This was originally published in 2017 and updated in May, 2020.
What if I told you about a hot content marketing tool that allows you to dig deep into your audience’s brain? ?
This tool can tell you what your audience is feeling right now.
Their current thoughts. What they’re looking for when they go online. The #1 topic they want to read about.
Would you use it?
Of course!
Because the truth is, keyword research tools aren’t enough to help you generate steaming content your readers will devour, reread, and share.
I’m not saying they aren’t necessary. They are. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do SEO right without these tools.
But SEO by itself isn’t enough to build a brand.
The ultimate recipe for success is SEO plus hot topics your audience cares about.
So, how can you discover these hot topics?
In this guide, I’ll show you how to do it using BuzzSumo.
Let’s dive in!
How to Use BuzzSumo: 5 Ways You Can Use BuzzSumo to Discover Hot Topics Your Audience Adores
So, what is BuzzSumo used for?
BuzzSumo is the ultimate content discovery tool. It constantly gets updated with brand new features, so you always know what kind of content your audience wants and exactly what they’re engaging with online.
Here’s a list of awesome things you can do with BuzzSumo:
Instantly generate tons of hot topic ideas
Index over 3.5 billion articles and posts
Get an updated list of the most powerful influencers in your industry
Spy on your competitors
Monitor everything that’s going on online
[bctt tweet=”5 ways to use @buzzsumo to discover hot topics: 1️⃣ Analyze top-shared content 2️⃣ Find top niche influencers 3️⃣ Find trending topics 4️⃣ Use Topic Discovery to generate ideas 5️⃣ Analyze top YouTube content ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
We at Express Writers absolutely love BuzzSumo. In fact, we use it extensively for our content strategy services.
It allows us to:
Put our clients ahead of their competitors by knowing what their audience really wants to learn
Discover steaming hot topics in any niche
Save tons of time in the brainstorming process
Let’s go into detail and dive into five ways you can use BuzzSumo to discover topics your audience will love.
BuzzSumo pricing guide:
Pro: $99/month billed monthly or $79/month billed annually
Plus: $179/month billed monthly or $139/month billed annually
Large: $299/month billed monthly or $239/month billed annually
Enterprise: $499/month
#1: Get Ideas from the Web Content Analyzer
BuzzSumo is your forensic tool for digging into your audience’s brain and finding out what they’re interested in. With the Web Content Analyzer feature, you get a list of the top content people engaged with based on a certain keyword.
[bctt tweet=”.@buzzsumo is your forensic tool for digging into your audience’s brain and finding out what they’re interested in ?️♀️. Learn how to use it like an expert:” username=”ExpWriters”]
[bctt tweet=”What if I told you about a hot content marketing tool that allows you to dig deep into your audience’s brain? ?✨ No, it’s not magic – it’s @buzzsumo! Learn how to use this mighty tool via @JuliaEMcCoy:” username=”ExpWriters”]
To get started, click on Content and select Web Content Analyzer.
Source: BuzzSumo
Type your chosen keyword in the search bar.
Click on Search. What you’ll get is a list of content pieces with the highest number of engagement from your audience.
As you can see, a piece about Bill Gates and the coronavirus tops the list with 34.6K total engagements. This gives you a hint on what your audience is thinking about and the kind of content they want to read and share.
Want to filter your results by time? Simply click the filter button and select an option to see results from the last 24 hours, the past week, the past month, and as much as five years ago.
For example, here’s the result you’ll get when you choose the 24-hour filter.
The next step is to click on the top content pieces and find out why your audience loved them. What made them special? More importantly, how can you improve on them in your own content?
Here’s an example.
Because this piece comes in the number two spot within the six-month filter, you now know that your audience is interested in being more productive in their content creation.
Now, it’s your turn to create content with your own tips and tricks on how to be productive!
Bonus: Experiment with the filters! They’re amazing. You can search for content based on type of article, word count, and even a specific domain.
#2: Find Top Influencers in Your Niche
Finding the top influencers in your niche will help you in three ways:
You can gain inspiration from their content
You can spy on them and improve on what’s missing in their content
You can get networking opportunities
To get started in your search for BuzzSumo influencers, hover over Influencers on the top bar and click Authors. You can also search for influencers on Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook.
In the Authors search bar, you can find top authors by looking up a topic or domain. For example, here’s the results for a search on Forbes.com.
