-Level Cameras for New Photographers

And here are 2 other examples of pages that wouldn't cannibalize (despite both having best photography in the title):

Best DSLR Cameras for Wildlife Photography
Best Mirrorless Cameras for Street Photography

So what do we do with those that Are competing?

Well, we'll need to decide whether to re/de-optimize (can mark as Update - with a note) or to consolidate.

If you find the pages do indeed cover different purposes you can:

Audit their internal and external links to ensure anchor texts are clearly different and specific to each unique page.
Tweak the on-page of each to ensure metadata and body text are clearly demarcated to their unique purposes
(And even transfer over specific sections if it helps with the distinction).

Which Competing Pages Should You Consolidate?

If you find that the 2 or more pages do indeed serve quite similar search intents - you’ll want to consolidate.

And just to help here's how to fix them down the line:

You’ll copy over any quality content to the higher potential page (more links, traffic, and impressions)
Ensure any useful secondary keywords are included on the new page
Edit out any egregious repetition
Fix the internal links and redirect.

Which Pages Should Stay Out of Search Results?

There’s a good chance you’ll find pages not meant to rank (targeting search terms, etc.).

Here's a quick test for how to assess this: If the page serves your site visitors but not search users, it's likely a good no-index candidate.

So, keep these pages out of search results:

Confirmation/thank you pages
Login/account pages
Internal resources and tools
Legal/compliance pages (unless part of your strategy)

But, consider keeping these pages indexed:

Company news and team pages
About us/mission content
Brand-building stories
Recent team building activities

Which Pages Can You Leave As Is?

Pretty aptly-labeled - these pages don't need immediate attention:

Career pages with current listings
Recently updated About Us pages
New content (less than 6 months old)
Pages ranking in positions 1-3 with steady or growing metrics

Step 4: Assess Content Quality And Business Value

So we've covered the quantitive assessment of content.

We now know how pages are performing, and have a pretty good idea of what to do with them.

But our audits must also go beyond the numbers - taking a critical look at the actual content.

Luckily, thanks to the data we've already analyzed, we know that our qualitative content quality assessment would be best served for the time being on content marked:

Update,
Redo,
And Consolidate

This is where we'll dig deeper into the content and SERPs to uncover the disconnects.

Mapping Content to User Journey Stages

Part of your content audit process should include identifying each page by where it fits in the 'customer journey.' (That is so long as you have a product/service/degree to sell.)

This helps you identify gaps and ensures you, at least, have a chance of engaging potential customers at every stage of their decision process.

(We use this as a way to categorize page's business potential/value. For example pages targeting lower funnel topics will be marked high-value pages, etc. Which as you'll see later, plays an important role in prioritizing your action plan post-audit.)

But just in case you need a quick overview of search intent and awareness stages as laid out by Eugene Schwartz in his remarkably priced ($300+) book Breakthrough Advertising , here's a (hopefully) helpful visual.

For the purposes of our content audit though, we don't need to go so granular.

We want to avoid over-complicating what's already quite an intensive mental exercise.

So, here's an easier way to assess pages based on their possible intents and simplified awareness stages.

ToFu/Awareness = Informational Intent

These pages educate users about problems (problem-aware) and concepts they're experiencing or curious about.

They target people searching for "who," "what," "why," queries.

For example:

"Why is my website traffic low?"
" What are the 8Ps of marketing? "
"Why aren't my blog posts ranking?"
"Why our thought leadership isn't generating leads," etc.

Informational content is meant to build credibility and introduce your brand as a helpful resource and not only interested in pushing a sale (See SEO vs content marketing for more info).

However, it has Low (immediate) business value .

So, this type of content measures success through sessions/search volume, engagement metrics like time on page, and for some - social shares rather than any direct conversions.

MoFu/Consideration = Info-to-Commercial Intent

At this stage, users understand their problem and are evaluating solutions (solution-aware).

They'll likely use terms like "best," "vs," "alternatives," and "reviews" to compare options. Or they may also be in the planning stages, exploring "how-to" jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) keywords for ways to solve their problems.

This could be something like:

How to get your blog noticed

And of course, also stuff like:

Best camera for beginners
Best Loom alternatives
Clickup vs Monday.com, etc.

It's helpful to note and differentiate the sub-categories within MoFu content:

Pillar/Hub Content serves as comprehensive resource centres that organize related information. These are often category or pillar pages targeting broad commercial terms with multiple related and supporting pages internally linking back to them.
Our massive SEO essentials for higher education guide is an example. Although we've yet to create the supporting content :S.
Home Depot's refrigerator category page is a solid example.

Tool/Resource Content - like 'how-to' content, tools and resources are another example of "jobs to be done" intent. It targets users hoping to solve immediate issues through practical tips users can apply right away. They'll go after queries like "template," "calculator," "checklist," and "generator."

Typically these MoFu types of pages have Medium to Medium-High value. And as you'll see later are still as valuable today - in the age of AI as ever before.

In general, this consideration stage content often aims at driving resource downloads and email signups as a gauge of effectiveness.

This page for example would be considered a MoFu. Because it covers 'how-to', includes downloadable resources, and looks great doing it ��.

Speaking of which, did can download your Content Audit tool yet?

BoFu/Decision: Transactional Intent

BoFu content is all about converting users into customers.

These pages ideally target queries with "buy," "price," "demo," and maybe even "free trial." And will likely be your product/service pages, pricing pages, and case studies.

For example:

It's content tailored to the 'product-and-most aware' stages and should answer questions about implementation, pricing, and specific use cases.

These are more-so landing and sales pages than blog pages like those targeting the other awareness stages. So, they'll have clear, specific calls-to-action (one goal per page) and minimal distractions.

Unsurprisingly, these pages have High business value . So you'll likely want to prioritize them and track conversion rates, demo requests, and sales opportunities.

Navigational: Brand-Specific Content

Navigational intent content helps product/most/brand-aware prospective customers find specific information about your company like about page and contact information.

It also helps retain existing customers via helpful info like support documentation - like a tool's knowledge hub.

While not typically part of your SEO strategy, these pages contribute to user experience, customer retention, and brand perception. And it's helpful to monitor direct traffic volume, user engagement with these resources, and branded search volume. Though more often considered Low-to-medium business value .

In the wild, we've typically found that most sites over-invest in ToFu/awareness content - neglecting the lower-funnel consideration and decision content that actually drives conversions.

So again, that's why we recommend identifying any of these imbalances via your content audit to prioritize content that helps move users toward purchase decisions.

However, you may be concerned that this could be quite tough to determine.

One way to makes use of a great free Query Semantic Class Classifier tool by Mark Williams-Cook - a genius SEO who shares awesome tips on LinkedIn and in this great video . He found that Google classifies basically all queries into eight “refined query semantic classes” to understand search intent (but admittedly not the only ways they determine).

Though with your pages' Top Keyword as shown in your Ahrefs export - you can plug them into this page to help predict their categories:

Below is one way to understand these classifications as they relate to intent and awareness stages. And perhaps more importantly, their most common SERP features (to know which content formats work best).

Just note it's certainly not an exact indicator of an 'awareness' connection and you will still want to analyze each SERP to best understand their Awareness and intent categories.

This hopefully just helps push you in the right direction and give you an idea of what to expect:

As you may know by now, SERPs commonly dominated by AI Overviews show much lower click-through-rates (CTRs) .

So, in general, SHORT_FACTS will have the lowest CTRs.

While INSTRUCTION, COMPARISON, CONSEQUENCE, BOOL will likely have the highest click throughs. And thus, in general, these are increasingly important query types to focus on to get visitors:

INSTRUCTION (How-To, Tools, JTBD): People often still click for deeper, interactive or visual steps and sign up for templates, tools, etc.
COMPARISON (MoFu): People can get a gist with AI Overviews but likely still want personal insights 'What I chose and why."
CONSEQUENCE (Outcome-focused): Readers want real, human nuance when it comes to anything with consequence via first person experience, research, case studies, or community comments (from Redditors ��).
BOOLEAN (Is X good, Can I, Should I): Readers often want more than a yes/no — they want logical reasons, credibility, and next steps. (CTAs = "Get a free SEO assessment for your business")

Another helpful and newer guide on this topic that may be helpful is this content prioritization in an age of AI framework that also covers ideas like click resistance.

Content Quality Assessment

With your priorities known, you'll now want to assess each piece of content for quality using systematic criteria that work best for users as well as traditional search and AI platforms.

For detailed assessment, use our Content Quality Assessment Framework which provides a 0-15 point scoring system across 5 key factors.

But here's a quick overview for audit purposes:

Quick Content Quality Scoring (0-3 scale per factor)

→ Contextual Understanding

Does the content address the primary query plus 5-7 follow-up questions users will ask next?

→ Credibility & Freshness

Current data (last 12 months), 3-5 authoritative sources, clear authorship?
You can also check whether or not your content meets current consensus of a topic with the Consensus Fact Checking GPT by SEONotebook . Just paste in your article and the general topic and it'll analyze how it compares

→ User Experience

100-300 word chunks, conversational headings, mobile-friendly, visual elements?
I tend to recommend and use Hemingwayapp for readability and 'chunking' needs.
But it's also important to avoid blindly following all suggestions of a tool like Hemingwayapp or Grammarly or creating content strictly with machines in mind. There is great value in varying sentence length and escaping formulaic, strict guidelines. As the great writer Gary Provost shares:

→ Uniqueness & Value-Add

Original insights, "In our testing" examples, expertise AI cannot replicate?

→ Guidance

Clear next steps, journey-matched CTAs, addresses user objections?

Total Score: ___/15 points

Action Priority:

11-15 points: Ready for promotion
8-10 points: Fix 1-2 factors (2-4 hours)
6-7 points: Systematic improvement needed (4-8 hours)
3-5 points: Major revision required
0-2 points: Remove or restart

For complete implementation guidance, including detailed checklists and tools, use our Content Quality Assessment Framework .

Step 5: Prioritize Your Action Plan

Here's where the magic happens.

You see - these qualitative assessments that map content to user stages and thus business value - to go along with the typical performance metrics and content quality analysis resulted from a bit of a blunder.

We learned the hard way - the importance of creating a prioritization roadmap so that you don't have to...

Quick backstory: we had a massive client - working directly with a 9-figure business owner with great influence and experience in online business.

One of the first things we did was run a content audit to update their existing content inventory.

But remember, we had yet to work out a solid prioritization system.

We were mostly relying on performance metrics to decide. It was a site with hundreds of pages, many of which needed consolidation, redirection, removal, or at least a full redo. Unfortunately we were slow to pull the trigger and focused mostly on updates.

By the time we realized it - the campaign was already well underway. And just for context - it was also a content site post-HCU (and had lost quite a bit of traffic).

Which if you remember, was quite a doozy.

While search rankings and click-throughs on the site to his various other businesses were growing, from our efforts, it still wasn't quite the turn-around we had anticipated. And what we were used to seeing pre-HCU.

So, this is just to say that the campaign was not the success it could have been had we known what we know now.

To avoid confusion and decision fatigue I recommend creating a priority formula that automatically combines:

Business value (weighted highest),
Performance metrics like position, sessions, and impression-to-click performance,
And your content quality score.

Here's the formula we use:

It factors in:

T3: Business Potential ("High-Value", etc.)

Y3: Overall Content Quality Score

F3: GSC Position

G3: GSC Impressions

H3: GSC Clicks

K3: GA4 Sessions

To give a classification of P0-P3 (the unambiguous numerical order of P0, P1, etc. helps with sorting and filtering).

But let's explore each:

P0 - CRITICAL (Do These Immediately)

Fix High-Value Pages with Quality Issues

Update business-critical pages: Product pages, service descriptions, pricing information, and core conversion pages
Fix underperforming content - especially those in the BoFu/Decision showing significant traffic decline
Address high-value pages with quality scores below 6
Fix pages that directly impact your bottom line with clear conversion paths
Resolve critical technical issues affecting high-value pages
Fix any issues with product/service comparison pages
Add essential information missing on core transactional pages

Fix all broken links on site (prioritizing broken internal links)

P1 - HIGH (Complete Within First 1-3 Months)

Update High-Potential Content

Focus on pages with high impressions (1000+) but low clicks (<20)
Optimize medium-to-high value content ranking in positions 4-20
Improve alignment with search intent on pages with potential
Enhance CTAs and conversion elements on pages with traffic but poor conversion
Update case studies with fresh results and clearer outcomes

Address Content Gaps

I've almost solely focused on internal analysis for content audit recommendations. However, as you assess the SERPs in the qualitative stage, you'll naturally see recurring competitors to compare yourself with. Here, you can begin planning and creating the high-value pages they have but you don't
Continue listing valuable keywords where competitors rank but you don't
Prioritize creating content for high-value topics with clear business potential (MoFu to BoFu)

Consolidate Competing Pages (If possible, can tackle in the first month)

Identify keyword cannibalization issues for high-intent terms
Merge competing pages targeting the same search intent
Combine the strongest elements from each page
Set up proper 301 redirects and fix internal links

Recover Link Equity

Fix or redirect broken pages with quality backlinks
Add internal links to high-value content with few inbound connections
Prioritize updating pages with valuable backlinks

P2 - MEDIUM (Next Quarter)

Upgrade Mid-Value Content

Strengthen consideration-stage content in positions 21-40
Add comparison tables and case studies to commercial content
Update supporting content around your primary service/product pages
Refresh statistics and examples to maintain relevance

Address Content Overlap

Identify medium-value pages with similar content
Clarify the purpose of each page through distinct H1s and meta descriptions
Improve internal linking with clear delineated anchor text between related content

Optimize Technical Elements

Apply noindex tags to utility pages not meant for search
Create better internal linking pathways from informational to commercial content

P3 - LOW (When Resources Allow)

Maintain High-Performing Content

Make minor updates to well-ranking content
Perform freshness updates to older but still effective pages
Check for outdated references or statistics
Ensure consistent branding and messaging across all content

Address Low-Priority Elements

Update low-value content that still serves a purpose
Review newer content (<6 months old) for early optimization opportunities
Make small improvements to user experience elements
Check for alignment with current marketing messaging

Step 6 - Look Beyond SEO

Something to consider adding - at least in a 'Notes' column, are valuable insights that extend beyond traditional SEO metrics (but totally complement your efforts).

These insights can be something site-wide regarding page set up like margins and font size (I recommend narrow margins for easier readability/time on page). But they can also be specific at a page level.

And they're just helpful to make a note of whenever something pops in your head to help create a truly comprehensive improvement plan.

I also highly recommend setting up, at least, Microsoft Clarity - for insights into how visitors browse your pages via heatmaps and screen recordings. Just be aware that some recordings can have a strangely eerie vibe to them - but maybe it's just me projecting ��.

Conversion Rate Optimization Elements

Pay attention to how your content converts visitors into leads or customers.

Especially on BoFu and consideration pages - check for:

CTA placement, design, and messaging effectiveness - make a note of any vagueness or clear room for improvement
Strategic use of trust signals (testimonials, credentials, social proof)
Form accessibility and friction points
Clarity of value messaging throughout the content

User Experience Factors

Evaluate how easy your content is to consume and navigate:

Content hierarchy and organization on category pages, homepage, etc.
Heading structure clarity and effectiveness (H1-H4)
Visual emphasis of key points

And of course

Mobile responsiveness issues
Page load speed concerns

Step 7 - Measuring Success

Important note: Your content audit delivers value when your findings are put into action.

Focus on high priority actions first - the high-value pages and low-hanging fruit opportunities.

And keep an eye on organic traffic growth across updated pages and of course, monitor their ranking and conversion improvements

Set Realistic Timelines

You can expect some initial ranking fluctuations in the first month as search engines crawl and process your changes. It's normal.

Traffic patterns will stabilize soon after though, with expected traffic and conversion improvements during this same time.

The most significant impacts though, will typically occur throughout the rest of the year as more of the roadmap is accomplished and results compound.

Implement Ongoing Monitoring

Just like we discussed under 'How Much of Your Site Should You Audit?' you'll likely want to schedule at least mini-content audits for different sections based on priority.

This on-the-ball, disciplined approach helps ensure content audits can become sustainable drivers of business growth.

Get Started On The Road To Recovery

Don't let your valuable content continue underperforming!

If you're interested - check out our comprehensive content audit template. Again, it's the same framework we used to deliver those 30%+ traffic gains in less than 3 months.

If you need any help, our team at 8-Bit Content specializes in done-for-you content audits and implementation .

We'll help identify your highest-priority opportunities and even execute changes that deliver maximum impact with minimum hassle.

And as always, feel free to reach us at start@8bitcontent.com or contact me directly on LinkedIn , Facebook , etc. if you have any questions at all.

SEO for Higher Education [With an Actionable Checklist]

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 04:25:14 GMT

SEO for Higher Education: A Practical Guide to More Qualified Applications

Welcome to truly a mega-guide to search engine optimization for university or college websites.

After 15+ years in education leadership and analyzing dozens of higher education websites, I’ve seen it all.

So, the goal here is to give you a practical roadmap to increase qualified applications through strategic online presence. You'll learn:

How to connect with diverse audience personas,
Create content that answers the top student questions,
Implement technical optimizations that enhance user experience,
Measure real enrolment impact,
And key tips to boost your organic search traffic

We've got a lot to cover so let's get started!

Key Takeaways for Higher Education SEO

Higher education SEO starts with audience intent. Traditional students, adult learners, transfer students, international students, parents, counselors, and employers all search differently. Your content should answer the questions each group asks before they apply.
Strong program pages do the heaviest SEO work. Each priority program page should explain the curriculum, admissions requirements, tuition, financial aid, career outcomes, faculty, student stories, and next steps in one clear path.
Cost clarity builds trust before students contact admissions. Tuition, fees, aid, scholarships, payment options, and return on investment should be easy to find from program, admissions, and financial aid pages.
Technical SEO should support the student journey. Fast pages, mobile-friendly forms, clear site architecture, accessibility, schema markup, and clean internal links help students find answers and complete key tasks.
The best SEO measurement connects search to enrollment. Rankings and traffic matter, but higher education teams should also track program-page engagement, inquiry forms, campus visit registrations, application starts, completed applications, and enrolled students.

8 Higher Education SEO Quick Wins To Prioritize First

After analysing dozens of higher education websites, these are the fixes I would usually check first. They are practical, low-risk improvements that can help students find answers faster and move toward inquiry, visit, or application actions.

Get the 10-point checklist to audit program pages, fix technical blockers, improve local SEO, and connect organic traffic to enrollment outcomes.

Why SEO Matters For College And University Enrollment

It's important to quickly cover the why behind this entire article.

A recent industry study found that 58% of high school students use search engines as their primary pathway to college websites. And 93% said they rely on these institutional sites for critical decision-making information.

Yet remarkably, 51% of higher education marketing leaders report having no formal SEO strategy or plan in place.

And so this creates both a challenge and an opportunity for forward-thinking institutions.

SEO delivers qualified traffic without recurring costs. Your school can stand out in search results regardless of size.

Sure, paid ads can give quick visibility but they require ongoing spending. And traditional recruitment now often follows online discovery.

The goal here with SEO isn't just rankings. It's to be there to help students find their perfect educational match right when they need it.

When you treat your site's SEO as a student service rather than a standard marketing tactic, you build sustainable win-win visibility - potentially for many enrolment seasons to come.

(You may also be interested to check out our guide on SEO vs content marketing . It covers their complementary features.)

Know Who Searches For Your Programs

Effective SEO starts with an understanding of who searches for your programs.

Prospective students are real people with specific questions, concerns, and decision-making patterns.

We, as higher education marketers, must align our websites and marketing materials with these. It'll help persuade them to choose one institution over another.

So, let's start with an overview.

While potential students are the focal point of higher education marketing, we mustn't overlook the supporting cast who shape decisions.

These are not only parents and guardians but also:

Guidance Counselors : They seek program overviews and admission criteria to then make recommendations to different students.
Athletic Coaches : With an obvious focus on program flexibility and athlete support.
Alumni : These are more interested in the institution's reputation and networking opportunities.
Major Donors : Different from students - these users are after detailed research on endowments and name-giving opportunities.
Legacy Supporters : Similar to donors, these searchers are interested in long-term institutional stability and recognition.
Employers : Often overlooked but important to consider - this group may research partnership opportunities or graduate criteria to assess employee aptitudes.

Your SEO strategy - and, thus online presence must account for how these target audiences search and validate your institution.

Not only that, but education decisions tend to mix logic and emotion.

Parents and caretakers may be more interested in logical drivers searching things like:

Outcomes, rankings, job placement rates
Aspirational language: "life-changing education," "future career success"
Security concerns: "safest college campuses," "accreditation," "job placement rates," "graduate earnings"

Students on the other hand may be more interested in researching emotional drivers like:

Belonging, independence, achievement, security
Belonging needs: "student experience," "campus community," "diversity," "best social life at universities"
Fear-based searches: "Is college worth it," "student debt," "dropout rates"

(Not to generalize of course! I know there are lots of driven high school students who have been planning their university and careers paths for years!)

But regardless - your content strategy (which we'll get into very soon) must address both sides of this decision process.

Cultural Considerations

International students navigate unique challenges that shape their search patterns.

Multilingual SEO strategies can dramatically improve the visibility to these valuable prospects.

And so to maximize your education SEO efforts, begin by mapping your content against these personas and their journeys.

You can do competitor analysis to identify gaps where key questions go unanswered or where influential audiences may find dead ends.

Remember: The institution that answers the right questions, for the right person, at the right time wins not just the click - but the application.

Answer The Four Questions Prospective Students Ask First

Lucky for us, we don't have to guess what these various groups are interested in.

Research shows prospective students and guardians are initially interested in these four questions:

Program Availability: "Does this university have the program I want?" Here you'll want to create program-specific pages - and we'll discuss later, even entire subdomains, with comprehensive details and educational program schema markup.

Affordability: "Can I afford this school?" Key here is developing financial aid sections with calculators and transparent cost breakdowns - with important distinctions between on-campus, off-campus, in-state, international, etc.

Admission Criteria: "What are my chances of getting in?" Create clear admissions pages that answer the questions students actually ask about requirements, deadlines, prerequisite courses, and application steps. Add a concise FAQ when it helps students resolve common uncertainties without searching across several pages.

Campus Culture: "Will I fit in here?" Here you'll want to leverage user-generated content, virtual tours, and highlight student testimonials and success stories.

These questions also cover both logical and emotional drivers - and help build the foundation for effective website content. FAQs are still useful when they help prospective students make a decision. Treat them as student-service content rather than a search-results feature.

So, it's ideal for your website visitors to be able to access this within 1-3 clicks from anywhere on your site - be it header or footer links or from your homepage.

And that brings us to an extremely important topic - user experience!

Prioritize User Experience for Long-Term SEO Success

The top pain points on higher education institution websites and a potential obstacle to conversions are:

Hard to navigate sites and pages
Too many clicks or searches to find what they needed
A frequent and surprising lack of mobile-friendliness. (Again, from this study )

These 3 things have one key thing in common: They can be solved by focusing on a smooth user experience.

Use Heatmaps To Find UX Blockers

Want to truly understand how visitors interact with your higher education website? The answer lies in visual analytics and user insight tools like Microsoft Clarity .

Like Google Analytics or Google Search Console, it's a free tool that's super helpful for helping us reach our goals with real-world data.

Clarity's heatmaps reveal exactly where students and parents click, scroll, and pause on pages. This insight is pure gold for optimizing both UX and SEO.

You can use the heatmap analysis to discover things like:

Frustration signals, such as if there are repeated clicks on non-linked program names
Signs visitors are missing crucial information if there are signs visitors frequently scroll only 40% down most department pages
Or visitors often ignoring a prominent "Apply Now" button because it blended with the background

From Assumptions to Evidence

With a free user experience tool like Clarity installed on your site you can:

Click heatmaps to see exactly which elements attract attention
See your depth scroll average among visitors
Understand your real sessions with bot sessions excluded
Get a categorization of user intent from low to high based on engagement like clicks (including into different types of clicks like 'rage clicks') and scroll patters
See scroll maps revealing where visitors abandon your content
Analyze session recordings which capture the full journey of prospective students visiting your site
Leverage AI to quickly summarize the real world insights in seconds.

These insights and tools can turn guesswork into... something that make teamwork and dreams work...

Just trust me - you gotta check out Microsoft Clarity - I love it and it's free.

Use Engagement Metrics To Diagnose Content And UX Gaps

Engagement metrics are great diagnostic signals.

Google’s guidance focuses on creating helpful, reliable content that satisfies the reader’s need. Its page experience guidance also encourages site owners to build pages that work well for visitors. For higher education teams, GA4 engagement metrics can help show where the student journey breaks down.

Average engagement time, scroll depth, return visits, form starts, and conversion paths can show whether prospective students are finding the answers they need. For example, if a nursing program page gets organic traffic but students rarely scroll to tuition, admissions, or career outcomes, that is a content and UX problem worth fixing.

The goal is not to chase time on page. The goal is to help students answer their next question and move toward the right next step.

That is why homepages, program pages, and admissions pages should surface the four questions students care about most: program fit, affordability, admissions criteria, and campus culture.

Offering an engaging experience that quickly answers your target audience's questions will go a long way toward convincing them to enroll - or, at the very least, search deeper.

As we covered above - we know the top questions people are wondering when they research a school.

So, homepages must cover this information above the fold and include related links in the site header for easy discovery.

An example website that really does this all very well is the University of Iowa .

It blends its UX and SEO needs seamlessly. And immediately addresses all four core questions we discussed earlier above the fold.

In fact as you'll see as we go through this article you'll notice that they do lots of things right.

Critical conversion elements (Apply, Visit, Request Info) always accessible in the header
Fast loading speeds - under 3 seconds
Clean URL structure that reflects content hierarchy
Comprehensive schema markup for educational content

But my apologies, I don't mean to get sidetracked - let's finally get into the content strategy!

Build Content For Every Stage Of The Student Journey

Creating content for higher education SEO requires genuine educational value that meets prospective students exactly where they are in their decision-making journey.

Since we know what information potential students care most about - we can use that as a helpful foundation to build off of for an effective SEO strategy.

Build Program Pages That Answer Curriculum, Cost, Outcomes, And Admissions Questions

Program pages can sometimes underperform - mainly because they lack depth.

When it comes to degree programs - people want answers to specific questions about curriculum, outcomes, and specializations.

So, it's helpful to create content hubs for each program including in-depth information and content like:

Curriculum breakdowns with course descriptions, sequencing, and learning outcomes
Faculty spotlights diving into research interests, publications, and teaching philosophies
Career pathway with video content showcasing where graduates tend to work
Industry connections highlighting internship opportunities and employer partnerships
Student projects that showcase exciting projects underway by current students

These are just a few 'lead-generating' ideas to connect with those interested in your programs. But with this content on your site, you can also rank for related terms.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Harvard and in my view especially Harvard Extension School does a great job with their program overview pages.

For example here's a program page that provides a quick overview on key information like:

Program overview
Admission info
Tuition costs
Career opportunities
Student success stories
Alumni membership access
And more...

And schools like Harvard and Columbia University (which we'll get into very soon) have entire subdomains for each of their main programs.

So rather than a basic "Law Degree" page, they've developed a content ecosystem with hundreds or thousands of related pages all about each program (and subcategories), research opportunity, and career path.

And this approach helps naturally encapsulate all long-tail keywords from program searches while also providing genuine educational value. For example - granted not a big surprise but the Harvard Law School subdomain ranks number one for important terms like 'How to become a prosecutor.'

Now, obviously it's most likely that someone who wants to be a prosecutor will have known about Harvard Law School. But it certainly doesn't hurt to rank at the top for this discovery stage term.

And this content format '_____ career guide' is something that more schools could use to reach students after their offers. For example Franklin University has an entire Career Guide category that does well attracting valuable, high intent organic visitors.

Just something to consider.

Make Tuition, Aid, And ROI Easy To Understand

Financial concerns drive of course, also drive many educational searches.

Most prospective students and even their parents have significant anxiety about costs and their return on investment.

So, it's important to address these concerns with clear, transparent and easy to find information about tuition, fees, and financial aid opportunities.

And this includes providing different figures for the different groups schools intend to attract. A Nielsen Norman article highlighted University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) when discussing the importance of including explicit information in site copy and it still holds up today.

And even beyond information on program pages and basic requirements, schools can do all sorts of creative content marketing to provide a unique and helpful user experience:

Interactive cost calculators with personalized estimates based on program and student backgrounds (and again, UC San Diego is a great example for this)

Financial aid guides with step-by-step application processes and important deadlines
Scholarship databases with searchable resources specific to your institution
ROI success stories highlighting graduate outcomes with salary data and career progression
Payment option explainers with clear breakdowns of payment plans and financing

And in an age with decreasing % click-through rates on search engines - it's super helpful to use schema markup on financial aid content to enhance visibility in featured snippets and Google Business Profile.

Here way, you can convey important information like the average cost after financial aid right on the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Make Admissions Requirements Clear And Easy To Act On

Similarly, prospective students want more than just basic admissions requirements.

They want to understand if they're genuinely qualified, if they can afford it (usually including financial aid information in admissions sections), and how to position themselves for success. Because after all, people want answers fast in the discovery and exploration stage.

With 1-2 clicks from anywhere on the site, visitors to the Elon University site (undergrad, graduate, and international students) can access information on admission and deadlines, programs, financial aid, and more.

So again, here are some ideas to help nurture a smooth user experience for site visitors:

Interactive eligibility tools that help students self-assess their chances.
Application walkthrough videos with step-by-step guidance from actual staff.
Student success profiles of students from various backgrounds (perhaps on the same page as the ROI success stories mentioned above).
Timeline visualizations that clearly map out the application processes with deadlines.
Common mistakes resources addressing frequent application pitfalls with tips on how to avoid them.

Transparency and comprehensive information in this area builds trust while also capturing high-intent search traffic.

Show Students What Life At Your Institution Feels Like

Campus culture content performs best when it's authentic.

This can be things like student-created blogs, videos, and social takeovers to show real campus experiences. (Just be sure to include editors and quality control in the process!)

The keys for this content is to address questions of fitting in while also building an emotional connection.

Virtual 360° tours, day-in-the-life videos, and/or interactive maps
Community storytelling that highlights traditions, values, and unique aspects of the city the school is located in.
Content specific to diverse student communities can be super important for building a welcoming environment of trust and acceptance for international or minority students.
Local area guides with information about the surrounding community and opportunities. And t hese can also support local SEO when they answer campus visit , neighbourhood, housing, transit, and student-life questions.

University of Glasgow does a great job with this through their video content and Ask a Student section on their site.

Use Subject Matter Experts for Authoritative Content

It's not only all about students, though, of course.

Faculty staff can also provide critical authenticity and represent an authoritative source for related content needs.

Things like faculty department research can make for great articles (summarizing scientific articles for a wider audience). Also editorials on field developments.

And of course other content formats like short video responses to common field questions. Or showcases of strong faculty-student relationships. And perhaps most interesting - direct advice from admissions counsellors can have a profound impact on how potential attendees judge your offer.

Semantic Relationships in Educational Search

It's important to note here how educational searches follow connected patterns that mirror the decision journey.

Students might start researching a major, then investigate related careers, expected salaries, and ultimately program ROI.

So, you’ll want to create content for all sorts of inquiries, with natural pathways (via internal links) between related content, to keep prospects engaged throughout their entire research process.

Here’s an example of how search intent can evolve through the enrolment consideration process:

Build Your Keyword Strategy Around Real Student Questions

A strong higher education keyword strategy starts with the questions prospective students ask, rather than a list of terms generated by an SEO tool.

Start with your priority programs and map the questions students ask as they move toward enrollment. Early searches may focus on possible careers or degree options. Later searches become more specific as students compare institutions and investigate requirements.

Then use Google Search Console to see how people already find your site. Look for non-branded queries where relevant program pages receive impressions but few clicks, then look for pages sitting close enough to page one that better content could realistically move them forward.

Finally, weigh that search opportunity against enrollment value . A keyword with thousands of searches isn't automatically more valuable than a smaller query from someone actively comparing one of your priority programs.

This process should produce both branded and non-branded opportunities. Non-branded searches help students discover your institution before they have chosen a school. Branded searches become more important as they evaluate your offer and move toward application.

You need both. The right balance depends on where your current visibility is weak and which programs matter most to your enrollment strategy.

The University of Iowa, I used as an example above, in my opinion has the good mix of branded vs non-branded organic keywords. With about a quarter of organic traffic from branded and the rest helping discovery.

Create Program Knowledge Hubs That Mirror Student Research Paths

So we know that understanding student search patterns is key.

Well, creating structured knowledge hubs transforms this approach, organizing content into interconnected clusters that match how prospective students actually explore educational options.

And this semantic organization improves both search visibility and user experience.

We'll get into user experience more when we cover technical SEO - as it relates to site architecture.

So first let's cover the search visibility part of the organization.

Program-Specific Content Clusters

You can build comprehensive content ecosystems around each academic program.

Start with a strong pillar page that provides an overview of the program, then connect to supporting content addressing specific aspects.

For example, a Psychology program cluster might include:

Core pillar page: Psychology Degree Program Overview
And supporting pages linking to it like:
Specialization options (Clinical, Developmental, Industrial-Organizational)
Research opportunities
Internship programs
Career outcomes
Faculty expertise
Student success stories

Create navigational elements that make relationships between content pieces explicit, such as "related programs" or "next steps" sections.

Just be sure to implement strategic contextual internal linking to also guide users through a logical exploration path.

And use descriptive anchor text that incorporates relevant keywords.

Use Departmental Subdomains Only When They Help Users Navigate

You could also consider using sub-domains for large departments or schools within your institution.

This approach can help search engine crawlers and users better navigate and understand content relationships while delivering distinct brand search for individual school programs.

Here are some important things to consider when implementing sub-domains:

Maintain consistent global navigation across all sub-domains
Implement clear cross-linking between the main domain and sub-domains
Create content gateways that help users move between related sub-domains
Ensure consistent implementation of technical SEO elements across all properties

And just as an example - this is what Columbia University’s footer looks like.

Each of those schools has its own subdomain.

And each subdomain has hundreds of relevant pages relating to that specific program.

It's important to note that sub-domains should only be used when they provide clear user benefits.

They're not bad for your SEO - but must be used properly with proper internal linking so that it's clear to crawlers they are part of the same institution.

Don't worry - this is not rocket science though and can at least be partly aided by links to the parent site in the header and footer:

And be sure that each subdomain has their own unique robots.txt file !

Each subdomain is generally viewed as a separate site.

And as it's especially important for big sites - your robots.txt file will inform search crawlers what it should and shouldn't crawl on your site.

This way you can save crawl budget for important pages that you do want crawled, indexed, and ranking.

Cross-Disciplinary Content Connections

It’s also extremely common for students to seek out cross-disciplinary educational paths.

To capture these searches, create content that bridges traditional academic boundaries.

Develop pages that highlight (and link):

Complementary major/minor combinations with high career value
Interdisciplinary programs and concentrations
Joint degree opportunities
Showcase how seemingly unrelated disciplines connect in emerging career fields
Double major pathways and requirements

Implement bidirectional linking between related disciplines.

For example, you can link Computer Science to Art programs for students interested in digital design.

Or Psychology to Business for those exploring organizational behaviour.

Content Freshness Strategies for Higher Education

One thing to keep in mind throughout this process is the importance of going back, auditing your content and keeping it up-to-date thanks to a reliable content refresh strategy .

This is especially important on sites where there lots of changes taking place with the potential to make mistakes.

Here are some important content types to stay current with:

Seasonal updates that align with application cycles and academic calendars
Program refreshes with updates whenever curricula or requirements change
Outcomes data that refresh employment statistics annually
Faculty changes with updates on new hires and research developments
Student features rotating student profiles each semester

We have content update services for this if you’re curious.

Build The Technical Foundation Students Need To Complete Key Tasks

Technical SEO helps create seamless experiences that address the unique needs of higher education audiences.

When prospective students encounter slow-loading pages or forms that aren't mobile friendly, both you and them have a roadblock to your goals.

Page Speed: The First Impression That Matters

Why it matters: 53% of mobile users abandon sites after 3 seconds of loading time ; Gen Z prospective students have even less patience
UX impact: Cloudflare has shown that each 100ms improvement correlates with a 1.1% increase in conversion actions on application and information request forms
Quick wins: Optimize images, implement lazy loading for media-heavy pages, and defer non-critical scripts. One plugin we like to use is Litespeed Cache , it's a free plugin for WordPress, Drupal, and several other content management systems (CMS) and does a great job speeding up your site.

Website speed directly impacts how prospective students perceive your institution's quality and attention to detail.

But not all things are equal. Here are some of the keys to prioritize:

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how quickly a page responds throughout a visitor's interactions with it. For a university website, poor INP can make course filters, menus, or application steps feel sluggish even when the page initially loads quickly. Google recommends using Core Web Vitals as one part of creating a strong page experience.

Mobile Optimization: Supporting the Primary Student Research Device

All websites need a responsive design. This is where the site adapts dynamically to the device of the user.

Google crawlers are mobile-first , so you must have a mobile-friendly site if you want your site pages indexed and ranking.

Plus, as we know by now, most prospective undergraduate students conduct their initial college research on mobile devices, particularly relying on their phones during the exploration phase.

So, mobile optimization is essential.

But technical requirements for higher education mobile experiences extend beyond responsive design. Application forms, financial aid calculators, and virtual campus tours require special consideration for mobile users.

Application Forms: Create mobile-friendly multi-step forms with progress indicators and save functionality. Xavier University implemented this approach with its mobile application to great success.

Touch-friendly navigation: Implement intuitive menus that accommodate one-handed mobile browsing
Virtual Tours: Optimize 360-degree campus tours with progressive loading and adaptive resolution.
Financial Aid Calculators: Design mobile-first interactive tools that save and resume inputs. Prospective students particularly value these tools during campus visits when comparing institutions.
Course Catalogs: Implement collapsible, searchable course listings with floating navigation elements. Mobile users spend nearly twice as long with well-designed course catalogs as desktop users.

The technical implementation should prioritize thumb-friendly navigation elements and minimize text input requirements. Remember that prospective students are often multitasking or researching on the go.

