AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS
Introduction to Content Strategy
Hi! This morning I wanted to talk about content strategy. This is something that has come up repeatedly this, this over the last few weeks really with clients where we're starting to try and unpick their website and what's going wrong and what, what changes they need to make.
And we discover that at the heart of a lot of it is just not having that strategy and the foundations in place for around their content strategy so that everything makes sense, everything fits together and everything. is easier just is to make it simpler and easier. So I just wanted to talk this morning about content strategy and how it can make everything easier in your business really.
Why Content Strategy Matters
So when you're thinking about content strategy and why it's important for your website and for SEO it's really important because It's all about making sure that you are aligning your content with what people are searching for. That's kind of the first part of it, really. It's making sure that your content is organized and fits into some core topics.
So the reason that it's that it's important to sort of think about it before you start doing anything else around SEO is because otherwise we can end up going off down a rabbit hole. We can end up just not being organized, not knowing the things that we need to talk about with and how we can avoid talking about them over and over again, and then confusing everybody, confusing Google in terms of what's the most important piece of content around this subject. And also then our customers it makes it easier for us to then to be able to direct people in the right, right way for where we want them to actually go and what the most important piece of content is around that particular topic.
Defining Core Topics
So having a content strategy essentially will help you to have these, these, content buckets or content pillars.
I like to sort of think of them as core topics. When I've been having conversations with clients about this, because you hear about it, talked about on social media and talked about content buckets and content themes and content pillars, and that can then come sometimes just.
Get really confusing and overwhelming. So I think core topics is quite an easy way to understand it. Okay. So these are the main things that you talk about in your business. These are the, the, the things that it's really important for Google and for people, more importantly, everything's all about people, really important for them to understand.
So these are the things that you talk about all the time, and these are the things that. you would be considered, you know, an expert on as, as much as we, we, um, you know, that term expert is always a little bit like, it's the things that are key categories, the subjects, the main things that you talk about.
And I like to try and encourage my clients to Think of like between three and five core topics that their, their business is all around. And then everything else that you do falls into those core topics. , so it can help you to to break things down within those topics, but keep everything coming back to those.
These are the core things I need to be talking about. And if something that I'm creating and something that I'm doing is not around that, Then I've gone off track and it makes it really so much easier than to plan what you're doing and to keep everything streamlined, keep everything consistent. The more you write about a topic, the more you talk about a topic, the better you get doing that as well.
And you can use it throughout your marketing. So you can use that throughout the year. If you're thinking about. having evergreen content. If you're thinking about your core subjects when you're creating content, then having that content is evergreen can be really helpful. You can keep coming back to those main core articles that you create around those core topics and using it throughout.
And that's one of my big things is just not creating content for the sake of it, not creating content just to feed the algorithm, to create things that do actually work in your business and do help to, to build a more sustainable marketing strategy, really. So we'd start at the top. So with me, with my business, my main thing that I talk about is websites.
So that would kind of be my overarching theme of my business. My overarching topic of my business is websites, but that's not my kind of core. Like my core. Topics are SEO, conversion rate optimization, and content organization.
So it doesn't, and this is all about internal, um, organization, really, when you're thinking about these core topics, that wouldn't necessarily be the language that I would be using to talk about those things. So if I'm thinking of SEO, I'd be talking about more traffic. If I was thinking about CRO, conversion rate optimization, I'd be thinking about more sales.
If I was thinking about content organization, I'd be thinking about easier content organization. So this is when you're mapping it out, thinking about what your understanding of those core topics are, even if that's not necessarily the language you'd be using within that content you're creating around that.
Organizing Content with Subtopics
So then within that, you would then have subtopics. So you've got your three to five main core topics, and then within each of those, you've got your subtopics. And the subtopics are like, that is more like your themes, really. So you that you might call that content themes, you might call it content clusters.
So within that main topic is where you break it down into more specific things for each one. So for me, if I was thinking about SEO, it might be SEO for websites, it might be SEO for podcasts, it might be the Specific things within SEO that I could talk about that if there's if there's sort of subtopics that I can break that down into for conversion rate optimization that might be Conversion rate optimization for sales pages.
It might be cro for checkout pages. It might be user experience But then user experience could also come into the content organization as well. That could be a massive part of that, but I would be approaching it slightly differently from the being within the conversion rate optimization and within the content optimization sort of buckets and all core things, really.