On the left side, you can see the author’s name and Twitter handle. On the right, you can see how many articles each author published, plus their average and total engagement.
Select View Top Content to see each author’s top pieces.
For example, here are the top results for Zack Friedman.
Looking for top influencers in your niche? Simply type in your desired keyword instead of a domain name in the search bar.
Here are the results for “content marketing.” (I come in at #2, yay! ?)
#3: Find Trending Topics with BuzzSumo’s Discover Feature
Want to find content that’s creating a large amount of buzz online?
Searching for trending topics within the last 24 hours (or less!) is the way to do it.
To begin, go to the Discover option and click Trending.
This will show you the top content pieces driving tons of engagement online.
On the left toolbar, you can filter your search by topics.
For example, click Fashion and you get this.
The magic is you can create your own custom feeds. Simply scroll down on the left-hand toolbar and click the plus sign beside the Custom Feeds option.
Use the filters to create your own custom feeds.
The filters allow you to add topics to your search, exclude results, and limit to or exclude certain domains. Here’s an example custom feed.
Click Update Feed and use it to filter your results. Here’s the top result for “content marketing trends.”
Is your audience looking for ways to win at SEO during COVID-19? Hmmm… You could write something on that.
#4: Generate Tons of Content Ideas with Topic Discovery
This option is a great choice when you’re feeling stuck and want an inspirational brainwave. It helps you find a ton of hot topic possibilities in seconds.
[bctt tweet=”.@buzzsumo’s Topic Discovery tool is a great choice when you’re feeling stuck and need some inspirational brainwaves. Learn how to use it via @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
To start, go to Discover and select Topics.
Type a keyword in the search bar. Keep it broad to get a wide range of results. (You can always narrow it down later.)
What you’ll get is a brain cloud of content ideas for your chosen subject. The options in larger font are the options most relevant to your search.
Scroll down to go more in-depth on each keyword. You can find out great content ideas, common questions asked on the topics, and related keywords.
Want to test a term based on engagement? Click on it to view its performance over time. For instance, select “SEO tools” within the brain cloud. You get this.
#5: Analyze Top Content on YouTube
This option is new to BuzzSumo, and it’s absolutely GREAT because YouTube is a huge platform with two billion monthly users. Imagine the exposure you can get for your brand with this audience!
So, how can you find hot topics on YouTube?
Hover over Content, and click the YouTube option.
Type your keyword into the search bar. For instance, this shows results for the keyword “guitar lessons.”
The amazing part is you can click on Analysis to find out the secrets behind high engagement on YouTube.
Want to find the top influencers on YouTube?
Head over to Influencers and select YouTube. Follow the same steps to finding top influencers in your industry.
Here are the top guitar lesson influencers on YouTube.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering Hot Topics and Keywords for Your Content
Now, let’s go into a step-by-step on how to map your topics and keywords for outstanding content. (This is exactly how we do it at Express Writers!)
Step #1: Come Up with Goals for Your Content
Each piece of content you write must have its own specific goal. If you don’t have goals, you’ll be creating tons of random content that don’t fit into your overarching content marketing goals.
[bctt tweet=”Each piece of content you write must have its own specific goal. ? If you don’t have goals, you’ll be creating tons of random content that don’t fit into your overarching #contentmarketinggoals.” username=”ExpWriters”]
To guide my content, I came up with a unique concept I call the “three bucket strategy.” (Read more about this concept on my blog, Content Goals: Here’s How to Come Up With Profitable Content Marketing Ideas Using My 3-Bucket Topic Strategy. I also teach this in-depth in my comprehensive, 6-week Content Strategy and Marketing Course.)
Step #2: Use BuzzSumo to Discover Hot Topics for Your Content Buckets
The next thing you’ll do is go to BuzzSumo and use one (or more!) of the five tips above to find topics your audience will love. Research topics to fill all your content buckets.
Step #3: Use an SEO Tool to Map Out a Keyword
Remember, BuzzSumo works flawlessly with the best SEO tools out there. So, once you’ve decided on a topic, take it to your SEO tool of choice to map it to a keyword.
Let’s say you chose the topic “SEO tools” from the topic discovery option on BuzzSumo.
Take it into an SEO tool like KWFinder to discover if you should try to rank for this keyword.
Should you? Apparently, no. Although the search volume for “SEO tools” is high, its keyword difficulty score is 69/100. This means you’ll be going up against huge brands, and it’ll be almost impossible to compete for this keyword.