Site Architecture: Reflecting How Students Actually Research

Just as we covered above with the semantic relationship in educational searches, so too higher education site architecture must mirror prospective students' natural research patterns.

It’s a mistake for institutional websites to be organized around internal administrative structures rather than student information needs.

Implement a site architecture that follows common student research journeys by creating clear pathways between related content:

Program Discovery Path:

Field of interest → Specific major information → Career outcomes → Application requirements

Affordability Path:

Program costs → Available aid → Application process → Payment deadlines

Technical implementation also requires proper URL structures, breadcrumb navigation, and internal linking patterns reinforcing these natural pathways.

Accessibility is a Must in Higher Education

Accessibility isn't just a legal requirement for educational institutions—it reflects core values around inclusion and equal opportunity.

Technical SEO and accessibility improvements work together to create better user experiences for everyone.

WCAG 2.1 AA compliance: This ensures proper heading structure with sequential H1-H6 tags that reflect content hierarchy. This helps screen readers navigate content while also providing a clear semantic structure for search engines.
Alt Text for Educational Images: Provide descriptive alt text for campus images, charts, and infographics. This serves visually impaired users while providing additional semantic context for search engines.
Transcripts and Captions: Add full transcripts for video content and campus tour materials. These improve accessibility while creating indexable content from multimedia assets.
ARIA Attributes for Interactive Elements: Implement proper ARIA labels for application forms, financial aid calculators, and interactive campus maps.
Keyboard Navigation: Ensure all interactive elements are accessible via keyboard navigation for users with motor limitations.

Schema Markup Implementation

Schema markup gives search engines structured information about the institution, its programs, and the content described on each page.

Course markup for detailed program information
CollegeOrUniversity markup for institutional details
EducationalOccupationalProgram for degree and certificate programs
EducationalOccupationalCredential for qualification information

Here's an example of nested Schema that aims to go above and beyond to provide as much information about a School of Architecture as possible (as shared by Seer Interative ):

Implement schema on your highest-priority programs first, then expand it where the markup accurately describes the content students can see on the page.

Use Google's Rich Results Test when you're implementing a structured-data type that Google supports as a search feature. It will show whether the page is eligible for that Google-specific treatment.

For other schema.org types, use the Schema Markup Validator to check the markup itself. Passing that validator confirms the structure is valid; it does not mean Google will display a special search result for it.

Audit Technical SEO Around The Student Journey

You want to develop a comprehensive technical audit framework focused on educational user experience:

Speed Testing By User Type:
Test speed separately for prospective student pages, current student portals, and alumni sections as each has different functionality requirements.

Device-Specific Testing:
Test core conversion paths (information requests, applications, campus tour signups) across devices popular with your target demographics.

Journey-Based Crawl Analysis:
Conduct crawl tests that follow specific student research paths rather than just spidering the entire site.

Seasonal Load Testing:
Implement load testing during peak application periods to ensure performance under stress.

Accessibility Compliance Scanning:
Run regular automated and manual accessibility tests with actual assistive technology users.

Measure Technical SEO Success Through Student-Focused Metrics

Move beyond traditional technical SEO metrics to measure actual student experience improvements:

Technical SEO implementations should account for critical academic periods:

Schedule major technical changes during academic breaks to minimize disruption during peak application or registration periods.
Implement progressive enhancements rather than complete overhauls to maintain continuity for current users.
Establish staging environments that mirror production traffic patterns for accurate testing.
Create department-specific implementation schedules that respect unique academic calendars (graduate programs often have different cycles than undergraduate).

So to sum up - by focusing on speed, mobile optimization, intuitive architecture, and accessibility, you satisfy both users and search engines.

Use Local SEO To Support Campus Visits And Place-Based Searches

Your institution may attract students from across the country or the world, but your campus location still shapes how students and families make decisions.

Prospective students often use local search when they are closer to taking action. They may search for directions, campus tours, parking, nearby housing, neighbourhood information, student life, safety, accessibility, or specific programs in a city.

That makes local SEO especially important for searches like:

Nursing programs in Chicago
Campus tours near me
Parking at [University]
Things to do near [University]
Hotels near [University]
[University] reviews
[University] directions

For colleges and universities, local SEO should help students and families understand the place behind the program. That includes accurate Google Business Profiles, clear campus and department information, strong reviews, useful photos, local content, event pages, and location-specific program details.

It also supports one of the most important higher-ed decision questions: “Can I picture myself there?”

At a minimum, your institution should make sure students and families can quickly find:

Your main campus address and map pin
Directions, parking, transit, and accessibility details
Campus tour and open house information
Reviews and reputation signals
Student-life and neighbourhood content
Program pages with relevant city or campus context
Local event pages with clear registration details

We cover this in more depth in our full guide to local SEO for higher education , including Google Business Profile setup, local keyword targeting, review management, Google Posts, local authority, AI visibility, and enrolment-focused measurement.

Use Video SEO To Answer High-Stakes Student Questions

Video content has become essential in higher education marketing. 96% of people prefer to watch explainer videos before investing in a purchase.

When properly optimized, these videos can significantly boost your SEO performance while building trust addressing student questions.

Aligning Video Content with Core Student Questions

Effective educational video content directly addresses the four fundamental questions prospective students ask:

1. "Does this university have the program I want?" Program videos bring academic offerings to life in ways text cannot. Create department-specific content that showcases:

Faculty explaining unique program features and research opportunities
Current students demonstrating hands-on learning experiences
Alumni discussing how specific programs prepared them for careers
Virtual classroom tours highlighting specialized facilities and technology

Concise videos for each major featuring student perspectives and program highlights can go a long way in getting your school ranking prominently in program-specific searches.

2. "Can I afford this school?" Financial information is relatively complex and intimidating. So, video content makes these topics more approachable:

Cost breakdown explainers with experts and visual comparisons

Step-by-step financial aid application walkthroughs
Scholarship opportunity overviews with application tips
Student perspectives on managing college costs

3. "What are my chances of getting in?" Admissions videos provide clarity and confidence during a stressful process:

Application requirement explanations from actual admissions counselors
Essay writing and interview preparation guidance
Virtual admissions events and information sessions
Student stories highlighting diverse pathways to acceptance

4. "Will I fit in here?" Campus culture videos create emotional connections that drive enrolment decisions:

Day-in-the-life student documentaries showing authentic experiences

Campus traditions and events captured from student perspectives
Community engagement and local area exploration
Diversity and inclusion initiatives in action

Technical Optimization Requirements for Educational Videos

Proper technical optimization ensures your videos contribute maximum SEO value:

1. Comprehensive Video Transcripts

Transcripts serve multiple critical functions:

Make content accessible to all users, including those with hearing impairments
Provide search engines with indexable text content related to your video
Allow users to scan content before committing to watching
Create opportunities for featured snippets and video highlights

I recommend including full transcripts on the same page as embedded videos rather than hiding them behind tabs or in separate files. And even take it a step further by optimizing the transcripts for search via correct heading structure and keyword placement.

2. Video Schema Markup

Proper schema implementation can dramatically increase video visibility:

Use VideoObject schema with complete metadata (title, description, thumbnail, upload date)
Include duration, educational institution, and transcript data
Implement proper timestamps for key moments in long-form content
Connect videos to relevant educational program schema

Properly implemented video schema can increase click-through rates by up to 35% by enabling rich results with thumbnail images and additional information.

3. Strategic Video Hosting Decisions

Your hosting approach impacts both user experience and SEO performance:

The University of California system demonstrates effective hybrid implementation—uploading to YouTube for discovery while embedding on optimized landing pages with additional context and conversion elements.

And it's important to have a multi-channel approach. After all - according to a Pew research report, nine in ten teens report using YouTube - with 73% using it daily.

4. Thumbnail Optimization

Thumbnails significantly impact click-through rates and user engagement:

Create custom thumbnails that accurately represent content
Include visual elements that align with institutional branding
Test thumbnail variations to identify the highest-performing options
Ensure thumbnails are high-resolution and properly sized (1280x720 recommended)

Video Distribution Strategies for Maximum Visibility

Effective distribution ensures your video content reaches prospective students throughout their decision journey:

1. YouTube Channel Organization

Proper YouTube channel structure improves discoverability.:

Create program-specific playlists that align with student research journeys
Optimize channel sections for different audience segments (prospective students, parents, etc.)
Implement consistent video naming conventions with targeted keywords
Develop a regular publishing calendar aligned with search trends

University of Glasgow’s well-organized YouTube channel features distinct playlists for academic programs, student life, cost of living, application guidance—all with consistent naming conventions that support YouTube's recommendation algorithm.

2. On-Site Video Integration

Strategic video placement on your website enhances engagement metrics:

Embed relevant videos on high-traffic programs and admissions pages
Position videos above the fold on mobile-optimized pages
Create dedicated video resource centers organized by decision stage
Include clear calls-to-action following video content

3. Social Media Distribution

Platform-specific video optimization maximizes reach and engagement:

Adapt video length and format for each platform (short form for Instagram/TikTok, longer for Facebook)
Implement closed captions for sound-off viewing environments
Create platform-exclusive content that drives traffic to more comprehensive resources
Leverage student ambassadors for authentic distribution and engagement

For example - Northeastern University's TikTok strategy has generated over 2.4 million likes, and brought them a significant source for leads via their link in bio.

Video Engagement Metrics To Keep An Eye On

Search algorithms increasingly use engagement signals to evaluate content quality :

Watch time: Average percentage of video viewed (aim for >60%)
Audience retention: When viewers typically drop off (address content issues at drop points)
Engagement actions: Comments, likes, and shares (indicate valuable content)
Click-through rate: From thumbnail to play (measures initial appeal)
Subsequent actions: What viewers do after watching (measure conversion value)

Video Length Guidelines by Purpose

Optimal video length varies significantly based on content purpose:

Research shows that prospective student engagement drops significantly after 6 minutes for most educational content , with the exception of in-depth virtual events and comprehensive campus tours.

Authenticity vs. Production Quality

While technical quality matters, authenticity drives engagement:

Student-created content consistently outperforms professional productions in engagement metrics
Unscripted testimonials generate more trust than scripted presentations
Natural campus settings perform better than studio environments
Diverse representation significantly impacts the perception of campus culture

The most successful institutions view video as an integrated element of their comprehensive SEO strategy. It supports text content while providing the emotional connection that drives enrolment decisions.

By aligning video content with the four core questions prospective students ask, you create resources that both improve search visibility and showcase what makes your institution unique.

Use AI And Personalized Content To Guide Students To The Right Next Step

An interesting and important piece of information to consider is that over half (56%) of prospective students like and expect to have personalized content and communication even in their research stage.

Personalized content uses visitor data to segment and deliver dynamic, personalized experiences based on demographics, location, search history, etc.

To do this, you must collect user data via cookies on your site.

You've almost certainly seen these disclaimer cookie popups or banners when you visit most websites these days.

McGill University is a good example here, as the site is clear about its cookies:

Arguably, the most common use of these cookies for marketing purposes is for retargeting ads that follow users across other Google and social media platforms after they leave the site.

For a university website, this could also mean a dynamic homepage highlighting informative content about your engineering program to a returning visitor who has searched for it in the past.

This creates an engaging experience tailored to each visitor's specific use case. And in the age of AI, there are some exciting opportunities on the horizon and in the here and now.

But to be clear - personalized content can come with significant challenges from lack of budget and user data. It’s not realistic to think anyone can create an algorithm with recommendations as advanced as Google or Spotify.

But again, there are some exciting opportunities today thanks to how accessible AI has become!

Here are a few examples to help get the juices flowing:

1. AI-Powered Chatbots & Virtual Assistants

You could create a university chatbot powered by AI that engages visitors with real-time conversations. This could specialize in answering FAQs and providing tailored recommendations based on their interests (e.g., programs, scholarships, campus life).

For example: A chatbot asks a visitor about their interests or needs (STEM, arts, business) and directs them to:

Relevant course pages,
Faculty profiles,
Grant or scholarship opportunities,
Internship opportunities
Or simply share student testimonials or alumni success stories from the program.

For this, you create AI chatbots on the university’s website and messaging platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger) to engage visitors in real-time. Just be sure to of course use NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand user intent and provide personalized responses based on their inquiries.

2. Dynamic & Adaptive Web Content

I mentioned this before but you can also leverage AI to personalize web pages in real-time based on user behavior, demographics, and geographic location.

For another example of this in the wild, a student from India could see specific international student resources, visa requirements, a breakdown of living costs for international students, and testimonials from Indian alumni.

Use AI-driven personalization tools like OptiMonk, or some other CRO toolset to adjust content and offers dynamically based on visitor data (location, browsing history, referral source).

3. Interactive Virtual Campus Tours with AI Guidance

Offer AI-powered, customizable virtual tours that adapt to a student’s preferences.

Example: A prospective business student taking a virtual tour could be guided through the business school, meet faculty via pre-recorded videos, and explore internship opportunities. And who knows, if VR - or more likely, AR becomes more widespread, we'll likely see this being an option for studies.

Here, you’d need to develop a 360° virtual tour integrated with AI-driven recommendations that change based on user preferences. Use chatbot narration, pre-recorded professor intros, and student testimonials for an immersive experience.

4. AI-Generated Personalized Email & SMS Follow-Ups

Use AI-driven automation to send customized follow-up emails or text messages based on website interactions.

Example: If a student explores scholarship options, they receive a follow-up email with details on financial aid and upcoming deadlines.

Then use behavior-based automation (via HubSpot, Marketo, or ActiveCampaign) to send follow-ups triggered by specific actions (e.g., browsing financial aid pages, downloading a brochure).

5. AI-Assisted Scholarship & Financial Aid Matchmaking

Develop AI-driven tools that assess a student's profile and suggest relevant scholarships and financial aid opportunities.

Example: A prospective student inputs their grades and interests, and AI recommends applicable merit-based scholarships.

This doesn’t necessarily need to use advanced AI but could develop an AI-powered tool that lets students input their academic background, interests, and financial needs to get personalized scholarship recommendations. Use machine learning to refine suggestions over time.

6. Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Personalized Search

Implement AI-enhanced search that understands natural queries (e.g., "Which business programs offer study abroad options?") and delivers relevant, ranked results.

Example: Instead of keyword-based search results, the website provides an AI-curated list of business programs with international partnerships.

For this, you’d need to upgrade the university's website search engine with AI-powered NLP capabilities (Ie., Algolia , Elasticsearch ) to understand natural-language queries instead of only target keywords.

Measure SEO From Search Visibility To Enrollment

Traditional SEO metrics like rankings and organic traffic only tell a small part of the story in higher education.

True success comes when your SEO efforts directly contribute to enrollment objectives and institutional goals.

Aligning SEO Metrics with Institutional Objectives

Start by connecting SEO efforts to specific institutional goals:

The Complete Measurement Journey: From Search to Enrolment

Develop a tracking framework that follows prospective students from their first discovery of your institution through to enrollment.

Search and AI Visibility: begin with the places where prospective students can first encounter your institution. Traditional rankings remain useful, but discovery can now also happen through Google's generative AI experiences.
Program-specific keyword rankings (especially for non-branded terms)
Featured snippet and knowledge panel appearances
Local pack visibility for campus-related searches
Video result presence for key educational queries

Engagement and Interest Indicators: track how effectively your content engages prospective students after they find you:
Program page depth metrics (time on page, scroll depth)
Return visit frequency during the research phase
Content consumption patterns across the decision journey
Cross-device engagement continuity

Conversion Pathway Analysis: measure specific actions that indicate deepening interest:
Information request completions from organic search
Virtual tour registrations and completion rates
Application guide downloads
Campus visit registrations
Application starts and completions

Enrolment and Yield Metrics: connect search visibility to actual enrolment outcomes:
Accepted student engagement with search-driven content
Yield rates from students who originally discovered via search
Orientation and first-semester registration completion
Scholarship acceptance rates from search-originated students

Attribution Models for the Complex Higher Education Decision

Higher education decisions rarely follow linear paths, requiring sophisticated attribution approaches.

Traditional last-click attribution significantly undervalues SEO contribution in higher education. Research shows that prospective students interact with institutional content an average of 15-20 times before applying, with organic search often initiating the relationship but rarely serving as the final touchpoint.

Implement education-specific attribution models:

Extended Time-Decay Model: Accounts for the lengthy decision cycle (often 12+ months for undergraduate programs) by giving appropriate credit to early-stage interactions
Decision Stage Weighting: Assigns different values to interactions based on their place in the student journey (awareness, consideration, decision)
Cross-Device Attribution: Recognizes that students research on mobile but due to technical limitations, often complete applications on desktop
Influencer Recognition: Acknowledges the role of parent and counsellor searches in the decision process

Qualitative Assessment of SEO's Impact on Student Success

Move beyond enrollment numbers to assess how well your SEO-driven content prepares students for success:

Expectation Alignment Surveys Survey incoming students about how accurately your online content portrayed the institution:
Program content accuracy assessment
Campus culture representation evaluation
Resource and support services awareness
Overall preparation for the student experience

Content-Driven Success Metrics Track correlations between specific content engagement and student outcomes:
First-year retention rates among students who heavily engaged with pre-enrollment content
Academic performance correlation with program-specific research depth
Student satisfaction scores compared to pre-enrollment content engagement
Participation rates in opportunities highlighted in SEO content

Using Measurement to Drive Continuous Improvement

Implement a structured process to convert measurement insights into actionable improvements:

Quarterly Content Performance Reviews
Analyze which types of content drive the most valuable conversions
Identify high-potential pages with engagement but low conversion
Compare performance across student segments and demographics

User Experience Feedback Integration
Correlate UX metrics with conversion outcomes
Implement targeted improvements for high-value pages
A/B test content format and structure variations

Cross-Functional Insight Sharing
Create regular reporting for enrollment, marketing, and academic units
Connect SEO insights to program development discussions
Inform institutional positioning based on search behaviour patterns

Remember that in higher education, SEO success isn't just about driving applications but about attracting the right students who will thrive at your institution.

The most valuable measurement assesses not just quantity of interest but quality of fit.

AI visibility sits near the beginning of this journey. An impression in an AI result can tell you that Google is surfacing your institution during research, but it doesn't tell you whether that exposure contributed to an application. Connect those page-level signals to the same engagement and enrollment measurements you already use before deciding whether the visibility has business value.

Build A Higher Education SEO Roadmap Around Admissions Cycles

Implementing comprehensive SEO in higher education requires strategic planning that aligns with institutional rhythms and resource realities. This roadmap provides a practical approach to building sustainable SEO practices that deliver long-term results without overwhelming your team.

Phased Implementation Approach

Higher education SEO implementation works best when aligned with academic and admission cycles:

Phase 1: Foundation

Begin with essential technical elements during a lower-traffic period (often summer):

Comprehensive Technical Audit
Conduct site crawl analysis to identify technical barriers
Assess mobile experience across key conversion paths
Evaluate page speed on critical program pages
Review site architecture from a student journey perspective

Google Analytics Implementation
Enhance tracking to capture the full prospective student journey
Implement proper goal tracking for key conversion points
Create program-specific tracking segments
Set up attribution modeling for long decision cycles

Critical Technical Fixes
Address priority mobile usability issues
Implement essential schema markup for educational organization
Correct canonical issues and duplicate content
Optimize core site speed factors

Foundation Review & Planning
Document technical improvements
Establish baseline performance metrics
Develop content calendar for Phase 2
Secure cross-departmental commitments

Phase 2: Content Development

Focus on creating high-impact content during prime research periods - although you can certainly create content throughout the year:

Core Program Content Enhancement
Develop comprehensive content for highest-priority programs
Implement proper heading structure and semantic markup
Create program-specific FAQ content
Enhance career outcome information

Prospective Student Journey Development
Build content addressing the four core student questions
Create clear pathways between related content
Implement conversion-focused elements
Develop mobile-optimized application pathways

Faculty & Student Contribution Process
Establish sustainable content contribution systems
Train department representatives
Create templates and guidelines
Implement approval workflows

Phase 3: Local & Video Enhancement

Enhance experience-focused content as students begin making decisions:

Local SEO Implementation
Review Google Business Profile visibility for the main campus and key public-facing locations.
Create or improve location-specific campus, visit, and student-life pages.
Build a review management process.
Add event schema to open houses, campus tours, and public events.

For the detailed process, use our guide to local SEO for higher education .

Video Content Development
Create program-specific video content
Develop student experience videos
Implement proper video optimization
Train staff on ongoing video creation

Phase 4: Measurement & Optimization (Ongoing)

Establish sustainable improvement processes:

Regular Performance Analysis (Monthly)
Review key conversion metrics by program and audience
Analyze content effectiveness and engagement
Track rankings for strategic keywords
Assess local online visibility and engagement

Iterative Content Enhancement (Quarterly)
Update program content based on search performance data
Refresh seasonal content aligned with decision cycles
Enhance underperforming conversion points
Develop new content based on search trends

Technical Maintenance (Semi-annual - although this can also depend on what CMS you’re using - WordPress, Drupal, etc.)
Conduct comprehensive technical audits
Address emerging technical issues
Implement new schema enhancements
Update for algorithm changes

The ideal implementation timeline aligns with the academic calendar. Here's an example of what that can look like:

Summer (May-August): Technical foundation and analytics setup during lower traffic periods
Fall (September-December): Core content development during prime research period (Although I always recommend to begin content development early so it gets indexed ASAP and can then be repurposed across your marketing channels when the time comes.)
Winter Break (December-January): Performance assessment and strategy refinement
Spring (February-April): Experience content enhancement ahead of decision deadlines
End of Academic Year (May): Comprehensive performance review and planning

This cyclical approach ensures that your SEO efforts align with natural prospective student research patterns.

Connecting Implementation to Sustainable Results

The most successful higher education SEO implementations share these characteristics:

Alignment with Institutional Cycles
An implementation that respects academic calendars
Resource allocation that acknowledges seasonal demands
Performance expectations tied to enrollment cycles
Broad Institutional Involvement
Cross-departmental collaboration rather than marketing isolation
Faculty and student contribution to content authenticity
Shared metrics and performance visibility
Focus on Long-Term Capability
Skill development rather than vendor dependence
Sustainable processes over one-time projects
Continuous improvement mindset

It's never about cheap wins and sneaky tactics.

It's about building sustainable practices aligned with institutional realities. And by following a phased approach that respects academic cycles and resource constraints, institutions can develop SEO capabilities that deliver consistent results over multiple recruitment cycles while showcasing their unique educational value.

Turn UX-Grounded SEO Into A Competitive Enrollment Advantage

SEO for higher education institutions is all about connecting with prospective students at each stage of their decision journey.

By understanding your diverse audiences, creating valuable content that answers their core questions, and implementing user-focused technical improvements to your schools website, you'll transform your digital presence into a powerful enrolment driver.

The strategies outlined in this guide provide a framework that can be adapted to institutions of all sizes and resource levels.

If you ever need help, feel free to contact us at 8-Bit Content . We bring over 15 years of experience in education leadership and digital marketing expertise.

And we offer a free personalized assessment of websites like yours .

Content Marketing for Schools 101: Strategies for Growth

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 06:29:40 GMT

Content Marketing for Schools 101: Strategies for Growth

Before families book a school tour, they need proof that your school is the right fit.

That’s why your school’s content marketing should answer the questions families ask before they inquire. They want clear answers about fees, curriculum, reviews, student life, learning support, parent experience, and whether their child will genuinely belong.

A few polished photos and open-day reminders are not enough to build that confidence. Strong content reduces uncertainty, builds trust, and helps families picture daily life at your school.

In this guide, I’ll share insights from 15+ years in education leadership and show you how to build a practical content strategy that supports visibility, reputation, inquiries, and enrollment.

Key Insights on Content Marketing for Schools

If you’re short on time, focus on these six principles:

Build trust before expecting an inquiry. Families need credible proof that your school can satisfy their needs for their children and can deliver the experience it promises.
Answer the questions parents ask before a tour. Make information about fees, curriculum, support, student life, reputation, and belonging easy to find.
Reuse every strong story. Turn one student story, parent guide, or staff interview into reusable website content, emails, videos, social posts, and admissions materials.
Give each channel a clear job. Use your website for detailed answers, email for nurturing, social media for reach, and video to show personality and daily life.
Measure movement towards enrollment. Track admissions-page visits, inquiry starts, tour bookings, applications, and enrollment actions alongside views and engagement.
Fix your highest-intent pages first. Improve your key pages: admissions pages, fees information, frequently asked questions, support content, and inquiry paths before increasing your publishing schedule.

What Is Content Marketing for Schools?

Content marketing for schools means creating useful content that answers families’ questions, shows what daily life is like, and helps the right families feel confident about your school. For example, a clear guide to fees, learning support, and the admissions process can resolve common concerns before a parent books a tour.

This should include:

Blog posts
Social media updates
Email newsletters
Videos

Families are more likely to choose a school they know, like, and trust.

So, content marketing isn’t about using pushy sales tactics to get them to choose your school in a single visit.

Instead, it focuses on creating and sharing high-quality content that solves problems, answers questions, and builds a real connection.

By showing how your school meets families’ needs, including your unique offerings, success stories, or helpful guides, content marketing helps you be seen as a good choice for the right families.

You can also check out this video for an overview of content marketing in general from one of our favourite SEO tools that also featured us as education SEO experts :

What Parents Need Before They Book a School Tour

Before a family spends time visiting a school in person, they usually need confidence in seven areas:

Fees and value - What does the school cost, and what does that investment include?
Use a dedicated fees page ( like this ) that breaks down tuition costs, payment schedules, and available financial support where relevant.
Curriculum and outcomes - What will their child learn, and how will progress be supported?
Build curriculum and programme pages that explain learning goals, teaching methods, progress measures, and representative student outcomes.
Reviews and reputation - What do other parents, students, and alumni say?
Create a testimonials page and place specific parent, student, and alumni stories beside the claims they support.
Student life - What will their child’s day actually feel like?
Use day-in-the-life videos, student stories, photo essays, club pages, and event highlights to show a normal week.
Support - How does the school help students academically, socially, and emotionally?
Publish a learning and wellbeing support page that explains available services, staff responsibilities, and how families can access help.
Parent experience - How will the school communicate with and involve families?
Create a parent communication guide covering contact points, update frequency, meetings, events, feedback, and involvement opportunities.
Belonging - Will their child feel safe, known, included, and encouraged?
Use student stories, staff profiles, inclusion pages, and examples of school values in action to show how students are welcomed and supported.

Your content strategy should answer these questions before families have to ask them.

That’s what we’ll break down below.

Best Content Types for Schools

If you are wondering what schools should actually create, start with the content types that build trust, answer real questions, and help families picture life at your school.

The strongest school content strategies combine search-friendly website content, visual storytelling, and helpful resources. These can be repurposed across email, social media, video, and admissions materials.

Helpful Tip: Turn One Parent Insight Into a Content System

For example, since we know that families are interested to check fees, curriculum, reviews, student life, support, parent experience, and belonging before booking a tour, that single insight can become:

A social carousel: “The 7 Tabs a Parent Opens Before Booking a School Tour”

A blog post answering each parent concern in detail
A downloadable school-tour checklist
A seven-part email nurture sequence
A short video series featuring parents, students, and staff
New sections for admissions, support, fees, and student-life pages
Talking points for open houses and admissions calls

The core idea stays the same. Each format answers the question at a different depth.

The carousel creates awareness and recognition. The blog provides detail. The checklist supports comparison. Email nurtures interest. Admissions pages turn reassurance into action.

This is what useful repurposing looks like. One parent concern becomes a connected set of content that builds confidence before the tour.

Now let's look at the key components that make this strategy work.

Build a School Content Marketing Strategy

A useful school content strategy connects six decisions: what you want to achieve, who you need to reach, what families need at each stage, where to distribute content, when to publish it, and how to measure results.

Schools produce tons of potentially great content all the time:

Academic achievements
Athletic victories
Art showcases
Debate competitions
Family workshops

And somewhere floating in almost every school's cloud is a shared folder full of photos and video clips.

But collecting content is only half the battle. It's what you do with the content that matters.

A solid content marketing strategy for schools is what turns scattered updates into something more intentional.

It typically includes the following components:

Defined Goals
Target Audience
Content Plan
Distribution Channels
Content Calendar
Analytics Framework

Posting photos and videos on your Facebook page and group , Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts or LinkedIn can be useful, but by itself, that is not a strategy. It is one distribution tactic within a broader plan.

So let's dive deeper into each component.

1. Define Your School Content Marketing Goals

In the big picture, schools aim to meet recruitment targets to remain financially viable. However, marketing content goals need to be specific and clear.

What are you trying to achieve? More inquiries, higher open house attendance, or stronger community engagement? Likely, it’s all of the above.

To track progress, your goals must also be measurable. This is where the classic SMART framework comes in:

Specific : Define exactly what you want to achieve.
Measurable : Use metrics like clicks, views, or applications to track progress.
Achievable : Set realistic targets based on your resources.
Relevant : Align goals with your school’s priorities.
Time-Bound : Set deadlines to evaluate success and make adjustments.

SMART goals can look like this :

"Increase website inquiries by 20% in six months."
"Boost open house attendance by 30% for the next event."
"Reach 10,000 views on the school's promotional video within two months by promoting it on YouTube and through paid Facebook ads."

These well-defined goals provide a clear direction.

And you can use that sense of direction to make sure every blog post, video, or social media update contributes to achieving them.

2. Understand Your School’s Audiences

Similar to how teachers use student-centered approaches - school communication and marketing should be stakeholder-centered .

Your content needs to address the unique needs of prospective families, current families, and even alumni:

Prospective families. Look for content that highlights academic quality, a safe environment, and opportunities for growth.

Current families. Want updates that foster connection and keep them informed about events and initiatives.

Alumni. Value content that maintains their connection to the school and offers ways to engage or contribute.

You also need to consider the different requirements of high school families compared to families with children in elementary school.

As you know, their needs will be very different.

To understand these target audiences, you need to do some research, and segmentation is crucial for creating content that resonates and reflects your school’s mission and values.

Start by analyzing student demographics to identify trends and strengths that set your school apart.

Do families choose you for your STEM programs, arts excellence, or athletic achievements? Are you known for diversity, inclusion, or supporting first-generation students?

I also have always liked to make use of the school's mission and vision to help guide type of content we create and share.

If your school's mission emphasizes personal excellence, global understanding, or curiosity, then you should also be actively attracting families who care about these values.

You will want to enroll families who are aligned your school values. If families feel connected to values you demonstrate, it will help with retention.

Key Steps to Understanding Your Audience

3. Map Content to the Family Decision Journey

When families begin searching for the perfect school, their journey is full of questions, hopes, and uncertainties.

A well-crafted content plan can help and guide them along the journey.

In this section, we’ll show how matching your content to what families need at each stage of their decision-making process, from discovery to enrollment, can turn prospective families into part of your school community.

Build Awareness

At the start of their journey, potential students and families may not even know your school exists.

And they can't choose you if they don't know you. So, your first goal has to be getting your school on people's radar.

Your awareness strategy should include content like blogs, social media posts, and videos that introduce prospective students and their families to your programs, values, and community. And be sure to check out my mega-guide to SEO for higher education for more ideas.

I found that becoming an active member of various Chambers of Commerce could also be effective in getting my school known. I was often even able to distribute some content to the chamber members which helped spread awareness to potential parents.

So at the awareness stage, you're aiming to spark curiosity and draw prospective parents and kids into what you have to offer.

Ideas for this can include:

Infographics : such as "The Key Milestones in Early Education," can establish your school as a knowledgeable and supportive resource for parents.

Localized Blog Posts : Articles like "A Parent’s Guide to Choosing the Best Private School in [Your City]" with practical tips for evaluating private schools, using your school’s programs and values as examples. Learn more about how to get your blog noticed in our full guide.

Community Spotlights : Highlight partnerships, local involvement, or alumni giving back to the area to showcase your school’s connection to the community. We explore this in local SEO essentials for higher education - and they apply just as well here!

Attract Prospective Families

Even after a family knows you exist, they're still going to be weighing their options.

And as families explore the landscape of possible schools, you need to give them some good reasons to consider your school.

To do that, you're going to need a healthy supply of compelling content that answers a potential family's initial frequently asked questions.

Parent Guides : Downloadable guides like "How to Choose the Best School for Your Child" explaining key considerations and mention your school’s unique strengths.

Mini-Webinars : Sessions hosted by teachers, school leaders or alumni, such as "Benefits of Bilingual Education," or "How to get your kids to love reading."

Comparison Checklists : Offer tools like "Questions to Ask on Your School Tours" to help families see why your school stands out.

Bottom line: you need content that piques their interest and encourages them to want to get to know you better.

Build Trust and Credibility

If you've been in the shoes of a parent choosing a school, you know the journey is not particularly fun. In fact it is time-consuming and can quickly become overwhelming.

Your content for this stage needs to reassure them that they’re moving in the right direction.

To do this, you need to reinforce credibility and affirm that your school is a reliable, high-quality choice.

Success Stories: Feature detailed profiles of students or alumni excelling in academics, sports, or community service.

Awards Highlights: Showcase any local, national, or international recognition your school or students have received.

Staff Profiles: Short personal videos or blog posts introducing teachers and their expertise.

Student-Generated Content: Creative work from students, like essays, artwork, or science fair projects, to illustrate your school’s nurturing environment. E-books of student work can be a great way to accomplish this.

Nurture Interested Families

Families in this stage have moved beyond surface-level research.

Now, they are now evaluating your school on specific criteria, comparing it with competitors, and weighing practical considerations like values alignment, academic offerings, and community fit.

To truly engage and nurture them, your content must anticipate their deeper questions and deliver nuanced, personalized insights that foster a strong sense of insight and alignment.

Don't Give Them Generic Content:
Virtual tours and newsletters are foundational now, but this stage demands content that reflects families’ unique needs.

For instance, if families show interest in your arts programs, make sure you can share exclusive content like interviews with families on their previous experiences with your programs.

And also faculty and student achievements in the arts, or upcoming arts-related events.

Show, Don’t Just Tell:
Families are seeking evidence that your school lives up to its promises. Instead of describing your values, show them in action.

How? You can do this by sharing transparent data: examination results, university admissions success rates, or athletic achievements.

If your school claims to contribute to the community, then show evidence that your school does this.

You can supplement this with authentic storytelling like videos or blogs from students and parents that reflect lived experiences rather than rehearsed testimonials.

Think Like a Problem-Solver:
At this stage, families want to eliminate risk and uncertainty.

Help them do that.

Build content that pre-emptively answers questions they might not know to ask yet:

What happens if my child struggles academically?
How does the school support new families in adjusting to the community?
Anticipate these hesitations with clear, actionable answers in your messaging.

The key to success in this stage is treating every interaction as a chance to build a bridge of trust.

When families feel seen, understood, and valued, they are far more likely to choose your school with confidence.

Remove Barriers to Enrollment

Now families are seeking validation that your school is the right choice.

Your approach has to go beyond answering logistical questions.

So, building a content plan for every part of the family’s decision-making journey is worth the effort.

To do this, create resources that feel personal and intentional, and that reinforce confidence and simplify the enrollment process.

Straightforward strategies like printed materials or easily created multimedia can convey warmth and attention to detail by addressing the most common concerns families face, such as values alignment, and future outcomes.

Interactive Application Checklist: A digital tool families can personalize to track their progress through the enrollment process.

Enrollment Story Features: Share stories of other families’ decision journeys in a newsletter or blog to help prospective parents see themselves in your community.

Print-Friendly FAQs: A downloadable or printable FAQ document with clear, visually engaging answers to common questions like tuition, schedules, and transportation.

Support Newly Enrolled Families

Congratulations. Your school has successfully enrolled another wonderful student to join your vibrant community.

But don't celebrate just yet. From the day they start, you need to start the effort to retain that student and family.

This is where trust is either solidified or shaken.

Make sure you map out a seamless onboarding experience to set the tone for their relationship with your school.

Everyone does welcome emails, but you have the chance to go the extra mile by creating an onboarding journey that feels personal.

Examples to Elevate Your Onboarding Process:

Personalized Video Messages: Send a welcome video from the principal or the child's homeroom teacher, addressing the new student's name and grade.

First-Day Success Kits: Provide students with school-branded items and parents with a checklist to ensure a smooth transition.

Peer Ambassadors: Pair new students with current ones to answer questions and provide a friendly face on day one. Give those ambassadors recognition and awards for their contribution and reinforce a culture where students recognize they are vital partners in building a great school.

Most schools do some of these steps, but very few do all.

So, taking the time and making the effort to have a content plan for every of the family's decision-making journey will be worth it.

How you do anything is how do everything. Your school's content plan should reflect the same level of excellence that you expect in your teaching and learning.

4. Choose Distribution Channels and Repurpose Content

Choose channels based on where families look for information and what they need at each stage of their decision. Then adapt one strong story or resource for each channel instead of creating disconnected content from scratch.

Repurposing saves time and keeps your message consistent. Your website can hold the complete answer, while social media, email, video, and offline materials present the most relevant part for each audience.

Start With One Strong Piece of Content

Use one useful story, question, or resource as the source for channel-specific versions. Your website can hold the full answer, while social media, email, video, and offline materials highlight the part most relevant to each audience.

Like we covered above with the 'Helpful Tip: Turn One Parent Insight Into a Content System' example above, strong source material includes admissions questions, student achievements, staff introductions, programme highlights, parent concerns, community involvement, and onboarding guidance.

Make Your Website the Source of Truth

Your school website should hold the most complete and current version of your information.

Families should be able to explore your programmes, understand the admissions process, find answers to common questions, and take a clear next step.

Focus on three areas:

Mobile experience: Make pages fast, readable, and easy to navigate across different screen sizes.
Focused landing pages: Create dedicated pages for open houses, programmes, admissions inquiries, and other priority actions.
Search-led non-branded content: Build pages around the questions and topics families research, then connect them to your landing pages and lead generating pages with useful internal links.

Other channels should support these pages when a fuller answer or next step is useful. A social post may introduce a story, while the website provides the detail.

Use Social Media to Build Recognition and Conversation

Social media helps families see the people, values, and daily experiences behind your school.

