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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Curating Consistent Content for SEO with Danielle Tate

by | May 12, 2017 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Curating Consistent Content for SEO with Danielle Tate

As online content creators, there’s no denying that SEO is essential. It’s not enough to just write amazing content for your blog, but you have to optimize it as well if you want search engines (and potential readers) to discover it. To help you step up your skills and create content for SEO, you’ll want to dive into the recap of our latest #ContentWritingChat where we talked all about it!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Curating Consistent Content for SEO

Our guest host for this week’s chat was Danielle Tate of Elegant Entrepreneur. Danielle is a CEO, best-selling author, and a speaker.

Q1: When it comes to publishing content consistently, where do you find inspiration to write?

There’s no denying that sometimes it can be hard to come up with fresh ideas for your content. In order to keep those creative juices flowing, you need to seek a little inspiration. We asked our chat participants where they find inspiration for their writing and here’s what some of them had to say:

For Danielle, she likes to look for news hooks that correlate to the topics she wants to write about. She also turns to customer questions, as they can make great blog content. This is a good reason to pay close attention to feedback your audience gives you and make note of any commonly asked questions.

It looks like Danielle isn’t the only one turning to customers to find content ideas. The team over at Netvantage Marketing uses this strategy as well.

Kristi does the same. She finds out what questions customers are asking and what they’re talking about. This will lead you in the right direction when it comes to potential topic ideas.

Brittany knows it’s a great idea to look at the trends in her industry. This gives you an idea of what’s hot at the moment and provides you with an opportunity to write about it. She suggests looking at trends and listening for challenges others are facing and then having a good brainstorming session.

For Tony, he enjoys reading different articles for inspiration. There’s always something new to read, whether it’s something within your industry or not. You can always draw inspiration from what others are saying.

Cheval gets inspiration from Twitter chats. Chats are very informative and they provide you with the opportunity to connect with others and hear their questions. It can be a great place to find your next blog post idea.

Jeremy finds writing inspiration from a variety of sources. He gets ideas from things he hears others talking about, what he sees in nature while he’s out on a run, and from great photos and videos.

Q2: What advice do you have for writers maintaining a blog long-term?

One thing that many on the outside looking in don’t realize is that blogging is actually hard work. You take on many roles as a blogger and it can sometimes feel overwhelming. So, how do you manage all of those tasks for the long haul? Check out this advice:

Danielle says you shouldn’t be afraid to wide your scope of topic when it comes to the content you cover. If your audience would be interested and it’s still relevant overall, there’s no reason you can’t experiment with something new.

No matter what you choose to write about, it should be something that you genuinely enjoy. If you aren’t passionate about your chosen topic, writing will quickly become a chore.

Make sure you’re running tests to see what’s working for you and what’s not. This allows you to see what you should do more of and what needs to change.

As Jeff said, you need to keep it consistent. If you’re going to start blogging, you need to develop a schedule and stick to it.

To make sure you’re staying consistent, develop a content strategy and keep an editorial calendar. This will keep you on track when it comes to publishing.

Brittany agrees that a plan and an editorial calendar are two essential elements of your blogging success.

Varun says there should be consistency in the quality of the content you produce, you should allow formats to evolve, and you need to keep an eye on trends in your niche. He also suggests focusing on community building. This will help you build a relationship with your audience.

Gabriela’s advice is to define your blog’s purpose and align it with your passions. Having that passion for what you’re doing will ensure you’re consistent and committed to your blog.

Q3: Do you have a specific formula for creating posts on your blog?

Writing a blog post requires quite a bit of work, as there are many stages of content creation. Developing a formula to follow will help make the process easier. Check out the formulas our chat participants follow:

For Danielle, she follows this formula: catchy title, captivating image, five paragraphs with two links, a GIF, and a call to action.

Simple, but effective! For Sarah, she comes up with an idea, jots down notes or an outline, then performs any necessary research. Once that’s done, she begins to write, proofread, and ultimately publish her content.

Don’t be afraid to write that ugly first draft! Brittany follows Ann Handley’s method by getting a first draft out, letting it rest for a while, then coming back to rewrite and optimize.

An outline can pave the way to a fantastic piece of content.

Great advice from Gabriela! She suggests creating based on a balance of what is proven to be of interest versus what she feels should be addressed.

Tony likes to be ahead of schedule when it comes to content creation. He has an editorial calendar that allows him to plan and then create content in advance.