Source: KWFinder.com
What you can do is look up related keywords. Remember, a keyword difficulty score below 50 is considered good.
And we got one! “Best SEO tools” has a keyword difficulty score of 40 and a search volume of 5,400. Not bad!
See how BuzzSumo works flawlessly with an SEO tool?
At Express Writers, we use only the best of the best tools for our content strategy services. These are the same tools I teach to my students that we use in my programs.
Here are the top SEO tools we recommend.
SEMrush is the ultimate keyword research tool that allows you to do in-depth keyword research, detailed domain analytics, lead generation, in-depth competitor research, and more!
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a tool that comes packed with everything you need for keyword research and SEO analysis. It allows you to do SEO audits, comprehensive backlink analysis, and domain comparison.
KWFinder is an extremely user-friendly keyword research tool that’s more affordable than the other two above. Although KWFinder is only for keyword research, you can sign up for the basic plan to get access to a ton of other Mangools tools (SERPchecker, SERPwatcher, SiteProfiler, etc.).
Want to dive deeper into which keyword research tool is best for you? Check out my blog, 3 Must-Have Content Tools for Marketers: SEMrush, KWFinder, Ahrefs.
A Look into the Future of Discovering Hot Topics Your Audience Loves
Worried you’ll wake up one morning with no idea what to write for your blog? (This used to be me! Find out the story in my FREE masterclass).
With topic research from BuzzSumo, you don’t have to feel this way ever again.
In fact, you’ll be drowning in a deep well of topics your audience will beg you to create!
So, is BuzzSumo worth it?
From me and my team, a HUGE BIG YES!!
Want hot content based on expert keyword and topic research? Visit our Content Shop to learn more.]]>
For all of its effectiveness and value, content marketing is hard.
Fortunately, there are a variety of tools to help make your content marketing efforts easier, more effective, and more productive.
55 Great Content Marketing Tools To Help You Get More Done
Here are 55 of our absolute favorite content marketing tools. (Note: they are in no particular order.)
1. Buffer: Buffer is a fantastic tool for scheduling social media content across platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn and for optimizing posts for the best time possible. I love this tool and use it nearly every day to schedule all my social media content across nearly 15 social media profiles, including Pinterest and LinkedIn. The business plan at $50/month is totally worth it. Their community also hosts the popular, friendly Twitter chat #bufferchat on Wednesdays at noon EST.
2. Canva: The brain processes visual information at a rate 60,000 times faster than it does textual information, so why not give your readers something pretty to look at? If you’re like most marketers, it’s because you don’t know how to create visual images. Fortunately, Canva is here to fix that. The platform allows you to create attractive headers, flyers, featured images, and Facebook profile images, even if you’re not a design whiz. They have an awesome Design School where you can get great resources on creating visuals, too.
3. IFTTT: IFTTT (which stands for “If This, Then That”) is an automation tool that allows you to quickly schedule events, set reminders, organize email, sync files across the cloud and track the hours you spend working. It can also help you connect apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Dropbox for a more streamlined marketing experience.
This is one of my favorite automated content marketing tools. Just be careful: if you automate too much in one day, your followers might think of you as… uh-oh… “spammy.”
4. Sprout Social: Sprout Social is intuitive social media management software for busy content marketers. Perfect for streamlining your life. They host #SproutChat on Twitter as well and have a good community there.
5. Bitly: Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that allows you to include URLs in character-restricted social media sites like Twitter, or to use them as a citation in your infographics.
6. Google Web Designer: Google Web Designer is an easy DIY banner-creation service that allows you to easily create banners for any device you want.
7. Instagram Ads: Even if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can still use Instagram ads to your advantage. Ideal for attracting new leads and pointing traffic directly to your site, these ads can go a long way toward helping you generate new traffic. Not on Instagram? Make that one of your tools this year! It’s been huge for our social growth.
8. Google AdWords: AdWords the pinnacle of keyword research innovations and content marketers have been using it for years to help them determine which keywords to target in their marketing campaigns. Use it to gauge local bids, use keywords dynamically, track converted clicks and target devices separately.
9. SEMrush: SEMrush allows markets to track which keywords their competition is using. It also allows you to do things like locate trending content, find industry influencers, and research topics. SEMrush also has an awesome community: they host the popular #SEMrushchat Wednesdays at 10 am CST.