So the great thing with this is that that can then allow you to create links between your content. Your topic. So within that, once you've got your subtopics, then you've got the actual content you create. So within each subtopic, you would then be creating pieces of content around those particular topics.
Themes and sub themes and you can then link those things together So it immediately then makes it easier for you to organize your content because you know This piece of content is related to all of the other pieces of content within this this this area within this core thing Or this subtopic so It allows you to then create different stuff within those, you know, the actual content you're creating.
It just allows you to link it together, which is really important for SEO. It's really important to to help Google understand why you're an authority on this topic. And that's one of the big things with, with actually creating content around the thing that you, your expertise and your knowledge is around.
Then Google can understand that Google can understand that if you're creating something new around that, that you you do know what you're talking about, because you've already created lots of content around that already. So if you're, say, for example, if you were, say, for example, if you were, I always bring it back to dogs, but if you were talking about dogs all the time, your website's all about dogs, and then you started talking about cats, Google is going to, yes, they will understand that there is a relationship between those two things, being pets and animals or whatever.
But you would need to build up some more authority around, , Cats to, to get an article to rank on that, whereas actually if you just create another article around dogs because you've already got this content out there, you've already shown that you know what you're talking about, then you're more likely to get those new articles ranking sooner, basically.
So, thinking about how you can, , Start getting this in place and start thinking about what, what are my core topics? How can I get this organized? I always like to lay it out visually. So I really love, I use it, love using Canva whiteboards actually for this kind of stuff, just where you can create some boxes.
You can move it around. You could even like do a post it party where you literally write down your brainstorm. everything that you could talk about in your business. And even just spending a couple of hours doing this and thinking about, okay, what are the things that people, people need to know about what I talk about?
What, what are the key topics that I need to be talking about? And get that all laid out and then look and see, are there any that naturally grouped together? And if there are, Can you see that there then? Can you see those core topics that you need to be talking about? How can you streamline it down? How are things related?
How could this become your sort of content, your core topics, your content pillars? And when you're thinking about that, try and think about how you can explain it simply. So if somebody else was from the outside looking in about all these topics, are there ways that you can then explain that in really simple language?
So once you've established your kind of internal compartmentalizing, you know, putting, putting those into your core topics yourself. Other things that immediately you could, Oh, my customers always use this kind of language and add that in, add that too. This is my core topic of SEO, but my customers talk about wanting more traffic to their website or more sales or, you know, those kind of things really.
And this will then help you if you start trying to do some, keyword research, these would then those core topics would become your seed keywords. And essentially, even within the subtopics as well, that would also could then be your seed keywords, because that is all just going to spark off different ideas and different ways to connect that with what people are actually searching for.
Really, I would definitely suggest doing it first from your own brain. So get Get everything out of your own brain first, and then you could use AI to help you with this as well. So if you've then determined what your core topic is, you could then use AI, do a prompt of you know, tell me what, , content pillars could be around this, or tell me what content themes could be around this, this, this core topic, or tell me what subtopics are related to this.
And it can just help you to come up with other ideas as well, and just sort of get the brain going. And again, still, I would say, use that. And still then add that to your post it note party. So get it out of the AI, because that's the trouble. You end up, end up in long conversation threads on AI, that then you just end up missing the ideas in there as well.
So if you, if it gives you 10 ideas for core topics, write those down on your post its and work out where they, they go in your, in your post it party as well, really. That's why I like doing it on Canva, because then you can, you can move things around easier and you, you've then already got those that, you've already got it typed out So. When you're thinking about this, so when you hear about content buckets talked about around social media, it's different to that. So these aren't the, these aren't the things like inspirational quotes, top tips, testimonials, and sometimes you hear content buckets described around that.
So actually, if those are more like the content types or the content structure, and within your topics that you're talking about, you would then have those content types that you could create within that. So that again, makes it easier to come up with ideas, because we could, you could even start with, okay, have I got for each of my core topics?
Have I got an inspirational quote or have I got A a testimonial that brings back to that core topic and talks about how I've helped them with that core topic. Do I have a behind the scenes thing that I can show around that core topic? And so that's where it helps you in terms of actually determining what content you are creating.
Creating Cornerstone Content
And when you've got your core topics, one of the big things to do, and even within the subtopics as well, is to create something called cornerstone content. So this is where you create one piece of content that's, that's usually long. So it's either a long blog post, it could be, even your sales pages could essentially be cornerstone content.
