Here\u2019s how you can ensure that your content marketing strategy is SEO-oriented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>1. Analyze your current SEO performance<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nStart by analyzing your content marketing\u2019s SEO performance, and to do that, you need to carry out an SEO analysis<\/a> of your entire content operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn SEO analysis will show you how your current content performance in Google, what you are doing, and what you need to improve to boost your rankings. The analysis involves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Checking where you currently rank in search engines<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Checking your current crawling and indexing performance (i.e., what pages Google can crawl and index, and whether it\u2019s ignoring key pages that you want to rank for)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Auditing your site for technical and SEO errors<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Finding the backlinks your content has received and their authority<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Comparing how your content performs against its competitors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
You can categorize each of the points mentioned above into two groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- On-site SEO analysis<\/strong>, which focuses on the way you optimize your pages to provide evidence to Google about the nature of your content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Off-site SEO analysis<\/strong>, which covers the backlinks your pages have acquired, their authority, and their nature (i.e., whether they come from natural linking, guest posts, partnerships, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
To take your content marketing analysis even further, you can carry out a SWOT analysis that measures what you are doing right, what you could do to increase your rankings, and what could hinder your future results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/seo-content-marketing-swot-1024x507.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n(Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>2. Organize your keywords strategically<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nTo carry out a successful SEO strategy, you need to implement keyword research\u2014that is, the process of discovering the queries Google\u2019s users use to search in the search engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can put a keyword research process in place with the help of a keyword research tool such as WebCEO<\/a>, which measures the number of monthly searches, CPC, and trends for each keyword in its database.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou can start your keyword research<\/a> by adding your website to WebCEO and exporting all the keywords that your website is currently ranking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/content-marketing-seo-keyword-rank-1024x490.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThen, make a list of your top competitors and export the list of keywords they rank for. With all this data, you want to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Create categories for your keywords by topic\u2014e.g., all keywords about \u201ctennis shoes\u201d should go within one category, while the ones about \u201cbasketball shoes\u201d go in another one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Create a backlog of keywords to target those that your competitors are ranking for and your website isn\u2019t\u2014in the future, you want to create content to target these keywords.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Organize them by volume and CPC\u2014you can create separate tabs for keywords with high volume and low CPC, and vice-versa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
A common mistake you want to avoid making is obsessing about volume exclusively. Intent is as important as volume because you should prioritize conversions (and growing your revenue) over driving traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All keywords can be categorized in three ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Commercial keywords<\/strong>: These keywords have a direct connection with buying\u2014e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Informational keywords<\/strong>: These are keywords where the user wants to find information about a topic\u2014e.g., \u201cwhat are tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Navigational keywords<\/strong>: These are keywords connected to specific brands, locations, and products\u2014e.g., \u201cnike tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
You can create separate tabs for each category or add a column in your keyword plan. In either case, your job is to uncover their hidden intent, which you can do by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Analyzing their nature<\/strong>: Keywords with words like \u201cbuy\u201d or \u201ccoupon\u201d are commercial in nature; keywords that include words like \u201chow to\u201d or \u201ctutorial\u201d are informational; keywords with specific brands, locations, or products are navigational.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Check their CPC<\/strong>: Keywords with high CPC are often commercial in nature, as they convert better, while keywords with low CPC are informational or navigational.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
After you have developed your keyword plan, you can start optimizing your pages according to their nature\u2014i.e., adding commercial keywords to commercial pages, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>3. Optimizing your content for SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAfter you have done your entire analysis and keyword research plan, you need to optimize your content both for SEO and quality.<\/a> This last word is crucial, as marketers often end up over-optimizing their content, which alienates their readers, and this disgusts Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to Google\u2019s Webmaster Guidelines<\/a>, quality content is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Unique, valuable, or engaging<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Made for people, not search engine\u2019s bots<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Honest; it doesn\u2019t deceive its readers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Within Google\u2019s guidelines\u2014i.e., it doesn\u2019t use tricks to manipulate search engine rankings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When you optimize your content for SEO, you want to make sure your content respects these guidelines. Think of your on-site optimization as the act of naturally adding keywords around your page, so Google understands what it\u2019s about while still serving your reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing with SEO<\/a> in mind is important, but only if the quality is there. If you feel that the content you produce isn\u2019t clear, valuable, or honest, you need to rethink your content strategy altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAssuming this isn\u2019t the case, you can start carrying out your on-site optimization. Since this process is relatively simple and mechanical, you want to use a checklist<\/a> that guides your marketers into optimizing the pages the right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt the minimum, your checklist should indicate the optimization of the following elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Page Title<\/strong>: These are the titles that show up on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Add your keyword in your title pages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Density<\/strong>: This is the number of times a keyword shows up in your content divided by the total amount of words on the page. A good rule of thumb is showing your keyword once every 100 words; more is too much, less can be accepted, especially if you use variations of it (e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes,\u201d \u201cbuy great tennis shoes\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Images Alt-Tags<\/strong>: This is a tag you use within your HTML to indicate Google the nature of your images. Add your keyword<\/a> and their variations in your images\u2019 alt-tag.