10. Salesforce: Salesforce offers CRM solutions that allow companies to automate their business processes like lead management and conversion. It also allows companies to manage projects and synchronize systems with mailboxes and calendars.
11. Skitch: Perfect for content marketers who want to insert text or arrows into images to be shared in posts or social media statuses, Skitch integrates with Evernote and allows you to pixelate sensitive information (such as addresses and phone numbers) when sharing data.
12. Sidekick: Sidekick is a HubSpot tool for marketers who want to see who opens emails and when. This platform allows content marketers to track emails.
13. AngelList: AngelList is a Silicone Valley investment platform that allows marketers to invest or raise money for a variety of projects. Great for finding funding for a project or linking up with other online companies, AngelList offers the largest pool of funds dedicated to early-stage startups in the world.
14. Time Doctor: Time Doctor allows content marketers to track the productivity of a team, including tracking time spent working and managing hours.
15. Trello: The organized marketer’s dream come true. Trello allows you to organize all of your spreadsheets, sticky notes, emails, and paperwork visually according to project.
16. Google PageSpeed Insights: Perfect for optimizing pages and ensuring that you’re staying competitive in your field, this tool allows marketers to track how quickly a page is loading on mobile and desktop while also showing you where you can improve.
17. Google Mobile-Friendly Test: The Google Mobile-Friendly Test allows you to earn a “Mobile friendly” label below your organic search results when you pass the comprehensive mobile efficiency test. It’s easy, free, and can help you land more organic search results.
18. Uberflip: Uberflip is an innovative software designed for content marketers, and is a great content marketing tool. This platform displays different content on your site depending upon who is viewing it, which makes it perfect for targeting unique audiences and providing valuable material.
19. Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin that allows marketers to evaluate blogs for keywords and to preview a post’s performance in organic SERPs.
20. Publicize for WordPress: This convenient feature can save you time when it comes to your social media sharing. Publicize for WordPress allows you to automatically share blogs to Google+ profiles and other platforms you may use.
21. Instapage: For anyone who has ever struggled with landing page creation, this tool is for you. Quick template-based creation, this software makes creating landing pages a snap.
22. Crazy Egg: Crazy Egg is a fantastic platform that allows marketers to see where users are clicking and what they’re interacting with while they’re on your website. It can also help you understand why people leave your site and how they’re interacting with your calls to action.
23. Unbounce: Unbounce offers split testing for landing pages and is a fantastic tool for people who want to improve the performance of their pages.
24. Picreel: Because you can’t make everyone who visits your site convert into a sale, it’s important to do what you can to make your existing visitors convert. Picreel allows you to display customized exit offerings depending upon what they did and how they interacted on your site.
25. W3 Total Cache: W3 Total Cache is a WordPress plugin that helps your page load as quickly as possible, enhancing user experience and creating a more streamlined site.
26. MailChimp: MailChimp is a fantastic tool for automating your email campaigns, building email templates, testing user interaction, and scheduling your email promotions.
27. AgoraPulse: AgoraPulse is an intuitive social media management tool that can be helpful for platforms like Facebook. It allows you to run promotions and reporting more smoothly.
28. Infusionsoft: Infusionsoft is a CRM designed to cater to small businesses. It’s helpful for organizing customer relationship management, marketing, lead generation, sales, and all manner of automation.
29. Postcardly: For content marketers who still use direct mail marketing as a part of their promotional strategy, there’s Postcardly. This innovative platform allows you to upload any photo of your choice and print it as a postcard. You can upload addresses in bulk – which makes this platform fantastic for holiday greetings or for announcing new promotions.
30. Paper.Ii: Want to tie all of your social media efforts together? Look no further than Paper.li. This platform creates a website-based feed and auto-generates it like a newsletter. It also links into your Twitter, provides automatic updates for your customers, and can help you earn more leads.
31. YouTube Live Stream: Live streams are everything right now and companies that build and nurture one can interact with their customers more effectively. YouTube Live Stream allows you to do this and is an important way to take your content to the next level.
32. Wordtracker: Wordtracker is a helpful keyword research tool that allows you to locate the top-performing keywords in minutes.
33. BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo is a favorite tool of ours at Express Writers. It can help you locate the most shared or viewed content in your industry so you can get a feel for what’s hot and what’s not.
34. Google Trends: Google Trends allows marketers to find out what other marketers are talking about and how people are searching on Google.