Use each platform according to its strengths:

Instagram and Facebook: Student stories, event highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and short videos
YouTube: Tours, programme explainers, interviews, and longer student or staff stories
LinkedIn: Staff expertise, alumni outcomes, partnerships, and school leadership content

Social media should also create interaction. Respond to comments, answer questions, share community content, and invite families to participate in polls or question-and-answer sessions.

Paid campaigns can extend the reach of important content, especially for open houses, application deadlines, or priority programmes.

Use Email to Guide Families Forward

Email works best when it helps a specific audience take the next useful step.

Segment your list into groups such as:

Prospective families
Current parents
Newly enrolled families
Alumni
Community partners

Then match the content to their needs.

A prospective-family email sequence could include:

An introduction to the school
A student or parent story
Information about a relevant programme
Answers to common admissions questions
An invitation to book a tour or attend an open house

Keep the frequency manageable. Families should receive useful information without feeling overwhelmed.

Use images, short videos, guides, and clear links where they make the message easier to understand.

Use Offline Channels to Build Human Connections

Offline activities can make your digital content more tangible and personal.

Use:

Community events to demonstrate your school’s values and local involvement
Printed materials with quick-response codes to direct families to relevant pages
Open houses to bring student stories, programme information, and parent guidance into the in-person experience
Admissions conversations to reinforce the same messages families have already seen online

Website data can also inform offline activity. Strong interest in a swimming programme page, for example, may support a swim-team event or programme-specific open house.

Connect Your Channels Around the Family Journey

Each channel should support the same wider journey rather than operating separately.

For example:

A social video introduces a student story.
The full story appears on the website.
An email shares it with families interested in that programme.
The admissions page uses a short quote as proof.
Staff mention the story during an open house.

Match the next step to the family’s level of interest:

Awareness content can lead to a useful guide or school story.
Comparison content can lead to fees, programme, support, or review pages.
Decision-stage content can lead to a tour, inquiry, or application.
Enrollment content can lead to onboarding information.

Use analytics to identify which channels and topics lead to meaningful actions. Then invest more effort in the content that supports inquiries, visits, applications, and enrollment.

5. Create a Sustainable School Content Calendar

When it comes to a content calendar, the most important thing you need to know is this: consistency is key.

Who won the race between the tortoise and the hare? Not the flash-in-the-pan hare. It was the steady and consistent tortoise.

And while you can't afford to be slow, you do need to be steady and strategic. Consistency keeps you in the race, but strategy helps you win it.

Align Your Content with Key School Milestones

Your calendar should work with the rhythm of the academic year and align with what families care about most at any given time.

Admissions Deadlines : Plan posts, emails, and reminders well in advance of critical admissions dates. Highlight open house events, application tips, and testimonials from current parents to guide families through the process.

Seasonal Themes : Use moments like back-to-school, graduation, or holidays to create relatable, engaging content. For example, share a post on “5 Ways to Help Your Child Prepare for the First Day.”

Program Spotlights : Dedicate slots to showcasing what makes your school unique: STEM programs, performing arts, or sports achievements. A short video tour or student spotlight can go a long way.

6. Measure School Content Marketing Performance

Educators and marketers often share a love for data.

Like any good teacher worth their weight in gold, effective marketers track metrics to find trends to act on.

A good framework will point out insights, match content with enrollment goals, and highlight the necessary optimizations to improve your strategy.

To do this, you need to identify and track the key metrics that matter most at each stage of the family journey.

For example, how many families click from blog posts to admissions pages? Or how often are virtual tours viewed by geography?

These insights should be used to tailor your content distribution and target prospective families where they are most active.

Advanced Yet Accessible Analytics Ideas:

Heatmap Tools: Use simple heatmap software (e.g., the free Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar) to see where families click on your site, identifying user behaviour that informs design and content changes.

Content Gap Analysis: Use analytics to uncover topics your audience searches for but that your site doesn’t yet address, then create targeted blog posts or videos.

Attribution Mapping: Build a framework to track which content types (blogs, videos, social posts) lead families closer to inquiries or enrollment, refining future efforts.

By going beyond basic tracking and incorporating strategic insights, your analytics framework becomes a guide for maximizing the impact of your content marketing efforts.

A Practical Content Marketing Roadmap for Schools on a Budget

Small school teams often get better results by starting with a few high-impact assets, then building consistency over time rather than trying to do everything at once.

Here is a simple 90-day example roadmap to get you started:

First 30 Days: Build the Foundation

Get clear on your priorities. Improve the content families see first.

Focus on:

Identifying your top enrollment goals
Reviewing your admissions pages, FAQs, and inquiry pathways
Choosing 3 to 5 core content topics families care about most
Updating or creating one strong piece of website content
Setting up a basic content calendar for the next 6 to 8 weeks

A good starting point:

One admissions FAQ page
One parent guide or blog post
One student or alumni story
One short-form video
One email nurture piece for prospective families

Keep the system simple. You need a clear message and a few useful assets. And you can expand to more platforms later.

Days 31 to 60: Repurpose and Publish Consistently

Your core pieces are in place. Now get more value from them.

Use this phase to:

Repurpose your strongest content into email, social, and video formats
Create content for one or two key audience groups
Publish consistently on your main channels
Improve internal links between blog content, admissions pages, and inquiry pages
Track basic engagement and inquiry metrics

One parent guide could become:

A blog post
A short video
A social post series
A parent email
A talking point for open days

This is the stage where many small teams realize they need a better system for reusing the right ideas.

Days 61 to 90: Refine What Works

By now, you may have enough activity to learn from.

Focus on:

Identifying which topics and formats get the best engagement
Improving your strongest-performing content
Filling obvious content gaps in the family journey
Building one repeatable monthly workflow
Creating one or two evergreen assets you can use year-round

Good evergreen assets include:

A school tour checklist
A "how to choose the right school" guide
A new family onboarding resource
A programme spotlight page
A video introduction from leadership

The goal is a small, repeatable content system that supports trust and enrollment over time.

A Simple Weekly Rhythm

For a small team, a realistic weekly rhythm can be:

One content refresh , blog post, or FAQ improvement
One email to a priority audience
Two to three social posts drawn from existing content
One short video or video clip
One quick review of what content is getting attention

For many small teams, this is a sustainable approach without overwhelming your team.

Final Say on Content Marketing for Schools

Effective content marketing for schools isn’t about quick wins; it’s about building trust, answering questions, and creating meaningful connections.

To succeed, you need to align your strategy with the family journey.

School selection is something that matters on a deeply emotional level because the stakes are high and people want the best for their kids.

With a thoughtful approach and consistent execution, you can drive engagement, boost enrollment, and strengthen your school community.

Is Your School Content Helping Families Choose?

Use these five questions for a quick content self-audit:

Can families quickly find clear answers about fees, curriculum, admissions, support, and student life?
Does your website support its claims with specific stories, reviews, outcomes, or examples?
Does each email, social post, or video guide families towards a useful page or next step?
Are you reusing your strongest stories across channels instead of starting from scratch each week?
Can you identify which content leads families towards inquiries, tours, applications, or enrollment?

If you answered no to two or more questions, start by fixing the missing answers and proof on your website. Those gaps will limit the impact of every email, post, video, or campaign you publish.

Want to know what content is missing from your school’s enrollment journey? Get a free site review and we’ll show you the gaps across your admissions pages, FAQs, content, and inquiry path.

Content Marketing vs SEO: Key Tips & How to Win With Both

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 04:33:22 GMT

Content Marketing vs SEO: Key Differences & How to Win With Both

SEO and content marketing are buddies. They complement each other to grow your brand's reach and revenue. They just do so with a different focus and approach.

SEO helps you rank a website and its pages on search engines.

Content marketing helps you attract and engage your target customer wherever they hang out. Meaning - your content efforts across written, audio, or visual formats - from websites and social media to podcasts and video platforms.

However, as we'll share below, the real magic and power happens when they're combined.

For instance - we've combined them to grow brands' organic traffic by as much as 1200% - reaching 1 million pageviews in a single month.

So, if you don't want to miss a great opportunity, keep reading!

Key Differences of Content Marketing vs SEO

The main difference between content marketing and SEO is that content marketing targets audience engagement by publishing valuable content across multiple platforms. SEO is all about optimizing a website and its content so that it ranks high on search engines for organic traffic.

Effective content marketing focuses on building brand awareness and trust with potential customers. This is done by injecting valuable info into content that educates and nurtures people through the sales cycle.

SEO can be viewed more as one of the best ways to get content seen.

I say best ways because when done properly, it's a solid long-term investment that continues to pay dividends for as long as you're ranking.

For example - an evergreen article ranking in search engines can bring traffic, links, and potential leads years after it was published.

But again, while complementary, there are important differences.

So, in case it helps, here's a palatable breakdown of what you need to know.

Audience Engagement vs. Search Visibility

SEO and content marketing have different focuses and purposes.

Content marketing aims to build awareness and trust in a target audience by providing engaging and helpful content in various formats. It’s not focused on any one channel, just wherever the target customer hangs out.

Conversely, SEO is all about improving rankings and online search visibility. This includes content marketing, as well as building backlinks, and improving a site's technical aspects.

Metrics for Success

Quality and strength of engagement are important metrics for analyzing content marketing efforts.

Things like:

Engagement rates on social media, like comments and shares,
Followers,
Email sign-ups,
Links and brand mentions,
And time on page.

SEO is also interested in engagement rates like time on page, particularly because time on page is a strong ranking factor.

But, there are other related metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rates of that traffic. Also, technical website-focused metrics like page speed and responsiveness.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a type of marketing focused on building brand awareness with target customers via engaging content in various formats:

Blog posts,
Social media posts,
Email newsletters,
Video content,
Webinars,
Podcasts,
and more.

It’s not pushy sales and marketing campaigns.

It’s strategic, high-quality content that solves problems, answers questions, and builds lasting trust with your audience.

Because people are more comfortable working with people they know, like, and trust.

You should highlight your solution to their problem whenever possible.

But the main intention is to help your brand stick out in consumers' minds (such as from a visceral reaction to your content) whenever they're in need, and it's time to buy... Even if that isn't today ;).

Key Components of Content Marketing

Content marketing is made up of several essential elements that work together for a cohesive strategy:

Content Creation.

As you may have assumed by the name, content marketing is all about content. You're publishing high-quality stuff that resonates with your target audience's needs and interests.

This can be blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, white papers, videos, social media content, etc.

Audience Understanding.

Successful content marketing requires deep insights a company's ideal customer profile (ICP).

You'll need in-depth research to understand pain points, preferences, and map the customer journey.

Distribution Channels.

Considering all the different formats you can use with content marketing, you have many options for where to publish. But this is where audience understanding is so important.

You want to focus on where they are and the formats they already consume.

Company website and blog (you'll use SEO here as we also get into in our guide on how to get your blog noticed )
Social media platforms
Email newsletters
Industry publications
Podcast and video platforms
Webinars and online events

Content Optimization.

Each piece of content should be optimized for:

Engagement
SEO
Audience engagement
Specific stages of the customer journey
Sharing and amplification

Measurement and Analytics.

Tracking content performance through various metrics to understand effectiveness, audience engagement, and areas for improvement. You can learn all about this in our guide on how to do a content audit !

Overall Objectives

Content marketing aims to achieve many strategic goals:

Brand Awareness. Build a meaningful online presence for your brand by producing valuable content that reaches and resonates with your target audience.
Trust and Credibility Building. Share expert insights that show deep industry knowledge and solve customer problems (check out our guide to content marketing for schools as an example).
Lead Generation. Attract potential customers via valuable, informational content that speaks to their specific challenges and needs.
Customer Education. Help potential and existing customers understand your industry, products, and how your solutions can solve their problems.
Customer Retention. Continue providing value to existing customers (for example a Knowledge Hub for a SaaS with tips on how to make the most of the tools), keeping them engaged and more likely to remain loyal to your brand.
Sales Enablement. Create content that supports the sales process by addressing common questions, overcoming objections, and showcasing your offerings' value as solid solutions (see also our comparison of copywriting and content writing ).

Content marketing aims to build long-term relationships with your audience by consistently delivering value rather than focusing solely on immediate sales transactions.

And down below I share some of my favourite examples of content marketing!

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website rank on search engines like Google.

You want to be at the top when someone searches on, say, Google (and even LLMs now) for information, products, or services related to your business.

SEO is about optimizing your website so that search engines show it at the top of the results.

Key Components

SEO is a multifaceted discipline that involves several critical elements and ranking factors:

1. Content Strategy.

Developing a comprehensive content plan that:

Addresses user questions and needs
Creates comprehensive, in-depth content
Includes multimedia
Maintains content relevance and freshness via frequent updates
Supports keyword targeting
Encourages user engagement
Includes information gain and adds new information to the SERPs

1.5. Topic Research.

Identifying the specific topics people search for when looking for content related to your business. This involves:

Finding relevant keywords (topics)
Understanding search intent
Analyzing search volume and traffic potential
Evaluating keyword difficulty (beyond relying on easily misled KD of tools like Ahrefs)

2. On-Page Optimization.

Optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic:

Creating high-quality, valuable content
Optimizing title tags and meta descriptions
Using header tags properly (H1 -> H2 -> H3)
Adding and improving internal linking
Enhancing content readability
Removing fluff and other elements that will cause a poor reader experience
Optimizing for target keywords with NLP as naturally as possible

3. Technical SEO.

Improving the technical aspects of a website to increase its visibility:

Improving site speed
Ensuring mobile responsiveness
Implementing structured data
Fixing broken links and orphan pages
Improving site architecture

4. Link Building (Off-Page SEO).

Acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites:

Creating shareable, link-worthy content
Guest posting
Developing relationships with industry influencers
Leveraging social media and online communities

Objectives of SEO

SEO aims to achieve multiple strategic goals:

Increased Visibility. Help websites appear higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), so potential customers can easily find you.
Organic Traffic Generation. Drive more high-quality, targeted traffic to your website without paying for advertising or continuously posting on social.
Positive User Experience. Enhance website usability, speed, and overall user experience, which are crucial ranking factors.
Credibility and Authority Building. Earning high-quality backlinks will help you rank. And establish your website as a trusted, authoritative source in your industry or niche.
Competitive Advantage. Outperform competitors in search rankings, capturing more potential customer attention (because the top 4 results in the SERP tend to get 76% of organic traffic ).
Cost-Effective Marketing. Aids a long-term, sustainable marketing strategy that continues to deliver visibility in search results for years.
Audience Understanding. Gain insights into user behaviour, search patterns, and content preferences via bounce rate, click-through rates, time on page, etc.

But it's important to note that SEO is more than just about pleasing search engine algorithms and crawlers.

Those user metrics mentioned above like time on page, click-through rate, bounce rate, etc., are almost certainly major ranking factors.

So, creating a better, more valuable experience for your users is always a good thing. And is really your best long term option.

What Are The Best Ways To Combine Content Marketing and SEO?

You need content to rank your site. But you also need to understand SEO to create your site and content in a way that can rank high on search engines.

That's why they're buddies... or maybe even lovers obsessed with brand building. They rely on each other to increase your business's visibility, engagement, and conversions.

Here are some helpful tips to make the most of your SEO and content marketing efforts together!

Content Creation With SEO in Mind

SEO tactics like topic and keyword research are super helpful to a content marketing strategy.

Ahrefs or Semrush are invaluable sources of information about what a target audience searches for. They can provide fairly accurate insights into the traffic potential of your niche topics.

Understandably, using these tools has long been the main method for topic selection.

And if you're primarily focused on blog content, it's still good enough, but to nurture a longer-term multi-channel strategy, you'll want to go further in your customer research (check out our free customer research survey generator for ideas).

This includes periodically reading reviews, interviewing customers on their pain points, combing through contact form responses, and browsing niche-specific subreddits, forums, or Facebook groups .

Now, with a list of ideas, you can comb through keyword research tools and focus on topics your site can currently rank for. You want to see other similar sites ranking on page 1.

[This means sites around the same domain rating (DR) as yours. Ideally you want to see at least 1 or 2 pages on sites under DR 40 ranking.]

For this, you'll also want to look at the search intent in the SERPs. Also, check if the pages ranking are mostly directory sites, big massive brands, or competitor sites.

There are generally considered three main intents:

Informational (how-to guides, explanations) for those looking to learn.
Transactional/Commercial (reviews, buying guides, comparisons) for those looking to burn (cash).
Navigational (brand-specific content) for those looking for a specific site.

You'll want to find other business sites like yours ranking and create content that follows the same intent.

Just make sure to go above and beyond their pages. You'll want to cover the main topic quickly and effectively (like the table at the start of this page).

Plus, answer as many related questions as possible (using People Also Ask section, Reddit, Quora), add 'information gain' via unique insights and new data, and include as many multimedia or unique features as possible.

Optimizing User Experience

User experience is extremely important for SEO and content marketing efforts. The more digestible and enjoyable the interaction with your content, the better.

That's why you want to focus on how your stuff looks and feels. Whether it's your website or your content, it should reflect a high standard and attention to detail.

(This is subjective of course, but at least try your best.)

The old saying, 'How you do anything is how you do everything,' is very true.

Or as Yoda put it, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'

And so whether it's your site's design or your content's structure and quality, it should be a breath of fresh air blowing directly into your audience's faces.

Here's what that looks like:

Easily digestible and engaging content

Simple language with common word choices and short sentences and paragraphs, breaking up text with descriptive headers (after all, most people only read about 20% of a web page ).

It's also highly advisable to sprinkle in visuals to complement texts - memes, videos, infographics, etc.- or even just good old text in different formats, such as boxes with interesting tidbits.

Technically optimized

You also want your content and website to be technically sound.

This means optimizing page speed for lower bounce rates, improving site navigation with effective internal linking, ensuring everything you produce is mobile-friendly, and using the highest-quality audio possible if you use video.

Fresh and Updated

Regularly updating your content and pruning dead content (at least every six months) signals to users and search engines that your website is active and current.

When done well, regular updates, particularly on im portant pages, can keep people around, knowing the content is still relevant, help improve crawl frequency, and boost search rankings.

Properly updating existing content can result in far greater rankings and results. Check out our latest content update case study .

Earning Backlinks Via Helpful Content

High-quality content can sometimes rise up without any initial link-building. Simply by being at the top of the SERPs, it can attract valuable backlinks from other, sometimes far more authoritative sites, as a reference link in an article on a related topic.

Publishing original research, especially that you promote on social media or to industry thought leaders in the hopes that they help amplify it, is also an effective way to earn backlinks.

There are many different ways, but I am not an expert link builder (although I have had some nice success in public relations ). Still, it's not a hot-take to say that your content quality helps with link-building efforts.

Boosting Content With Promotion Strategies

The beauty of content marketing is that it's not restricted to only one traffic source, as SEO has historically been (granted, YouTube SEO is now a thing).

And so when you publish SEO-friendly content on your site based on an educated hunch that your ideal customer and target audience is interested in the topic - you can also promote it across your various channels.

Social Media

Just note that you shouldn't just publish a link to an article. It's best to add something new - ideally, some sort of insight that you believe people will engage with without necessarily sharing the link. This is referred to as zero-click marketing .

It helps content promotion perform better because social media algorithms almost universally want you to stay on-site. So, it's only logical that they'd prioritize posts (by as much as 95% ) without external links.

But choosing not to include links in your posts isn't only for algorithms. It's also beneficial to creators, as is expertly explained in this video:

Email Marketing

Nurturing potential leads or even keeping your existing customers in the loop via a newsletter is always a good idea. As people will often say, it's the only traffic source you 'own.'

And 81% of B2B marketers , according to a Content Marketing Institute, went as far as to say that their email newsletter was their most used form of content marketing.

Thanks to your content marketing and SEO efforts, you'll always have new material to share with your mailing list.

Plus, you can always reshare the 'best of' content or any seasonal content each year.

But as with both of these channels - you're starting to tap into the power of repurposing content, which is another super important aspect to combining SEO and content marketing efforts.

Repurposing SEO Content for Other Content Channels

Again, one of the beauties of SEO content is that it follows an educated hunch (backed by keyword data) that it's a topic your audience searches for.

Chances are your target audience will be interested in those topics wherever they are. So, you can repurpose your existing content to save yourself the time and money spent producing new ideas.

(My sincere apologies but just wanna share 1 last meme to exemplify this point :S)

You’re not reinventing the wheel and looking up new topics each time you create content for your various channels.

You can turn your popular blog posts into videos, which you can use to build a YouTube channel and embed in your article (which can further help your SEO ).

Create social media carousels to post across LinkedIn, X, etc. Create an email series. Or expand content you know resonates with your audience into a downloadable asset, ie. lead magnet.

Measuring Success: KPIs for Both Strategies

Since we now understand just how interconnected these strategies are, we can see that measuring success can use similar analytics tools but with some nuances!

Key Success Metrics for Content Marketing

As mentioned, time spent on page, social media shares, and the quality of interactions are solid indicators of your content's impact.

But as you likely know, Rome wasn't built overnight, and with anything worthwhile, consistency and time are key.

You'll want to continue publishing across your channel and tracking the trajectory of metrics like follower counts, engagement and conversion rates, and email subscribers.

However, I must mention problems that can arise in content marketing when trying to set up accurate multi-touch attribution tracking of your efforts. Many of the greatest minds in marketing have concluded that finding a reliable source to track accurately is nearly impossible - even with ads!

However, I do believe that at least tracking and comparing of customer acquisition costs (CAC) across different content types and channels is important.

This way, you can double down on the two or three channels that bring you the most engaged traffic and the highest return.

Key Metrics for SEO

SEO has several ways to track success, but first are keyword rankings and search engine results page (SERP) positions for a business's most valuable pages.

Organic search traffic can be a nice metric to track so long as it doesn't become an empty pursuit with little return. So, it's important to track the engagement of that traffic and at least increase email signups.

As is helpful for content marketing, you can track key events in Google Analytics or your other analytics tools. This helps you see which pages bring you desirable returns like signups or contact form responses.

Brand Success Stories (Best Examples for Inspiration)

Here, I just want to list out some of the my favourite examples.

These are a few brands that exemplify content marketing best practices and for the most part, also kill it with SEO as a result.

Hubspot

This is not a particularly unique choice but I truly admire Hubspot.

In terms of b2b content marketing efforts, they're a great benchmark.

And their Hubspot academy is a great free resource for people to learn the ins and outs of marketing (and learn about their tools).

And because of their efforts, they have massive authority and rank for extremely valuable topics (over $3 million/month in traffic value).

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another pretty obvious choice. But because of how helpful they've been for me, I feel compelled to mention it.

It's a bootstrapped company that has grown into an industry leader thanks to its in-depth, technically precise SEO and digital marketing content (and of course, thanks to their great SEO tool).

Like Hubspot, they provide massive value that simultaneously builds brand credibility, appreciation, and subtly promotes their core offers. And they also do so mostly via blogs, video, some social, and helpful free courses and tools.

And their site is reaping the rewards from their efforts.

Dr. Vu Ngoc Son (Chiropractor)

Okay, here's a 'dramatic' departure from the 2 examples above.

And that's because not all businesses need SEO to be successful (although they DO need content). But this is important to be aware of, and there are many reasons for this . One of them being if the target market doesn't rely on search engines so much.

Dr. Son is a chiropractor in Hanoi, Vietnam (this is important context as we'll get into in a few seconds).

He produces helpful content for how to fix common aches and pains a chiropractor typically helps with. It's helpful and shareable content that's grown his reach across the country and even - the world. In fact I was surprised to find I have multiple friends from around the world following his Instagram.

Dr. Son is killing it on social media:

17.9 million on Instagram
5.9 million on Facebook
8.2 million on TikTok
3.07 million on YouTube

Now of course a chiropractor can typically benefit from local SEO.

However, in the case of Vietnam, you'll find that social media is seen as a more reliable source of information on a brand .

And the website for his practice reflects this.

Sorry, I don't even want to include a link for fear it loads a trojan virus on your computer.

However, because of his video efforts he almost certainly doesn't care.

And while his competitors spend a lot on ads, I've got a strong hunch he'll be top of mind when someone in Vietnam needs a chiropractor.

SEO vs Content Marketing FAQs

What is the difference between content management and SEO?

Content management involves creating, organizing, and managing digital content. SEO focuses on optimizing that content to improve search engine rankings and grow traffic.

Content management is about content creation, and SEO is about making that content discoverable and appealing to search algorithms.

What is the difference between a content strategy and an SEO strategy?

A content strategy focuses on creating valuable, relevant content for your audience. An SEO strategy aims to improve search engine rankings.

Content strategy focuses on audience engagement while SEO strategy includes technical optimization and search visibility.

Is content marketing the same as off-page SEO?

No, they're different. Content marketing creates valuable content to attract and engage audiences.

Off-page SEO involves building external signals like backlinks, social shares, and domain authority to improve search rankings. They can complement each other but are very different approaches.

Which is better SEO or social media marketing?

Neither is universally better. The best approach depends on your business goals, target audience, and resources.

Generally, it’s best to target a couple of channels where you know your audience hangs out to yield the most effective results in your marketing efforts.

Content Marketing vs SEO in Conclusion

In essence, content marketing and SEO are not competing strategies. They are powerful allies that work together to grow brand awareness.

SEO relies on content marketing to improve search engine visibility.

Content marketing relies on SEO as an effective method to target topics and create it in a way that algorithms reward.

The most successful approach integrates both strategies. You always want to create high-quality content that resonates with target audiences across multiple platforms.

By understanding each, you can make the most of both. This way, you can nurture a complete marketing approach that people know, like, and want to do business with.

For any help along the way, feel free to reach out to us here at 8-Bit Content .

285+ Positive & Negative Power Words Sure To Win You Clicks

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 09:15:04 GMT

285+ Positive & Negative Power Words Sure To Win You Clicks

We all judge books by their covers, articles by their headlines, emails by their subject lines, videos by their titles, CTAs by their messaging, etc.

So we know that if we can't attract attention and spark curiosity, the content we spent time or money creating goes to waste.

That's why power words are so important .

They help us reach and resonate with our prospective customers. Especially when positive and negative power words are combined...

This is because the contrast speaks to the emotional and logical motivators of the reader and helps make your copy more memorable.

But we'll go into all of this in great detail below, so let's just cut the crap and get to it.

What are Power Words?

Power words are words that can trigger an emotional, psychological response (such as a visceral reaction ).

They can encourage people to:

Pay attention,
Respond,
Or ideally do whatever action you want.

They've likely been used since the dawn of copywriting back in Babylonian times .

That's because power words convey emotion, and emotions drive action .

Quick tidbit : Even the most famous Roman orator, Cicero - dating back to 50+ BC knew that humans are fundamentally ruled by emotions.

(If you happen to be curious in learning more about how even ancients used emotions to persuade - I highly recommend checking out at least part of the interesting talk in the video below. The professor is a great communicator and his content is excellent!)

Despite operating in vastly different time periods - the persuasive effects of power words remain the same.

So, when it comes to:

Getting readers to click on a blog post,
Open an email,
Check out an offer,
etc.

Emotionally charged power words can make copy more persuasive when they fit the message and feel natural to the reader.

You'll see below in the list that there are power verbs, power adjectives, and power phrases.

And as mentioned in the intro, there are both positive and negative types of power words.

For instance, positive emotions can range from feelings of comfort and nostalgia to curiosity and wonder. On the flip side, negative emotions can include fear, crisis and everything in between.

So let's finally get into this list of power words.

191+ Uniquely Positive Power Words

As mentioned, positive emotions refer to various warm feelings like hope, solutions, aspirations, relief, motivation, and other juicy feelings and remedies.

Depending on what you want your readers to feel, these ideas will help guide you in the right direction:

Success and Achievement

These words fit moments where the reader wants progress or proof that a better outcome is achievable. Win or triumph work best when the result genuinely warrants them.

Excitement and Energy

This language works best when the message already has momentum behind it. Thrilling or electrifying feel forced when the underlying news is routine.

Joy and Happiness

Choose this group when the experience itself should feel rewarding. Delightful or joyous can reinforce a positive outcome without turning every benefit into a grand promise.

Empowerment and Motivation

Readers respond to empowering language when they need confidence to act or overcome a barrier. Inspire and empower work best when your message gives them a believable way forward.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity only works when access, rarity, or status is genuinely part of the offer. So it's important to note that exclusive and VIP lose their force when everyone gets the same thing.

Trust and Security

When uncertainty is the main barrier, reassurance matters more than excitement. Reliable or guaranteed should be backed by evidence or a promise you can actually keep.

( Just a quick side note - we're huge believers in bringing a sense of relief to clients and it's a feeling we prioritize with all of our services .)

Community and Unity

Use community language when belonging is part of the value. Words like together or join work when readers are genuinely becoming part of something shared.

Innovation and Progress

T his group of power words is great when you can show a meaningful improvement over what came before. Breakthrough and revolutionary demand more proof than new or improved , so match the word to the size of the change.

Opportunity and Growth

Use opportunity-focused language when the reader can realistically gain something by acting. Words like unlock or discover work best when you can make the potential benefit concrete.

Here's a table below with your full vocabulary reference of positive power words. Use the themes above to choose the emotional direction first, then scan the relevant row for words that fit.

95 Power Words With Negative Emotions

Negative words tap into fears, problems, or pain points, creating tension or urgency.

As per the findings of Daniel Kahneman's Prospect Theory (and later reiterated by countless others around the world), generally - people are more motivated by a fear of loss ( loss aversion ) than the pursuit of gains.

And so, sometimes, highlighting what someone stands to lose (or is currently losing) can be extra motivating.

I.e.: 'Don't Miss Out Like Last Time: Act Now!' (Leveraging fear of missing out [FOMO] and regret.)

Think about it during the next Black Friday season. Make a mental note of trends in ad copy, etc. You'll likely notice these 'negative' power words working their magic!

Just note that while certainly effective, we need to use these techniques responsibly and not to manipulate.

Fear and Danger

Fear-based words make sense when there is a genuine risk the reader needs to recognize. Warning and threat can clarify what is at stake, while words like terrifying need a situation strong enough to justify them.

Urgency and Pressure

Urgency doesn’t always have to feel negative. The can be neutral. A deadline or limited time can simply help someone understand when a decision needs to be made, provided the constraint is real.

Anger and Frustration

Sometimes the strongest copy starts by naming what already annoys your audience. Frustrating can validate a familiar problem, while heavier words like infuriating need a much stronger reason to be there.

Sadness and Despair

These are among the heavier words in the list, so restraint is important here . Heartbreaking or hopeless can be appropriate when the subject genuinely carries that emotional weight, but they quickly feel manipulative when it doesn’t . And can easily turn potential customers away, so use wisely because consumers are, in general, very smart.

Disgust and Revulsion

Words like toxic, filthy, or contaminated create a strong sense that something needs to be avoided or changed. Keep them for situations where that judgment is literal or easy to defend.

Scarcity and Loss

Scarcity works by making the cost of waiting easier to see. Limited or last chance can be useful when availability really is constrained; manufactured scarcity usually damages the trust it was meant to create.

Conflict and Violence

Conflict language can turn an obstacle into something the reader feels motivated to overcome. Fight or battle may suit a genuine struggle, but stronger language can make an ordinary problem sound unnecessarily dramatic.

Deception and Mistrust

This group is useful when the reader needs help recognizing something misleading or untrustworthy. Words such as scam and deceive make claims about intent, so they should only appear when you have the evidence to support them.

Failure and Weakness

Failure-focused words can draw attention to mistakes the reader wants to avoid or correct. Fail and mistake work best when the copy quickly moves from identifying the problem to helping the reader do something about it.

Shame and Embarrassment

Shame is a risky emotion to build copy around because the reader can easily feel attacked rather than understood. Lighter language such as awkward or cringe can acknowledge an uncomfortable situation without humiliating the person you’re trying to persuade.

The table below gives you the larger negative and neutral vocabulary set. Start with the problem, risk, or constraint you genuinely need to express, then choose the least exaggerated word that still makes the point clearly.

Best Practices For Combining Positive and Negative Power Words

Just like with SEO vs Content Marketing - the real 'power' of these words comes when they're used together.

This is where you get into the classic problem-solution copy formula:

Problem-Solution Copy:

Negative words tap into fears, problems, or pain points - creating tension or urgency by highlighting a problem or need.
Positive words then offer solutions, hope, and relief by introducing a solution or benefit.
Together, they quickly complete a narrative and emotional journey from problem to solution.

Attention Grabbing and Memorable:

You start with the negative words which often catch attention quicker - remember humans are especially sensitive to threats and problems - it's one of the essential traits that have helped us survive to this point!
The positive words then maintain interest by offering a desirable outcome.
And the contrast between negative and positive creates a more memorable message .

Comprehensive Persuasion:

Appeals to both logic (addressing a real problem) and emotion (offering a positive outcome).
Caters to different personality types - some respond more to avoiding negatives while others are more driven by achieving positives.

More Realistic and Relatable:

Using only positive words can sometimes come across as too good to be true and insincere.
Including negative words adds realism and relatability to the message - but just note that using too many can be off-putting and even depressing.
So, the balance of the 2 keeps the message grounded yet inspiring.

Urgency and Motivation:

Again, negative words can create a sense of urgency or necessity.
While positive words provide the motivation to act on that urgency (and also have their own forms of 'positive' urgent words as shown above).

Storytelling:

As mentioned above, the combination forms a mini-story in the headline - from conflict to resolution.
And this narrative structure is more engaging, memorable, and easy to understand.
It also shows a more nuanced understanding of the target audience's situation.

How to Choose the Right Combination

Start with the emotional shift you want to create, not the word list.

Name the current feeling. What tension or problem is the reader already experiencing?
Choose the desired outcome. What should they feel once the solution becomes clear?
Check the language. Keep only words that sound natural for your brand and are fully supported by the offer.

For example, "Fed up with slow reporting? Get clear answers in minutes" moves from frustration to relief without forcing either emotion.

Test Power Words Instead of Guessing

Create two versions that change only the power word or phrase. Choose one success metric before you run the test; for a headline, that might be click-through rate.

Once you have enough traffic to make a useful comparison, keep the stronger version only if the content delivers on the promise that earned the click.

Sensory Power Words

Another technique worth mentioning, is the combination or pairing of emotional or logical triggers listed above with sensory 'power words'.

By this I'm referring to words that help the reader visualize their preferred outcome.

This is both effective (by adding another sense to the copy) and memorable.

Here's a famous example:

It’s Finger-Lickin’ Good

But there are lots of different sensory words you can use!

Visual

Sparkling
Gloomy
Vivid
Blurry
Shimmering

Auditory

Whisper
Roar
Echo
Silence
Creak

Smell (Olfactory)

Fragrant
Stinky
Aromatic
Foul
Fresh

Taste (Gustatory)

Sweet
Bitter
Savory
Tangy
Spicy

Touch (Tactile)

Smooth
Rough
Velvety
Sticky
Icy
Fluffy

When done well, this technique can create compelling copy that engages readers on both a sensory and emotional level, intended to increase the persuasive power of your message.

But it's very important to choose wisely.

Only use words that can logically fit with your brand, product, and target audience's needs and desires.

Where Are These Power Words Used Best?

There are lots of different types of content where power words can help you turn strangers into potential customers.

And you certainly don't ALWAYS need to use positive and negative powers together to enjoy its benefits:

Power Words in Headlines

Again, power words in headlines grab attention and push readers to click. With them, you can evoke emotion, create urgency, spark curiosity, and all the rest we discussed above.

For articles and landing pages, consider using words like:

Ultimate - Suggests completeness
Proven - Builds credibility
Shocking - Creates intrigue
Secret - Implies exclusive information

Example: " 5 Proven Strategies to Skyrocket Your Sales "

Power Words in Subheadings

Subheadings keep readers engaged as they scan your content. Power words here can reinforce your main points and encourage continued reading.

Effective power words for subheadings include:

Critical - Emphasizes importance
Effortless - Promises ease
Powerful - Suggests effectiveness
Insider - Implies exclusive knowledge

Example: "Effortless Ways to Implement These Strategies"

Power Words in CTAs (Call to Action)

Power words in CTAs can boost conversion rates by evoking emotion and creating a sense of urgency. For example, words like "Discover," "Unlock," and "Instantly" can make an offer more enticing.

Other powerful CTA words include:

Exclusive - Creates a sense of privilege
Limited - Adds scarcity
Free - Always attractive to consumers
Now - Encourages immediate action

Example: Unlock Your Free Trial Now!

Using Power Words in Email Subject Lines

Power words can obviously be an effective tool to increase open rates by triggering curiosity, value, etc.

And when you get someone to open the email - you can also use them to help boost your click through rates and conversions.

Effective power words for email subject lines include:

Breaking - Suggests time-sensitive news
Exclusive - Implies special access
You - Personalizes the message
New - Indicates fresh information

Example: "Breaking: New Exclusive Offer Just for You"

But it's important to take careful note of which words are often flagged by spam filters . These typically include terms that overly-exaggerate or are too pushy.

So, avoid spam trigger words in subject lines like "Free," "Guarantee," or "No risk".

Boosting Your SEO

Power words can make search titles more compelling when they clarify the benefit or angle of the page. The goal is to earn the right click from a relevant searcher, not to just manufacture a ranking signal.

Just a quick plug - I'm a longtime editor and content manager. I've personally reviewed and edited literally thousands of article titles from authors I've hired, managed, etc.

And the results from using these techniques have been quite positive.

When it comes to a site with thousands of pages though - keeping a site's CTR above 2% can be quite the challenge.

That is unless you're effective with your headlines!

So, consider using:

Guide - Suggests comprehensive information
How to - Indicates practical, actionable content
Best - Appeals to those seeking quality
Review - Attracts those in the decision-making phase
Tips - Promises quick, useful information
Ultimate - Suggests deep, in-depth coverage

Example: "Ultimate Guide: 10 Best SEO Tips for 2024"

Power Words in Social Media Posts

Social media platforms are crowded spaces where content competes for attention. Power words can help your posts stand out and increase engagement.

Here are some effective strategies:

Exclusive or Breaking - Just like for email subject lines - it creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity
You won't believe or Mind-blowing - Triggers curiosity and maybe some cringe - but sometimes cringe sells (when it's authentic)!
Free or Giveaway - Attracts those looking for value
Limited time or Last chance - Induces FOMO
Hack or Shortcut - Appeals to those seeking quick solutions

Examples:

"Exclusive: Behind-the-scenes look at our new product launch!"
"Mind-blowing trick to double your productivity"
"Free webinar: Learn from industry experts"

Just make sure to adapt your language to fit the tone and style of each platform.

