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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Making Content Marketing & SEO Work for Your Brand with Gini Dietrich

by | Jun 30, 2017 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Making Content Marketing & SEO Work for Your Brand with Gini Dietrich

By now, you probably know how important content marketing and SEO are for your online brand. But do you really know how to implement them? In this #ContentWritingChat, we discussed this topic and received some really great advice from our chat participants. Keep reading to learn more!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Making Content Marketing & SEO Work for Your Brand with Gini Dietrich


Our guest host this week was Gini Dietrich. Gini is the CEO of Arment Dietrich. She’s also an author and a speaker. In this week’s chat, she shared some valuable tips you’ll want to use for your own brand.

Q1: Content marketers today have to know SEO. Do you have a process you recommend to combine both?

To kick off the chat, we asked everyone to share their tips for combining both content marketing and SEO. Here are some of the responses we received:


Gini’s process includes the following: defining keywords where you can compete, creating headlines, developing an editorial calendar, publishing content, earning high-value links, and tracking results.


Julia says it all starts with knowing your keywords. She loves to use SEMrush for this. Then, she writes an optimized headline and begins creating her content.


For Emma, her process starts by identifying keywords with Google’s Keyword Planner and other research. She knows it’s important to figure out what your audience is looking for.


Mallie recommends using Yoast, which is a powerful WordPress plugin. It’ll give you an understanding of the basics of SEO.


Make sure you always write with your audience in mind. You need to create content that will appeal to your human readers.


As Sarah said, your end goal is always to get the right content in front of the right people.


Kristin agrees that you need a strategy in order to get your content in front of the right people.

Q2: So, are you saying we need to create content for robots first?

The big question here is… Who do we focus on when creating content? Do we focus on the human reader or the robots running the search engines? Here’s what our chat participants had to say:


Gini doesn’t feel robots should be your primary focus. Instead, she recommends keeping a list of questions your customers and prospective customers ask. You can then do keyword research and create content based on those commonly asked questions so you can better address your audience’s needs.


Andrea is right. Google is getting a lot smarter and they do pick up on it when you create great content for your human audience.


Gaby’s advice is to focus on providing quality, valuable content for your audience first and foremost.


Kristin focuses on writing for her audience and makes SEO tweaks afterwards.


In the end, your audience is who really cares about the content you create. Always keep them in mind.

Q3: The Google Keyword Planner only gives ranges for non-advertisers. How can we get more specifics?

Our chat participants had some great advice for getting more specific information when it comes to keyword research. Here’s what they had to say:


Gini likes using the Moz keyword planner, which is a favorite for many content creators.


Sarah suggests looking towards some other tools for help. She recommends Moz, SEMrush, and keywordtool.io.


SEMrush and Majestic SEO are also two popular tools.


Louise turns to platforms like BuzzSumo and Reddit for finding relevant topics and keywords that people are talking about.


Sarah has found Answer the Public to be a great tool to help you find ideas for your content.


Grep Words is another tool you can consider using for your keyword research.


Social listening is another great way to tune into what your audience wants and needs.


Gaby’s advice is to monitor your market, industry, audience, brand, and your analytics.

Q4: Can you define domain authority and explain why it’s important to content marketers?

Wondering what domain authority is and whether or not it’s important for you? Check out these responses from the chat:


Gini says domain authority gives a metric at the top of the funnel. It gives you the opportunity to find high-value sites for media relations and publicity.


If you want to learn more, check out the link Kristin shared.


Julia said domain authority is a metric created by Moz. She suggests paying attention when researching keyword opportunities.


As Sarah said, it correlates with rankings and performance in search engines.

Q5: How do you recommend we pitch contributed content, if we’re not PR pros?

If you need some tips for pitching contributed content, just check out this advice:


Gini feels pitching is all about relationships. You can start building a relationship with a publication by sharing their content first. You can also comment on their content and talk to them on Twitter. Once you’ve built up that relationship, you can move forward with your pitch.


Kristen’s advice is to know who you’re pitching inside and out. It’s the best way to ensure you’re a good fit.


Andrea suggests building relationships with publications and authors. When you do, you stand a better chance at getting a yes from them when you pitch content.


Devin also agrees with building a relationship with the site and editor you’re wanting to pitch to. It also helps to have examples of work you’ve already published.


Mike suggests building a relationship first as well. Ask to contribute a piece when the time is right.


Mallie’s advice is to personalize the pitches you send. You want to showcase the value you can provide through a contribution you’d like to submit.


Ditch the mass emails when pitching. Be personal and genuine when contacting someone about a contribution.


Shannon said it’s all about fining the right contact person, showing value, and filling a need.

Q6: What if someone had a topic that has very low search volume? How do you handle that?

What should you do if your topic doesn’t have the highest search volume? Here’s some helpful advice:


As Devin said, it’s ultimately going to depend on your niche. Not every niche will have the same size, search volume, etc. And Gini agrees. Low search volume can be beneficial in a niche industry.


Julia knows it’s not worth trashing a topic simply because it has low search volume. Check out the graphic she shared with tips on how to validate your content topic.


What really matters is that the content is well-written and it’s created for a specific audience.


As Sarah pointed out, those searchers are still in need of content, even if it is a small amount.


While search volume is valuable, Mallie knows that engagement is key as well.

Q7: Can we use LinkedIn Pulse and Medium to help increase our domain authority?

Are platforms like LinkedIn Pulse and Medium worthwhile? Here’s what some of our chat participants had to say about the subject:


Gini feels it won’t boost your domain authority, but it will build your readership and send traffic back to your site.


Julia says yes. She suggests including posts on LinkedIn Pulse and Medium in your monthly content plan. You can use it as an opportunity to link to related content on your site.


Zala agrees that these platforms can be great for cross-linking and generating traffic to your website.


While it might not help you increase domain authority, it can help you get more traffic.


It’s also worthwhile to determine if your audience is actually spending time on these platforms. If they are, it’ll be worthwhile for you to share content there.

Q8: Can you give us a list of all the tools you recommend for this type of work?

If you’re in need of some new tools to try out, we’ve got you covered! Check out these suggestions from the chat:


Gini suggests having a list of questions from your customers and prospects, a keyword planner, a mind mapping tool, and an editorial calendar. She also recommends having some patience, elbow grease, and the ability to build relationships with others.


A creative mind and a strong work ethic are certainly important.


Louise says you should have a strategy, but always keep it flexible.


Yoast, BrightEdge, and Google Docs are essential for Mallie.


Julia relies on SEMrush, Mangools, KWFinder, BuzzSumo, and Airtable.


Andrea’s go-to tools include BuzzSumo, Feedly, and Hashtagify.

Recap of Recommended Tools:

  • SEMrush
  • Moz
  • keywordtool.io
  • Answer the Public
  • Mangools
  • BrightEdge
  • Hashtagify
  • Grep Words
  • Majestic SEO
  • BuzzSumo
  • Reddit

Be sure to join us for the next #ContentWritingChat, which happens every Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time. (We’ll skip July 4, though! Happy Independence Day to all our chatters!) Follow us @ExpWriters and @writingchat for all the latest updates!
#Contentwritingchat

Tags: content | SEO