If you're talking about things in the right way, then it's basically, that's like your core area that you can send people to. And probably these, these articles aren't going to be the ones that are going to rank on Google because they will be for competitive keywords. So yeah. But what it essentially will do is build up your authority so that when you then do find those keywords Which are more long tail and you know those those easier keywords to rank to You can create smaller articles around that that link back to this main article that lets Google and lets everybody Know that you're the authority on this topic and then that gradually builds your authority on your domain as well So all of these things if you've talked about this that core topic and then you've explored it in five or ten different different ways, then that can, that can help massively help really.
And you're, if you're creating content anyway, having this kind of plan, just how it all fits together, just makes it so much easier. It really does. And so within those cornerstone content pieces, you would have all of your other articles linking into that.
It would always be that cornerstone piece of content would have the most amount of links coming in and the most amount of links going out as well. So think of this, if you were thinking about towns on a map, these would be the cities and then the smaller towns around it would have less links in and out of them really.
So. It's the big thing with this is if it can sometimes feel a little bit like, okay, this is a big job to do this, to sort this out. And you and it's not something that you're going to get clear on straight away. I think it's one of those things that this will evolve. Hopefully, if you are clear on the problems you solve and how you help your clients, then it will evolve.
This should seem easier. And if you've already created content, the other thing you could do is actually put that into chat GPT. So if you've got a, if you've got a database or a spreadsheet with all of your content in, then you could put that into chat GPT and ask whether it can suggest your core topics that, that you should be sort of focusing on.
But I think you've got to go with what feels good for you. And sometimes just talking that out with somebody and getting some ideas around that can be really helpful. But.
Building a Sustainable Content Plan
What this is then going to help you do on a long term basis, it's going to help you to make all of your content creation easier.
It's going to help you to, to make sure that every piece of content you're creating brings back to your own website and brings back to your own domain, which, which is then helping to grow. It's helping, it's a more sustainable way of marketing your business, really. So you can make sure as well that your content is not competing with itself.
Keep it easier to organize so that when people come to your website and they, Use it. If you've got, you know, 15 categories of blogs, then it makes it harder for people to find your content and to know what things are related. It helps you with that internal linking, as I said, just explain how important that is really with the internal linking and helps you to group your website pages together.
It is essentially feels like a very complicated process. It doesn't have to be, but what it will essentially help you do is keep it all simple in the long run. It is. It helps you to become that authority on those topics and helps you stay in the lane. I think as well, it helps you avoid that shiny object syndrome of, Oh, maybe I could talk about this.
Maybe I could talk about that. If you know what your core topics are, then you know, actually know that is deviating from, from this. You know, I can't fit that into any of those core topic buckets. And if it, it might be personal content that you're, you know, you're releasing something around a personal story.
But even with that. Ideally, if we're talking about the personal stuff on our business pages to market our business, then bringing that back to those core things that you talk about is really important. So it's essentially just making the most of your time, making the most of all of that amazing content that you create and just, and just building your business in a more sustainable marketing way, really.
Simplifying Website Structure
So the, a good thing to do once you've, once you've laid that all out, and once you've got your core topics in place is then start building a map of that. So you can start thinking about your pages on your website and your blog posts and those kinds of things. And I like to build a visual map of that as well so that you can understand how your content links together.
One of the things with a with website structure, when I'm looking at website structure and simplifying that is making sure that everything isn't buried within itself as well. And that's where these core topics can help. So you're, you can make sure that your blog pages don't have loads and loads of categories or that the articles are three or four or five categories deep before Google can even scan those.
That's really important. So keeping everything simple. So within your blogs, you've got these other three content areas, the main areas you talk about, and then that all falls within that and just keeps going. It's just keeping it all really streamlined, gives a good user experience as well, and just makes sure that, you know, that everything is easier in the long run, really.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
So, uh, I hope that's helpful. It's one of those things that feels like a big topic and quite often when when clients and I talk about this it feels like okay this does feel like it's a you know a big thing to do but actually once you get it done it makes everything so much easier. So I am going to brave the rain now and go and join the networking and I will see you soon.
I hope this is helpful. Let me know in the comments if You know what your content pillars are. If you know your core topics already, let me know. I'd love to know what they are for your business. See you later. Bye.