Power Words in YouTube Titles

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world after Google.

Which means it's highly competitive, and your title needs to work hard to earn clicks.

But luckily many of the same tips and tricks that work on Google are applicable here too:

Ultimate or Complete - Again, suggesting comprehensive content
Shocking or Surprising - Creates intrigue
Proven or Tested - Builds credibility
Easy or Simple - Appeals to those seeking accessible content
vs or Comparison - Attracts viewers looking to make decisions

You can also build titles around category entry points , also known as the situations or needs that make someone think about your topic in the first place. Making use of power words then help make that existing motivation more compelling.

Examples:

Edit Product Photos Fast: Photoshop Basics
Why Your Photos Look Flat in Low Light and How to Fix Them
How to Grow a YouTube Channel When You Only Have 2 Hours a Week
Easy Homemade Pizza for Nights When Takeout Feels Too Expensive
Laptop vs Tablet for Working While You Travel

Bonus tips for YouTube titles:

Use numbers when applicable (e.g., "7 Tips for...")
Include the current year to appear up-to-date
Keep the titles short - around 50 characters
Incorporate trending topics or keywords relevant to your content

And while power words are effective, it's crucial to deliver on the promise of your title.

Clickbait tactics might get initial views but can impact audience retention and standing in the algorithm. So when you're using grandiose power words as adjectives - just make sure your content lives up to the hype.

Power Words in Product Names

Power words can even be used in product names to be more memorable and appealing.

You just need to ensure it's aligned with your overall brand identity and is attractive to your target market. Remember that words are often loaded with emotional baggage (often with deep meanings ) so choose wisely!

Here are some options that other big companies have used:

Emphasizing benefits:

Ultra (e.g., Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra)
Pro (e.g., MacBook Pro)
Max (e.g., iPhone 16 Pro Max)
Zen (e.g., ZenDesk)

Implying innovation or uniqueness:

Smart (e.g., Smartfood Popcorn)
Eco (e.g., Literally an entire industry of 'eco-friendly' products)
Fusion (e.g., Ford Fusion)

Suggesting premium quality:

Prime (e.g., Prime Energy drinks)
Luxe (e.g., Helix Midnight Luxe mattress)
Platinum (e.g., 'Platinum Memberships')

Indicating speed or efficiency:

Turbo (e.g., TurboTax)
Rapid (e.g., Rapid Care First Aid Kit)
Instant (e.g., Instant coffee, noodles, etc.)

Power Words in Ads

Last but certainly not least we have the most common use of copywriting and leveraging power words.

Advertising is a field where the right words can make a huge difference in conversions. And that's whether you're running print ads, digital ads, or social media campaigns.

Here are some effective ways to use power words in ads:

Attention-Grabbing Headlines:

Limited - Adds urgency and scarcity
Essential - Implies necessity and importance

Example: Limited Stock, Essential Product You Can't Live Without!

Creating Urgency:

Now - Encourages immediate action
Today - Adds timeliness
Don't Miss Out - Plays on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
Last Chance - Creates a sense of finality

Example: Act Now! Last Chance to Save 50% Today Only!

Highlighting Benefits:

Effortless - Promises ease of use
Guaranteed - Builds trust and reduces perceived risk
Proven - Suggests reliability
Transform - Implies significant positive change

Example: Effortless Weight Loss: Proven Method Guaranteed to Transform Your Body

Addressing Pain Points: Goes back to the negative power words discussed above!

Stop - Promises an end to a problem
Eliminate - Suggests complete removal of an issue
Prevent - Offers protection against future problems
Relief - Promises comfort or solution

Example: "Stop Hair Loss: Eliminate Baldness and Prevent Further Thinning"

Call-to-Action (CTA):

- Get - Implies attaining something

- Start - Encourages taking the first step

- Join - Creates a sense of community

Example: "Join 10k+ Happy Members Today"

But remember - overuse or misusing these power words can lead to distrust or even legal issues. The key is to balance compelling language with honesty of what you're offering.

And whenever possible - testing different combinations of power words will always help you improve!

Power Words in Conclusion

So there have it, we've explored the undeniable impact that carefully chosen power words can have on your marketing efforts.

To recap - power words (when used judiciously) can enhance the effectiveness of your headlines, CTAs, email subject lines and pretty much all of your marketing material.

The key takeaways are:

You can enjoy maximum impact by balancing positive and negative power words
Power words can be used across all sorts of different marketing channels
Avoid overusing them though so as to not come across as insincere or, say, trigger spam filters with your email marketing efforts

While power words can be a valuable tool, they're just one aspect of a comprehensive content marketing strategy.

As always, to make the most of this tactic, you want to first nail down your audience, your brand voice, and your overall marketing and business goals.

If you're looking to refine your content marketing approach and make the most of these techniques and more, feel free to reach out to us .

We're pretty nice and always happy to support business growth!

"Cracking the Code: The Smart Way to use 'Then' vs. 'Than'"

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 02:24:37 GMT

How To Use Then vs. Than the Smart Way: Crack the Code

In the English language, then vs than are two words that often trip up even native English speakers.

Sure, they sound the same and nearly look identical, apart from a slight difference in spelling.

But these two words have very different meanings and uses.

Knowing the difference isn't just for grammar perfectionists and language geeks; it's key to making sure you're understood and taken seriously by your readers.

You want to be noticed for the right reasons .

So, let's break it down, clear the confusion, and get you using these words like a pro. No fancy talk, just the straight goods.

Hope this image below helps kick things off!

When to use "then"

When it comes to "then," think of it as the time traveler of the English language. It's all about what happens next, or what happened when, and events in time.

"Then" is your go-to when you're telling a story or laying out steps. It's the word that keeps everything in line like dominoes ready to topple in order.

For example, if you say, "I ate my dinner, then I had dessert," you're using "then" to show the order of events. First comes the meal, then the sweet treat. Simple, right?

Or, let's say you're giving instructions: "Turn left, then go straight." "Then" helps to make sure nobody ends up in a lake instead of at the party.

Here's a tip to keep "then" straight: If you can replace it with "next" or "after that" and your sentence still makes sense, you're on the right track.

Remember, "then" is all about timing. If you're not talking about when things happen, "then" probably isn't the word you're after.

So, next time you're jotting down directions or telling a friend about your day, let "then" guide you. It's the trusty sidekick for all things sequential and indicates a relationship with time.

No fancy language needed, no fluff , just good old-fashioned order, free from grammar errors.

Examples of "Then" in popular phrases

There are plenty of examples of the use of "then" in popular phrases.

Here are a few of our favourites to help you use correct phrases.

"Back then, things were different."
"If you're going to the store, then I'll come along too."
"Think first, then act."
"We'll have dinner, and then we can watch a movie."
"First things first, then we'll tackle the rest."
"I studied hard for the exam, and then I passed with flying colors."
"If it rains, then we'll have to cancel the picnic."
"She smiled, and then I knew everything was okay."
"Finish your homework, then you can play video games."
"He was young then and full of dreams."

When to use "than"

Now, let's tackle "than," the comparison champ of the English language. Unlike its time-keeping cousin "then," "than" is all about measuring up, sizing down, and weighing options.

"Than" steps into the ring when you're comparing one thing to another. It's the word that helps you tell the world what's bigger, better, or maybe just more bizarre.

For instance, if you're arguing about pets and say, "Cats are better than dogs," you're throwing "than" into the mix to compare your love for felines over canines.

Or maybe you're talking sizes, like, "This pizza is bigger than my appetite."

In that case, "than" is your go-to for highlighting the mismatch between the meal and your munching capacity.

Here's a handy tip: If you're stacking things up against each other, and words like "bigger," "better," or "more" pop up, "than" is likely your word.

Remember, "than" is the sidekick for comparisons. No time travel involved, just good old-fashioned this-versus-that.

So next time you're sizing up your lunch or debating superheroes, let "than" help you make your point. Just keep it clear, keep it simple, and let the comparisons roll.

Examples of "Than" in popular phrases

The examples below show how "than" is key in drawing distinctions and making choices clear.

"Better late than never.
"More often than not, things work out."
"Easier said than done."
"Actions speak louder than words."
"Closer than you think."
"Cheaper than dirt."
"Faster than a speeding bullet."
"Smarter than the average bear."
"Stronger than steel."
"Sweeter than ice cream."

Common Mistakes to Avoid

English grammar can be tricky, especially with words like "then" and "than" that can easily mix you up.

And the rules apply for everything from academic writing, to formal writing, to informal writing.

Let's sort out these common mix-ups and make things easier for you.

Confusing Sequence with Comparison

One of the most frequent slip-ups is using "then" when you mean "than," and vice versa.

Remember, if you're comparing, it's "than" you want. If you're talking about time or sequence, "then" is your friend.

For example, saying "I think pizza is more delicious then burgers" mixes up the sequence with comparison.

What you're really looking for is "than" to make that comparison shine: "I think pizza is more delicious than burgers."

And so you've got the grammar correct.

But if you think pizza is more delicious than burgers, you're wrong. Everyone knows a delicious cheeseburger is the best .

Misplacing "then" in a Sentence

Another common mistake is misplacing "then" in a sentence, which can make your message confusing to anyone trying to read it.

A good rule of thumb is to ensure "then" follows directly after the clause it's related to.

For example, "If you're not coming then, let me know" might confuse readers.

A clearer approach is, "If you're not coming, then let me know."

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it Rather Then or Rather Than?

Use "rather than" when comparing two options. "Then" is used for time, so "rather than" is correct when indicating a preference between choices, not sequencing events.

Is it Later Then or Later Than?

"Later than" is correct when comparing times or events. "Then" refers to sequence, so use "later than" to compare something occurring after a specific time.

Is it Earlier Than or Earlier Then?

"Earlier than" is used for comparisons involving time. "Then" indicates sequence. Therefore, when comparing events in time, "earlier than" is the correct choice.

Is it Better Than or Better Then?

"Better than" is correct when comparing two things. "Then" relates to time, so use "better than" to indicate a preference or superior option in comparisons.

Is it More Than or Then?

"More than" is correct for comparisons, indicating a greater amount or degree. "Then" is used for sequencing, so "more than" should be used when comparing quantities or extents.

Is it Less Then or Less Than?

"Less than" is used for comparisons, indicating a smaller amount or degree. "Then" is about time or sequence, so "less than" is correct for comparing quantities.

Is it Well Then or Well Than?

"Well then" is used to transition or respond in conversation, not for comparisons. "Than" is for comparisons. Use "well then" as a phrase to move forward or conclude a discussion.

Can You Start a Sentence With Then?

Yes, you can start a sentence with "then" when it refers to time or sequence, especially in narrative writing or instructions. It helps indicate the next step or part of a story.

Can you start a sentence with than?

Starting a sentence with "than" is uncommon because it's used for comparisons. If you se e it starting a sentence, either it's a mistake or it is being used for emphasis, stylistically. It would not be grammatically correct.

Final Thoughts on Then vs. Than

Understanding the difference between 'then' and 'than' is more crucial than you might think; learn it, and then watch your writing improve.

Whether crafting an email, acing an essay, or just chatting with friends, mastering these two little words can make a big difference in clarity and precision.

So, keep these tips in mind, and watch your language skills shine.

And if you want help along the way - feel free to get in touch! We're here to help.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed: 16 Key Tips and Strategies

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 01:40:31 GMT

How to Get Your Blog Noticed? 16 Key Tips & Strategies

Do you want your blog to be the talk of the town in your industry? The go-to resource for people in your niche, bringing you more traffic and money? Well, friend, it's time to turn that dream into reality. Because in this article, we'll show you exactly how to get your blog noticed.

From choosing the perfect niche to engaging with your readers through comments and feedback, you'll access a list of steps you can take to grow your success.

So, all aboard the Blogging Express. Next stop: Blogtown, USA!

Key Takeaways for how to get your blog found

- Choosing a niche and target audience is crucial for getting your blog noticed.
- Creating high-quality and engaging content is essential to attract and retain readers. Don't worry we'll get into actionable specifics!
- Promoting your blog on social media platforms is an effective way to increase visibility.
- Building an email list allows you to connect with your audience and promote your blog directly.

1. Target a Specific Niche and Audience

In the vastness of the world wide web, it's essential to carve out your own space and attract the right audience.

That's why choosing a niche and target audience is crucial for getting your blog noticed.

By targeting a specific niche, you can focus your content and establish yourself as an expert in that field to gain the attention of like-minded individuals.

When selecting your target audience, consider their interests, needs, and demographics. And consider the wealthiest of this group. Imagine you're writing to a particular person.

Hootsuite has great resources about "buyer personas" . These help you tailor your content to suit the preferences and capture the attention of your ideal audience.

After all, successful blogs are built on understanding who their target audience is and delivering content that resonates with them.

So knowing exactly who you're writing for, helps you create valuable and relevant content that meets their needs.

Some things to a sk yourself are :

What do I know more about than most others?
Who among those interested in this niche would be willing to spend the most money?
What sorts of questions get the most engagement on niche-relevant Facebook groups and forums?

2. Create High-Quality and Engaging Content

Stating 'creating high-quality content' can sometimes sound like a cliche. A vague recommendation to do something that's inherently subjective.

But it doesn't have to be.

High-quality content simply means content that is engaging, informative, well-researched, well-written, and relevant to the audience (see our customer survey question generator for tips ).

It provides value to the reader and often helps to enhance a brand's image or achieve a particular goal.

Here are some actionable tips to create high-quality content :

Understand Your Audience : Remember, you must always know who you are writing for. What are their needs, interests, and pain points? Tailoring content to your target reader will help you sound more relevant and engaging.
Define Clear Objectives : What do you want your content to achieve? Whether it's to inform, entertain, persuade, or something else, establishing a clear objective helps guide your content creation process.
Research Thoroughly : Well-researched information adds credibility to your content. Use credible sources and make sure to fact-check!
Craft Engaging Headlines : An engaging headline is what draws readers in. Without it, your content can go to waste. Make it intriguing, clear, and relevant to your audience's objectives.
Write Clearly and Concisely : Use simple and clear language. Avoid unnecessary jargon and long, complex sentences that can annoy readers.
Include Visuals : Images, videos, infographics, etc., can make content more engaging and help quickly explain complex points. For instance these days you can use an AI video generator to create custom videos that visually support your message - even if you have zero editing skills. And then you can use an AI clip generator to help cut and arrange scenes automatically. This way your long form content can flow better and you can also have clips to repurpose on social media, etc.
Add Value : Provide interesting insights, solutions, analogies, or information that readers can't easily find elsewhere. Offer a unique perspective or specialized knowledge.
Tell a Story : If applicable, using storytelling can make a piece of content more engaging and relatable. People often remember stories better than dry facts.
Use a Strong Call to Action : If you want readers to take a specific action after reading, be clear about what that action is and why they should take it.
Edit and Revise : Mistakes and inconsistencies can undermine the credibility of content. Careful copyediting ensures that your content is error-free, polished, and professional.
Optimize for SEO : If your content is online, make sure it can reach a wider audience by optimizing for search engines. Cover important topics to your target audience, use a tool like Frase to add relevant keywords in your content, titles and meta data, and use strategic internal linking.
Use Proper Formatting : This is key! Break up large chunks of text with headings, bullet points, and paragraphs. Proper formatting helps make your content more readable.
Keep a Consistent Brand Voice : Ensure that the content aligns with the brand's voice and values. Consistency in tone and style helps in building a strong brand image.
Encourage Engagement : Ask questions, encourage comments (if you choose to enable comments on your blog), or include social share buttons to foster community engagement.
Measure and Analyze : Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console (of a rank tracking tool if you want) to measure how your content is performing. Understanding what's working and what isn't will help you refine future content.
Stay Up-to-Date : If your content relates to current events or changing industries, keep it up-to-date. Outdated information can lose trust and relevance. That's why, you'll typically want to target evergreen topics.

And check out our guide to SEO vs Content Marketing for additional insights!

Bonus Tip!

Carefully consider your writing style.

Keep it simple.

We highly recommend using Hemingway Editor and Grammarly because they help spot mistakes and keep sentences concise.

3. Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines

As mentioned above, to improve your blog's visibility and attract more readers, it's essential to optimize it for search engines.

After all, how else can people read your blog if they can't even find it?

By following some simple steps of search engine optimization (SEO), you can increase the chances of your content appearing in search rankings when people enter relevant search queries.

Start by conducting keyword research . Utilize SEO tools to identify popular keywords related to your niche and create blog posts for each topic seems to garner a lot of questions and engagement.

And don't shy away from long-tail keywords. These are as you'd probably expect - specific topics that target a specific need.

An example of this is a topic like: How to become a freelance writer with no experience .

It targets a specific need. And the beauty of this approach is that the longer and more specific the topic, the lower down the sales funnel it usually is. So you're needing to convince someone new to an idea but rather guide an already interested lead.

And to make the most of your efforts, one of the many key areas to focus on is your blog post titles:

Craft compelling and descriptive titles that include relevant keywords to attract both search engines and potential readers.

Optimizing your blog also involves paying attention to factors such as meta tags, image alt texts, URL structure, and internal linking.

These elements help search engines understand the context of your content better, improving its chances of ranking higher in search results.

By actually implementing these optimization techniques consistently across all your blogging efforts, you can enhance your blog's rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).

This increased visibility will not only benefit the overall growth of your blog but also create opportunities for further blog promotion.

4. Promote Your Blog on Social Media

Making use of social media can obviously be a powerful way to increase the visibility and reach of your blog.

By creating and maintaining active social media accounts on various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Flipboard, etc. you can amplify your blog's presence and engage with potential readers.

And by simply incorporating social media buttons on your website or blog, visitors can easily share your content with their own followers, effectively expanding your reach even further.

Additionally, actively participating in relevant online communities and groups across social media channels can help you build relationships with like-minded individuals who may be interested in what you have to offer.

To take it a step further, consider utilizing social media ads through platforms like Facebook Ads or LinkedIn Ads.

These advertising platforms allow you to target specific demographics based on interests, location, and more.

But with the average attention span decreasing year by year , leveraging eye-catching visuals and compelling ad copy is essential for grabbing users' attention amidst the noise of countless online distractions.

5. Build an Email List for Your Blog

An email list is a powerful tool that allows you to directly communicate with your audience and build a loyal following.

Successful bloggers understand the importance of email marketing in growing their blog and reaching a larger audience.

And when it comes to building an email list for your blog, one effective strategy is offering a valuable freebie or lead magnet in exchange for visitors' email addresses.

This not only helps you capture their contact information but also establishes trust and credibility by providing them with something of value upfront.

Email marketing allows you to nurture relationships with your subscribers and keep them engaged with your brand.

You can send out newsletters, updates about new blog posts, exclusive promotions, and more.

And it also provides opportunities for collaboration with other bloggers and influencers in your niche. By reaching out to them and offering to feature their content in your newsletter or social media, you can start a potentially reciprocal relationship and tap into their existing audience and gain exposure for your own blog.

6. Collaborate with Other Bloggers and Influencers

Again, by teaming up with others in your niche, you can tap into their audience and gain exposure for your own blog.

One way to go about this is to engage with popular bloggers and influencers on social networks.

By commenting on their posts, sharing their content, and building relationships with them, you can increase your chances to collaborate with them.

You can also regularly check for broken links on popular blogs in your niche, then offer them replacement links from your own content that can help boost your domain authority and drive traffic back to your blog.

Another way to do this is by guest posting...

7. Guest Post on Other Blogs

Guest posting lets you to tap into the existing audience of established authority websites and showcase your expertise to a wider audience.

By collaborating with other bloggers in this way, you not only gain exposure and link juice but also build relationships within your industry.

When approaching guest blogging opportunities, start by conducting blogger outreach to find relevant blogs that accept guest bloggers. Look for websites that have a similar target audience and align with your content creation goals.

Once you've identified potential blogs, pitch them a list of post ideas (that you aren't targeting on your own site) or offer to write an amazing piece of content tailored specifically for their readers.

Just be aware that many will ask for money for this but some won't.

Guest posting provides social proof and establishes you as an expert in your field. And when readers see your name on reputable websites, it boosts their trust in your knowledge and skills.

So again, besides the SEO boost, providing valuable content on others sites can help you attract new readers who may become loyal followers of your own blog.

8. Participate in Blogging Communities and Forums

Participating in blogging communities and forums can help you expand your network and gain valuable insights from like-minded individuals.

You can ask questions,
Share your own insights,
And contribute to ongoing discussions...

This helps establish yourself as an active member of the community and increases your visibility among potential blog readers.

Being part of blogging communities provides opportunities for collaboration and guest posting.

You can connect with other bloggers who have similar interests or complementary niches and explore ways to collaborate on projects or exchange guest posts.

This cross-promotion is a win-win for both parties to reach new audiences and gain exposure.

So, although it's certainly not for everyone, by actively participating in these blogging communities and forums, you not only expand your network but also position yourself as an authority in your niche.

PLUS it helps you to stay up to date on the latest trends, gather fresh ideas for blog post topics, and discover effective blogging strategies that could benefit your own blog.

9. Engage with Your Readers to Build a Community

To engage with your readers and build a community, it's important to create meaningful connections by responding to comments and fostering discussions.

By actively participating in the comment section of your blog, you not only show appreciation for their input but also establish yourself as a responsive blog author.

But building a community goes beyond just commenting back; it involves creating a space where readers feel valued and connected.

You can encourage discussions by asking questions at the end of your blog posts or hosting Q&A sessions on Facebook groups.

Another way to foster community engagement is by offering helpful resources such as in-depth guides or downloadable content pieces. These resources not only showcase your expertise but also provide value to your audience, encouraging them, again, to join your email list so you can keep in touch.

And this sense of community can become an invaluable source of traffic as members share and recommend your content.

10. Use Eye-Catching Visuals and Graphics

Eye-catching visuals and graphics boost the immediate appeal of your content, capture the attention of readers and make your blog posts more engaging.

And this can go beyond simply gaining attention.

These visuals can help illustrate key points or provide additional context to support your message.

Infographics or charts are one way to do this. They help break down complex information into digestible chunks, making it easier for readers to understand and retain.

And if readers are kept interested, they'll keep reading. And the longer they stay on your page, the better your ranking on Google!

Just make sure that when you include images in your blog articles, you optimize them by adding keyword targeted alt text. This helps search engines understand what the image is about and helps you rank in the sometimes overlooked Google Image search.

Canva and Midjourney are just two awesome tools you can use to create excellent visuals to enhance your blog.

11. Write Catchy Headlines and Meta Descriptions

When crafting your blog headlines and meta descriptions, remember to employ attention-grabbing language that entices readers to click on your content.

These elements serve as the first impression of your blog and can significantly impact whether users choose to visit your site or not.

Incorporate your target keyword into your headline and meta description while also maintaining clarity and brevity.

Here are some other things to consider:

Add a touch of creativity and curiosity to make your headlines stand out.
Use power words , odd numbers (to help you stand out), or provocative statements that pique readers' interest.
Pose a question your target audience may have and that you'll answer

For example, instead of a generic headline like ' Blogging Resources,' try something like '13 Blogging Resources Revealed! Which Are Absolute Must-Haves?'

Similarly, don't overlook the importance of writing enticing meta descriptions.

These short snippets provide a brief preview of what readers and search engines can expect from your blog post.

Include relevant keywords naturally within the description while highlighting the value readers will gain from reading it and you'll be good to go.

12. Create a Consistent Brand and Blog Design

Your branding highlights who you are as a blogger and what your blog is all about.

And creating a consistent brand is crucial to build recognition and establish credibility.

So, you'll want to make sure you establish a consistent brand and blog design that reflects your unique style and resonates with your target audience.

Start by choosing a colour scheme, fonts, and imagery that align with your niche and personality. This will create a cohesive visual identity that readers can easily recognize.

In addition to visuals, consider the overall design of your blog.

Is it easy to navigate?
Does it have a clean and professional look?

A well-designed blog not only enhances user experience but also gives off an impression of expertise.

Make sure you use a responsive design that adapts to different devices, so readers can enjoy your content regardless of their preferred device.

And remember, consistency is key when it comes to branding and design. Use the same logo, colours, fonts, and other visual elements across all platforms - from your website to social media profiles.

This will help reinforce your brand identity and make it easier for readers to connect with you and most importantly - remember you.

Once you have established a consistent brand and blog design, the next step in getting noticed is nailing down a solid content refresh strategy ...

Learn more about our content update services !

13. Regularly Update and Refresh Your Content

To keep your content ranking at the top of search engines, you need to regularly update and refresh your content.

Search engines love fresh content, so by frequently adding new posts or updating existing ones , you increase the chances of getting higher rankings in Google search results. Which equals to more organic traffic to your blog.

Plus, staying on top of regular updates allows you to stay ahead of direct competitors in your niche.

If you're consistently providing valuable and up-to-date information, readers are more likely to choose your blog over others in your niche.

14. Analyze Your Blog's Performance and Making Improvements

Analyzing your blog's performance and making improvements is crucial for ensuring that your content resonates with readers and meets their needs.

By regularly evaluating how well your blog is performing, you can identify areas for improvement, optimize your strategies, and ultimately get your blog noticed by a wider audience.

One important aspect of analyzing your blog's performance is looking at the engagement of each piece.

Pay close attention to which articles or posts receive the most views, comments, social media shares, and impressions in Google Search Console.

This will give you insights into what type of content you can focus your efforts on.

Additionally, keep an eye on the bounce rate to see if visitors are leaving after only viewing one page. If so, it may be necessary to improve the quality or relevance of your content and ensure that it matches the search intent of the target keyword.

15. Offer Valuable Freebies and Resources to Your Readers

I already mentioned this in the email list section but it's worth mentioning again.

People love getting something for free, and by providing them with high-quality resources, you not only build trust but also create a sense of value for your audience.

Think about what kind of content or resources would benefit your target audience the most.

An e-book packed with expert tips?
A printable checklist to help them stay organized?
Exclusive access to a library of templates?

The key is to offer something that aligns with your niche and provides genuine value.

By giving away these freebies, you can attract new readers who are interested in what you have to offer. They'll appreciate the useful content and may even share it with others in their network, expanding your reach even further.

But don't worry; offering valuable freebies doesn't mean giving everything away for nothing.

You are establishing the fundamental foundation for relationships around the world and throughout time: reciprocity.

16. Incorporate Video and Multimedia Content into Your Blog

To truly engage your audience, don't forget about adding video and multimedia content into your blog.

It's no surprise that visual learners prefer interactive content that stimulates multiple senses. By adding videos or multimedia elements such as images, infographics, or audio clips to your blog posts, you can create a more dynamic and engaging experience for your readers.

Videos allow you to convey information in a visually compelling manner. A suitable video for a blog post can be a tutorial, an interview with an expert in your niche, or a behind-the-scenes look at your creative process.

And by incorporating video and multimedia content into your blog, you increase its shareability on social media platforms.

After all, people are more likely to share visually captivating content with their friends and followers. And the more people share your content, the more people will see it.

Frequently Asked Questions On Ways To Get A Blog Noticed

How do I choose a niche and target audience for my blog?

To choose a niche and target audience for your blog, start by exploring topics you're passionate about. Consider what interests you and what you can offer readers. Identify your ideal audience and tailor your content to meet their needs, creating a unique and engaging experience.

What are some effective ways to build an email list for my blog?

To build an email list for your blog, offer valuable content in exchange for sign-ups. Create a compelling lead magnet or newsletter to entice readers. Use opt-in forms strategically on your website and promote your email list through social media and guest blogging.

How can I effectively use keywords and long-tail keywords in my blog posts?

To effectively utilize keywords and long-tail keywords in your blog posts, conduct thorough research to uncover the truth about their impact on SEO. This will engage readers and persuade them of the importance of strategic keyword placement.

What are some strategies for creating catchy headlines and meta descriptions?

To create catchy headlines and meta descriptions, think about your target audience and what would grab their attention. Use powerful words, make it concise, and highlight the unique value of your blog post. This will help entice readers to click and explore your content.

How can I analyze my blog's performance and make improvements based on the data?

To analyze your blog's performance and make improvements, dive into the data. Track metrics like page views, bounce rate, and engagement. Identify patterns, uncover insights, and tweak your content strategy accordingly.

And if you're interested, be sure to check out our content strategy services . We're always happy to helping others succeed, so feel free!

How To Get Your Blog Noticed in Closing

Getting your blog noticed will take time but it's definitely worth the effort. With a combination of resilience, consistency and implementing the points we've discussed, you will get the results you're after.

Remember to always put the emphasis on creating high-quality and engaging content that captivates your target audience using the actionable tips provided.

Optimize your blog for search engines, utilize social media to promote it, and build an email list to connect with your readers on a deeper level.

And incorporate images, video and multimedia content to add that extra wow factor that will keep people on your posts.

With these strategies in place, you're sure to reap the rewards.

And if you want help along the way - feel free to get in touch! We're here to help.

Facebook Page vs Group: Which is Best For Your Business?

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 06:55:08 GMT

Facebook Page vs Group: Which Is Better For Your Business?

A Facebook Page and Group serve different jobs. A Page gives your business a public brand presence and access to paid promotion, while a Group creates a community where members can participate and potentially discover you through Facebook’s own recommendations.

For many businesses, the strongest setup is both: use the Page to represent the company and a Group to build an audience around a relevant interest or community. This guide compares the tradeoffs so you can decide which setup fits your goals.

What is the difference between a Facebook Page and Group?

A Facebook Page works best as the public face of your business , where you can publish updates and build visibility. A Facebook Group is better when the value comes from members interacting with each other around a shared interest.

So, Should You Choose a Facebook Page or Group?

The better option depends on what you need Facebook to do for your business.

Choose a Facebook Page when...

Your main goal is to give your business a public presence, publish branded content, or reach new audiences through paid promotion. A Page is the stronger starting point when your business needs to be discovered before people have any relationship with it.

Choose a Facebook Group when...

The value comes from people participating rather than simply following your updates. A Group makes more sense when customers or members benefit from asking questions, sharing experiences, or talking to each other.

Use both when...

You need public visibility and a deeper community. Your Page can represent the business and attract an audience, while a connected Group gives people somewhere to participate more actively once they want a closer relationship with the brand.

Facebook Page vs Group: Key Tradeoffs

A Facebook Page and Group can both help you build an audience, but they create value in different ways. The better choice depends on whether you need people to find your business, participate with each other, or both.

Discovery and Reach

Facebook Pages and Groups can both help new people discover you, but in different ways.

A Facebook Page gives your business a permanent public presence that people can find when searching for your brand on Facebook or elsewhere online.

A Facebook Group can create stronger discovery within Facebook itself. Facebook actively recommends Groups it thinks people may find relevant, giving eligible public or visible Groups opportunities to reach people who have never encountered the community before. Hidden private Groups are not recommended this way.

Best fit: Choose a Page when you need a public home for your brand. A Group may have more upside for organic discovery inside Facebook when the topic naturally creates an active community.

Paid Advertising

A Facebook Page has the clearer advantage when you want to pay to reach people beyond your existing audience.

Businesses can turn Page content into ads or build campaigns through Meta’s advertising tools. You can still define audiences using factors such as location and interests , while Meta’s Advantage+ tools can also find people its systems predict are likely to respond.

A Facebook Group does not offer the same direct paid advertising model. Group growth relies more heavily on Facebook discovery, member participation, and promotion through other channels, although a connected Page can help bring attention to the Group.

That makes paid reach an important distinction between the two formats rather than proof that Pages naturally reach more people.

Best fit: Choose a Page when paid acquisition is an important part of your Facebook strategy. Choose a Group when the value depends more on building an active community after people discover it.

Member Participation

Facebook Groups have the clearer advantage when the value comes from people participating with each other.

A Page is still interactive: followers can comment, react, and share your posts. But the business generally remains at the centre of the conversation.

Groups make member participation a bigger part of the experience. People can start discussions, ask questions, and share their own experiences, so the audience can become part of what makes the community useful.

This makes Groups particularly well suited to customer communities, peer support, and shared-interest communities where members have something useful to contribute.

And to be clear - a Group doesn’t have to be built around your brand either. A business can create a community around a niche, problem, or shared interest its ideal customers already care about. This category/interest-led approach gives like-minded prospects somewhere to ask questions, share experiences, and interact without every conversation becoming a sales pitch.

And if you’re transparent about who runs the Group, you can build familiarity with your business over time while occasionally sharing relevant announcements, offers, or promotions when they genuinely fit the community.

Best fit: Choose a Group when conversations between members create value you could not produce through brand publishing alone.

Management Effort

That extra participation comes with more responsibility.

A Facebook Page gives your business relatively tight control over what it publishes. You still need to respond to comments and manage the Page, but most of the content starts with you.

A Group introduces more moving parts because members can contribute too. As the community grows, admins may need to manage membership, moderate discussions, and deal with unwanted content.

Facebook provides tools that can automate parts of this work, but active communities still benefit from human oversight.

Best fit: A Page generally requires less community management. Choose a Group when the value of member participation justifies the additional moderation.

Membership, Privacy & Moderation Controls

Facebook Groups give you much more control over who can participate and how the community operates.

Groups are now either public or private . In public Groups, anyone can see what members post, while people on Facebook can also see who belongs to the Group. Private Groups limit that content to members, while admins can choose whether the Group is visible in Facebook search or hidden from people who have not been invited.

That flexibility makes Groups useful when access and community boundaries matter. A customer community, for example, may benefit from being private but still easy to discover, while a smaller membership or internal Group may make more sense hidden.

Admins also have tools that can reduce the work involved in running an active community. Admin Assist can automatica lly handle parts of moderation and membership approval based on criteria you set, helping you manage repetitive decisions as the Group grows.

Facebook has also expanded how members can participate under nicknames, although the exact controls available can vary by Group. In our Group, Facebook now treats nicknames separately from anonymous participation, and we can’t turn the feature off.

These controls are one of the bigger differences between a Facebook Page and Group. A Page gives your business control over what it publishes; a Group gives you more control over the environment in which other people participate.

Analytics and Insights

Both Facebook Pages and Groups provide analytics, but the useful question is what you are trying to measure .

Page analytics are more useful for understanding how your branded content and public presence perform. They can help you see how people respond to what your business publishes and which content attracts attention.

Group Insights are more community-focused. They help admins understand member activity and engagement, making them more useful when the health of the community itself is what you need to assess.

The distinction follows the purpose of each format: Page analytics help you understand your audience and content performance, while Group analytics help you understand participation inside the community.

If you mainly want to evaluate branded publishing, Page analytics give you the more relevant view. If you want to know whether members are actually participating, Group Insights matter more.

Search Visibility and Branded Discoverability

Facebook Pages still have a useful advantage outside the Group-discovery question: they give your business a persistent public identity that people can deliberately look for.

Public Facebook information can appear in Facebook search and external search engines, giving people another way to encounter or verify your business when researching your brand.

The benefit here is branded discoverability rather than a direct SEO boost . A complete Page gives people another public place to confirm who you are and learn about your business.

Facebook referral traffic can still be valuable when people click through to your website, but you should treat those visits as an audience benefit rather than evidence that Facebook engagement directly improves organic rankings.

Your Facebook Page should therefore support your wider search presence rather than replace the SEO work happening on your own website.

Which Should Your Business Choose: a Facebook Page, Group, or Both?

By this point, the choice should come down to the role you need Facebook to play.

Choose a Facebook Page when your priority is maintaining a public brand presence and publishing as the business.

Choose a Facebook Group when member participation is part of the value and you are prepared to manage the community that develops around it.

Use both when those jobs complement each other. Your Page can represent the business publicly, while the Group gives customers or enthusiasts somewhere to participate more deeply.

There is no need to choose based on which format supposedly gets more reach. Pages and Groups create different routes to discovery, and the better option depends on what you want people to do once they find you.

Facebook Page vs Group: Final Recommendation

A Facebook Page and Group are not really substitutes for the same job.

A Page gives your business a public home on Facebook. A Group creates a space where the community itself can contribute more of the conversation.

For many businesses, that makes the most useful setup a combination of the two: the Page represents the brand, while the Group gives people a reason to participate around it.

11 Key Benefits of Public Relations

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 08:20:00 GMT

11 Key Benefits of Public Relations

The biggest advantages of public relations are greater credibility, wider visibility, and stronger relationships with the people who matter to your business.

Unlike advertising, PR can help you earn attention through media coverage, partnerships, and other third-party exposure. But the results aren't guaranteed, and you usually have less control over how your business is presented.

We've used PR outreach ourselves and for clients, including influencer marketing for various audience sizes and industries. In this guide, we'll break down what we believe are the key advantages of public relations, the main tradeoffs, and when PR is worth the investment.

Key Takeaways: Is PR Worth It?

PR is most useful when trust, visibility, or stakeholder relationships matter to the business. It can help you earn attention without relying entirely on paid promotion.
Earned attention comes with less control. Journalists and other third parties decide whether to cover you and how the final story is presented.
PR usually works better as a sustained effort than a one-off tactic. Relationships and reputation often take time to build, so immediate results are never guaranteed.
The right setup depends on how much PR you need. An in-house team can suit ongoing communication needs, while an external agency can provide specialist expertise or established media relationships.

What is Public Relations?

Public relations, or PR, is the strategic communication work an organisation uses to build and maintain relationships with the people who affect its reputation and success.

In PR, those audiences are often called its publics . They might include customers, employees, and journalists. They can also include investors or the wider community.

PR isn't only about creating a positive image. It involves understanding what different audiences care about, communicating clearly, and building trust over time.

As the old saying goes: people do business with those they know, like, and trust.

And PR allows you to nurture this at scale.

That can involve media relations, events, and crisis communications. Depending on the business, it may also include thought leadership or influencer outreach.

Ultimately, good PR helps an organization communicate with the people who matter to it while supporting stronger relationships and a more resilient reputation.

Main Advantages of Public Relations

Public relations has many key benefits that help all aspects of a business. Here are 11 examples:

Credibility & Trust

Arguably the most important benefit of Public Relations is how it can help foster trust in target audiences.