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- URLs and Internal Links<\/strong>: Add your keywords in your URLs and internal links. If a page is already published, you can create a new page with the keyword in its URL and redirect the old \u201cincorrect\u201d one to the new \u201ccorrect\u201d one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Some tools can help you with your on-site optimization, like TextOptimizer<\/a>, which optimizes your content by adding or removing content from your text to improve your search engine optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>4. Develop a content marketing process<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nContent marketing is a complex process that involves several teams, stakeholders, and tasks. Your SEO optimization shouldn\u2019t be an ad-hoc task you do every few months; it should be part of an on-going process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The implementation of content marketing requires consistency. You want to balance your content creation and promotion with your SEO plan. For that reason, you need to have a content development process in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A content development process explains the steps your team takes to research ideas, prioritize, create, and promote them. It outlines the system your team uses to carry out your content marketing efforts. The one you see below represents the process I use to create content on my site; similarly, your process will show the different steps you take to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/seo-content-marketing-content-development.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nConsider developing a content calendar where you add the keywords you will target in the future with your content, who\u2019s responsible for it, and the goals you set up. Add your keywords before the writer starts writing content<\/a>; by the time they get to work on their content piece, they will have embedded your SEO in it naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour content development process will vary greatly depending on your goals, resources, and priorities. To give you an example, your process could look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Define a list of keywords to target for the next quarter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Assign content topics to each keyword\u2014alternatively, ask your writers to pitch you topics for each one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pick a keyword and assign it to the writer. Add a brief that explains what it should be about and the way the piece should be optimized.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Set a deadline and ask the writer to start the article.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Edit the content for quality and SEO\u2014use the checklist from above.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Publish the content and implement your marketing plan, which can include link building and outreach.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>5. Leverage the power of guest posting<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSEO is straightforward: to attract organic traffic from Google<\/a>, you need to rank your pages. And from the hundreds of ranking factors Google uses to do so, backlinks continue to be one of the most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are countless link building tactics<\/a>, but one that continues to work is guest posting\u2014the act of publishing content on third-party sites and getting links from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo start your guest posting, take the list of the keywords you came up with previously, and analyze each one in your SEO tool of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nico Prins explains in his thorough guide on guest posting<\/a> that you can review the backlink profiles of each keyword using Ahrefs and focus on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- The number of referring domains each page in the top result has<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The number of the referring domains that have a DR 50+ (DR is a metric Ahrefs uses to measure the authority of a domain)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
According to Nico Prins, you want to pitch to sites that meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- It has DR 50+<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It has 3,000+ organic visitors a month<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It has a Trust Flow over 20 (use Majestic SEO TK to measure this)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It\u2019s niche-relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Alternatively, you can use any of the following footprints to find opportunities in your niche:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cbecome a contributor\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201ccontribute\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cguest post by\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cguest post guidelines\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201csubmission guidelines\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis guest post is from\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis guest post was written\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis is a guest article\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis is a guest post by\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cwrite for us\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + inurl:guest-posts<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + inurl:write-for-us<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Add your chosen keyword where it says \u201ckeyword\u201d (including the quotes) and make a list of all the sites you find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, find the editors responsible for managing the content. You can search within each site or use LinkedIn. Before sending a pitch, find their emails with the help of a tool like Hunter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your pitch should be simple yet clear; send some ideas that you think their audience will like while showing respect to the editor. Here\u2019s a framework Nico Prins recommends using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/seo-content-marketing-outreach-1024x613.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen you start writing your guest post, do it as if you were writing for your own site. High-domain authority sites tend to ask for high-quality content<\/a>, thus to guarantee your content will be published, put quality above links.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne final tip is to use a URL shortener to track your results. With this data, you can analyze the number of visitors you drove from each site. If one site drives lots of referral visitors, you can post more than once and get not only links, but traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Summary<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nContent marketing will continue to be one of the prime ways companies grow their online presence. When you are designing your content marketing strategy, make sure to optimize it for SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An SEO analysis will show you how your current content performance in Google, what you are doing, and what you need to improve to boost your rankings. The analysis involves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Checking where you currently rank in search engines<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Checking your current crawling and indexing performance (i.e., what pages Google can crawl and index, and whether it\u2019s ignoring key pages that you want to rank for)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Auditing your site for technical and SEO errors<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Finding the backlinks your content has received and their authority<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Comparing how your content performs against its competitors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