For Leah, she likes to keep seasonality in mind. This ensures you’re timely with the content you share and you can be sure it’ll appeal to your audience in that moment. Figure out what people are searching online and add those topics to your editorial calendar.

The number one formula we should all remember? Provide value to your readers.

Q4: What does SEO mean to you as a content writer?

To switch gears into the SEO focus of this week’s chat, we asked our participants to share what it means to them as content writers. Here’s what they had to say about SEO:

For Danielle, SEO mentions intentionally weaving keywords her audience is searching for into her content. She knows this is essential if she wants the right people to discover the content she creates.

There’s no denying that SEO is important, but it’s equally as important to give your audience what they want to read.

Creating content for SEO means you need to write in a way that appeals to your human readers and search engines like Google.

Lex says SEO clarifies who the audience is, what they need, and how to talk to them.

This is a great answer from Jeff!

For Sara, SEO gives her focus as a creator.

Great way to look at it! SEO is something you have to deal with in order to let your content shine.

Q5: How do you determine the keywords you use within your posts?

When creating content for SEO, you need to determine the right keywords to use for the content you create. How do you go about that? Here are some helpful tips:

Danielle starts by analyzing which keywords are performing the best and then framing her titles and topics to include them.

Create a list of potential keywords you can analyze, but make sure you go with something that your ideal audience will actually be searching for. Think about how they talk and how they would word their searches.

Choose a topic, then research keywords people are searching for that relate back to your topic. Once you have that ideal keyword, use it naturally throughout your copy.

Elizabeth starts by choosing a topic, conducting keyword research, and then writing while naturally sprinkling in her keyword. She says to pick keywords that have high volume so you know people are searching for what you’re writing about.

Jeremy’s go-to strategy includes using Google Analytics, watching trending words and topics on platforms, and ultimately creating cross-platform appeal with his content.

Great answer from Jeff that we should all keep in mind when creating content for SEO.

Q6: What are your favorite lesser-known SEO tips you can share?

By now, we all know the basics of SEO. However, there’s always something else we can learn, so we asked everyone to share their favorite SEO tips that most people don’t seem to know about. Here’s what they had to say:

Danielle says to include links to previous posts you wrote on a topic. This will boost your keyword relevance and ranking. This technique is called siloing. If you aren’t already doing this, it’s time to get started. You can go through the blog posts in your archives and begin interlinking related posts right now.

Utilize the strategy of link building. You can guest post on other websites and include links back to posts you’ve written and published on your own blog. This helps to build quality backlinks to your blog and sends more traffic your way.

Don’t forget to add alt tags to the images in your blog posts. This tells search engines what your images are of and it’ll help them show up in search results.

That’s a winning formula right there!

Q7: How does SEO impact your content marketing strategy overall?

Wondering what role SEO plays in a content marketing strategy? Check out these responses straight from Tuesday’s chat:

For Danielle, SEO is the framework that decides what topics, articles, and social media posts are prioritized in a content schedule.

As Ray said, SEO and content marketing combined provides you with feedback for where to steer your content ship.

Sarah says it requires her to focus on the larger picture. There’s no reason to post for the sake of posting. Everything should serve a purpose and be strategic.

As Louise mentioned, content is useless without a measurable goal. You need to know what you want to accomplish and track the results you receive.

Zala said it helps you understand the focus for your content. It also shows you how to make it valuable, relevant, serachable, and useful.

Plan ahead and be aware of trends and changes in SEO algorithms. You need to be on top of those changes to ensure you’re doing the right things when it comes to creating content for SEO.

Q8: What are your favorite tools and resources for SEO? Tag them!

The great thing is, there are plenty of tools and resources that will help you create content for SEO these days. Here are just some suggestions that will help you out:

Danielle’s go-to tools include SEMrush, Market Samurai, and Meet Edgar.

Jeff relies on the following: Moz, Google Analytics, our #ContentWritingChat, and Content Marketing Institute. All great sources of information!

Leah relies on Pinterest and Yoast.

BuzzSumo is definitely a fantastic tool for creating content for SEO.

Lex uses Google and Moz for research, Yoast for the technical side of things, and Trello for organizing her content.

This is great list! You’ll want to check these out if you haven’t already.

Join us every Tuesday at 10 AM CST for #ContentWritingChat! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat to stay updated on topics and guests.

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Tags: content for SEO | SEO | seo and content