PR activities often carry more credibility than traditional advertising messages as they leverage third-party endorsements from an objective source like media coverage or word-of-mouth.

You know how you're more likely to believe something when you hear it from a friend instead of from a billboard or TV ad?

That's exactly what PR does. It gets information about you to the public, not through ads, but through other people, like journalists or influencers, who your target audience already trusts.

It's like having a friend vouch for you, which makes people more likely to believe in and support you.

Brand Awareness

A successful public relations campaign can significantly increase brand visibility and recognition by getting your name in various media outlets.

The more people see and hear your name, the more they remember it.

And so when it comes time to need your product or service, your brand will be top of mind!

Cost-Effectiveness

Compared to advertising, PR campaigns can be less expensive and more cost-effective, especially when it comes to earned media such as press coverage.

Instead of shouting about yourself with a loudspeaker, it's like getting other people to talk about how great you are.

For example, maybe a newspaper writes a story about your business, or a popular blogger mentions you in their post. This kind of attention is what we call 'earned media'.

And this is where micro-influencers can get a particularly juicy ROI. Their audience isn't big enough to demand a big investment, but the audience they DO have is also likely more engaged and trusting of their word than, say, a big influencer with a long history of brand partnerships.

What Worked for Us: Smaller Influencers With Engaged Audiences

In our experience, follower count alone wasn't a very useful way to decide which influencers were worth approaching.

For a client in the smart-office niche, we looked for smaller creators whose audiences closely matched the people who might actually be interested in the products. We also checked how much engagement their recent posts were receiving rather than assuming that a larger audience meant greater influence.

One simple follower-based calculation we used was:

Average likes and comments on recent posts ÷ follower count × 100

The percentage was only a screening tool. We also looked at whether the comments appeared genuine, whether the creator regularly discussed relevant topics, and whether recommending the product would feel natural and useful to their audience.

This is the strategy we used to collab with influencers such as Lex Fridman before he got too famous.

Smaller creators can also be easier to collaborate with because some were still early in building commercial partnerships and you can connect with them directly with effective email outreach or socials. Depending on the fit, we could offer a product to try or set up an affiliate relationship that gave them an incentive when their audience purchased.

That created value beyond raw reach. We were getting the product in front of a niche-relevant audience through someone whose opinions they already chose to follow.

When we could track the relationship through affiliate links or other attribution, we could also connect that exposure to actual sales rather than judging the partnership by likes alone.

But it's important to note that if you provide a free product, affiliate commission, or another benefit in return for an endorsement, as per the U.S. Federal Commission rules , you need to now make sure the relationship is clearly disclosed under the rules that apply in your market.

Audience Engagement

PR fosters a deeper level of engagement with the audience, using storytelling and informative content marketing to create a connection (and as you'll see it's helpful for both SEO and content marketing ).

Let's say your company sells hiking boots. Instead of a marketing strategy centered around a message like: "Buy our boots; they're the best," you tell a story.

You might share a blog post about an amazing mountain adventure someone had wearing your boots. Or you create a video interview with a famous hiker who loves your product.

This kind of storytelling isn't just interesting and gets your audience involved. They can imagine themselves in the story or learn something new from it and maybe likelier to share it with their network.

They're invested in a story, not just listening to a sales pitch.

And because they're engaged, they're more likely to remember your brand and feel a connection to it.

It's like how you'd feel closer to someone you've had a great conversation with compared to someone who talks at you.

So, PR helps to create these deeper, more engaging conversations with your audience, which can help build a stronger connection between them and your brand.

Another option is to build a community around the interest your prospective customers share rather than around the company name itself .

For example, a workspace company might operate a Facebook Group about desk setups, home offices, or workspace design. People can join because they care about the topic, ask questions, and share their own setups without every interaction being a product pitch.

The company still owns and manages the community, which creates opportunities to build familiarity with people in the niche over time. Relevant product announcements or promotions can be shared occasionally, but the community needs to remain useful even when nothing is being sold.

The Workspace Setup Addicts Group is a good example of this approach: the subject of the community is the interest itself, while the company behind it is clearly identified. And so can promote and post as needed. But the community is also incentivized to show off their home office set up.

We cover this strategy in more detail in our guide to choosing between a Facebook Page and Facebook Group .

Stakeholder Relations

Public Relations (PR) is like being a good host at a big party.

Just like a host ensures all guests - friends, family, neighbors - are happy and involved, PR keeps all the people essential to your business (we call these 'stakeholders') connected and satisfied.

These stakeholders are not just your customers but also your employees, those who invest money in your business, and the community around you.

For example, a communications strategy might share positive stories about your company to make customers want to buy from you.

For employees, PR might share news and updates to make them feel part of the team.

PR might share business growth and successes with investors to show them their investment is doing well.

And for the community, PR might show how your business is involved in local events or charity work.

In all these ways, PR helps to build and maintain a strong relationship with all the people that matter to your business.

Just like a good host makes sure everyone at the party feels welcome and involved.

Industry Authority

You can also think of Public Relations (PR) as a cheerleader who helps you stand out in a crowd.

Imagine you're at a large event, and everyone there is an expert in their field, just like you. But how do you show everyone that you're not just part of the crowd but a leader?

That's where PR comes in. They arrange for you to do things that highlight your knowledge and experience. This could be giving a talk at a big conference, writing an article in a well-known magazine, or even winning awards in your industry.

When you do these things, people start to notice. They see you're not just another face in the crowd but someone who knows their stuff. They start to see you as a 'thought leader' - a leading authority in their field.

So, PR is like your cheerleader, helping you stand out and get noticed as a leader in your industry. It's all about making sure people see and recognize your expertise.

And you can further this by expanding out the content on your website to showcase your knowledge.

This is one of the best strategic communications tools you have as you own it, and it expands your authority and your opportunities to rank for relevant topics in Google.

SEO and Search Visibility

PR can support search visibility when it earns genuine editorial coverage from reputable publications.

If a journalist or industry site finds your story, data, or expertise useful, they may mention your business or link to a relevant resource on your site. That can introduce new audiences to your brand, send referral traffic, and give search engines more context about your website.

The important distinction is that the coverage should be earned because it is useful or newsworthy. But press-release syndication or guest posting purely to create links should not be treated as an SEO shortcut .

Think of SEO value as a potential by-product of strong PR rather than the reason to manufacture coverage.

Product Launches

Let's say you have a new product release launching on Product Hunt. You know it's great, but how do you get others as excited about it as you are?

This is where Public Relations (PR) comes in. PR is like your very own hype machine. It helps drum up excitement and interest before your new product gets released.

PR might send news stories about it on related websites or email newsletters or organize a contest event where people refer their friends to vote in return for a free trial. You might even get influencers to post about it on their social media.

All of this buzz makes people curious and excited about your new product. By the time it's available to buy, people can't wait to try it. This excitement can help your product launch be a big success.

So, PR is a powerful tool for creating a buzz around new products, getting people excited and eager to try them out. It's like having a hype machine that makes your product launch an event people don't want to miss!

Crisis Management

PR becomes especially important when a business suddenly faces criticism, negative coverage, or a fast-moving issue that could damage its reputation.

Good crisis communication is not just about releasing a polished statement after the fact. It can mean responding quickly, understanding what happened, coordinating internally, and communicating with the people already discussing the issue.

One early and widely cited example came from Ford in 2008 . After a trademark dispute with the owner of Ford enthusiast site The Ranger Station sparked criticism online, the story quickly spread across blogs and Twitter.

Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty, began responding publicly on Twitter while he investigated what had happened. He worked with Ford's legal team and spoke directly with the site's owner, while keeping people updated as the company worked toward a resolution.

The episode became a great early example of how social media could be used as part of crisis PR to help alleviate and avoid a crisis from spreading. Ford was able to enter the conversation while it was happening, acknowledge the problem, use tact, and provide new information as the facts became clearer.

That same principle still applies today: when a reputational issue is already unfolding publicly, PR can help a business respond where the conversation is happening rather than waiting for the story to develop without it.

Social Responsibility

PR can help showcase your corporate social responsibility efforts in a tasteful way that helps build a strong reputation as a company that gives back to the community.

If your company does something good, like helping the community, you want people to know about it. PR shines a spotlight on these good deeds.

Let's say your company donates a portion of its profits to a local school, or your employees spend a day cleaning up a park.

These actions show that your company goals account for more than just making money, but also social responsibility.

PR helps to show these efforts to the world. They might write a news release about your donation or share photos of your park clean-up on social media. They make sure people see your good deeds.

This can enhance your reputation. People like companies that do good and are more likely to support them. So, by spotlighting your good deeds, PR can help you be seen as a company that cares about its community.

Long-Term Results

The benefits of a successful PR campaign can be felt long after the campaign ends through sustained brand recognition and reputation.

Think of it like planting a tree.

When you first plant a seed, it may not look like much. But over time, it grows into a large, strong tree.

A PR campaign is like planting that seed. At first, you might send out press releases, organize events, or do media interviews.

This might give you some immediate attention, which is great. But the real magic happens over time.

As your PR efforts continue, your brand name gets seen and heard more and more. People start to recognize and remember you. They might even consider you a trusted and credible choice in your field. And once people perceive your brand positively, it tends to stick around - just like a fully grown tree.

Even after your PR campaign ends, the benefits keep going. People remember your name, trust your brand, and afford you a competitive advantage. This long-term recognition and positive reputation are one of the most valuable benefits of PR.

So, even though it might take time to grow, once it does, it can provide shade and benefits for a long time.

How Do You Know if PR Is Working?

PR shouldn't be judged only by how many mentions or pieces of coverage you earn. Start with what you wanted the campaign to change, then measure whether it moved you closer to that outcome.

If your goal is visibility, you might look at relevant media mentions, referral traffic, or whether more people begin searching for your brand.

If your goal is engagement, look at what the audience does after encountering the coverage. That might include comments, shares, visits to your website, or participation in a community.

If your goal is customer acquisition, go further and track enquiries or sales. Affiliate links, campaign URLs, and promotional codes can make this easier when you're working with creators or other partners.

The important point is to separate exposure from impact. A piece of coverage can reach thousands of people without helping the business, while a smaller mention in the right niche can produce qualified traffic or customers.

Decide what success means before the campaign begins so you can judge PR against the outcome you actually wanted.

What Are Some Disadvantages of Public Relations?

Of course, people are complex, so there are always disadvantages that may come with PR as a form of promotion for marketing campaigns.

Lack of Control

Unlike advertising, where you have full control over the message and placement, in PR, if you choose the traditional route, the media outlet largely determines the final content, timing, and presentation.

There's also the risk that the message might be misunderstood or misconstrued by the audience, potentially harming the organization's image.

Slow Results

PR often requires a long-term commitment, and it may take time to see measurable results. It's more of a marathon than a sprint.

As mentioned above, with the analogy of planting a tree, PR is about building relationships and trust, which takes time. You must consistently show that you're reliable, interesting, and valuable. It's not about one big splash but many small ripples over time.

And just like growing a tree, there are no guarantees. You can do everything right, but sometimes, things just don't grow as expected. That's why PR requires a long-term commitment. You must be patient, keep working, and trust that your efforts will eventually bloom.

So, yes, it might take time, and there's no guaranteed outcome, but with patience and consistency, you will more likely cultivate something beautiful and fruitful.

When Does PR Make Sense for Your Business?

PR makes the most sense when you need to build trust or reach an audience through people and communities they already pay attention to.

If you need immediate and predictable paid reach, advertising may be the better starting point because you can buy access to a defined audience and control the message more directly.

If you want to capture people who are already searching for a problem or solution, SEO and content marketing can be a better long-term acquisition channel.

PR becomes particularly useful when the goal is to earn attention through journalists, creators, or other trusted voices rather than relying entirely on your own claims.

You can also combine these approaches. PR might introduce your brand to a niche through an influencer, while your own content gives that audience somewhere to learn more. An owned community can then give interested people somewhere to keep interacting with you and each other.

The right question isn't whether PR is better than every other marketing channel. It's what type of attention or relationship you need to build, and which channel is best suited to create it.

FAQ of Public Relations Benefits

Here are some answers to questions people tend to have about PR.

What are the Advantages of an In-House Public Relations Department?

An in-house PR team offers key advantages. They fully grasp your company's essence, allowing for genuine communication.

They can respond instantly to any crisis or opportunity, minimizing delays. Their constant involvement ensures a consistent brand voice across all PR activities.

And despite staff costs, they can be more cost-effective in the long run compared to external agency fees. They can also help align PR strategies with your business goals to sustain lasting relationships with media and stakeholders.

What are the Advantages of Working with an External Public Relations Team?

An external PR agency, similar to outsourcing copywriting , can bring a fresh perspective and inject your strategies with new ideas.

They have a crew of specialists, experienced in various PR areas, and can offer their established media relations for better publicity. They can scale up quickly for larger projects and save your internal team's time for other tasks.

You can also manage your expenses by adjusting their services as needed. They are like skilled tour guides, providing novel insights, expertise, and flexible support when needed.

Closing out on PR advantages

In the end, PR is a "win-win", much like a great friendship: your company meets its goals, gets a good name, and builds strong bonds, while your target audience sees your company as open, responsible, and responsive.

It's like a two-way street where understanding and working together benefit everyone.

And if you'd like to get some help, don't hesitate to connect with us and tell us your needs !

15 Ways to Create a Visceral Reaction With Your Content

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:19:40 GMT

15 Ways To Create a Visceral Reaction With Your Content

Your content can evoke visceral reactions from your prospects.

Why would you want this?

Because this type of response tends to increase engagement, brand recognition, and recall.

And so, understanding how to harness visceral reactions can elevate your content to new heights—separating you from competitors and claiming real estate in your prospect's mind.

So let's explore ways to use sensory language, emotions, imagery, and authenticity to create content that leaves a lasting impact.

We'll look at how it can be fostered positively, plus some examples of marketing campaigns that worked this in the past and also famous people who have used visceral reactions to their advantage. Let's dive in!

What is a Visceral Reaction?

A visceral reaction is a powerful physical response that happens automatically without conscious control.

It can occur when we perceive something as threatening, dangerous, joyous, or any other strong emotion.

It can even include bodily responses like increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, and muscle tension.

And is often described as a "gut feeling" because it comes from the deeper parts of our brain that regulate basic bodily functions and emotions.

How Can a Visceral Reaction Help Your Marketing?

Emotions have a big impact on consumer behavior.

And tapping into customers' emotional responses can be a great way to create brand awareness, increase engagement, and ultimately drive sales.

By creating marketing messages with help from power words and visuals that elicit strong emotional responses, such as excitement, joy, fear (like a fear of loss or FOMO), or anger (sharing a common cause), businesses can make their brand more memorable and compelling to consumers.

For example, a car company may use imagery and language that tap into consumers' desires for adventure and freedom, creating a visceral response that encourages them to imagine themselves behind the car's steering wheel.

Key Benefits

Emotional connection: When you evoke a visceral reaction, you create an emotional connection with your audience. And when your audience feels emotionally engaged, they are more likely to remember your brand, develop positive associations with your products and services, and become your customer.
More engagement: Visceral reactions can capture attention and increase engagement with your marketing and sales efforts. When your content evokes emotions, it can trigger likes, comments, shares, and other forms of social media engagement. It can also result in higher click-through rates, longer time spent on page as it hooks readers , and increased interactions with your brand across various channels.

Easier to remember: Visceral reactions make your marketing and sales efforts more memorable. When your audience has a strong emotional response to your content, even from pain signals, it can leave a lasting impression in their minds. This can lead to better brand recall, increased word-of-mouth marketing, and a higher likelihood of repeat purchases or referrals.
Differentiation from competitors: Creating visceral reactions can help your brand stand out. Emotionally impactful content can help your brand by uniquely appealing to your audience's hearts and minds. This can set you apart from competitors focusing solely on rational messaging and positioning your brand as more memorable, authentic, and relatable.
 Increased conversion rates: Visceral reactions can also lead to higher conversion rates. When your audience feels emotionally connected for instance with your business blog , it can influence their purchasing decisions, driving them to take action, such as purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting your sales team. Emotional engagement can foster customer loyalty, repeat business, and positive reviews or testimonials.

Positive Visceral Reactions

Positive visceral reactions can benefit individuals as they can help reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance overall well-being.

In marketing, positive visceral reactions can create a strong emotional connection with customers to help drive sales.

Here are some helpful emotions to target:

Excitement

Evoking a sense of excitement, enthusiasm, or joy, creating a high-energy emotional response that can be motivating and engaging.

Inspiration

Inspiring feelings of inspiration, motivation, or awe, stirring up a sense of admiration or wonderment that can drive action and engagement.

Empathy

Fostering empathy, compassion, or understanding towards others can help create an emotional connection and feeling of shared experience.

Happiness

Contentment, or pleasure, and generating positive associations with the content, brand, or message can obviously have long lasting benefits.

Hope

A visceral reaction can instill a sense of hope, optimism, or positivity, creating a sense of possibility and potential for a better outcome.

Connection

Fostering a sense of connection, belonging, or camaraderie, generating emotional bonds and loyalty towards a brand, cause, or community.

Nostalgia

This taps into a sentimental longing or affectionate remembrance of the past, and it can evoke powerful emotions, memories, and associations from the past.

Relief

Offering a solution to alleviate a burden or concern can create a powerful emotional response that fosters trust, loyalty and a positive association with the brand or product. Providing deep breaths of relief can be great for loyalty.

How to Create This With Your Content Marketing?

There are several ways that a company can tap into positive visceral reactions in a content marketing campaign.

Some obvious examples include:

Visuals are a powerful way to evoke emotions and create positive visceral reactions. Companies can use high-quality images, videos with musical elements, and infographics that evoke positive emotions such as joy, excitement, and inspiration.
Stories are a great way to engage audiences emotionally. Companies can tell stories that evoke positive emotions, such as heartwarming stories about how their products have made a difference in people's lives.
Humor is a powerful way to evoke positive emotions and create a sense of connection with the audience. Companies can use humor to create memorable, shareable, and enjoyable content.
Companies can showcase customer success stories to evoke positive emotions and create a sense of trust and loyalty. These stories can be shared through case studies, testimonials, or user-generated content.

But let's look at some specifics as they related to writing.

With Your Writing

Eliciting a visceral reaction from your writing can be a powerful way to engage and connect with your readers.

Here are some tips to help you evoke a visceral reaction from your writing:

Use sensory language

Incorporate vivid and descriptive sensory language such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch to create a more immersive and engaging experience for your readers.

Appeal to emotions

Use language that appeals to emotions such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and surprise to elicit a visceral response from your readers.

Use powerful imagery

Use powerful imagery and metaphors that create a strong mental picture in your reader's mind and evoke a strong emotional response.

Take risks

You'll need to stand out. You'll need to step outside your comfort zone to evoke a strong emotion from your target audience. So, you'll likely need to take risks and highlight a polarizing stance to get people talking.

Be authentic

Share personal stories and experiences that are authentic and relatable to your readers. This can help to create a sense of connection and empathy with your audience.

Create tension

Use storytelling techniques such as suspense, conflict, and cliffhangers to create tension and keep your readers engaged.

Use an active voice

Use active voice rather than passive voice to create a more immediate and impactful tone.

Vary sentence length and structure

Varying the length and structure of your sentences can create a sense of rhythm and pacing that can heighten the emotional impact of your writing.

Edit and refine

Continuously edit and refine your writing to ensure that every word and phrase serves a purpose and contributes to the overall emotional impact of your writing.

Other Formats

Here are some hints on how you can evoke visceral reactions through various types of content:

Visual content

Images, videos, and infographics can be powerful tools to create visceral reactions. Using striking and emotionally resonant visuals can evoke strong emotional responses in your audience, whether through awe, joy, or empathy.

Audio content

Sound can also be used to create visceral reactions. Think about how music, sound effects, and voiceovers can enhance the emotional impact of your content, such as in podcasts, videos, or interactive experiences.

Interactive content

Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls, surveys, and games, can create a sense of engagement and immersion that triggers visceral reactions. These types of content can encourage active participation from your audience and elicit emotional responses based on their choices or results.

Social media content

Social media platforms offer opportunities to create visceral reactions through various content formats, including sharing related and controversial news stories (like what our executive online reputation management services handle), posts, live videos, and user-generated content. Emotive and shareable content that resonates with your audience can trigger visceral reactions and drive engagement, likes, comments, and shares.

Experiential content

Experiential content is a powerful marketing tool that can create a deep emotional connection between consumers and brands.

By offering an interactive and immersive experience, companies can evoke a visceral reaction from their audience and leave a lasting impression.

For example a SaaS company can provide a usable demo of their tool on their website to significantly enhance the user experience and drive customer engagement before they even become a customer.

Brand storytelling

Telling compelling stories about your brand, its values, and its impact can create visceral reactions in your audience.

Storytelling through various forms of content, including written narratives, videos, and testimonials, can tap into emotions and create a memorable and resonant experience.

Remember, engaging your audience's senses, emotions, and imagination is key to creating visceral reactions through content.

By leveraging different content formats and techniques, you can create a multi-dimensional experience that captivates your audience and leaves a lasting impact.

Avoid Cliches

Avoiding cliches when targeting visceral reactions from content requires creativity and originality. Here are some tips to help you avoid cliches:

Know your audience

Understanding your target audience's preferences and interests can help you create content that resonates with them in a unique way.

Focus on specificity

Instead of using generic terms or phrases, focus on using specific details and language that help to create a vivid and memorable picture in the audience's mind.

Use metaphors and analogies

Metaphors and analogies are a great way to communicate complex or abstract concepts in a more accessible and engaging way.

Experiment with different formats

Trying out different formats such as podcasts, videos, and interactive content can help to make your content stand out from the crowd.

Take risks

Don't be afraid to take risks and try something new. Creativity often requires taking risks and stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Test and iterate

Continuously testing and iterating your content can help you refine your approach and identify what resonates most with your audience.

Marketing Campaigns That Evoked Visceral Reactions

There have been numerous ads and marketing campaigns that have successfully evoked visceral reactions from audiences.

Here are some examples:

Nike's "Dream Crazy" Campaign

This campaign featured former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, known for his activism and controversial stance on social issues, as the spokesperson.

The ad featured Kaepernick's narration over powerful visuals of athletes overcoming obstacles and pursuing their dreams, invoking strong emotions related to social justice, activism, and perseverance.

And it was super polarizing - so it kept people talking for .

Google's "Year in Search" Campaign

Google's annual "Year in Search" campaign showcases the most popular searches and events of the year through a video montage.

The emotional impact of the campaign comes from the raw and real moments captured in the searches, touching on various themes such as love, resilience, and social issues, which resonate with audiences on an emotional level.

Dove's "Real Beauty" Campaign

Dove's long-running campaign has been recognized for its focus on body positivity and challenging traditional beauty standards. Through thought-provoking videos, print ads, and social media campaigns, Dove has evoked visceral reactions by addressing societal issues related to self-esteem, body image, and beauty ideals, resonating with audiences on an emotional level.

Famous People Who Evoke Strong Emotions

Several famous individuals have successfully used visceral reactions to gain attention in various fields. Here are 3 great examples:

Steve Jobs

The late co-founder of Apple Inc. was known for his captivating and emotionally charged product launches. Jobs was a master at creating a sense of anticipation and excitement among his audience, using powerful visuals, dramatic storytelling, and showmanship to elicit visceral reactions and generate buzz around Apple's products.

Oprah Winfrey

The renowned media mogul and philanthropist has built her empire by connecting with her audience on an emotional level. Winfrey's ability to share personal stories, empathize with her guests, and inspire her viewers has created a strong emotional bond with her audience, resulting in a loyal following and an influential brand.

Elon Musk

The entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has used his visionary and bold ideas to create visceral reactions among audiences. Musk's ambitious projects, such as space exploration, sustainable transportation, have captured the imagination and excitement of many, eliciting strong emotional responses and generating widespread attention. And his recent controversial purchase of Twitter has brought in tons of free publicity across all sorts of channels.

Visceral Reactions Summed Up

Visceral reactions can be a powerful tool for marketers.

Tapping into emotions can help create highly engaging content that resonates with audiences, fosters deeper connections, and drives results.

Whether you agree with the messaging or not, brands like Nike and Dove have successfully used visceral reactions to drive engagement, address social issues, build lasting brands, and stand out in a crowded marketplace... and of course create memorable marketing campaigns.

So, by prioritizing emotional connection and creating experiences that evoke visceral reactions, marketers can create content that sets them apart and drives engagement, loyalty, and sales.

7 Super Simple Tips To Avoid Fluff in Writing

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 00:42:26 GMT

How To Spot Fluff in Writing & 7 Simple Ways To Avoid It

Fluff is any word, sentence, or section that delays the answer without adding meaning. It wastes readers’ time and weakens useful ideas.

Not every extra detail should go, though. Context, evidence, examples, humour, and personality can earn their place when they serve the reader.

So, here’s how to spot fluff and cut it without making your writing flat or AI.

What is Fluff in Writing?

Fluff often appears as long-winded descriptions, filler phrases, repeated ideas, irrelevant facts, or background that delays the answer.

You can find fluff in advertising copy and other marketing materials. And it's often used in an attempt to make products more appealing (perhaps thanks to the Length-Implies-Strength Heuristic from copywriting legend Gary Halbert).

But it's often poorly used and abused, with no benefit.

Thankfully, with a strong understanding of fluff writing, after this article, you can ensure that your new and old (via updates) content is concise and meaningful.

Types of Fluff Writing and Common Causes

There's a wide range of fluff bloating up the internet.

There are fluffy words, sentences, sections, and even entire fluffy articles.

And there can be many factors to blame for this, such as:

The common belief is that longer articles rank better and are shared more.
The common practice of paying writers per word.
A lack of experience and research on topics written by generalist writers following an SEO NLP tool like Surfer or Frase .

It all leads to useless filler, with surface-level details of meaningless generalities that scream AI writers.

Examples of Fluff Words?

Adverbs are often examples of common fluff.

For example, words like 'very' or 'really.'

They don't add any meaning, and Stephen King hates them .

There are also phrases like "in order to" (to) and "due to the fact that" (because), which are unnecessary filler that can be removed or replaced with simpler versions - or better yet, if appropriate - power words .

Here are some of the common culprits to look out for:

Key Tips for Eliminating Fluff Writing

If you're in a rush, I want to give you some important tips I've learned from over 10 years in the business!

These are the most effective things anyone can do to combat fluff in your content:

Start with a foundation of respect and understanding for your target reader.
Plan out your content with an organized and logical outline.
Aim to get your message across as quick and simple as possible.
Use concrete, simple language with specific examples if helpful.
Edit out platitudes, redundancies (unless it's a summarized section for those in a rush like this one ;), and anything else that won't help your readers.

How to Spot Fluff in a Draft

Fluff can appear at different levels of a draft:

Word level: words like very, really, quite, extremely, basically words ending with 'ly' that add emphasis without adding precision + unnecessarily formal wording
Sentence level: a sentence repeats a point or delays the main idea
Paragraph level: several sentences explain something the reader already understands
Section level: a heading drifts from the article’s purpose or duplicates another section

Ask these questions as you edit:

Does this add information the reader needs?
Does it clarify, prove, or advance the point?
Does it help the reader connect with or remember the idea?
Would removing it change the meaning?
Has the same point already been made?

When a sentence fails those tests, cut it or rewrite it. For example:

Fluffy:

It is important to note that there are many different ways writers can potentially improve the overall clarity of their writing.

Tighter:

Writers can improve clarity in several ways.

The shorter version keeps the meaning and removes words that don't add evidence, context, personality, or direction.

7 Simple Ways to Avoid Fluff in Writing

So how to stop the madness that is filler content and get to the point?

Here are 7 easy ways:

1. Lead With the Bottom Line

One of the best ways to avoid fluff is BLUF or the Bottom Line Up Front principle . It's a military communication standard to give readers the main answer before the background, explanation, or supporting detail.

Lead with the answer, then add the context needed to explain, support, or apply it.

Buried answer:

Content quality depends on structure, relevance, audience awareness, and careful editing. Taking these factors into account can help writers reduce unnecessary material.

BLUF:

Cut material that does not help readers understand, trust, use, or remember your point.

You can then explain how structure, relevance, audience awareness, and editing help you achieve that.

This is a great way to respect your reader’s time with the details that follow clarifying, proving, guiding, or strengthening the connection.

2. Create an Outline Before You Write

This is where you plan out what you want to say before you write.

It's essential for any writing you do, especially a blog post.

Meaningful content for readers and search engines requires a clear, logical structure.

You can always copy the structure of the top-ranking pages for a topic.

'If it ain't broke don't fix it.'

But it'll be hard to outrank them unless you go the extra mile.

So checking people also ask questions, quora, reddit, and even YouTube for a given topic can help you add extra information your competitors may have missed.

3. Write to the Point, Not a Target Word Count

Clear writing is not the same as bare writing.

Useful context helps readers understand why a point matters, how it applies to them, or what they should do next. Personality can make an idea easier to remember and help the writer sound human. Examples, stories, humour, and conversational asides can all earn their place.

The difference is whether the extra material serves the reader.

Keep a sentence when it does at least one of these jobs:

Clarifies: It explains a term, removes ambiguity, or adds necessary background.
Proves: It supports a claim with evidence, an example, or first-hand experience.
Guides: It helps the reader make a decision or take the next step.
Connects: It reflects the reader’s situation, voice, concerns, or sense of humour.
Improves rhythm: It gives the reader a useful pause or makes a dense idea easier to absorb.

Cut it when it mainly shows off, repeats an established point, delays the answer, or entertains the writer more than the reader.

For example:

Too bare: Use simple language.

Useful and human: Use the clearest word that does the job. Your reader should not need to solve a puzzle to understand your point.

The second version is longer, but it is not fluff. It explains the advice and gives the reader a memorable image for context.

In general, a good editing question is:

Does this sentence help the reader understand, believe, use, or remember the point?

If the answer is no, cut it. If the answer is yes, keep it - even when it adds a little length.

4. Be Specific

Abstract language and generalizations usually just make your writing fluffier.

Adding specifics and examples to what your content can go a long way.

Plus concrete examples, specific numbers or statistics also help you get referenced by others via links and social shares.

For example, one survey showed that 75% of readers prefer blog posts to be under 1000 words . With only 5% preferring to read a post over 2000 words.

Because of that stat and confirmation bias, that page just earned another link.

5. Avoid Trying to Sound Smart

Being accessible for a broader audience requires clarity of thought and simple sentence structures.

It means discussing a topic in a way that readers can follow along without needing to think too hard.

That doesn't mean to 'dumb things down' though.

Again, we must always respect our audience and never commit the mortal sin of assuming we're more intelligent than others.

Some common culprits of fluffy writing do the opposite.

They fill fluff content with:

Wordy or complex sentences

Flowery language

Industry acronyms

Complicated language

Simple language does not make an idea less intelligent. It makes the idea easier to understand and use.

Fluffy: Our innovative methodology facilitates the optimization of your content production workflow.

Tighter: Our process helps your team create content faster.

The tighter version tells readers what the process does without making them decode abstract language.

6. Eliminate Redundancies

Redundancy can appear within a phrase, across two sentences, or between entire sections.

Word-level redundancy

Fluffy: We review each and every draft before publication.

Tighter: We review every draft before publication.

“Each” and “every” perform the same job here, so you only need one.

Sentence-level redundancy

Fluffy: Cut words that do not add meaning. Remove unnecessary words that do not help the reader.

Tighter: Cut words that do not help the reader.

The original sentences make the same point twice.

Section-level redundancy

An introduction might promise seven ways to avoid fluff. Repeating that same promise in the conclusion adds nothing new.

Use the conclusion to reinforce the main lesson or give the reader a next step instead:

Before publishing, cut anything that does not clarify, prove, or advance your point.

When Repetition Helps

Not every repeated idea is redundant. In a long article, readers may skim, jump between sections, or encounter a passage without reading everything above it. A brief reminder can reconnect the section to the article’s main point and help it make sense on its own.

The repetition should add something new:

Apply an earlier principle to a new situation
Summarize a complex explanation
Reconnect the reader to the main argument
Prepare the reader for the next step

Useful recontextualization:

Earlier, we used clarity, proof, and progress to judge individual sentences. Apply the same test to complete sections: does this section help the reader understand, believe, or act?

Repeat an idea when it adds context or direction. But DO cut it when it merely restates the same point.

7. Be Brutally Honest When You Edit

Adding personality to a blog post from time to time is important and helps build your brand.

But it's a delicate balance.

An interesting anecdote (to you) can devolve into a fluff story filled with unnecessary details.

And besides a copyediting checklist you can also use free tools to help.

Grammarly or ProWritingAid are a couple of good ones.

And when in doubt, you should always copy-paste your writing into Hemingwayapp.

This free web tool will highlight wordy sentences, passive voice (so you can switch to active voice), adverbs, and complex terminology.

Combining it with lessons from The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolf Flesch will work wonders.

You'll replace bad fluff content with clear, meaningful content that cuts right to your reader's needs.

Before You Publish: A Quick Fluff Check

There you have it.

Before you publish, ask:

Have I answered the reader’s main question early?
Does each section add new information or apply an earlier idea in a useful way?
Can I replace any wordy phrase with a clearer one?
Would removing this sentence reduce the clarity, credibility, usefulness, or personality of the piece?
Have I repeated a point without adding context or direction?

Cut what adds no value. Keep what makes the answer clearer, more useful, or more human.

Need a Second Pair of Eyes?

Fluff is often easier to spot in someone else’s writing than your own. We can review your content and show you where tighter copy or clearer structure would improve it.

Get in touch for a content review!

How to Become a Freelance Writer With No Experience [+ 3 Key Tips]

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 11:21:59 GMT

How to Become a Freelance Writer With No Experience

A freelance writer is someone who writes for different clients. But knowing how to become a freelance writer with no experience comes first.

But don't worry. It's a common hurdle to overcome when starting a freelance career.

And that's what we're here to help you with.

How to Become a Freelance Writer

One of the first steps to starting a career in freelance writing is to find clients.

These clients are companies, businesses, or individuals who want to hire a writer for a specific project.

Do well, and you'll probably become their go-to help for their copywriting or content needs.

But, before you can persuade someone to pay you as a professional writer, you must first show them you can string together a sentence or 2.

Below are some great ways to get started.

Start your Own Blog

A personal blog is a powerful tool for self-expression, marketing, and branding.

And it’s actually not as difficult to start your own blog as you might think.

You don't have to create a personal blog. It can actually be about any topic that interests you. But it's a certainly a good idea to build your site around a common topic or theme and stick to it.

Not only will this help signal to Google that you're familiar a given topic - and thus can be a reliable source for searchers online. But it'll also help signal to potential clients that you're experienced writing about that topic.

If you can play your cards right and write some long-form blog posts that rank in your niche, on search engines, even better.

This blog of yours is an excellent way to develop and improve your writing style. It will also be a great place to host your freelance writing samples. And it can even provide you with a source of income down the line as you continue to build the site.

[It's also a great way to develop new and practical skills aside from writing.

Site development is a skill that basically every business in the world needs these days.

And showing your online writing portfolio with site development skills on your own freelance writing business site will boost your earning potential.]

Guest Posting On Other Sites

If you can find the email address of blogs that accept guest posts and will let you write them for free, you have a great opportunity.

Here are a few benefits of guest post freelance writing gigs:

You'll be able to practice your skills with writing experience. Show off your skills to a new audience. And you'll more than likely get to link back to your blog.

It will also require cold pitching. And these article pitches will further develop your writing skills. And even more specifically, your copywriting skills.

And effective cold email outreach generally requires a few things:

An attractive email subject line,
A sincere introduction in the hopes of establishing a genuine connection,

You'll get to practice hook sentences . These will help persuade your target to read your email. And this will increase the chance they'll give you a try.

[Suggesting some article ideas that will be interesting and helpful to their readers with no strings attached helps.]

Just know that most site owners of a certain level of authority likely get these kinds of cold pitches several times a week - if not daily - so don't take it personally if you don't get a response.

Just keep trying, and the act itself will be good practice.

Video Script Writing

Think outside the box. Freelance writing jobs can extend beyond the page or screen.

YouTube is a massive platform these days, and the videos you watch there are more than likely following a script.

And these YouTubers may want to outsource the grunt work to those willing to do the grunt work for a little extra income and experience.

I tried this out for Noah Kagan once. Granted I didn't get the gig but the experience opened my eyes to new possibilities when building a client list.

Plus the conversational style needed on video is good practice!

Write for a Content Marketing Agency

Working for an SEO or content marketing agency like 8-Bit Content as a freelance content writer allows you to write about many different topics.

These are good jobs for beginners as you'll also have access to SOPs and editors. Plus you'll get to familiarize yourself with tools like Frase , and other on-page SEO tools.

Once you have found a client like this, you can either work as an independent contractor or an employee of the company.

Decide What Types of Writing You'd Like to Focus on

The next step is to know what type of content writing project you want to specialize in.

Some freelance writers specialize in writing long-form SEO blog posts. But others focus mostly on copywriting.

Your decision here will really come down to your personal preference.

For instance, I struggle with writing long articles. Others prefer it.

Any successful freelance writer will have to decide which they want to focus on.

There's a pretty big difference between copywriting vs content writing .

I'd argue it comes down to personality types. So it's good to ask yourself a simple question: Are you a patient person?

Content writing is perfect for an SEO writer. Someone that likes to dive into a topic with the goal to appease Google and bring value to readers.

Copywriting is more so tailored towards site copy, emails, sales pages.

Choose a Niche You Want to Specialize In

One of the most important steps in your freelancing journey is to find a freelance writing niche and type of writing that you are passionate and are interested in.

This will make it easier for you to produce more quality work while increasing your writing speed.

Then, you need to look for prospective clients who will pay for articles in that niche or looking for those skills.

But the good news with this approach is that in most cases, a technical writer will be paid more for their work due to the scarcity factor.

For example an experienced finance writer in the US makes on average $110,000 a year .

It's a good idea to consider what niches interest you, what type of client you want, and which niche will bring you the best writing income.

Build Your Portfolio

This can be done by writing articles on topics related to the niche or general articles on all sorts of topics.