You can categorize each of the points mentioned above into two groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- On-site SEO analysis<\/strong>, which focuses on the way you optimize your pages to provide evidence to Google about the nature of your content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Off-site SEO analysis<\/strong>, which covers the backlinks your pages have acquired, their authority, and their nature (i.e., whether they come from natural linking, guest posts, partnerships, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
To take your content marketing analysis even further, you can carry out a SWOT analysis that measures what you are doing right, what you could do to increase your rankings, and what could hinder your future results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n(Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>2. Organize your keywords strategically<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To carry out a successful SEO strategy, you need to implement keyword research\u2014that is, the process of discovering the queries Google\u2019s users use to search in the search engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can put a keyword research process in place with the help of a keyword research tool such as WebCEO<\/a>, which measures the number of monthly searches, CPC, and trends for each keyword in its database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can start your keyword research<\/a> by adding your website to WebCEO and exporting all the keywords that your website is currently ranking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThen, make a list of your top competitors and export the list of keywords they rank for. With all this data, you want to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Create categories for your keywords by topic\u2014e.g., all keywords about \u201ctennis shoes\u201d should go within one category, while the ones about \u201cbasketball shoes\u201d go in another one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Create a backlog of keywords to target those that your competitors are ranking for and your website isn\u2019t\u2014in the future, you want to create content to target these keywords.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Organize them by volume and CPC\u2014you can create separate tabs for keywords with high volume and low CPC, and vice-versa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
A common mistake you want to avoid making is obsessing about volume exclusively. Intent is as important as volume because you should prioritize conversions (and growing your revenue) over driving traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All keywords can be categorized in three ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Commercial keywords<\/strong>: These keywords have a direct connection with buying\u2014e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Informational keywords<\/strong>: These are keywords where the user wants to find information about a topic\u2014e.g., \u201cwhat are tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Navigational keywords<\/strong>: These are keywords connected to specific brands, locations, and products\u2014e.g., \u201cnike tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
You can create separate tabs for each category or add a column in your keyword plan. In either case, your job is to uncover their hidden intent, which you can do by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Analyzing their nature<\/strong>: Keywords with words like \u201cbuy\u201d or \u201ccoupon\u201d are commercial in nature; keywords that include words like \u201chow to\u201d or \u201ctutorial\u201d are informational; keywords with specific brands, locations, or products are navigational.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Check their CPC<\/strong>: Keywords with high CPC are often commercial in nature, as they convert better, while keywords with low CPC are informational or navigational.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
After you have developed your keyword plan, you can start optimizing your pages according to their nature\u2014i.e., adding commercial keywords to commercial pages, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>3. Optimizing your content for SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After you have done your entire analysis and keyword research plan, you need to optimize your content both for SEO and quality.<\/a> This last word is crucial, as marketers often end up over-optimizing their content, which alienates their readers, and this disgusts Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Google\u2019s Webmaster Guidelines<\/a>, quality content is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Unique, valuable, or engaging<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Made for people, not search engine\u2019s bots<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Honest; it doesn\u2019t deceive its readers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Within Google\u2019s guidelines\u2014i.e., it doesn\u2019t use tricks to manipulate search engine rankings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When you optimize your content for SEO, you want to make sure your content respects these guidelines. Think of your on-site optimization as the act of naturally adding keywords around your page, so Google understands what it\u2019s about while still serving your reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing with SEO<\/a> in mind is important, but only if the quality is there. If you feel that the content you produce isn\u2019t clear, valuable, or honest, you need to rethink your content strategy altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assuming this isn\u2019t the case, you can start carrying out your on-site optimization. Since this process is relatively simple and mechanical, you want to use a checklist<\/a> that guides your marketers into optimizing the pages the right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the minimum, your checklist should indicate the optimization of the following elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Page Title<\/strong>: These are the titles that show up on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Add your keyword in your title pages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Density<\/strong>: This is the number of times a keyword shows up in your content divided by the total amount of words on the page. A good rule of thumb is showing your keyword once every 100 words; more is too much, less can be accepted, especially if you use variations of it (e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes,\u201d \u201cbuy great tennis shoes\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Images Alt-Tags<\/strong>: This is a tag you use within your HTML to indicate Google the nature of your images. Add your keyword<\/a> and their variations in your images\u2019 alt-tag.