How to plan content for SEO: your getting started guide

There is a long-used motto in academia to describe the constant need to launch new jobs, or you risk falling into obscurity: either publish or perish.

Although the exact phrase itself may not be common sense, its sentiment is.

Every day, a lot of new content is pushed to the world at an alarming speed. More and more marketers believe that they must continue to publish new content, otherwise they will face the risk of losing their online image.

But with all this new content It’s harder than ever for companies to stand out. Readers can only filter all content to find high-quality content.

This is where content planning comes in. It creates value by planning what other people have already published.

Content planning is a method of continuously bringing relevant and useful content to your audience without a “post or die” mentality.

After reading this article, you will learn how to start content management to maximize your SEO advantage. But before we delve deeper, let’s explain what content curation requires.

What is content curation?

Content planning is the process of finding and compiling existing content on topics related to your audience and industry or niche.

In short: You turn content created (by you or someone else) into new content of your own.

In addition to this, content curation is only meaningful when you include your views in curated content. Give your audience a reason to consume your curated content (and then come back) rather than others.

How does this help your SEO work?

A well-executed content management strategy can add value to readers, resulting in social sharing, links, and ultimately better rankings.

As an illustration of the results that only one curated article can bring, check out this example: Top 16 websites to find the perfect GIF and memes.

Of course, that article lists the best sites to find GIFs and memes. This is an interesting topic, so it is easy to share and link, as these Ahrefs statistics prove:

Success factors for content curation

Now let’s get started and discuss the factors that make content curation successful.

What does it take to succeed in content planning?

you need to:

• Know your audience.
• Add value.
• Take inspiration from past work.
• Test your curated content.

Know your audience

In order to reach the right resonance with your audience, you need to know who they are and what drives them.

Otherwise, it is difficult to choose the best content for curation.

Add value

The whole point of content management is that you add value by collecting and organizing content.

The way you do this needs to be truly valuable to your audience.

For example, if you have compiled a list of the most futuristic electric cars in 2022, please indicate what you like about them and what you don’t like about them. Link to the manufacturer’s promotional videos, reviews, crash tests and how to keep up to date with their releases.

Draw inspiration from past work

Once you know the best choice for your audience, you can focus on producing suitable curated content for them.

Use the following platforms to research methods that have worked for others in the past:

• Red Di.net.
• Facebook.
• Growth hacking.
• buzzing.
• Twitter.
• Lazy community.
• Disharmonious communities.
• Hacker news.
• Slash point.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Look at your own niche and go beyond it. Even cross-language-sometimes you can create similar curated content in different languages.

Don’t copy it overtly, but you can get inspiration from content successfully curated by other markets.

Test your curated content

Test different curated content formats (such as articles, visual effects, podcasts, and videos) and apply different content curation strategies.

Measure what content is effective for your audience.

Fail fast, then try different things!

why so serious?

Please note that “valuable content” does not necessarily mean serious content.

take”Try not to laugh at the challenge“For example, FailArmy. It has more than 92 million views, 478,000 thumbs up, 15,000 comments, and 421 links from 191 referring domains.

Do you know what is really interesting? Behind all the laughter, here are some more advanced content planning!

Content curation strategy

Now enter the most interesting part: zoom in on the most successful content management perspective, you can implement it yourself after reading this article.

1. Aggregation: events or articles

Not everyone has time to pay close attention to their Twitter streams, Facebook news feeds, RSS feeds, and newsletters.

Aggregating content in an easily digestible format is a good example of curation.

This form of content management is suitable for any niche market, and I encourage you to be open to all media: blog posts, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, and videos. It usually makes sense to combine these.

Some examples:

• Search for news you can use: Every week, Marie Haynes will seriously report on what is happening in the SEO field.
• Kevin Indigo’s growth memo newsletter: Kevin Indig’s weekly newsletter mentions notable events and case studies from SEO and growth scenarios, and Kevin commented on it.
• There is more than one format for curating content; Search Engine Magazine Podcast, A summary of recent events in the search industry.

2. Synthesis: Simplify lengthy and complex information into a digestible format

Not everyone has the time or energy to dig out long, complex articles.

Some people just want takeaway, and don’t need to read it themselves.