Building a general writing portfolio is good, but building a specialized portfolio of your technical writing is better.

When you send this into potential clients, they'll more than likely spend more time looking through it and inviting you to do a paid writing assignment.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Clients?

There are many ways to find these clients, and the most popular ways are through freelance writing job boards like ProBlogger or groups on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook like Cult of Copy.

These are many go-to sites for those writers seeking potential customers and vice versa.

Do you Need Qualifications to be a Freelance Writer?

Freelance writing doesn't require any specific academic qualifications.

Many successful freelance writers do not have degrees or formal education in writing, journalism, or related fields.

Sometimes it may 'get you in the door'. Like for example if you'd like to write for a health and wellness site.

Having a degree in nutrition or other academic qualifications may boost your credibility and make you more appealing to potential clients.

But, these health sites will also have editors or consultants that help to fact-check regardless. So really anyone to produce content while still managing to cover the site's desired E-E-A-T needs.

Generally, demonstrating that you can write well and reliably deliver quality content is what will get you jobs.

So, the most important qualifications for a freelance writer are strong writing skills, a good work ethic, and the ability to consistently meet deadlines.

Your portfolio of work is often more important than your formal education.

What Skills Do Successful Writers Have?

Successful freelance and content writers usually possess skills to help them succeed.

These can be grouped into two broad categories:

Hard skills, which are specific, teachable abilities that can be defined and measured.

And soft skills, which are less tangible and harder to quantify, but nonetheless critical for success.

Hard Skills

Writing Skill: This is the most obvious skill. Successful content writers are strong communicators and demonstrate a solid ability to write in various styles and tones appropriate to different audiences.
Research Skill: Content writers usually write about a wide range of topics, so strong research skills are key. This includes knowing how to locate reliable sources, synthesize information, and present it in a way that's easy to understand.
SEO Knowledge: Content often needs to be optimized for search engines, so a basic understanding of SEO principles is a big plus. This can include understanding how to structure content for the web and keeping up with Google's algorithm updates.
Technical Proficiency: Depending on the project, you may also need to upload content into a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, or use tools for SEO and social media. In some cases, knowledge of basic HTML/CSS could be useful.

Soft Skills

Creativity: Writing requires a lot of creativity, not just in coming up with ideas but in figuring out how to present them in an engaging way.
Adaptability: As mentioned above, successful freelance writers will often need to write on various topics and adjust to different writing styles. This requires the ability to quickly learn about new industries and adapt your writing to fit the needs of different clients.
Time Management: As a freelancer, you'll often juggle multiple projects simultaneously, with varying deadlines. Managing your time effectively is crucial, especially if you want to earn a good income.
Communication: This is key for your writing, understanding client requirements, and providing updates on your progress. It's also useful for negotiating contracts and rates.
Resilience: Rejection is a part of freelance writing. Being able to handle criticism, learn from it, and keep going is invaluable. Plus, you'll have a big competitive advantage if you can take constructive criticism from those who have earned your respect so that you can use it to improve.
Networking: Building relationships with clients and other writers can increase opportunities. Networking can be done in person at events or online through social media and professional networking sites.

Freelance Writing Rates

There are lots of variances to writing rates.

It depends on various factors like industry, experience, and price structuring.

Experienced writers in a given niche can make $100s or even $1000s per article.

Meanwhile, those starting can write for as low as $0.01 per word.

Great Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills Fast

To avoid ever writing for $0.01 a word, you'll want to show you've got writing skills.

Typically the best way to improve your writing is by simply doing it.

After all - practice makes perfect.

But here are a few super simple and easy ways to quickly and easily take your writing skills to the next level.

Practice writing with Hemingwayapp

Hemingway is an amazing free tool. And will absolutely help improve your freelance writing services.

It helps you write short sentences, spot unnecessary adverbs, avoid fluff in your writing , and replace difficult words with simpler synonyms.

The result is writing that is more readable and thus enjoyable to well... read.

Read 'Art of Plain Talk'

I've read a lot of books on writing and grammar :S and I can strongly say that this book is one of the best around.

The author of the book, Rudolf Flesch, is an amazing mind, and although he wrote the book back in 1946, the ideas are still true.

This is the rare case where you can improve your writing simply by reading a book.

I'd argue it will give you a leg up in the freelance writing industry.

It's accessible for free via a quick Google search .

Take an 'SEO' focused content writing course

Many free online courses lay out everything you'll want to remember when writing to rank on Google.

I did the Surfer course a long time ago, which laid out all of the different search intents to keep an eye on, etc.

It's good stuff, plus it's free and one of the most popular writing courses available for today's content needs. Hubspot is another excellent resource for free courses to help your work!

There are also freelance writing courses for general purposes that will surely help.

And the information you need is almost always available for free.

Closing out on how to become a freelance writer without experience

Even if it's not exactly a career path you see yourself pursuing long term, freelance writing can be very beneficial.

And growing a successful freelance writing career can lead into many things.

Just try starting out building your own site.

The process will be very worthwhile, and using the simple hacks of writing with the hemingwayapp and reading 'Art of Plain Talk' will take care of your writing quality needs.

Writing Great Essay Hooks [With Hook Examples]

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:22:14 GMT

Writing Great Essay Hooks [With Hook Examples]

A great essay hook is like a worm on a line. The writer is a fisherman and the readers are fish: A great essay hook captures readers and holds their attention.

Imagine this scenario: You're curious about how walruses mate. You google "Walrus mating." You click on the first link that shows up.

You read the first few sentences. All very dry content. Technical terms. There's no hook. Your eyes start to glaze over. You close your laptop. End of story.

A great essay hook sentence could have changed this scenario and the course of your entire life. You could have become a great marine biologist.

In this article we're looking at hooks. The advice we'll share will help you craft the perfect hook to keep your reader reading.

So regardless your writing assignment - whether a college paper, a personal statement for a university application, a persuasive essay for a high school English class, or anything else, this article is for you.

What is a Hook?

When a writer takes the time and energy to create content, they're almost always hoping that someone will take the time to read it. Writers need readers after all.

And while writers need readers, readers need something that will grab their attention and make them want to keep reading.

That's where the hook comes in.

A good essay hook is found at the beginning of an essay and it has the purpose of engaging your readers (perhaps with a visceral reaction ) from the very start.

First impressions matter and a good hook can give readers a great first impression of what they're about to read.

An interesting opening paragraph suggests an interesting read ahead. A boring introduction strongly suggests that the reader can expect a snooze fest ahead.

A hook is usually a sentence or grouping of sentences that draws people to your essay or research paper. Hooks are what spark curiosity and interest.

Your essay should make the reader wonder what happens next. They can also be used to make your introduction stand out.

A hook has to be related to the topic you are writing about. This makes it a good lead into the thesis statement where readers can understand exactly what your topic will be about.

How to Write a Great Essay Hook?

That’s a common question that gets asked quite often by students and writers around the world.

To write a good hook, you first you need to ask the question: Who is your target audience?

To make an effective hook, you need to know who are you writing for. Is it an academic audience? Is it for casual readers with limited expertise?

When you think about who you are writing for, you can strategize about what will make them interested.

A formal audience researching a serious topic probably don't want your essay to start with a joke. This will give the wrong first impression.

If you are writing an article that is aimed at casual readers, you will want them to feel curious and not intimidated.

There are different essay types. Some are formal, some are informal. Some are personal, some are not.

When you have thought about this, you can start to think about choosing the best type of hook.

Next let's consider some of the different types of hooks. We'll look at the most engaging hooks and how best these can be used. And we'll give examples to help.

Rhetorical Questions

Is there anything more beautiful than a rhetorical question? Don't answer that.

A rhetorical question is a question that is not actually meant to be answered. In fact a rhetorical question is actually a statement disguised as a question.

A typical rhetorical question has an obvious answer that goes without saying. In any case, this can be an intriguing question because it will lead into something that might be of interest to the reader.

For example, when writing a personal statement for a university application, a person could write: Is anyone's life without struggle?

The obvious answer is no. No one lives a life without some sort of struggle. This type of hook could then introduce the reader to the struggles the writer has overcome.

Rhetorical questions are effective at grabbing a reader's attention because they get the reader to think about the statement the question represents.

Statistical Hooks

According to the Pew Research Centre , nearly 25% of adult Americans reported that they didn't read a book in 2020.

That statistic shows that a significant number of people don't read books. It introduces a fact that might surprise the reader and if you are writing about something related to literacy, this factual hook leads effectively into the essay topic.

The statistic above would be a compelling hook.

As the Data scientist Edward Demings once said, "Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."

People don't generally care about random people's unsupported opinions. Statistics support opinions and show expertise and knowledge.

Reliable statistics give valuable insights about topics. And if you use an interesting statistic as a hook, you give a very positive first impression to a reader who will see you as a writer who has done research.

But word of advice: If you are going to use a statistic hook, make sure the statistic as accurate. To start your essay with a dubious statistic will not make you look reliable and your reader might dismiss you right away.

Famous Quotes

The famous actress Marlene Dietrich once said, "I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself."

In other words, a relevant quote from a famous person can put into words what you want to say, and it carries a lot of weight.

If the quote is interesting or witty, it is definitely an effective way to get people's attention.

For example, if you are writing a college essay about anti-Semitism, you could use a literary quote from Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice the following line from the play's Jewish character Shylock:

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

This is an effective quote because:

The quote relates to anti-semitism
The quote is from Shakespeare - one of the English language's greatest writers and someone pretty much everyone respects.
The quote is thought provoking

Oh and it's also a rhetorical question which we've already talked about. So your reader won't be able to take their eyes off the page.

You can easily find an extensive catalogue of great quotes on countless different topics from the website Good Reads .

Narrative Hook

I once tried reading an essay that had no hook. There seemed to be no effort by the writer to get my attention. The first sentence just said what the essay was going to be about. I didn't get past the third sentence before I threw it into the fireplace.

A personal story, like the example above, is a great example of a narrative hook. This is best for an informal piece of writing and it helps to create a personal connection between the writer and his or her reader.

Narrative essays tell a stories. They are usually personal or anecdotal. Narrative hooks do the same thing but in a matter of a couple of sentences. They tell a very short story in 1-2 sentences that should relate to the topic of the paper.

If the reader can relate in some way to the narrative hook, the ideal outcome will be the reader establishes an emotional connection to the writer from the beginning.

Words with deep meanings can also help create an impact with your reader.

Everyone loves stories and even a micro story can be strong way to start an essay that encourages people to keep reading.

Strong Statement Hook

Anyone who writes an essay without a hook is a fool!

The sentence above is an example of a strong statement hook. It is an effective essay hook because it sparks the reader's interest to find out more about why the writer is making the statement.

These types of hooks are used most effectively used in argumentative essays where the writer is arguing something that is contentious.

People who agree with the point might read on to reinforce their opinion. People who disagree might read on to find out where the writer gets the audacity to have this differing opinion.

Either way, people are reading. And that was the point of writing in the first place.

Simile Hook

Writing an essay without a hook is like trying to make love without any foreplay. You can do it. But there's a good chance the person on the receiving end won't finish.

A simile is figure of speech where a comparison is made between two different things to show some sort of similarity.

This article opened with a simile, comparing hooks in writing to hooks used by fishermen.

And the sentence at the start of this section that makes a comparison between foreplay-less love making and a lack of a hook is another example.

Similes are effective because they can show that the writer is clever. They can amuse or intrigue the reader to read on. They also can help to simplify something that might be complicated into an easy and accessible image that a casual reader will be able to appreciate.

Conclusion

A good writer thinks about his or her audience and crafts content that will resonate in someway.

Highly effective content uses hooks to pull readers in and make sure the reader actually reads what has been written.

In this article, we've looked closely at hooks and some of the best examples of powerful essay hooks. We've also looked at how best to use the different kinds.

Get your readers hooked. Start your essay with a great essay hook and reel those readers in.

Or take the easy-breezy route and let us do the work for you !

Marketing vs Business Development [How to Win Big With Both]

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 15:43:42 GMT

Marketing vs Business Development [How to Win Big With Both]

Marketing vs business development is an unlikely head to head.

These terms are sometimes confused. But yes they are indeed different career paths.

Marketing and business development teams share the same objectives. They both generate new leads and customers, build strategic relationships, improve the sales process, and persuade current customers to refer friends. But they achieve these shared goals in different ways. Marketing charms at the macro-scale while business development does so on the micro.

And this is what we will discuss today.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is the aspect of business that focuses on driving attention to your brand in a way that attracts potential customers and persuades them to stick around.

The top aim of marketing is all about offering something valuable to your potential markets' wants and needs in order to develop a relationship that creates leads, then customers, and then referrals.

How does marketing work?

A strategic marketing plan is essential to ensure your company's effectiveness. This plan should establish the company's message, benefits and capabilities that the other departments can deliver.

And this is why it's often essential for the entire company to have input in the marketing strategy.

For example, it's really important that all information in online materials is accurate and consistent messaging.

If a company outsources copywriting to the wrong agency that makes grandiose claims, the company may be a couple of false promises away from a tarnished reputation or worse.

And this is also why the marketing department can sometimes be a relatively unpopular department in a company.

But as long as the marketing tactics (check out the 8 ps of marketing ) used by the marketing team are reflective of the shared goals and capabilities of the entire team, it should be a win-win for all.

Marketing roles

Based on their chosen strategy, the Marketing Department are then responsible for the execution of a variety of marketing strategies (e.g. design of marketing materials, website updates, emails campaigns, etc).

Depending on the size of the business there may be marketing managers for each of these tasks or more.

Public relations is another important part of marketing. And ideal messaging to the public should attempt to be honest and clear so that the company has a positive image among possible customers.

Marketing is all about your target audience.

It's about understanding who they are, what they want, and how you can communicate with them that your product or service is what they are looking for.

Promote and Nurture at Scale

And this is typically done on the biggest and grandest scale possible to get the most attention and grow public awareness about your offering.

Be creative and analytical

Which is why marketing professionals typically require both creative and analytical skills.

To ensure they're being seen by the right people, at the right place, and at the right time.

And not wasting money.

What is Business Development?

Business development has diverse applications depending on what industry or size of the company you are working in.

In general, a key function of the business development team is to help identify new business opportunities and business partnerships wherever appropriate.

This includes developing growth opportunities in new markets and different geographic areas.

Business Development representatives are also responsible for the person-to-person interaction that often must take place for a big sale or order to go through or to develop strategic business partnerships.

So one way to think of it is they help to lay the foundation for the marketing plan and then further help out after the marketing team has warmed up prospects.

Business development roles

Depending on the size of the company, a business development manager is responsible for creating or closing leads.

For a smaller company, it can be great because it's like the sales department with a less abrasive title.

For a bigger company, the business development team help generate real-life leads they can then pass over to the sales team to close a sale.

But in both cases, it's all about building real and genuine relationships with people.

The sales team and business development department are both responsible for forming strategic partnerships that bring in new clients.

Business development specialists are usually expected develop prospects and referral lists. They tend join networking events and trade shows. They even assist in following up with qualified leads from marketing campaigns via email and phone calls.

There are people out there who put their guards up as soon as they're talking to someone in sales.

But the business development team may be just as interested in creating a mutually beneficial 'connector' relationship with you to expand each other's networks as they are with the sale of products or services.

This is where client relationships and business relationships, in general, make this such a valuable team. The relationship-building done here transfers over into multiple benefits.

Soft Skills

Business development is an area of the business that should be left for people with likability and a talent for communication (which can be learned).

The business development process focuses on business growth through meetings with prospects or customers that align with company sales strategies.

Customer Service

It's way more cost-effective to persuade an existing customer to stay or recommend to their friends instead of constantly starting over persuading new potential customers.

Innovative Ideas

Your business development efforts help bring innovative ideas by considering new ways to help you grow your customer base.

Marketing vs Business Development: What are the Major Differences?

While they share the same goals, they have different focuses and responsibilities.

Marketing focuses on the consumer and their journey from awareness to loyalty. It also identifies the strategies and tactics used to achieve that level of loyalty.

However, business development focuses on the tasks and processes that will increase revenue.

Again, the biggest difference between the two is the scalability of their efforts.

The big difference between marketing and 'biz dev' is that marketing can be scaled up as much as a company's ad spend and SEO efforts allow it. Business development often requires meetings and face-to-face interactions with warm prospects.

Business development finds new markets. Marketing then promotes to that market and gets people fired up to agree to meet the business development people in a new warmed context that can lead to sales.

Marketing vs Business Development: What are the Similarities?

As we've discussed marketing vs business development are not in conflict. They share goals to grow the business and they do this in many similar ways.

They both look for opportunities and ways to increase leads.

They both try to nurture leads with the best possible experience to persuade leads to use their products and services.

And they also both want to create a long-term relationship that can be sustained and provide mutual value well into the future.

How Marketing vs. Business Development is The Ultimate Team

Although these roles require different skills, they work great together.

Business development is possible by close contact with your potential customer and listening to their needs.

This is crucial for marketing and essential for crafting an accurate customer profile to create effective campaigns for your potential market.

Together these two skills work together to help build the sustainability of your business.

And helping you maintain momentum in a flywheel-like motion.

Do You Put a Comma Before or After But? [Your Easy Guide]

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 03:58:11 GMT

Do You Put a Comma Before or After But? [Your Easy Guide]

Great question. Love where your head’s at.

You can put a comma before but to connect two independent clauses, meaning they contain a subject and a verb. You may also see a comma after but as a literary device used to insert a quick aside or emphasize a point.

If your eyes start to glaze over at the sight of 'two independent clauses', don't worry. We'll make this easy.

In this article, we'll go over when to use a comma with but , when not to, when to use it after but , and even some Easter eggs, so let's get after it.

Do you put a comma before but ?

The typical instance where a comma is used before but is when there are two independent clauses that are related somehow but not sequential.

This means the but is used to connect two different thoughts that could work as their own standalone sentences.

These independent clauses can have different subjects or share a piece of info with no subject.

Grammar Rules for Placing a Comma Before But

English grammar can be rough.

It's one of those things most of us can listen for and know what's right but maybe aren't 100% sure of the exact rules.

A comma can be a device to help avoid confusion when it falls after words like “but” or “yet” as a way to indicate the contrast between the independent clauses.

Commas are also great at joining two complete sentences together with coordinating conjunctions.

The most common of these conjunctions are 'and', 'but', and 'or'.

For example, “I went to the store yesterday, but I can't remember what I bought.”

Or another example: “I love reading, but it is difficult for me”.

Here we should use a comma before the word 'but' because it is used like an adverbial phrase modifying the verb in this sentence.

What is a comma splice and how to avoid them?

This is the unsavory event where 2 different sentences and therefore ideas are separated with only a comma.

The comma is used to separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction.

As long as the two clauses are joined by a period, semicolon, or colon, the comma is omitted.

Side note :

Now, of course, this would only stand out to the 'grammar police' but is something to consider.

See what I did there? I used a pair of commas.

Usually an extra comma adds clunk to a sentence, but it can help on occasion.

Issues of Comma Usage Before But

Keep in mind there are always exceptions and at times the comma before a "but" is optional.

It is often a matter of style preference whether to use a comma before the word 'but'.

What is copyediting if not deciding these kinds of things like comma usage in your style guide.

For instance, the sentence:

"I'd like to go out for a walk, but it's raining."

Can also be written as:

"I would like to go out for a walk but it's raining."

But simple rules do exist in some specific cases and the general basic rule of thumb stands.

One comma rule is that when you're connecting an independent clause to a dependent clause, the comma is unnecessary.

For example 'We had a great day at the zoo but it was really hot.'

Do you put comma after but ?

If you put a comma before and after "but," some people find it more formal writing.

But adding a comma after a but is great if you want to add emphasis on the contrast of the sentence.

For example, in the sentence:

"He didn't eat anything but he drank coffee."

Most people will put a comma before and after "but" because they want to emphasize that he did not eat anything and only drank coffee.

When you use a subordinate clause in this way you are adding context to the situation.

When do you use 'but' in a sentence?

"But" is often used in a sentence to signal contrast and basically go against what was said before.

It can also work as a sentence connector to start off the second half of the sentence.

If you use but in this way, please do proceed with caution though.

If you sprinkle in a but in the middle of a sentence it can disavow everything that came before it.

For instance:

'You look beautiful but...'

'I love you but...'

'I'm not racist but...'

'The food is good but...'

As you can imagine these kinds of sentences can be very dangerous.

Beginning a sentence with but

But is one of the most versatile words in the English language.

Don't be fooled by your third-grade English teacher.

You can certainly start a sentence with 'but' just like you can start a sentence with rather .

'But' can be used to introduce a sentence, start a new paragraph, or connect opposing ideas within one complete sentence.

When to put a comma after but at the beginning of a sentence

If you do decide to start a sentence with but before a comma in this way it's best to use it sparingly.

Remember that the comma is the equivalent of a short pause in a sentence like those used for emphasis.

There are only so many times you can take a break in the literary action.

Especially to express contrasting thoughts in rapid succession before you begin confusing readers and your entire article appears redundant or half-baked.

Some Writing Tips on When to Use Commas in Sentences

Commas are used to separate items in a list.
Commas can be used to set off appositive phrases - the device used to insert a name or a quick bio of a sentence's subject to give extra context.
Commas can be used to set off non-essential clauses and phrases.
The comma indicates a break in sentence structure.
Remember that a comma is not always needed, and it is often omitted for efficiency.

What are some comma rules?

Comma usage is a tricky topic for many people, and it can be difficult to remember all the punctuation rules and guidelines.

Here are some of the most commonly used comma rules:

When listing three or more items, use a 'serial comma' after each one except the last item.

I.e. 'I like apples, oranges, and grapes.'

You should use a comma before introductory phrases with a conjunction (and, but, or) that introduces an independent clause.

I.e. 'Times are tough, but there is still hope.'

If there is no conjunction between independent clauses it's better to use a semicolon or period.

I.e. 'Ted Chiang's books are amazing; they are full of great ideas.' 'Ted Chiang's books are amazing. They are full of great ideas.'

Commas before and after but

There you have it. We have gone over some of the comma rules surrounding but.

And in the interest going the extra mile we've also discussed the correct use of but and commas in general.

Hope it's been as fun for you as it has been for me.

And if you'd like to find out how to become a freelance writer with no experience , we've got you covered!

Until next time, wish you all the best.

How Long Does it Take to Write 1000 Words?

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:22:22 GMT

How Long Does it Take to Write 1000 Words?

Sorry to say, but it kinda depends.

The average time it takes to write 1000 words is 3-4 hours.

But consider these important questions:

What is the piece of writing on? Is it commercial writing? Is it academic writing? Is it a typical blog post? Who is writing it? How are their typing skills? Is it an experienced writer? A beginner?

As you can see, there are many variables.

Don't worry, in this article, we'll go over how long it takes to write 1000 words, tips to help anyone write 1000 words in under an hour, the opportunity costs involved with writing, and more.

How many pages is 1000 words?

If you are counting by page, then you can say that 1000 words are equal to 2 pages single spaced or 4 pages if double spaced.

That is, if you are using a font like Times New Roman with a font of 12pt and 1-inch margins.

If you were to handwrite 1000 words, regardless of your penmanship skills, your writing will be larger and thus probably double the number of pages.

This goes for cursive, calligraphy, cutesy, and chicken scratch.

Is it easy to write 1000 words in a day?

In most cases, yes!

The average writing speed by hand is around 20 words per minute. And the average for typing is usually double at 40 words per minute .

Following this logic, it should take 25 minutes for the average person to type out 1000 words. And 50 minutes if writing by hand.

This is certainly a stretch but helps illustrate how writing 1000 words in a day is not only possible, it's easier than you might think.

If your goal is to write 1000 words each day, a good general rule of thumb to follow is to you schedule your writing sessions during your most productive hours.

This is different for everyone, but it is important to know what yours are.

Ask yourself:

Does your brain works best in the morning before other tasks have time to distract you?
Or is it most creative in the evening when everyone else is asleep?

The other important note is to nail down an ideal writing process that works for you.

Tips On Writing Faster (1000 words in 1 Hour or Less)

If you want to write 1000 words in an hour, especially if you hope to create a quality article from it, you need to follow a system.

By that, I mean your entire writing process needs to be organized.

Let's say your goal is to do some SEO content writing. You could look at Google to reverse engineer your competitors' finished product.

Or you can try this article writing process we use, inspired by the gentlemen at Income School :

Break down your writing into smaller tasks.

Unless you're a topic expert, before you write, you'll need to do some research for content ideas.

Choose a topic you want to cover in the article. This will be your primary keyword used in your main title.
See what's already ranking for the term to gauge the search intent and your competitiveness to rank.
From this starting point, you can then find supporting and highly relevant secondary keywords. These will be your sub-headers to help flesh out your title topic.
Once you've done these steps, you'll have a bullet list outline of what you will write about.
Think of each sub-header as its own brief article where your goal is to write 2-300 words.
Simply make sure you cover the subtopic to the best of your research and abilities and then move on to the next sub-topic on the list.

This helps build momentum with a step-by-step approach.

Pretty soon, you've completed a 1000 word article or longer that covers your topic and the subtopics and that'll help you rank for multiple keywords.

For this method, the really important thing to nail down is the research.

While this may take a bit of extra time in the beginning, it will certainly speed up your actual writing time.

Do the research and planning correctly and you'll be able to write 1000 words in under an hour with your arms tied behind your back.

Best Tools To Help You Write Faster

Besides ear plugs you'll also need a few other tools and tricks to help you work more efficiently. Here are a few that have really helped me over the years.

Frase : If you're writing for SEO or web content, than Frase is a no-brainer. It's an incredibly effective tool for helping to ensure you include all the right terms Google expects from the top ranking pages.

But my personal favorite quality is how it helps you research on a given topic. Unlike competing on-page SEO writing tools, Frase will also scrape questions from Reddit and Quora.

So you'll not only be able to include all the sub-topics of competing pages but also the related questions your target audience are asking on the world's most popular forums.

This will help you gain a better understanding of what to write.

Plus when you optimize the expected words, you'll be able to click on each to get context of how they're used. Letting you do most, if not, all of your research in the same page you write!

I truly can't recommend Frase enough.

I've personally used Frase to create content that attracts over 40,000 organic visitors a month across a just few low DR sites.

It's basically magic.

Earplugs : Put in earplugs to blot out all audible distractions. Headphones with non-verbal music works too of course, but earplugs seem to be especially effective.

Voice to Text : With Google Docs you're also able to talk out what you want written with voice commands . Not only can you write with this, but you can even ask for tables and format them to your preference.

We really are living in the future. ..

How Long Does It Take to Write a 1,000 Words Essay?

The writing time for a 1,000-word essay varies depending on the type of essay.

You could say that it takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours to write most 1000 word college essays.

Of course, this depends on the subject and essay instructions, plus how much research you've collected, and how important the result is to you.

If you seek quality over quantity, then it could take up to 3-4 hours or more.

Some people take even longer because they choose to proofread their work multiple times before submitting it. No shame in that.

But with each read-through, a writer will probably find minor tweaks and changes they'd like to make.

Academic writing tends to invite fluff in writing . It may well be that you can sum up an idea in a sentence but have to expand it to 1000 words.

Just for a quick aside, I recently finished my master's dissertation essay with a grand total of 21,171 words or 90 pages (including the essay with references).

That took an obscene amount of time writing about research I summed up in a 250 words abstract :D.

How Long Does it Take to Write a 500 Word Essay?

A 500 word essay is a page long. This can take you anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half.

This is a style of essay you may remember from high school. It's a perfect length for an introductory paragraph, 1-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

How long does it take to write a 250 word essay?

A 250-word essay is half a page single spaced. Depending on the topic, this can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to produce a coherent essay.

250 words is very short, so you won't have to fluff it up with too much flowery language.

You'll likely have just enough room to get down to the meat and potatoes of the topic in simple language.

While this is certainly a relief, this can also require choosing your words extra carefully and at times can actually take longer to write than a longer piece.

How Long It Takes To Write 1000 Words In Closing

Professional writers will have a faster typing speed than the average. Plus, they may have the writing experience to hammer out 1000 words with little effort.

A beginner writer may struggle to even know where to start. Especially those wondering how to become a freelance writer with no experience .

While it's certainly possible for anyone to write, there are time costs involved.

For professional writing, 1000 words can mean several hours of focus directed away from other important tasks.

If this is you, you may want to think about outsourcing your copywriting and content needs by working with an agency or hiring a freelance writer.

22 Single Words with Deep and Powerful Meanings

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:29:14 GMT

22 Single Words with Deep and Powerful Meanings

Language is a powerful tool that helps us communicate and explore complex ideas. Words with deep meanings can inspire or destroy.

In this short and sweet article, we'll look at some examples, and I'll share some half-baked ideas I attach to them.

Hopefully, this will inspire you to consider which words you would pick for your own list.

What counts as words with deep meanings?

Words with deep meanings are often those with important or powerful meanings. They can be words that represent something intense, inspiring, or a complex, multi-layered concept. Or they can also express a 'magical' part of life, like love.

Similar articles will present words most people have never heard of. For this article, I chose to list some words you've probably heard of and may even use daily.

What are some beautiful words with deep meanings?

Adventure:

The word adventure is very common in the English language. It describes an exciting, remarkable, or daring undertaking.

Adventure is often something that involves physical danger or some form of risk. It's traveling into the unknown which takes courage, resilience, and many other noble characteristics.

An adventure can include:

climbing a high mountain,
exploring the dark depths of the ocean,
moving to a new country,
even starting a family,
and, of course, a whole lot more.

Art:

Art is very broad and very human. It can be used to describe any expression of human creativity.

The most obvious form is visual, with paintings and sculptures. It can also be used to describe literature, movies, dance, ' martial arts ', and more.

A big one that will be referenced throughout this article is music.

Music is a form of art that is exceptionally effective at imparting deep meaning, visceral reactions , or intense excitement. Sometimes without words.

Of any art form, I personally feel the most emotion from music. Even with movies, it's often the music that helps convey the intended emotion of a scene. Of course books can be a powerful vessel for emotion too. And music, books, and movies are also all great at delivering experiences and ideas we may not have been aware of otherwise.

TL;DR art is awesome and extremely deep and impactful.

Aspire:

When people aspire to reach their full potential or exceed expectations, we elevate as an entire species.

With a strong desire to accomplish a goal, it seems the potential for human flourishing is endless.

Through this feeling we can always do better and strive for more. We can experience hope for our future.

Being:

There are lots of uses and meanings for the word being.

Perhaps most often, it's used to express existence itself.

It can be the nature or essence of something, such as the body and soul.

Ideally, being consists of doing your thing always in all ways.

It incorporates the objective and subjective features of anything that exists.

Entropy:

Have you ever heard the phrase 'from the moment we are born, we begin to die'?

Well, just as that is for life, so too is it for all the celestial bodies that make up our solar system and even the universe itself.

That is because of the second law of thermodynamics. This details how energy naturally moves toward increasingly random and chaotic forms over time.

This process will naturally increase in all things, eventually leading to 'equilibrium'.

When this happens, all energy will be transformed from a usable form to one far less structured and the universe will gradually sink into disorder.

Ephemeral:

The word ephemeral is a word that is used in a variety of contexts with a variety of meanings. It's used to describe anything short-lived or fleeting.

It may refer to an organism that only lives for a day.

In daily life, it can be used as a helpful reminder that most feelings of discomfort are temporary and just as quickly leave if we allow them to.

Its synonym, 'Fleeting' is also a nice word ;).

Ethereal:

This term is used to describe something very delicate and light in an almost other-worldly way.

Arguably the term 'delicate' actually looks more beautiful and aesthetic.

But I believe the term 'ethereal' presents the concept in a more grounded approach that can help with its validity and thus power.

'Our most cherished possessions - whether they're relationships or belongings have sentimental value and an ethereal quality that we must protect.'

Fortitude:

Fortitude means strength of mind, courage, and determination.

Fortitude is the courage and perseverance to tough out a difficult or unpleasant experience.

It is also the ability to withstand adversity, or feeling of longing without breaking.

Fortitude is present across nature and species. Fortitude is an indomitable spirit, tenacity, endurance, and resiliency - akin to another word on this list - integrity.

Grace:

There is a great clip on YouTube from the film Tree of Life which describes the two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace.

The word grace helps to describe a gentle and selfless presence that brings the beauty of kindness to life and makes the world a better place.

Integrity:

Integrity is the concept of completeness and honesty. A person with integrity has moral values and holds themselves accountable for their actions to a high standard.

It is acting within a code of conduct that respects oneself and others in an honorable fashion.

Love:

I will not attempt to define 'love' beyond stating it is a feeling of deep affection and gratitude for the existence of something. A feeling so strong that you could sacrifice everything for another - and thus a true power word .

And since this grouping of letters was chosen to express such an important human experience, it proves that it's a beautiful word.

Nature:

Another easy or cliche choice, but I believe that 'nature' is a beautiful word.

The question is - is it a beautiful word because it has been attributed to such a beautiful concept?

It is a word that encompasses the good and bad, big and small. The sheer complexity of all it encompasses and the complete objectivity to outcomes earns nature's spot on this 'deep' list.

'I recently walked around a national park picking wild strawberries and was awe-struck by nature.'

Osculation:

This is a tricky one, as it kind of diverges from the other words on this list. It represents kissing, which is deep, basically only when viewed as an act of love.

However, if you were talking to a friend and they mentioned they went on a date and 'osculated', you'd look to see if there were any dents in their head. So in most cases, using it would be less deep and more-so unsettling.

It's only on this list because of its use in a deep song about love called Knee 5 by Philip Glass . It's an acquired taste but includes a story that is quite sweet and inspiring.

'And leaning over, the two lovers met in fervent osculation'.

Personable:

Not to be confused with personal, personable is a term for something with a pleasant or charming disposition. Other words for it include amiable and engaging.

People can be personable, but so can products and services and the marketing used to promote them.

How do you ask?

By focusing on the human elements of the business and being more customer-centric .

It can include going beyond the Golden Rule and putting your emotional intelligence to the test to 'treat others how They wish to be treated'.

Profound:

When something is profound, it means that it wields great power.

When something is profound, it has the potential to provide deep knowledge or great insight into something important. It can help us tap into the meaning of life.

This can be anything from scientific breakthroughs, a powerful piece of music, or the feelings between loved ones.

Relative:

Another word on this list with more than one meaning - each being very important with deep meanings.

A relative can mean a family member through various connections.

Relative can also be used to compare with something else.

The results and effects of these two meanings can have equally devastating and empowering effects on a person's thinking and life.

Reverie:

A French word that's also used in English (although not often) for being lost in your thoughts.

Usually referred to as 'daydreaming', reverie is a beautiful word representing a uniquely human ability.

It's also the name of a song by the great classical music composer Claude Debussy . If you haven't already, at least check out his hit track, Clair de Lune .

Serendipity (Serendipitous):

Serendipity is a chance occurrence of events that can be thought of as a happy accident.

It is when something good happens by accident.

Such as when someone finds something they were not looking for.

Spectrum:

Spectrum is a very deep word in that most things exist within a spectrum of extremes or opposites.

Life is a complex sequence of events. And so it is difficult to find anything that is wholly black and white, be it good or bad or whatever else we can use to identify or describe something.

Thus most things exist on a spectrum. And even within that spectrum, there are also different levels to all things.

This creates a near-infinite number of variations and brings colour and 50 shades of grey to all areas of life.

Time:

Time is the progression of past, present, and future events.

Time is a tool of measurement. It helps identify a period in history.

It can also be viewed as a key player in history, evolution, experience, and even has an additional meaning in physics as the temporal fourth dimension.

Pondering the concept of time can lead to many questions.

If you have ever been interested in the concept, I highly recommend checking out the German series Dark , The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli , and this article on waitbutwhy.com .

They:

'They' is often used to generalize the actions or thinking of a group.

It's easy and even natural to do this, but for this reason, it can be one of the most dangerous words in the English language that no one is safe from.

The interesting thing, especially when speaking - at least in English, is how easy and natural it feels to use 'they' to express negative attitudes and generalizations.

'They do this, that, and the other and so I can pretend to understand them in a way that rationalizes my ability to ignore or even attack.'

Transcendent:

Transcendent is a word that was typically used in religious texts.

However, it has different beautiful meanings depending on the context.

It helps to express something whose true meaning is difficult to box in and exists beyond standard labels or simple definitions.

In general, it's used to describe something with power beyond human understanding or knowledge.

Short Words With Deep Meaning

Closing out on words with deep meaning

There's our list.

Considering words that, at the moment, hold a deep personal meaning has been a fun little thought exercise.

It would be awesome to see a list like this in another beautiful language.

And since language is also social and cooperative, we'd like to invite you to think of your own list.

Yours will be very different and that, in and of itself, is deep ;).

Are Business Blogs Worth it?

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 09:21:15 GMT

Are Business Blogs Worth it?

If you're involved in a business you should absolutely consider its online presence.

Your company probably has a website and social media accounts. But are you taking advantage of SEO? Are business blogs worth it?

Yes they are.

HubSpot reported that half of the top 200 Fortune 500 companies had a corporate blog. And while that number is impressive, small and medium enterprises are still less likely to actively and consistently blog.

Are business blogs even worth it? This article will tackle this question head on and give you helpful guidance in making the right decision for your business.

What's the Difference Between a Website and a Blog?

First, let's start by clarifying and distinguishing two important terms: websites and blogs.

Websites

Websites can be thought of as an umbrella term where you can build webpages to suit your needs.

Business websites are generally formal, customer facing and are used to represent an organization. They provide a platform for multiple types of static content. In a content management system like Wordpress, where most websites are built, these are typically classified as 'pages'.

A business website may undergo slight updates from time to time with tweaks to copywriting, product or service offers, but typically pages like 'About Us' are mostly static and unchanging.

Check out our content update services here !

This makes websites relatively easy to manage for organizations whose limited resources may be focused on other things.

Blogs

A blog (also known as a Web log) is a website, or for this article, a section of a business website that provides relevant content to your business and potential customers.

In the CMS reference above, these are classified as 'posts' and are relatively dynamic.

It usually features a list of posts in reverse chronological order - in other words, most recent article at the top and oldest in descending order.

There are tons of different kinds of blogs. Anyone can start one and personal blogs are all over the internet allowing individuals to provide commentary or news on popular culture and current events.

