Top 10 Ways to Supercharge Your Blog Content Strategy

by Reuben Yau

Introduction

For many companies, content planning has changed as the workforce, budgets, website capabilities, the introduction of AI generative tools, and business dynamics have shifted over the last couple of years. With these fluctuations, marketing and content strategies must similarly adapt and evolve. We see this with our clients and what they plan to publish on their sites this year—whether it’s an increase in content volume, a foray into new areas, or an increased focus around specific topics and products.

SEO consultants and agencies are accustomed to constant alterations—but these new dynamics increase competitive pressure as many companies make significant adjustments to their sites. I chatted with?Mark Jackson, the president and CEO of Vizion Interactive, to get his thoughts on this topic. He had this to say:

“One truth about search engine optimization is that the field is constantly evolving. Perhaps years ago, quantity of content—and things like ‘the number of times a keyword is mentioned’—mattered the most. Nowadays, Google is in search of the highest–quality content to surface in its search results which best matches with a searcher’s intent. For this reason, we must craft high-quality content—authored by sources who know the topic well—which is truly resourceful and helpful for the reader.”

This insight aligns with research from a?recent survey by the Content Marketing Institute, which concluded that the top five goals for content performance are as follows:

1. Create brand awareness
2. Build credibility/trust
3. Educate audiences
4. Build loyalty with existing clients/customers
5. Generate demand/leads

So, how do we address these items while also appealing to Google algorithms to gain solid rankings? The first step is to choose high-demand topics on which you are able to demonstrate your authority as a thought leader. Then, focus on the substance and format of the content and how your message will be conveyed.

The content strategy of many companies has been the following:

1. Choose a keyword with a high search volume
2. Write a 500-word blog post
3. Find a hero image from a stock photography site
4. Hit the publish button
5. Share on organic social channels

There’s often little thought given to the format and style of a post, its supporting content, or other items that could be included to make it valuable or of high quality.

In December, Google made changes to its algorithms specifically targeted towards review sites whose writers often have obviously never used the products under review. Yet these writers create blog posts like “Top 10 {product} for 2022” including in them multiple Amazon affiliate links. The prices aren’t shown, of course, ensuring that users click the links provided to view the products’ costs and reward the “review” site with an affiliate link cookie on Amazon.

In?Google’s blog post?discussing this update, it provides a link to a post outlining its?best practices?for reviews, as listed below:

• Evaluate the product from a user’s perspective.
• Demonstrate that you are an expert regarding the products reviewed.
• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Share quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance.
• Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors.
• Cover comparable products to consider or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances.
• Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product based on your own original research.
• Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision.
• Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs in those areas. (For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas.)
• Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and the effect on users beyond what the manufacturer says.
• Include links to other useful resources (your own or from other sites) to help a reader make a decision.
• Consider including links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

I found this quite fascinating. It’s not a stretch to think that Google could apply some of these language processing techniques to the plethora of 500-word blog posts out there. We already know sites that fall into what’s known as the “Your Money Your Life” category are held to a higher standard. However, if your site does not naturally fall into one of the subsets of this category—like health care, finance, or insurance—you should still understand that the foundation of how Google analyzes content will likely be applied to other content sets.

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