Give them these and you will create value.

example:

• When NerdWallet submits their S-1, many people will find it very boring, Tom Critchlow analyzed its content and Describe interesting takeaways From the perspective of digital marketing.
• As we all know, Bill Slawski read through Google’s patents, which gave him an in-depth understanding of Google’s possible development direction. Do you want to read through? This complex and difficult to read patentOr just read This easy-to-digest version, Where does Slawski include his theory on these patents?
• The author of Lululemon Athletica’s growth study went to great lengths and conducted a lot of research to find out what makes Lululemon so successful. This research not only contains useful insights, but it is also visually pleasing thanks to all the screenshots and photos. It still has a lot of information, but the way it is structured makes it very easy to understand.

3. Planning the survey results

Another good example of content management is to conduct surveys and aggregate their results.

You are taking survey responses and building them into content that is valuable to your audience.

example:

4. Vision: Image

Visually curated content deserves its own part because it attracts your audience in different ways.

It is easy to digest, and very easy to link and share.

example:

5. Statistics: organize large data sets

Organizing large data sets into usable statistics provides tremendous value.

It usually requires a lot of investment, but it also makes it difficult to replicate.

example:

• Glass door: Know what it’s like to work in different companies and the salary people get there.
• Numbeo: Understand the cost of living in other countries and the comparison between them.

6. Expert summary

You may have Expert review forward. Some people are tired of them, but I still find well-executed expert reviews there.

The trick is to really focus them on a topic and not include too many experts.

After all, once you have read the 12 comments on an issue, you may have read enough.

The following are examples of well-executed expert reviews:

15 SEO experts share their tips for newbies.

• Why I like it:
  • This is not a huge list of expert opinions that no one will read. Quality not quantity!
  • The roundup exactly meets your expectations: sharing useful tips for beginners.
  • Each expert’s opinion is accompanied by a photo, name and company name. The expert’s Twitter profile is also linked. This puts the experts in the spotlight and gives them reasons to promote the position together.
• What would make me like it better: Include an expert index at the top of the article.

7. Tools

When it comes to content management, tools are very useful. This is one you may not know yet:

Barry Schwartz Is there a Google update.

• Why i like it:
  • It is very easy to use.
  • It links to useful resources.

8. Refinement: Turn large amounts of information into digestible lists

You may also be familiar with this. A typical format here is “$randomAmount digital marketing tool, you can’t live without it every year“.

These lists are almost as old as the Internet itself, so it is difficult to succeed with list-type selected content. It requires more creativity and effort. But it is definitely possible.

example:

Best tourist attractions in 2021.

• Why I like it:
  • It is very intuitive and easy to read.
  • It clearly explains why every place has it on the list and why you should include it on the travel wish list, and it even includes very specific suggestions to show that the author really understands what he is talking about.

Best Electric Cars in the UK 2021: Our selection of the best electric cars.

• • Why I like it:
    • It is also very intuitive and easy to read. This is really important here. In automotive articles, you obviously want to see high-quality pictures.
    • It is easy to navigate and guides you through the reviews of each vehicle.
    • It includes information about specific subsidies when buying a car, showing the author’s expertise.

Content management tools

The biggest resource for content planning is you. However, there are still some tools that can make this job easier.

RSS feed manager

Tools to track text content

Tools for tracking visual content

Tools to put newsletters together easily and quickly

Tools to find popular content

Promote your curated content now

The planned content also needs to be promoted to reach their audience.

You can collect the best content, but if no one has heard of it, it won’t be seen. Time is money, so if you don’t promote your curated content, you will flush money into the toilet.

Make sure you have a promotional plan to push your content to the world so that they can reach their full potential. If you need some inspiration, please check:

Generalize

Content management is a great way to improve SEO. make sure:

• Create value.
• Know your audience.
• When you are in trouble, get inspiration from things that are useful to others.
• Test your curated content.
• Try different content management strategies.

Remember, while these strategies can help guide your content curation, they are not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Just like creating content, curation is best when you make it meaningful and add value to your audience, even if it looks different from what already exists.

Perform, fail fast, and always try different things.

More content marketing resources:

Featured image: McLittleStock