They can also be used for affiliate marketing. This is where a blog posts reviews on all sorts of tangible and digital products with affiliate links to earn a commission on any resulting sales from blog readers. Other types of blogs include photo blogs and video blogs.

Blogs are similar in most ways to websites, but they are typically more personal in nature. Blog posts are usually less formal than websites, and can still include images, videos, and other media formats, targeting a specific audience.

There are many similarities between blogs and websites. For example, both have pages which contain certain components such as images, videos, text-based content or other types of media formats.

What are the benefits of business blogging?

One of the most important benefits of a company blog is that it’s a great tool for your brand's online reputation management. You build trust with prospects and customers by sharing expertise on a subject to become an industry leader.

Effective company blogs typically have high-quality content that is updated frequently with fresh information in order to keep it relevant. They maintain good writing skills in order to be both informative and entertaining to their readership.

This is one of the best ways to get your blog noticed and frequented by your target audience.

Blogging is effective for a business because it is an easy way to talk to potential customers about particular aspects of the business and share interesting ideas with the target audience. In doing this, blogging can help to promote a company, increase brand awareness, and build stronger relationships with potential customers.

This effort is not trivial. In fact, HubSpot recently found that marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than those that didn't.

Let's not forget blogs are also a great place to accumulate inbound links if you can create content that relevant sites in your space find useful and can link to your content. Over time, these efforts compound and, when done right, your overall site can become stronger.

With this power generated from quality content and links confirming that quality, your competitiveness on Google will grow accordingly. You can then create blog posts on topics with high buyer intent relevant to your offering with a greater likelihood of ranking high on Google and gaining high-converting traffic. It's a lead generation tool that keeps on giving.

There are tons of marketing channels at a company's disposal and a business blog is certainly right up there with the best of them all. Studies have shown that companies with blogs gain an average of 67% more leads per month than companies without blogs.

Blogging is therefore a great potential way to build brand awareness, cultivate an email list, and connect with potential customers. It's a great place to communicate ideas or share new discoveries and to provide a human voice for an organization.

To succeed at accomplishing this, however, depends largely on managing a blog that provides relevant content.

Some blogs also offer the opportunity for readers to comment on the post and share their thoughts, which can lead to an engaging conversation between bloggers and readers. A successful blog is one that nurtures this, attracting shares and engagement.

Blog posts can also be broken up and repurposed to be used as content for social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This further widens a company's reach to potential customers on various networks and allows you to link back to the original content on your site.

In short, blogging helps businesses generate more traffic, convert that traffic into leads, and those leads into sales.

Are there any drawbacks to blogging that need to be considered?

While blogging is one of the easiest ways to get your content out there, it does come with serious challenges that need to be considered.

The difficulties associated with blogging mainly come into play when you are trying to post consistently and on a regular basis. Regular posting of quality content can be essential for a company's ranking in Google.

Frequent additions and updates can keep a site fresh. And while that is all fine and dandy in theory, you may find that you or your team don’t have enough time or energy, or that you just aren’t feeling inspired enough.

This relates to a common struggle among bloggers regarding time management. It's hard enough trying to keep up with all of your duties as manager or owner of the company - let alone trying to find time for blogging too.

In order to keep your blog from stagnating, you will want to find a long list of topics to cover spread out over a content calendar, say, for the next 3 months. This will allow you to know in advance what you'll be posting for the next quarter.

However, you'll want to check what appears on page 1 of Google of any given topic when it comes time to do the blog writing though. It may be the case that the search intent has changed and may be a waste of time to go after during this time. A quick search will help this.

Another thing to consider is that blogging takes time to build an audience and there is no guarantee that it will actually have a significant impact if you aren't willing to do research.

Things that need to be considered include what keywords to use , the length of the article, and perhaps most importantly, the relevance and interest it serves to your target customer.

If you can manage to get some interest in your blog, keeping interest can be like surfing on a wave. Without skill and effort, you may soon find yourself falling into an ocean of disinterested readers indifferent to what you have to say.

It’s also very hard to find out what works with blogging because there are so many factors involved in determining success. Some blogs may die very quickly while others may take years before they become relevant or interesting enough for anyone to care about them.

One of the challenges of blogging is that blogs need consistency and regularity in order to generate an audience. It is important for businesses to understand it isn't overnight and their marketing strategies are long term.

Another thing that takes time is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Among a variety of other factors, this requires lots of high-quality content, link building, and patience.

Google tends to rank websites higher in the search engine results pages if they have more quality content than similar competitors. So if your competition has active company blogs with tons of content and links, but your company only has one or two posts, then you may not be in competition for long.

What are the characteristics of a successful blog?

Your blog content can help you achieve your marketing goals. You'll have the potential to improve your site's Google ranking, social media marketing efforts, and drive targeted traffic to your website.

For this to happen, you'll want to make sure you cover various stages of the buyer's journey. This includes topics that newbies would search for - right up to those with some familiarity with the industry or niche.

A blog is content marketing 101. You want to inform, engage, and eventually persuade. This is not done through manipulation or cutting corners. You earn it with knowledge sharing through valuable content.

Business Blog Tips

One simple piece of advice: Write list articles. Numbers attract the eye, especially when surrounded by letters and words in Google, so turning a blog article into a "listicle" (for example "7 Reasons why blah blah blah") has proven to be a very popular blog post format.

Another helpful tip: Size matters. 55% of bloggers say they see results from blog posts with 2,000 words or more and that it has an impact on search engine rankings. This drives search engine traffic which results in a wider audience and a higher chance of having an impact.

Tip #3: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Not literally, but certainly figuratively in the world of blogging. Effective blog posts contain images, receiving on average 90% more views compared to articles written without images. And the more images the better.
In fact, more than 75% of bloggers say that including 10 or more photos in an article is extremely effective in driving traffic to their blogs. Surprisingly however, according to a study by Orbit Media only 3% of bloggers actually do this.

Conclusion: Should Your Business Start Blogging?

Blogging is an important pillar of digital marketing and, provided you are willing to put in the work, you can expect real tangible rewards.

But, before starting a business blog, businesses should be aware of the challenges of blogging and the drawbacks that can come with it.

Company blogs are worth the effort if you can provide content that your audience values. Asking them questions, and finding ways to generate audience engagement helps with building customer trust.

Audiences want to read more than just company news and they aren't necessarily looking for attention-grabbing videos.

Blogs are a great way for businesses to share their story with the world.

The struggle is being consistent. If you want help to develop a content plan for your business blog, or managing the execution of your business blog, reach out to us and we'll look at your needs and see what can be done.

For this and more, stick with 8-Bit Content .

Copywriting vs Content Writing: How to Win with Both

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:02:42 GMT

Copywriting vs Content Writing: How to Win with Both

Copywriting and content writing are usually described as two different disciplines: one persuades people to act, the other attracts an audience by informing them.

The line is blurrier than that, though. A service page has to educate before it can sell, and a good article still has to persuade someone to keep reading.

And for businesses, each skill plays an essential role in the journey from someone discovering you to deciding to buy. So it's not one or the other.

AI has complicated that further by taking on much of the production work and putting more weight on who decides what gets said.

After 12+ years earning most of my income writing, shaping content strategy, and running editorial teams, I still see judgment as the most valuable part of the work. A good writer has to judge what's worth saying, what the audience cares about, and what the business can credibly claim.

So, this guide covers where the two genuinely differ, where they overlap, and what that means now that AI is part of the process.

What's the difference between copywriting and content writing?

The simplest difference between copywriting and content writing is what you need the reader to do next .

Copywriting usually works towards a defined action. You might want someone to enquire, sign up, or buy. Content writing usually has an earlier job: helping the right person find you, understand something useful, and build enough confidence to keep engaging with your business.

I would argue every businesses need both. Content writing helps people discover and understand you while copywriting helps turn that interest into action. And i n practice, the two often overlap within the same page, campaign, or customer journey.

So, of course, these categories shouldn't be treated as hard boundaries.

If you're writing a service page, persuasion alone rarely gets you very far. The reader may first need to understand how the service works or whether it fits their situation. The same applies to articles. A useful article can educate someone on a problem, then guide them towards a product or service that helps solve it. YouTube scripts often do the same thing. A video may be mainly educational, but the script still uses copywriting to persuade viewers to subscribe, watch another video, or take the next step.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the content you produce intended to persuade your audience to take an action.

When discussing a product or service, the focus of the content may be on the benefits, speaking to the emotional buying part of the brain.

Think of it as the content at the bottom of the sales funnel intended to convince an already warm prospect to take a desired action.

It is results-oriented, seen in content like:

Site homepage

sales emails

landing pages

brochures

website pop-ups

re-targeting ads

Content Writing

Content writing, however, is not so much focused on persuasion or the conversion rate. A content writer wants to resonate with an audience and offer them value.

The goal of content writing is to produce valuable content that answers questions and builds an audience (ideally through organic traffic).

While a copywriter may choose to focus on the benefits of a product or service, a content writer can deep dive into the features. Satisfying the logical part of the prospect's brain.

This is typically the top of the funnel content marketing that attracts and informs to build awareness and customer engagement.

You'll see this with:

search engine optimization focused blog posts

news articles

white papers

email newsletters

social media posts

Where do copywriting and content writing overlap?

Copywriting and content writing do have some similarities.

Both need clear, engaging writing. They can both make good use of power words to hold attention, while remaining informative and grounded in facts.

Many times, content will benefit from including both forms of writing.

Informational blog articles , email campaigns, and video scripts should include copywriting techniques.

How copywriting makes content titles more persuasive

A good piece of content still needs to earn the click.

That’s where copywriting comes in. The title needs to make the value of the content clear and give someone a reason to choose it over everything else competing for their attention.

For search content, that doesn’t mean writing clickbait. The title still needs to match what the reader is actually looking for and accurately describe what they’ll get.

But good copywriting can make that promise clearer, more specific, and more compelling.

For example, in intros, it's important to hook the audience ASAP.

One simple way to do this is to use the pain-agitate-solve (PAS) copywriting technique.

This is where you draw your audience in by identifying a problem they're familiar with, that your content will tackle. Next, you'll agitate the problem by presenting a worst-case scenario the audience wants to avoid. Then you can summarize the solution , which is the focus of your content.

All content, including informational content, should include some kind of call-to-action (CTA).

Your CTAs are usually in the conclusion. But it can also be good to include something in the middle or even in an exit pop-up to reach the most people.

This can be something like inviting the audience to check out another piece of your related long-form content - ideally further down the sales funnel.

Or to invite them to subscribe or provide their email for your newsletter, relevant deal, or lead generating piece of content.

Which drives more revenue for a business: copywriting or content writing?

Copywriting often has a more direct and measurable connection to revenue because it usually sits closer to the point of conversion. A sales page, ad, or promotional email can be tied more directly to leads and purchases.

That doesn’t necessarily make copywriting more profitable than content writing. Content writing usually works earlier in the customer journey, where its contribution to a sale is harder to isolate.

The ROI of content writing can be harder to attribute directly because people may engage with several pieces of marketing before they convert.

Donald Miller describes this as a rule of thumb in Marketing Made Simple : for most products, he estimates that a customer may need around eight touchpoints before they are ready to order. Those interactions might include emails, website visits, or ads.

The exact number depends on the purchase, but the principle matters here. Informational content gives potential customers more opportunities to discover your business, learn from you, and build confidence in your expertise before conversion-focused copy asks them to act.

Another important thing to keep in mind about informational content is that it helps generate links.

If you create a helpful and informative piece of content that other sites in your industry want to reference, each relevant link can strengthen the authority of your site.

This can be much harder with a site made up primarily of sales-focused pages. Other sites have fewer reasons to reference content whose main purpose is selling.

You can then use internal links from useful informational content to support relevant sales pages.

So while sales-focused copy often produces the clearest short-term return, content writing can contribute across a much longer customer journey. Most businesses get the strongest results when the two work together.

What changes when AI can produce the first draft?

AI makes producing a first draft much faster. That means almost anyone can generate plausible-looking content with delusional confidence. So, the bigger challenge now is making sure that draft contains something worth publishing.

I find AI most useful when it is working from ideas that already have a human source. A writer, editor, or subject-matter expert provides the insight. AI can then help flesh it out, organize it, or turn it into a more complete first draft.

When AI is left largely unguided, the output tends to regurgitate existing information on a topic. This allows us to produce a competent explanation quickly, but competence alone does not give the reader much reason to choose one article over another. Or to even click-through to an article from an AI Overview for that matter.

The more valuable inputs are usually harder to automate. They come from first-hand experience, original evidence, or a judgment about the topic that someone is prepared to stand behind.

I’ve seen this shift from a content manager’s perspective as well as a writer’s. I’ve managed workflows involving dozens of authors producing hundreds of new articles per month and editors maintaining quality control and updating existing pages. At that scale, the challenge is building a repeatable system that makes useful human input part of every piece with micro-managing how they produce the content.

That changes where quality assurance needs to happen.

Before drafting: Define the useful idea, source material, or expert input the piece needs to be built around.
During production: Use AI to expand and organise those inputs without letting the draft drift back toward generic coverage.
During editing: Check whether the finished piece adds something useful, supports its claims, and reflects genuine expertise.

That's where I think the bottleneck now rests. Because producing words is easier than ever before, our jobs is to use human judgement to deliver real value no matter the means.

The same principle applies to both copywriting and content writing. AI can help produce the words, but someone still needs to decide what is worth saying and why the target audience should care.

Can one writer handle both copywriting and content writing?

Absolutely. The more difficult question to answer is whether a content writer can become a copywriter.

For content writing, an adequate writing ability is essential. Effective copywriting, though, requires additional skills in persuasion and sales.

These are much more difficult to come by and not always compatible with personality or writing styles.

To reiterate my two cents above, you can upgrade your skills slowly but surely through effective content writing until you level up the ranks to become an effective copywriter.

What does this all mean for your writing team?

For most businesses, the question isn't really whether you need a copywriter or a content writer.

You'll probably need both at different points.

Content writing can help you attract people who are researching a problem, answer their questions and build trust over time. Copywriting becomes more important when you need those people to take the next step, whether that's signing up, getting in touch or buying something.

The more important question is what you actually need your content to do.

This is where content strategy comes in.

Before you start hiring writers or producing more content, you need to understand who you're trying to reach, what they actually care about and how your content can help move them through the customer journey.

Otherwise, it's very easy to end up producing individual articles or landing pages that might be perfectly well written but don't really work together.

I've seen the same problem become even more important as content production has scaled.

AI has made it much easier to produce words. But as I mentioned above, that means the bottleneck has shifted towards deciding what is actually worth producing and making sure each piece adds something useful.

Your writers and editors need a system around them.

That might mean clearer briefs, better quality assurance or a stronger process for deciding which content deserves to be created or updated in the first place.

This is a big part of what we help businesses with through our content strategy services .

Rather than simply producing more content, we help work out what your audience needs, where the opportunities are and how your writers and editors can turn that strategy into a repeatable process.

Once you've got that foundation in place, deciding whether you need a copywriter, content writer or someone who can handle both becomes much easier.

Product Centric vs Customer Centric [Is There a Winner?]

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 06:59:26 GMT

Product Centric vs Customer Centric [Is There a Winner?]

Are you curious to see if there can be a clear winner?

There is value gained with both product centric and customer centric approaches. As we'll see it's best not to pick a side in this battle. The ideal strategy is a balance of both.

Finding that balance certainly isn't easy. In this article, we'll give you a rundown of each approach, their pros and cons, and a way you can get the best of both worlds.

What does a product centric approach mean?

One of the most memorable lines of cinema comes from the 1989 Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. The line in the movie is “If you build it, they will come.”

In a nutshell, that’s the theory behind product centric.

The term “product” refers to any tangible or intangible asset used by a business to create value. This includes products, services, brands, intellectual property rights, and more.

And you have probably heard “centric” before. It brings to mind your eccentric old uncle Harvey who wears mismatched socks and rides a tricycle through your village square every morning.

The Latin root of eccentric can be traced to ex meaning “out of” and centric meaning “center.” In other words, your uncle Harvey is not centred at all.

Product centric, on the other hand, is very centered - centred around the product.

Product centricity is when a company values its products over everything else. Its products are at the center of the company's operations and value proposition.

The company's team is driven to create and iterate on advanced products that drive sales. Even when there isn't an existing market or perceived need for it.

With this approach, there is a heavy focus on invention and innovation.

A lot of investment (either money, time or both) is put toward R&D to develop new products. Then even more investments are made towards marketing and sales to raise awareness both for the product and the need for it.

A product centric approach can be seen in marketing material that highlights unique features rather than benefits. Like ads for the car industry.

Trying to reinvent the wheel can be a costly and risky approach.

But some product-centric companies like Apple, Google, and Tesla have nonetheless managed to squeeze out a decent living.

Benefits of a product centric approach

1. Has the potential to place your brand at the forefront of innovation in your industry. No one remembers the runner who comes in second place, but they certainly remember the first person to cross the finish line.

2. Allows your team to leverage their specialized skills. And maintain a singular focus on creative pursuits. You're expanding product lines and improving on products that work; quickly killing off those that don't.

3. Can create a powerful brand positioning wherein you're considered best in class. And can then set the benchmark your competitors must keep up with.

4. Gives you the power to set premium pricing with greater profit margins.

Weaknesses of product centric approach

1. You potentially ignore customer needs and challenges.

2. You neglect defining one of the most important foundations of any business - product market fit. Without it, even the brightest minds in the world can invest millions and even billions into a product that ultimately fails (I.e. Google Glass).

3. You are forced to create marketing campaigns that target the notoriously costly problem unaware stage. Meaning you must educate and convince early adopters in the market to give your product a try.

4. Once you've done the heavy lifting raising awareness, competitors can piggyback off your marketing efforts and even undersell you.

5. Without the budget for marketing, it places considerable hope that the product can ultimately sell itself. (I.e. A 'build and they will come' approach.)

6. Your departments operate within distinct silos which make it difficult for them track customers across the complete buyer’s journey.

What does it mean to have a customer centric approach?

You guessed it - customer centricity centers on the customer.

It emphasizes customer success above everything else - including product innovation. It’s a term that's been around for years, but with competition in industries intensifying, it has become increasingly important.

It involves a company-wide focus on solving the needs, challenges, and pain-points of your ideal customers. The customer centric strategy focuses less on product features and more on delivering the best solution to your customer in mind.

What is Ideal Customer Focused?

Let's face it - not all customers are equal. There are some that may, on paper, generate some income, but result in a loss for all the resources and time they require.

On the flip side, there are customers that match your chemistry. You deliver value to them; they are happy, spread word of mouth, and you live happily ever after. These are the customers you want to attract.

For this, value must be delivered throughout the entire customer journey. This includes effective content to support the buyer's journey. And even tender loving care after a sale to propel continuous business growth. You obsess over the customer experience to ultimately gain customer loyalty.

Walmart, Amazon, and Zappos are three examples of customer centric companies who have done fairly decent for themselves with this approach.

Best Customer Centric Companies

Some of the biggest companies in the world today built their brand from being customer centric.

Walmart, Amazon, and Zappos are three examples of customer centric companies who have done fairly decent for themselves with this approach.

Benefits of a customer centric approach

1. You are entering the market to solve an existing problem based on existing customer demand and thus take on less risk.

2. Your marketing and sales teams can focus on the solutions you provide to consumers. Those who are already fully aware of the problem and are hungry for solutions.

3. All customer-facing departments work together to improve customer lifetime value.

4. Centers the company culture and all processes around satisfying your customers, which reflects positively in every aspect of your business.

5. As you become synonymous with customer satisfaction, you give and receive. And any research your prospective customers do will likely be in your favor.

6. A continuation of #5, the reviews and word of mouth spread by a current customer have the potential to grow your sales exponentially. Your customers can recommend you to their networks of other like-minded target customers.

7. With a focus on collecting and organizing data in your CRM for all customer facing teams, you gain a 360 degree view of your customer. You better understand customer behavior and can segment accordingly, highlighting the type of customers most profitable for your business.

8. You enjoy a relatively low cost per lead as your proactive customer service compels users to reciprocate and bring leads to you.

Weaknesses of a customer centric approach

1. Can be time and cost intensive to do effective and accurate market research.

2. There is a greater need for departments to stay updated on each other's work, which increases operational complexities.

3. Nurturing a positive customer experience at scale involves intangibles in the customer experience. These are subjective and so not always easily planned for.

4. Because of less risk, and perhaps a lower barrier to entry, there may be more competition.

5. There can be an imbalance between the customer support and product quality.

6. If you're not careful, a strict customer focus can confuse your messaging and water down your authoritativeness on a subject.

Main differences between customer centricity vs product centricity

Product centric refers to a company that focuses its efforts on creating and selling the best new products possible.

The strategies and processes reflect this product focus, sometimes at the expense of customer support.

Customer centric focuses on customers and particularly the most valuable customers. These are customers who value your offer, refer like-minded friends, and help you build your customer portfolio.

How do you shift from product centric to customer centric?

Historically, companies have leaned on the side of product centricity. This can pay off for those who can afford it.

Steve Jobs was a master at leading a team to build innovative products that deliver an amazing customer experience right out of the box.

But it can pay off just as well to put the customer first.

If you're product focused, shifting to a customer focus will require buy-in from leadership and a top-down approach to change.

Customer-centric business models target customer needs and success. They nurture long-term relationships to keep customers happy to stay onboard and even refer friends.

And if your product is already getting you customers, you may want to heat things up by shifting over to a flywheel model.

The Flywheel model

Customer centric companies rely less on a sales funnel and more on a flywheel.

This flywheel model is Hubspot's iteration of the customer focused approach. Unlike a sales funnel, the flywheel aims to delight leads and customers alike.

It's a model for the momentum a company gains when they have happy customers who refer friends, leave positive reviews, and keep coming back for more.

To do this, though, you'll need to focus on what matters most to the customer experience. An 80/20 analysis can help.

Usually, what's most important are inbound marketing, breezy sales processes, customer referral programs, and strong customer support.

With this focus, you can organize your internal processes around these areas. Buy-in across departments, strong internal communication, and a well organized CRM are key.

Your goal is to have these in place so that you can help throughout the customer journey. So that you have a well-oiled machine to provide the best customer experience possible for customer success.

This success keeps your flywheel turning. And with the momentum from customers and referrals, your flywheel gets bigger and more powerful with time.

In Conclusion

All companies need a bit of both to survive long term.

You can't build a customer base without a great product. And you can't keep customers happy without providing a great customer experience.

The challenge is managing to do both, at scale, without going broke. That's why the flywheel is such a revelation. With a great product as your foundation, you can focus on providing the best customer experience.

This process will not only help you improve your products through constant feedback but also help build customer loyalty and improve word of mouth.

If you ever need help with your customer-centric marketing approach, 8-Bit Content is always here to help!

Can you start a sentence with 'rather'?

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:16:47 GMT

Can you start a sentence with 'rather'?

Well... Rather than guess the answer, read on for some helpful insights to a question which has stumped some of the world's greatest minds. And has been the subject of dozens of blog posts in the English language!

Can you start a sentence with 'rather'?

It's an interesting question but the fact of the matter is there has never been any rule stopping you from starting a sentence with rather.

Rather you have always been free to use it at the beginning of sentences if you wish. But as we shall get into, there can be a certain degree of pompousness that comes across when you do.

What is the Definition of 'Rather'

Before we really really dive deeper into the question of whether a sentence can start with the word "rather", it is important that we agree to a few parameters under which we will work. Rules, if you will.

First of all, we need to share an understanding of the definitions of the word "rather."

Depending on who you ask, or which books of language you read, you might get a different answer, but it is very likely that all of the answers are correct.

Rather as a degree adverb

The word "rather" can be used to emphasize an adjective or adverb, often with a similar meaning (though more formal tone) as the word "quite."

For example, if one is attending tea at Buckingham Palace with the Queen, one might compliment the crumpets as tasting "rather delicious."

The Queen would be overjoyed, and you would be given a knighthood on the spot.

The people of Jolly Old England would celebrate for a fortnight (fancy English meaning two weeks). And school-aged children would be particularly grateful because schools would close so families could indulge in the festivities. And you would become a famous example of a humble chap who achieved greatness, and not just among academic communities.

Rather to signify alternatives and preferences

When we want to say what someone prefers instead of another thing, we can use "rather than" to signify an alternative.

For example, if we have two things and a person likes one better than another, then we might say either:

She preferred tea to coffee.

Or we could write this previous sentence using rather:

She preferred coffee rather than tea.

Using Rather in Formal Writing

From the description above, you can see that 'rather' often has a formal connotation. This means that you would use it in such writing as an essay, a journal article, or a letter to the Queen.

If you were to write a letter to the Queen, you could use the word rather to describe your strong feelings for her. You could write for example that:

"Ever since I first laid eyes on your Highness, I was rather overwhelmed by the feelings of passion that stirred within my heart."

Using Rather in Informal Writing

'Rather' can also find its way into informal writing.

For example, if we were typing a way on a messenger app and someone asked you a question like "Would you rather eat ten ice cream sundaes or ten cheeseburgers?"

You could answer incredulously "Rather what???"

The person would then repeat the question and you would have time to choose the answer that suits your personality best.

And when we want to emphasize the adjectives of our sentences, we can add "rather" before them. This means that they have greater importance and/or strength than other parts of speech in the sentence.

"The Queen looked rather ravishing at the 7th edition of the Governor's Ball, don't you agree?"

Rather can have a similar meaning to "quite" when quite is used with gradable words, but "rather" is more formal.

We often use it to express something unexpected or surprising:

Sound like fun?

"Rather!"

Rather Good Examples

So now that we know what rather means, let's look at how we can use it correctly to start a sentence by creating a couple of examples.

Here's a meaningful sentence or two or three from a somewhat limited field for your reference:

"Rather fat, that old charlatan," chortled Cornelius as he sipped brandy by the fireplace and flipped through the 3rd edition of the Penguin Book of Prose.

The Queen doesn't just fall in love with anyone. Rather, she falls in love with charming gentle sirs like yourself.

Rather than worry about it, take a deep breath and test it out. You might be surprised with the results.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, those previous sentences bring our happy article to a merry conclusion.

We set out to answer the question of whether a sentence can start with the word "rather" and I believe we have achieved just that.

Using rather more often can be great to flesh out any academic sentence in your academic writing (your academic cover letter for example). You can also put a comma before or after but .

Depending on your copyediting preferences, it can also be used in your blog posts.

In short, sprinkling a 'rather' or two into a sentence can be a great hack if you merely desire to sound more intelligent than you are.

Keep this in mind when you're adding more book content to the fascinating book you are writing.

Give it a try. Who knows, you might find that using the word "rather" to set things off might just be your ticket to stardom!

3 Simple Steps To Find Keywords That Rank Forums

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 04:32:37 GMT

3 Simple Steps To Find Keywords That Rank Forums

Do you want to find long-tail keywords and topic ideas that can help drive organic traffic to your site?

Look for keywords that rank forums. This shows that the search intent of the topic hasn't been covered yet and so there's a great chance it isn't a competitive keyword.

In short, if a forum or other user generated site is ranking high, there's a good chance you can too.

Quick update/edit: Ever since the March 2023 Google Core Update, forums and UGC sites - particularly Reddit have flipped the script. As of October 2024, Reddit now gets closer to 700M estimated search traffic per month (from the 121M figure below). And this has largely been at the expense of small to medium sized niche site rankings.

Having said that, if your site is for a legitimate business with a product or service attached - you may still find the tips below valuable. (For instance, this agency site you're on, still averages 15k+ page views per month from just 39 pages indexed;)

So, in this article, we'll break down 3 easy steps you can use to find these golden opportunities.

Easy to rank keywords

If you ever Google something and see a forum ranking in a 1-3 keyword position, it's a good sign that it's an untapped opportunity.

This may seem counter-intuitive.

You may think that forums like Quora, Reddit, and even niche-specific forums have strong domain authority. They do, and this isn't to say it's always easy to outrank them.

But for a regular search query, a forum ranking high on page 1 tells you there's a shortage of highly effective content that matches the search intent.

Using forums for keyword research isn't a new idea. SEOs have been using this tactic for years.

There's even a well-regarded keyword tool called Keyword Chef by SEO Ben Adler for this. It even mentions on the homepage that the tool can help speed up the process to find these awesome keywords. And, thus, these juicy keyword ideas continue to dry up each day.

You may already be hard pressed to find any lucrative affiliate keywords left in your niche with this strategy. But there may still be some out there, so you'll want to get started ASAP.

Step 1: Find relevant forums

The first step is to compile a list of relevant forums in your niche. If you've been in it for a while, you probably know a few already.

To find more, you can simply Google: your niche forums.

For instance - if you Google 'digital marketing forums', you'll find this roundup post at number one . The top results will give you some good sites to use in the next step.

You can also search: "target keyword" + "forum".

To keep track of everything, it's good to note the sites down into a Google sheet or excel file.

Step 2: Find the keywords they're ranking for

For this, we recommend using a keyword research tool. There are a lot of options out there for you to use.

If you use Ahrefs though here’s what you can also do:

Take a domain from the spreadsheet you created earlier and enter it into Site Explorer.

Please note that for Reddit, you don't want to put the root domain 'reddit.com' into the search bar and then try to filter down. The site is way too big, with too many pages, so it's not even possible.

Instead, you'll want to input the exact URL of a relevant subreddit. For example, the URL for the Blogging subreddit.

Once you've entered the forum URL, go to the left hand-side and click 'top pages'.

You may get a lot of results, so you'll want to add some filters.

We look for keyword ideas where a forum is ranking in keyword position 1-3. It's not helpful to go after 2nd or 3rd page keywords.

You'll also likely want to exclude 'forum' and 'forums' from the results that appear. Also, the name of the forum - especially for reddit pages.

Note down any helpful keyword and its search volumes and repeat this process for each of the forums you found.

With this process, you'll likely find long-tail question keywords and even lucrative affiliate keywords.

This latter target is becoming increasingly difficult, though. The more likely use of these steps will be to find great question keywords for info pages.

Step 3: Take it a step further

If you do this, you'll have a long list of keyword ideas. The next step is to prioritize them.

You can do this based on search volume, but searches per month aren't always the best factor.

It's important to consider what stage your site is in. High-volume keywords are typically more competitive keywords.

If you're a smaller site, it's best to work your way up and not go after broad keyword phrases like digital marketing in Vietnam .

You'll probably find better results early on building up your authority and targeting smaller, more specific topics. For instance, for a business like ours, an article explaining why businesses should outsource their copywriting .

Also, be aware that the search volumes shown on keyword research tools aren't always accurate.

They're estimates and usually very low estimates at that. They pair the volume data from Google Keyword Planner with clickstream data, but the estimates of each tool are usually different.

The key thing to remember is that if people discuss a topic on forum posts, there is interest in the topic.

And this is where your new blog post can be there to help them.

In theory, they're all good choices as people will use a search engine to look for answers to these questions again.

But in reality, you'll always want to consider what your target audience is likely to search for. And what the search intent of each keyword seems to be and gauge if it will change.

A seed keyword of 1 to 2 words and broad, ambiguous keywords, even with high search volumes, may not be a top priority.

Not only could it be too competitive, but it may be for the unaware stage of the buyer's journey. And even if a forum is ranking for them, it won't automatically mean it's worth your time to create a piece of content for it.

Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR)

To filter your keywords and prioritize them based on what you can rank fastest, you can use the keyword golden ratio (KGR).

This is a tried-and-true formula for choosing easy-win long-tail keywords created by SEO wizard Doug Cunnington.

The formula is quite simple. You divide the number of 'allintitle:keyword' results by the estimated search volume (if it's 250 or below). And you end with a ratio. What you're looking for is the keyword golden ratio of 0.25.

Note that 'allintitle' searches for the 'keyword in title' of all the pages indexed in Google.

If a relevant keyword matches the KGR criteria, it means that a keyword is being overlooked by competitors.

If you visit the KGR link above, you can gain access to a great template by Doug. As you input keywords, it’ll start looking like this. Minus the red ;)

To the right of the keyword, you’ll input the allintitle result. To the right of that is the search volume result. And once you input those 2 numbers, the sheet will spit out the KGR of each keyword.

This process will help you filter your results and prioritize opportunities with decent search volume. As you get going, you might rank on page 1 within days of publishing.

Note to check the page 1 of the keyword not only to see what the search intent is but also what the authority of the other ranking sites are like. Sometimes a word is KGR compliant, but still very competitive. Usually not but it's good to check just in case.

We find that combining these tactics for keyword research can be a great way to target exact keywords that can bring relevant traffic to a site.

In Conclusion

Whether you're a small business or affiliate site, we hope these steps can help you find some nice keywords to get the ball rolling.

To recap, all you need to do is:

Find relevant forums in your niche.
Look for which keywords they're ranking on page 1 for - especially in positions 1-3.
Prioritize what to pursue first based on the KGR of each keyword.

If you give this a try, let us know how it goes. We'd love to hear your thoughts and results.

As always, if you'd like any support with your content marketing needs , reach out to us and we'll be happy to help!

All the best.

Your Simple Guide to the 8 Ps of Marketing

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 04:40:54 GMT

Your Simple Guide to the 8 Ps of Marketing

The 8 Ps of marketing is product, price, place, promotion, people, positioning, processes, and performance. The goal is to get them working together for your marketing mix. If you can you’ll have a much better chance to attract and convert your potential customers.

When your marketing feels inconsistent, the problem may not be one bad campaign. Different parts of your marketing mix may be working against each other.

That misalignment can contribute to weaker launches, mixed messaging, and results that are difficult to interpret. The 8 Ps give you a practical framework for identifying those gaps and building a more coordinated strategy.

In this guide, we’ll break down each of the 8 Ps, explain how they work together, and show you how to apply them to your marketing.

What is a marketing mix?

A marketing mix is holistic marketing. It's a framework to approach the marketing strategy for your products or services. And it centers on your target market.

It helps you resonate with customers. And it gives direction to various activities and marketing management across departments in your company.

With an effective marketing mix, you can achieve company goals with various elements working together.

The marketing mix is most commonly associated with the American Marketing Association’s 4 Ps framework : product, price, place, and promotion.

It later expanded into the popular 7 Ps marketing mix, which adds people, process, and physical evidence . And even the 7Cs Compass Model.

This expanded model is commonly used for services because it accounts for the people delivering the service, the processes shaping the experience, and the physical evidence customers use to judge an intangible offer.

But if you're like us, you like to take things a step further. The 8 Ps adds 'performance' to the list.

These 8 Ps are more helpful for a modern marketing mix of digital channels, and more complex customer journeys.

There is no single universal 8 Ps model. Different versions add elements such as positioning, performance, physical evidence, productivity, packaging, or partnerships.

This guide uses the version that best connects strategy, delivery, and measurement in a general use case.

What does a marketing mix look like?

Weed Man is a company I remember from my childhood for being particularly good at putting this altogether.

They're an excellent example of a service marketing mix.

It's a weed-killing service whose core product and sales promotion work together for a services marketing extravaganza.

They successfully combine marketing mix elements to promote their offer and gain customers.

Their core product self promotes by how green the lawn is. And their sign is one of their advertising tools that work on many levels.

It signals to people to be aware that there are chemicals present. And also that they can have a green lawn too, simply by calling the number. There's even a referral program.

These extra marketing mix elements drive marketing objectives in a cost effective way.

So what are the 8 Ps of Marketing?

Product

The first of the 8 Ps is product. This is the thing you sell. Products are both the tangible and intangible products and services you offer.

Done well, your product can become a marketing device in and of itself . It can turn customers into brand advocates.

Think of how Apple's identifiable design choices turned users into brand ambassadors. The white ear buds, logo facing out, and even the iPhone camera distinct designs promote Apple.

Hotmail reportedly reached around 12 million users in less than a year after adding a referral message to outgoing emails .

Marketing services can do this too. Some companies do this with a disclaimer and link on client sites.

Price

Your pricing policies are one of the most important things to nail down. The dollar amount you set for your product or service has ripple effects.

Your pricing strategy affects your profitability. It can determine who your potential customers will be. And it can affect customer satisfaction.

This is especially true in competitive industries where penetration pricing drives promotion strategy.

This is where new companies, to gain market shares and 'penetrate' the market, undersell competitors and eventually create a race to the bottom.

To avoid this, you'll want to conduct a considerable amount of analysis of your target market.

Cost-based pricing considers the costs involved - labor and resources. But don't forget to factor in the demand and competitor pricing.

It will help you determine a pricing that will speak positively of your product. And it will have a big impact in the success of your marketing department and business development team.

Price too low and it can impact your brand image.

Price too high and your target customers may ignore you.

Place

Place refers to where your product or service is bought, sold, and experienced. This is very different depending on the business.

Retail is obviously different from digital products online. And products are different from services.

It is important for there to be consistency. Customer experience should ideally be consistent across all channels. We also explore this in our guide to content marketing for schools .

Place can also refer to promotional channels.

One of the most important things for a market plan is to determine where your target audience is (you may also want to check out our guide to SEO vs content marketing ).

Where can your customers find out about your product/service?

This helps you know where to advertise your offer. A successful marketing strategy will focus on the channels where your target audience spends their time.

This is why companies will sponsor sporting events or Michael Bay movies in return for product placement.

Promotion

Promotion is all that you do to get people interested in buying your product or service.

It's all of your marketing communications:

Direct marketing
Traditional advertising
Product placements,
Public relations
And more...

One of the most effective ways to promote is through integrated marketing communications .

This again refers to holistic marketing. It means you share a consistent message across all owned, earned, and paid media channels.

Your marketing blog , social media (see a comparison of Facebook pages vs groups here ), ads, partnerships through public relations, and more.

A shared message across these channels will increase your market coverage and keep you top of mind.

A digital marketing strategy with online marketing campaigns centered on an honest benefit can help maintain a consistent message at scale.

It helps build familiarity with potential customers. This leads to trust and positive expectations with your brand.

People

People refers to your marketing team and all people responsible for your marketing. And what they think about your prospects will have a critical impact on your marketing efforts. It will bleed through and show in everything they do.

The first step in creating a marketing plan is understanding who your target market is. It's important to understand your audience and create detailed buyer personas.