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- URLs and Internal Links<\/strong>: Add your keywords in your URLs and internal links. If a page is already published, you can create a new page with the keyword in its URL and redirect the old \u201cincorrect\u201d one to the new \u201ccorrect\u201d one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Some tools can help you with your on-site optimization, like TextOptimizer<\/a>, which optimizes your content by adding or removing content from your text to improve your search engine optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>4. Develop a content marketing process<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Content marketing is a complex process that involves several teams, stakeholders, and tasks. Your SEO optimization shouldn\u2019t be an ad-hoc task you do every few months; it should be part of an on-going process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The implementation of content marketing requires consistency. You want to balance your content creation and promotion with your SEO plan. For that reason, you need to have a content development process in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A content development process explains the steps your team takes to research ideas, prioritize, create, and promote them. It outlines the system your team uses to carry out your content marketing efforts. The one you see below represents the process I use to create content on my site; similarly, your process will show the different steps you take to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nConsider developing a content calendar where you add the keywords you will target in the future with your content, who\u2019s responsible for it, and the goals you set up. Add your keywords before the writer starts writing content<\/a>; by the time they get to work on their content piece, they will have embedded your SEO in it naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your content development process will vary greatly depending on your goals, resources, and priorities. To give you an example, your process could look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Define a list of keywords to target for the next quarter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Assign content topics to each keyword\u2014alternatively, ask your writers to pitch you topics for each one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pick a keyword and assign it to the writer. Add a brief that explains what it should be about and the way the piece should be optimized.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Set a deadline and ask the writer to start the article.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Edit the content for quality and SEO\u2014use the checklist from above.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Publish the content and implement your marketing plan, which can include link building and outreach.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>5. Leverage the power of guest posting<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
SEO is straightforward: to attract organic traffic from Google<\/a>, you need to rank your pages. And from the hundreds of ranking factors Google uses to do so, backlinks continue to be one of the most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are countless link building tactics<\/a>, but one that continues to work is guest posting\u2014the act of publishing content on third-party sites and getting links from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To start your guest posting, take the list of the keywords you came up with previously, and analyze each one in your SEO tool of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nico Prins explains in his thorough guide on guest posting<\/a> that you can review the backlink profiles of each keyword using Ahrefs and focus on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The number of referring domains each page in the top result has<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The number of the referring domains that have a DR 50+ (DR is a metric Ahrefs uses to measure the authority of a domain)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
According to Nico Prins, you want to pitch to sites that meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- It has DR 50+<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It has 3,000+ organic visitors a month<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It has a Trust Flow over 20 (use Majestic SEO TK to measure this)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It\u2019s niche-relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Alternatively, you can use any of the following footprints to find opportunities in your niche:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cbecome a contributor\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201ccontribute\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cguest post by\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cguest post guidelines\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201csubmission guidelines\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis guest post is from\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis guest post was written\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis is a guest article\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cthis is a guest post by\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + \u201cwrite for us\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + inurl:guest-posts<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u201ckeyword\u201d + inurl:write-for-us<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Add your chosen keyword where it says \u201ckeyword\u201d (including the quotes) and make a list of all the sites you find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, find the editors responsible for managing the content. You can search within each site or use LinkedIn. Before sending a pitch, find their emails with the help of a tool like Hunter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your pitch should be simple yet clear; send some ideas that you think their audience will like while showing respect to the editor. Here\u2019s a framework Nico Prins recommends using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen you start writing your guest post, do it as if you were writing for your own site. High-domain authority sites tend to ask for high-quality content<\/a>, thus to guarantee your content will be published, put quality above links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One final tip is to use a URL shortener to track your results. With this data, you can analyze the number of visitors you drove from each site. If one site drives lots of referral visitors, you can post more than once and get not only links, but traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Summary<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Content marketing will continue to be one of the prime ways companies grow their online presence. When you are designing your content marketing strategy, make sure to optimize it for SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Density<\/strong>: This is the number of times a keyword shows up in your content divided by the total amount of words on the page. A good rule of thumb is showing your keyword once every 100 words; more is too much, less can be accepted, especially if you use variations of it (e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes,\u201d \u201cbuy great tennis shoes\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Page Title<\/strong>: These are the titles that show up on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Add your keyword in your title pages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Check their CPC<\/strong>: Keywords with high CPC are often commercial in nature, as they convert better, while keywords with low CPC are informational or navigational.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Informational keywords<\/strong>: These are keywords where the user wants to find information about a topic\u2014e.g., \u201cwhat are tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Commercial keywords<\/strong>: These keywords have a direct connection with buying\u2014e.g., \u201cbuy tennis shoes.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Off-site SEO analysis<\/strong>, which covers the backlinks your pages have acquired, their authority, and their nature (i.e., whether they come from natural linking, guest posts, partnerships, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/content-marketing-seo-friendly-cta-2-1024x273.png\")
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