This will help you speak directly to various needs, goals, and roadblocks of your target market with clarity and purpose.

That's why an effective content marketing team takes a human approach to the SEO efforts.

Respect and empathy are more than just keywords. They are words with deep meaning and the foundation of a sustainable marketing strategy.

It's critical for everyone involved in promoting your offer, including affiliates to be aligned here. Each plays a role in your overall brand reputation.

Positioning

Your positioning is what helps you highlight the unique features of your offer.

It also helps direct and benefit your public relations strategy . How you'll communicate with customers and prospects.

All other aspects of your marketing mix and competitive environment will play a direct role in your positioning.

Consider what you offer and to who. Who are they, what do they want, how can you help them get it.

It can be helpful to create a product mix that matches various markets. This can take time to develop though and you'll want to be very strategic.

You don't want to hurt your brand image trying to please the masses.

It's very difficult for luxury brands to maintain prestige with budget priced offerings.

Processes

This refers to how your company delivers products and services to customers. It other words, your service performance.

It also affects planned marketing and campaign processes that encapsulate your promotional efforts. This is true at each stage of your sales funnel.

Both products and services require detailed processes. Good processes are a significant competitive advantage. Luckily, with widespread digital integration, we are blessed.

We have access to countless tools to help with sales funnels, re-targeting, and checkout processes. They help maintain a consistent customer experience.

Combine detailed and refined processes with high standards in customer service and you have a recipe for success.

Processes can also help align your team through fair and standardized key performance indicators. You can set clear, company-wide expectations.

And of course it helps save you the cost of time when training new hires.

Performance

Performance tells you whether your marketing is producing the results you expected.

Revenue is important, but it is only one measure. Depending on your goals, you may also track:

Customer acquisition cost: How much you spend to gain each new customer
Conversion rate: How many prospects complete the action you want them to take
Retention: How many customers continue buying from or working with you
Customer satisfaction: How customers rate their experience with your company
Brand visibility: How often people discover, search for, or talk about your brand

Choose the measures that connect most closely to your marketing objectives. Then review them regularly to see which parts of your marketing mix are working and where changes are needed.

Tools such as Google Analytics life cycle reports can help you examine the customer journey from acquisition through engagement, monetisation, and retention.

Performance should help you make better decisions. It should show you where to invest more, what to improve, and what to stop doing.

How to Apply the 8 Ps to Your Marketing Strategy

The 8 Ps are most useful when you turn them into a practical review of your current marketing.

1. Choose the right marketing mix

Start with the model that fits your business and your goals.

The original 4 Ps may be enough for a straightforward product or campaign. Service businesses may need the 7 Ps. Use the 8 Ps in this guide when positioning, internal processes, and performance measurement also need attention.

2. Audit each P

Review each part of your current marketing mix.

Ask whether your product solves a clear problem, your price matches its value, and your promotion reaches the right people. Then examine your positioning, team, delivery processes, and results.

3. Identify the weakest links

Look for areas where one P is undermining the others.

ou may have a strong product but unclear positioning. Your promotion may attract attention, but a weak sales process may prevent conversions. Focus first on the gaps with the greatest effect on the customer journey.

4. Assign an owner to each priority

Give each improvement to a specific person or team.

Set one clear action, a deadline, and an expected result. This prevents the marketing mix from becoming a planning exercise that nobody implements.

5. Review your metrics each month

Track the measures that connect to your goals, such as revenue, customer acquisition cost, conversion rate, retention, customer satisfaction, and brand visibility.

Reviewing these metrics each month helps you see whether your changes are working. It also lets you adjust your marketing mix before small problems become expensive ones.

Kickstart Your Marketing Mix Today

The 8 Ps of marketing can be used as a marketing mix framework for any type of business or organization.

It's remarkably effective as a form of symbiotic marketing that applies to all types of products and services.

And it'll help you think deeply about your target segment so that you can spread your message with the most effective customer-focused marketing mix possible.

Find the Weak Links in Your Marketing

If you're not sure which parts of your marketing mix need attention, you can always send us your website URL for a short site review. We’ll identify the main content, positioning, and conversion gaps we can see, so you know what to fix first.

Request your free site review.

The 6 Human Needs of Highly Effective Content

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 04:28:49 GMT

The 6 Human Needs of Highly Effective Content

Highly effective content performs many tasks:

It provides helpful information in an easy-to-understand way.
It reaches its intended audience and engages with their interests.
It highlights a brand's knowledge and adds to its authority.
It persuades readers to do whatever the brand hoped they would do.

To do all this and more, it's important to keep in mind that your readers are human.

To achieve a highly effective content marketing strategy, each piece of content should make use of, or speak to, a human need.

What are the 6 human needs?

You may have heard of Tony Robbins. His work helps millions of people around the world. He’s a self-help superstar and master marketer.

He's built a reputation as the leading authority on “peak performance”. US presidents, top athletes, leading global executives, and other notable figures call on him for private consultations.

During his career, Robbins has adapted Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He's highlighted 6 levels as being critical for an individual’s fulfillment.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each and how they can connect:

Certainty: We crave security and stability in our lives, but we also want…

Variety: Change helps break up a tired routine. It can also introduce a challenge that leads to…

Growth: This process creates movement that builds momentum towards a feeling of fulfillment and…

Significance: A hope that there’s a special purpose or meaning for our lives, which we also get through…

Connection: By accounting for the human interests of others, we can build stronger connections. But it’s unsustainable without…

Contribution: We must serve the greater good, both for ourselves and others. This adds to our security and brings us back to certainty…

Effective Content Marketing

Thinking about these as the underlying needs of your prospects can lead to more valuable content.

For a fun thought exercise as you read, try considering each need and how they can relate to your prospect and your offer.

This will be a creative challenge that will help you communicate your value to prospects. It can even help you create a more detailed buyer persona. This will help you break out of the status quo with original content that speaks to your audience.

Certainty

People buy things for many reasons.

Maybe they’re overwhelmed and want some outside support. Maybe FOMO and they want to buy some bitcoin, blonde hair dye, and beard oil. Maybe they’re thirsty and want a Coke.

Regardless of the cause of a purchase, prospects want some certainty that they’ll get what they pay for. That it'll scratch whatever their itch is.

Consumers crave certainty. This is especially true for big purchases where they may feel fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

There are many causes of uncertainty. There may be inconsistency between the marketing messaging and what the product or service delivers. Delivery times may be unclear.

If you look at negative reviews of eCommerce and SaaS companies, you'll see they often stem from uncertainty.

What does this mean for content?

It's our job to help build trust and certainty through our marketing strategy . Content creation that speaks to the security and stability we seek. You can use your content to show your prospects what you can deliver, what you know, and why they should trust you.

A company’s messaging must revolve around what it can indeed provide. The benefits customers can expect to enjoy. This is way more interesting for consumers than features.

Even creating content that delivers what the headlines promise can help build trust and rapport. Just make sure it's easy to digest and consistent across channels.

Variety

Without it, content has the potential of becoming bland.

Variety is the spice of life and the ingredient that helps your content stay fresh and exciting.

It will also help you reach a wider audience, displaying your brand in different formats and platforms. For instance, people gravitate towards different content types . Some prefer YouTube to reading blogs and vice versa.

This process can literally be as easy as repurposing your new or most popular content into different formats. Videos, podcasts, email nurture campaigns, social media posts, ads, or even lead generators.

Using a variety of formats and platforms will help to spread your message and ensure prospects stay familiar with your brand.

Sharing a consistent message in a variety of ways will help drill in your value proposition and keep your brand top of mind.

Growth

A burning desire to develop and grow drives a lot of our thoughts and actions. The SaaS industry helps people and businesses leverage automation to more effectively grow.

It doesn’t have to be a major change. Even a small step in the right direction can be priceless to a prospect. What truly matters is fueling the momentum.

It’s not only your product or service that can drive this growth. Your original content and messaging can also play a role.

If you're able to spell out how your product or service will help prospects accomplish growth of any kind, your profits will probably grow with them.

Great content is a win-win. It can help build your audience and brand advocates. And it can be an invaluable sales tool as you gain the relational value of other's spreading your message.

Helping them grow and learn with your content wherever they may be brings them closer to trying out your offer. For an excellent example of this, check out the content marketing of Ahrefs .

Significance

Everyone wants to feel significant. It may not be obvious, but you prove your prospects' significance when you offer them a thoughtful solution.

Your content can highlight this intention in clear language. This is a great way to express empathy and address any concerns they may have.

You’ve done your research and brainstormed the needs of your prospects. Google's 'People Also Ask', Quora, Reddit, and even competitors' FAQs can be great sources for questions to answer. All you have to do is then present them with answers and solutions in your content.

In this way, you show their problems are significant. So much so that you sacrificed your time and resources to help them.

This can help to strengthen a connection grounded in mutual respect.

Connection

Most businesses today depend on long-term, win-win relationships with customers.

You help them overcome a challenge with your products, services, and content . And they give you continued business and hopefully spread your brand to their network.

No matter what you offer, pretty much every sentence of your content can address your prospects and their needs directly.

How can you do that? One way is to by adding a person to the subject of each sentence.

You can find the human interests buried in every story. Even less obvious subjects like science and technology breakthroughs come from the work of humans.

The series Cosmos does a great job at this. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is also a great example. Both provide engaging informational content on science through a focus on the humans behind the discoveries.

All you have to do is add ‘people, they, their, you, team, etc.’ as the subject of the sentence.

These human interests are much easier to read. Adding them to your content can improve the clarity of your messaging and time on page.

Contribution

This builds on our need for connection. All healthy relationships of any kind and anywhere are reciprocal.

Both parties in a relationship have to contribute to fulfill the needs of the other and add value to the whole. It's required for healthy and sustainable relationships of all kinds.

Your content can emphasize this, and as you cultivate your content, you can involve your audience in the creative process. You can ask for their input and strike a goldmine of new ideas.

AND this contribution will reinforce the connection that your business depends on.

If you can make your prospects feel like insiders, they may become brand advocates. This can be more effective than any paid ad campaign.

Referral and affiliate programs make great use of this. Giving influencers incentives to spread your messaging.

You can also do this for free. It can be as simple as acknowledging an audience generated idea in a piece of content.

Attribute an idea in a piece of content to someone in your network and let them know.

Not only will they likely share it with their audience, but more people will probably share ideas for their chance to gain recognition.

This can be a goldmine for fresh ideas and new perspectives.

After all, like how people crave connection, they also want recognition. If they can champion ideas that improve their personal brand through relational value, it's another win-win.

Give them that opportunity and tap into new opportunities.

Conclusion

Your content is written for humans to read.

It only makes sense that you can improve your chances they'll do that if you tailor it to their needs. And as we have examined, humans share 6 needs that can help make effective content.

If you want to have a maximum impact with your content, be sure to tailor your original content to at least some of these human needs. You may see significantly better results.

OR better yet, let us help you. Contact us today and let’s take your content to the next level.

What Is Copyediting? 9-Step Process, Tools, Costs & Checklist

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 03:17:22 GMT

What Is Copyediting? A Practical Guide for Content Teams

Copyediting improves the clarity and accuracy of a near-final draft while keeping it consistent and easy to read. It focuses on sentence-level fixes and house style before the final proofread.

This guide is for content teams and anyone else who needs a practical way to review and improve content before publication. We’ll show you where copyediting fits in the creation process, then cover how it works and what to look for when hiring an editor.

This guide reflects the copyediting process we used while managing production of more than 100 articles per month across multiple editors and dozens of authors. At that scale, solid copyediting systems were what made consistent quality possible.

Copyediting vs. Proofreading

Copyediting and proofreading happen at different stages and solve different problems.

Copyediting takes place once the main argument is settled and the draft is close to final. It improves the language and makes the draft more consistent before proofreading.

Proofreading takes place after editing and, in many publishing workflows, after the content has been formatted. It catches the remaining errors before the content is published.

The full editorial process may include four stages:

The boundaries can vary between editors and organisations. Some projects combine line editing and copyediting, especially for website and marketing content.

That is why the scope needs to be clear before the work starts. Otherwise, a copyedit can quickly turn into work that belongs in another editing stage - like a rewrite, fact-check, or structural edit.

Automated tools can help flag common writing and style issues before a human checks the details. They still cannot judge whether each change fits the meaning and context of the draft.

Here's a helpful graphic for the common editing process:

What Does Copyediting Include?

The exact scope of copyediting depends on the content and agreement.

But a typical copyedit may include:

Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage
Sentence clarity and flow
Tone and terminology
Internal consistency
Headings, lists, tables, and formatting
Names, dates, figures, and basic factual queries
House style and regional language conventions
Links, captions, and references when they are part of the scope

For website content, copyediting may also cover headings and other on-page elements when they’re part of the scope.

Copyediting usually doesn’t include major rewriting or research unless agreed, and the final proofread is still a separate step.

Clear scope becomes more important as production grows. It helps writers and editors apply the same standards across every article.

What’s a Style Guide?

Style guides are essentially the standard operating procedures, or SOPs, for how your content team writes and edits.

They set the rules writers and editors follow across a publication. This helps keep your content consistent and gives everyone the same standard to follow.

At scale, you cannot rely on everyone remembering the same preferences. The guide gives writers and editors one place to check the rules.

A practical style guide might cover:

Canadian, British, or American spelling
Capitalisation
Punctuation
Numbers and dates
Headings, lists, and tables
Brand and product names
Tone and voice
Source and citation requirements
Terms your organisation uses or avoids

Search-Focused Style Rules

For website content, a style guide can also include search-focused editorial standards. These help writers and editors apply the same approach across every page.

You might document rules for:

Title tags and meta descriptions
URL slugs
H1, H2, and H3 headings
Internal links and anchor text
Image file names and alternative text
Capitalisation of products, services, and topic terms
Natural use of the primary topic and related terms
Calls to action
Definitions, summaries, and comparison sections
Publication and review dates

For example, the guide might explain how long or descriptive URL slugs should be so they’re still clear and easy to scan.

It can also explain when question-style headings make sense or when a page should show a review date.

A style guide can also support AI-assisted editing. Give AI tools the same rules your team follows so their suggestions stay consistent with your style.

These checks can support the copyedit when the scope includes them but they do not replace topic research , technical search engine optimisation, or content strategy .

Examples Of Style Guides

The Economist style guide is a great example. It opens with an important note for any B2B copyeditor to keep in mind. It also helps to illustrate the kinds of things you find in a style guide.

“ The first requirement of The Economist is that it should be readily understandable. Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible.”

Dreyer’s English is another helpful reference. It was written by long-time Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer, who has copyedited hundreds of acclaimed books.

Choose a base guide, then document where your organisation’s house style differs.

Your guide can settle big questions, such as tone and voice. It can also answer smaller recurring questions, such as whether to use a numeral or spell out the number.

When the same editorial question comes up more than once, add the answer to the guide. That turns one editor’s decision into a standard the whole team can apply.

The Copyediting Process

Copyediting works best when you follow a repeatable process.

Solid systems make it easier to keep quality consistent, even when lots of people are involved. They also reduce subjective decisions and help everyone work from the same standards.

This is the process we used to keep quality consistent across a large publishing programme. The exact steps may change depending on the content and scope.

1. Confirm The Scope

Start by getting clear on what the copyedit includes.

Check:

The target audience
The purpose of the content
The agreed level of editing
The style guide
The regional language standard
The file format
The deadline
Any search-focused requirements

Confirm whether the brief also includes fact-checking or formatting before you start.

2. Read The Full Draft (out loud)

Read the full article before editing individual sentences.

I highly recommend reading it out loud.

This helps you understand the argument before you start fixing individual sentences. And reading it out loud makes clunky writing and larger issues easier to spot.

Here's a little hack if you ever feel too tired to read out loud:

Highlight the text, right click, and press print.

Save it as a PDF.

Go into your downloads, again right click, and press open with Microsoft Edge.

Here you can use the read aloud feature to transform your life.

Choose a voice and speed that fits your preference. You can change it to nearly any accent you can think of.

Look for:

Repeated information
Missing explanations
Sudden changes in tone
Inconsistent terminology
Sections that appear out of order
Claims that need clarification or support

Flag larger problems before making detailed edits. A weak sentence may be a symptom of a wider issue in the section.

3. Edit For Clarity

Review each sentence based on what it needs to communicate.

Ask:

Does it express one clear idea?
Could the reader misunderstand it?
Does every word contribute?
Does it repeat something already explained?
Does it use language the audience understands?
Can you start a sentence with rather? ;)

Cut words that do not support the meaning. Split sentences when several ideas compete for attention, then check that each sentence leads naturally into the next.

In his book The Adweek Copywriting Handbook , Joseph Sugarman, perhaps my personal favourite copywriting and marketing instructor, described this forward movement as the slippery slide. That each sentence should make the next one easy to read.

Keep the writer’s voice where possible. The goal is to improve clarity without making every author sound the same.

4. Check Grammar, Spelling, And Usage

Correct the obvious language errors first, especially anything that makes the sentence unclear or inaccurate.

Apply the agreed language standard consistently. Different versions of English follow different rules, so stick to the one named in the brief.

For Canadian English, that may include forms such as:

Colour
Defence
Emphasise
Optimise
Programme

Editing tools can help flag possible problems. Review each suggestion in context before accepting it.

5. Check Punctuation

Review punctuation based on whether it changes the meaning or makes the sentence harder to read.

Punctuation should make the meaning easier to follow. And it can also affect tone and pacing.

For instance, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road uses sparse punctuation as a deliberate literary choice. While business and website content usually need more conventional punctuation.

Punctuation can also support tone and pacing in promotional copy. Use it deliberately, then follow the selected style guide instead of relying on personal preference.

But for work comms it's best to follow the selected style guide instead of relying on personal preference.

6. Check Consistency

Compare recurring details across the full article.

Here you'll check:

Names and job titles
Company and product names
Capitalisation
Numbers and dates
Heading formats
Lists and tables
Links and anchor text
Abbreviations
Repeated terminology
Calls to action

Take note of recurring decisions in the style guide or project style sheet. This helps other writers and editors apply the same standard.

7. Review Search Elements When They Are In Scope

For website content, the copyedit may also include search-focused checks.

Review:

The page title
Title tag and meta description
URL slug
H1, H2, and H3 headings
Internal links
Anchor text
Image alternative text
Definitions and summary sections
Publication and review dates

These checks should support the reader and the purpose of the page. They do not replace keyword research, technical search engine optimisation, or content strategy.

8. Raise Editorial Questions

Flag anything you can’t confidently resolve yourself or that needs the writer’s input.

A useful editorial query should explain the problem and give the writer a clear next step. But just be sure to keep the feedback respectful, specific, and focused on the work.

For example, a weak response would be:

This section is confusing. Please rewrite it.

While a useful editorial query would be:

This section introduces three ideas before stating the main point, which makes the recommendation hard to follow. Could you please rewrite it using BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) to lead with the recommended action, then move the supporting context into a second paragraph?

It's best to not rewrite by instinct when the change could alter the writer’s meaning. Explain the problem and let the writer confirm the intended direction. This respects the writer’s abilities and keeps the edit collaborative

9. Complete A Final Read-Through

Read the edited article from beginning to end, again out loud for total confidence.

You can also read it aloud or use a text-to-speech tool. Listening often reveals:

Missing words
Repeated words
Awkward transitions
Unnatural sentence rhythms
Sudden tonal changes
Errors introduced during editing

Finish by checking the article against the brief and style guide before you call it done.

Which Tools Can Support Copyediting?

Copyediting tools can speed up routine checks and help you spot issues you may have missed.

But each tool applies its own rules and assumptions. The copy editor still needs to decide whether a suggestion actually improves the draft.

Grammarly

Grammarly can catch routine language issues that are easy to miss when you’re editing quickly. And it can also suggest sentence and paragraph rewrites.

It works well as an initial check, especially when you need to catch repeated errors across a large volume of content.

Review each suggestion before accepting it. A grammatically correct rewrite can still make the draft worse if it changes the meaning or voice.

Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is my personal favourite. It's a free tool that highlights dense sentences and provides a readability score. And it can help you find sections where the structure or wording makes the content harder to follow.

But best to treat the highlights as editing prompts rather than instructions. For instance, a long sentence can still work when its structure remains clear.

The goal is readable content, not a page with no coloured highlights.

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is useful for spotting recurring style issues across lots of content. It also offers detailed reports and custom rules for teams with defined editorial standards.

Custom rules are useful when your house style differs from the tool’s default suggestions.

The number of reports can become distracting, so choose the checks that match the content and editing scope.

Microsoft Edge Read Aloud

As mentioned, Microsoft Edge can read webpages aloud while highlighting the text. You can also change the voice and playback speed.

This is useful during the final review because listening often exposes problems your eyes skip over.

You may notice:

Missing or repeated words
Awkward sentence rhythms
Sudden changes in tone
Unnatural transitions
Sentences that are difficult to follow

AI Editing Tools

AI tools can compare a draft with your standards and flag issues, but the editor still decides what to change.

But they work best when you give them guardrails via a defined task and the relevant reference documents. So give the AI only the documents relevant to the task. Then define which changes AI can make on its own and which ones need a human review.

These documents can cover:

Brand voice and tone
Plain-language rules
Canadian spelling and usage
Sentence and paragraph standards
Heading conventions
Words and phrases to avoid
Search-focused editing rules
Source and citation requirements
Calls to action and conversion principles
Examples of acceptable and unacceptable edits

Keep different jobs in separate documents. A copy guide can cover language and structure, while a voice guide defines tone and rhythm. Buyer-psychology guidance only belongs where the page is trying to persuade the reader.

So instead of prompting: Improve this article.

You can use a focused instruction:
Copyedit this section using our copy and plain-language standards. Preserve the writer’s meaning and voice. Use Canadian English. Flag factual gaps instead of filling them. Apply the buyer-psychology guide only to calls to action and conversion sections.

But definitely review every change before accepting it. The editor is still responsible for the final call because AI won’t always understand the context.

Before uploading client work, check how the tool handles your data. Sensitive or confidential material may require an approved platform or a workflow that keeps the content inside your organisation’s systems.

What Do You Receive From a Copy Editor?

The final deliverables depend on the scope and how the edit is being completed.

A professional copyedit may include:

A document with tracked changes
Comments and editorial questions
A clean edited version
A project style sheet
Notes about repeated issues
Recommendations that fall outside the agreed copyediting scope

Tracked changes let you see what the editor changed. As mentioned, comments should focus on anything the writer needs to clarify or confirm.

A project style sheet records the decisions other writers and editors will need to follow later. This might include spelling, capitalisation, terminology, product names, dates, numbers, and formatting rules.

For website content, the editor may also flag on-page issues when they’re part of the agreed scope.

Confirm the deliverables before the work begins. You should know what files you’ll receive and how questions will be handled before the work starts.

For example, our content strategy services often involve working with a client’s in-house team. We provide the direction and editorial standards, while their team produces the content. We then review the work before publication to make sure it meets the brand and quality standard.

How are Copyediting Services Priced?

Copyediting can be priced by the amount of work or as a fixed project.

The right model depends on how predictable the draft and scope are.

We use project or retainer pricing because it gives both sides a clear cost and scope upfront. It works best when we have reviewed the draft and understand what the job involves.

Per-word pricing can also work well for consistent content. Hourly pricing makes more sense when the draft quality varies or the project may uncover unexpected issues.

Before quoting, the editor should review a representative sample. This helps the editor estimate the workload before agreeing to a price.

Your agreement should define:

The editing level
The content or page set
The approximate word count
The number of editing passes
The file format
The deliverables
The deadline
The revision policy
What counts as work outside the original scope

Current Copyediting Rate Benchmarks

The Editorial Freelancers Association’s 2026 rate chart lists these median ranges for business and marketing copyediting:

US$0.03 to US$0.04 per word
US$50 to US$60 per hour
US$7.50 to US$10 per 250-word page

These figures are in United States dollars and provide a reference point rather than a required rate. The association states that it does not set or recommend what editors should charge.

Editors Canada also notes that editors often charge hourly or use a flat project fee based partly on word count.

Rates and editing speeds vary depending on industry and how much work the draft actually needs. Technical content or projects requiring search expertise may cost more.

What You Should Look For in a Copyediting Service

Look for a copy editor who understands your content and the people reading it.

For website content, the editor may also review on-page 'SEO' elements when they’re part of the agreed scope.

Before hiring someone, confirm:

Relevant experience and sample work
A clear editing scope
Defined deliverables
A realistic timeline
Transparent pricing and revision terms
Experience following style guides
Clear communication
Confidentiality and content ownership
How they use AI or automated tools
Whether a human reviews every change

Also look at how the editor gives feedback. Strong copy editors need good judgement and enough tact to improve the work without making feedback harder to use. They should explain why a change is needed and make the next step clear when the writer needs to respond.

The feedback should improve the draft while preserving the writer’s confidence and voice. This matters even more when one editor works across lots of different writers or teams.

Respectful feedback builds trust and helps prevent the same issues from showing up again.

Build Copyediting Into Your Publishing Process

Copyediting gives a near-final draft the polish it needs before proofreading and publication.

For content teams, its value grows over time. A shared process helps writers improve over time because the same decisions don’t need to be made again and again.

Tools can speed up routine checks. But editorial judgement still decides whether each change supports the meaning and the writer’s voice. Feel free to use the checklist above to define the work and record any decisions your team will need again.

At 8-Bit Content, we help teams set editorial standards and keep quality consistent across ongoing publishing programmes.

7 Reasons You Should Outsource Copywriting

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 03:32:50 GMT

7 Reasons to Outsource Your Copywriting

The simple act of outsourcing your copywriting can save you from a time and soul sucking experience you may be familiar with:

Your cursor blinks on a blank page. You take a few stabs at writing a strong opening sentence, but each attempt reads like a limp handshake. You erase and try again. Minutes turn to hours and the only thing you have to show for it is an overwhelming sense of frustration.

Sound familiar? If yes, you’re not alone.

When a business outsources its copywriting needs, it taps into an army of professional writers who can help them create engaging content that drive sales.

If your business already uses outsourced copywriters, you know what a difference this can make.

If you're still on the fence on whether it would make sense for you and your business, then this article is for you.

Why outsource copywriting?

1. High Quality Writing

Writing of any kind can be an arduous grind, and copywriting is perhaps one of the toughest.

An engaging piece of content written to persuade and drive people to take action is more than just good writing. It requires a deep understanding of marketing , sales psychology, whatever the subject of the content is, and much more.

Attempting to do this while also running your business or managing projects is quite the task.

So, if you’re interested in outsourcing your copywriting, look for copywriting service providers who show an understanding of the above, plus can write:

Interesting headlines and sub-headers
Strong CTAs and hooks throughout the text
Search engine friendly articles [note that search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and copywriting are 3 different skills]
Attractive product descriptions
Engaging social media content
Effective email campaigns with great subject lines

The beautiful thing for you, the client, is that once it’s delivered, it’s all yours. You can use it however you like and your team can promote and monitor the results.

You can also always repurpose popular messaging into different content formats. This will help you increase your reach and keep your messaging consistent.

Doing this has the potential to convert customers from multiple channels for years to come.

2. Risk Reduction

Hiring a full-time or even part-time staff can be risky.

In the U.S., a 2024 Gallup poll shows that just over half (51%) of employees are willing to jump ship from their current companies.

That is disturbingly high.

High turnover rates equal to wasted resources recruiting and training. It adds risk to company hiring practices.

However, companies can mitigate all this risk simply by outsourcing certain tasks to agencies who specialize in them.

Apple, Google, Alibaba and many other companies outsource . They could do everything with their internal teams but choose to harness the power of outsourcing. Because just like SMEs, it helps them reduce costs (and risk), and access a vast pool of talents and skills, to focus on their core business.

And just consider how non-native English business owners can leverage outsourcing copywriting and even their marketing strategy to tap into bigger markets.

Engineering expertise may be available in-house but now they can gain access to native speakers with sales experience to help scale with no risks involved.

3. Effectiveness

Competition can be fierce and teams must be agile and cost effective with their marketing budgets.

By partnering with a remote team of content writers, you get exactly what you pay for.

You only pay for the content writing, not a full-time employee.

When you outsource the copywriting process, you get the chance to work with experienced copywriters in the field.

There’s always someone to bounce ideas off a nd y ou won’t have to do extensive research or learn new skills yourself.

You're not paying to recruit and train them. You don't even have to pay for the pricey SEO research tools that are likely needed.

You are simply collaborating with experienced content marketing professionals that will help you move closer to your goals.

4. Efficiency

This is another great reason to outsource copywriting.

Effective copywriting takes a TON of time.

Articles, landing pages, advertorials, and whatever you need to promote and persuade can often be the product of hours, sometimes days, of research, outlining, writing, and revising.

In fact, it's often the peculiar case that short, punchy copy takes longer to write than long, descriptive articles.

Taking all of this off your hands allows you and your marketing team to focus your time on tasks, perhaps closer to your expertise and more urgent to your daily business operations.

5. Organic Search

The technical expertise of a dedicated digital marketing agency can add compounding value to your business.

Whether it’s copy on your website, blog content, or even strong calls to action, your words can make a huge difference.

One way you can build your brands’ authority and online presence is simply by publishing accurate, high-quality content that speaks to your prospects' needs.

If you're able to outsource copywriting to a company who can help you do this, you'll be able to grow your competitiveness along with your sales.

The value of this high-quality content creation for your site will compound. And, as you grow your topical authority and get links from relevant sites, you'll eventually rank for commercial keywords in your industry.

And by the way, speaking of links - to jumpstart your link-building efforts, you can use a simple internal linking method.

Your content agency can help you create blog posts that link to the relevant pages designed to help you sell. This will help inform your readers of your expertise, build your topical authority, and rank for keywords at all stages of your sales funnel.

With these strategies in place, you can reduce your ad spend and get organic qualified leads for years to come.

6. Keeps things Fresh

When you rely on in-house copywriters, you may notice certain phrases or business jargon being repeated that don’t resonate; or worse, content that confuses and alienates potential customers.

A content writing agency with a knack for copywriting helps you avoid these common mistakes.

You can meet your content demands with a fresh and exciting voice that speaks directly to your prospect.

Partnering with a content agency can help you gain an outsider perspective from a writer within your target demographic. This is like a cheat-code in how to position your product or service to your customer's needs.

It's also a quick and easy way to liven up your company’s overall brand image.

A great and effective approach is to ask a content agency to write blog posts about your industry and how your products or services help your customers.

With the writers representing your audience, you'll be able to connect better than ever.

This kind of approach allows you to showcase your empathy and expertise in the niche. It also helps to publish new and interesting content to keep your brand top of mind. And again, you and your team can always repurpose this content in various ways.

7. Gives you an edge

Without great content or copywriting, there's a lot of pressure on say, a product designer to create products that sell themselves. This aligns with the 'build it and they will come' fallacy.

In a perfect world, this would work. Companies could make great products and services and people would buy them with no promotion or sales efforts needed. But the fact is, competition is fierce and y our customers will probably need a helpful nudge. And this is where copywriting is key.

Packaging the facts of your product or service in clear and concise writing that also speaks to your customers' emotions has the power to help you stand out in a crowded space.

Regardless of how you choose to promote, you mustn't forget the power of effective copywriting.

If you don't want to rely on constant promotions or sales, it's likely where most sales will come from. It's where you bring out the big guns and show your prospects why they need your offer.

And this is where working with a freelance writers or an agency can pay off big-time. It's literally how we make our living.

Outsource your copywriting and focus on your strengths

You don’t need to give your in-house teams extra work and potentially lose more staff. What you need is a content agency that can take care of your content strategy and copywriting needs for you.

This way you can stop wasting time writing and gain back your freedom to focus on the tasks you're best at.

8-Bit Content is here to help.

We connect you to your potential customers via compelling content and strong calls to action.

So, if you're ready to get the help you need, contact us today !

10 Actionable Tips for Effective Email Outreach

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 08:35:42 GMT

10 Actionable Tips for Effective Email Outreach

This is a short and sweet guide to help you improve your cold email outreach results.

They're tips for anyone working with a small budget and who needs to make the most of their email outreach efforts.

These exact tips helped me connect directly with people I had originally thought of as being out of reach.

People like former MIT professor and now famous podcaster Lex Fridman.

Using the general tips below, I established over 300 partnerships with companies and influencers over a 6-month period for an e-commerce company. All without spending a dime.

No spam or ‘gaming the system' tactics are needed. Just genuine relationship building through outreach campaigns using simple and actionable tips that will get you talking to those you wish to faster.

So, without further ado, let's get into it.

Cold Outreach Email Tips

1. Email Like a Real Person

A lot of people know this by now but it is worth noting that it is vital to have a real name in your business email address. This is infinitely better than reaching out to someone with an email name like start@8bitcontent.com .

Without a name or even a company email address, your chances of getting a response from cold emails are next to none. Believe me, I tried.

2. Divide and Conquer

You can't really talk about effective email outreach or email marketing without mentioning segmentation. Knowing your personas and grouping email recipients together based on shared interests, industry, location, and more is vital.

It helps to understand each target audience and send out personalized emails at scale. This helps you organize your email list, craft a more personable and relevant email pitch, and likely increase your response rates.

3. Email subject line

You could offer the greatest opportunity in the world, but without a great subject line getting you through the door, it could be a waste.

Like a great headline, it should quickly convey some kind of benefit, mystery, or news to the reader, and if possible, all three.

There is one pre-requisite that I urge you to always include, the subject's name in the subject line.

There's a considerable amount of A/B testing involved in the sweet science nailing down the right ones. You've got to write a lot of them and they are typically unique to your messaging and personas.

I sent out hundreds of emails testing different subject lines and messaging. At first these cold emails didn't have a great success rate but over time, certain patterns started to appear.

Ex: if your intention is to offer someone a partnership, proposal, or anything in between, your email has a better chance to be opened and responded to if the subject line looks like this:

Jane Doe X 8-Bit Content

This is usually my go-to format that seems to work almost without fail with a high open and response rate. It's eye-catching and, more than likely, bound to be opened.

It's also very easy to implement this tip in an email blast through mail merge and the like. It can be this simple: [Name/Company] X 8-Bit Content.

4. Length

Most people have very little time to waste and they like their content to get to the point as quickly as possible.

Emails therefore should be concise and to the point. Many people have learned this by now and yet I still receive long, drawn-out emails regarding so and so doing whats and what with no end in sight and no clear point as to how it'll relate to or benefit me.

Classic examples of this are introductory emails where several paragraphs are spent at the beginning explaining what a company does. In an effort to make sure a relative stranger will read past the first few sentences, prioritize the beginning of the email to clearly state what benefits you're offering the reader.

If possible, summarize your business later on in a sentence or 2.

Also, be sure to include lots of whitespace.

Hi ……, Hope things are well with you and yours.

As _____ of ______, I am curious if you would be interested in our… As many of us have experienced through our daily lives, we're not starved for content, we're bloated.

You are likely reaching out to busy people. So it is your responsibility to get to the point ASAP.

5. Break Convention

This isn't to say that you should disregard the suggestions mentioned above but rather reconsider some of the common tropes used when emailing acquaintances, potentially even relating to how you communicate with superiors.

Replace formal, literary language with plain, friendly, and human language.

Perhaps the most common culprit which often sets the tone for the rest of the email is ‘Dear'.

Although an age-old term of respect and endearment, starting your email with ‘Dear' can inadvertently create a barrier of entry of sorts between you and the subject.

Although the word's meaning is literally the opposite, in today's world of business it can be often read as distant, unfamiliar, and even insincere.

Here are some suggestions.

Replace:

‘Dear ________,’ with ‘Hi/Hello/Hey _________,’ ( Particularly if talking to someone within the same age range or younger. Older generations can be an exception to this as they may appreciate it if you address them with ‘Dear’ but overall I’m sure you get the idea. )

‘I’m writing to inform you…’ with ‘Just letting you know…’

‘Yours sincerely,’ with ‘All the best,’

The list goes on and on, but the point is, we should put the quill down. It's 2020 and 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices connected to 1 of 2,666 artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. It's ok if our email language reflects a more contemporary tone.

Again, this isn't to suggest using sloppy or unprofessional language to appear friendly. Rather, it's a means to build rapport quicker for ongoing correspondence.

6. Classic Formatting

This can also relate to the tip of breaking convention.

Do you know what feels better than receiving a carefully designed and ‘personalized' email that is obviously part of an email blast-out using Mailchimp? A carefully written email from an individual at the company seemingly written specifically for you.

Let's say your mission is to promote a sale. Try sticking to the tried and true regular email formatting. You can carefully write the email copy to be personable and appear to be directed specifically to that individual. Include their name and company in the email copy. The messaging can be the same.

They're your VIP and you're delivering them the message, you're just doing so in a format that feels more familiar and substantial.

7. Clearly state exactly what’s in it for them

A cardinal sin that most emails commit is vague and generic messaging. Sure, there's a call to action at the end but it's never crystal clear why the reader would even want to take the next step.

Say you're interested in establishing a partnership with an affiliate site whose business model runs on advertising. You should highlight that your product will engage their audience and bring traffic, even reminding them of shared audiences and interests.

8. Follow-up

It is possible that your first email will not get a reply. Don’t take this personally or let your ego get in the way of trying again — it’s possible they didn’t see it.

If necessary, you could 1 or 2 short and friendly follow-ups a week or so apart, quickly reminding them of what your intention is can work wonders, as long as you don't abuse it.

9. Space them out

If you are going to follow up, make sure you don't harrass them and land in the spam folder. You need to always be courteous.

Just a side note for email mailing lists. People receive emails all the time and are likely to unsubscribe if they notice you’re sending more than they expected.

A lot of companies seem to disregard this and race to terrorize their mailing list as often as they can. Please, for the sake of humanity, show your respect by spacing them out. An email, say, every Tuesday is okay, but multiple times a week can be overkill.

10. Email signature

Ideally, your emails will be filled with value. This can include your email signature. It can be a great place to promote something you've done that may be of interest to your segment.

This could be some kind of social proof like a testimonial from a customer, or a link to a blog post that may help them. Your email signature can be icing on a cake.

These tips can be surprisingly effective in building trust and authority in meaningful and tangible ways.

Give them a try and let me know the kinds of responses you get at will@8bitcontent.com .