35. SPUN for iPhone: SPUN is a unique app for the iPhone platform that curates content and allows marketers to find what they love, which is great for idea generation.
36. Scoop.it: Scoop.it is a content curation service that allows you to publish, discover, and curate content that can help you gain visibility with your followers. For curation, this is top among content marketing tools.
37. Moz Toolbar: As a content marketer, linking is an important strategy. Unfortunately, many sites are low-quality or lacking in authority and linking to them may actually damage your site’s reputation. The Moz Toolbar can fix that. Designed to install in Chrome or Firefox, the Toolbar allows you to see important SEO metrics as you bounce from site to site, as well as allowing you to create custom searches, research keyword ranking difficulty, validate authorship and markup, and view social metrics. A true must-have for any responsible marketer!
38. Commun.it: Commun.it is a Twitter management dashboard that helps you do away with the overwhelming barrage of status updates and cut through to the most important content on the site.
39. Hootsuite. Hootsuite is great for content marketers who have dozens of different social media platforms to keep track of. The service offers a one-stop shop for social media management and is generally recommended for companies that maintain a presence on about 15-20 pages. Update content on all sites from one convenient desktop and automate your posting schedule from your desktop. It really can be that simple. They even have a great community: on Twitter, they host #HootChat that happens Thursdays at 3 PM EST (see their Tumblr page for more).
40. Slideshare: Slideshare is an underrated content marketing tool. Used to create a visual piece of content that can help you draw attention to your site, Slideshare can be a huge force for lead generation.
41. Facebook Promoted Posts: Facebook Promoted Posts are a great way to make your content more visible and take advantage of your newsfeed as much as possible. Use it to reach new clients and earn new leads.
42. Slack: Slack is a platform that lets you do more than just instant messaging. It makes messaging easier through the integration of applications such as Trello, Google Drive, and Zoom, among others. This makes communicating with your marketing team easier and not have important tasks and documents get buried in unread emails.
43. Followgen: Followgen is a helpful targeting tool that allows companies to find their ideal audience on social media. It can help you get your content out to the right customers and tie together your targeting and social advertising systems.
44. Bundlr: Bundlr allows marketers to build topic pages that include photos, tweets, videos, and articles to build a better-rounded content strategy. Much like the “Pin it” button, Bundlr offers a “Bundle This!” plugin that allows you to pull content from your browser for easy marketing and distribution.
45. Trello: Trello is a free tool that allows marketers to organize media and ideas on digital cards. This allows you to streamline ideas and collaborate effectively with other members of your content marketing team.
46. Evernote: If you’re not using Evernote, you’re missing out on the pinnacle of organizational success. Evernote is a multi-purpose organizational platform that allows you to snap photos of receipts, organize your editorial calendar, and keep track of all of your content ideas in one place.
47. Wunderlist: Wunderlist is a powerful list-platform that allows marketers to organize beautiful and powerful lists for content strategy and editorial calendar use.
48. MindNode: Ideal for keeping your brainstorm sessions organized and on-schedule, MindNode helps you understand what’s working in your content strategy and what’s not.
49. Meme Generator: Memes are a fun, lighthearted way to add variety to your content marketing, and when you use Meme Generator, yours can be some of the best on the web.
50. Authority Metrics: Authority Metrics is an innovative new keyword tool that streamlines the process of keyword research and helps you determine the best keywords for a niche. The tool also offers automated keyword competition analysis and a set of advanced filters that make keyword research easy.
51. ContentMarketer.io: ContentMarketer.io is a tool that helps you connect with industry leaders and influencers through email and twitter. The platform provides proven templates to make outreach more successful and advertises that it can help you increase your blog’s traffic by three times, just by making contact with the people you mention in your blog posts.
52. Tweetdeck: Are you handling a lot of Twitter chats? Then Tweetdeck is the perfect tool for you. Organize your stream of chats happening all at once and see multiple, live tweet windows. This tool is one of the best ones out there for catching live Twitter action.
53. Trapit: Trapit creates a personalized content feed based on your specialty, interests, and passions. Designed for use on the iPad, this app helps provide great content, which can be a source of inspiration, ideas, and research.
54. Narrow: Narrow is a tool that helps you develop a targeted Twitter audience through the innovative use of hashtags, keywords, and locations. This narrows and defines your target audience and makes successful engagement easier and more productive. The tool also offers analytics and the ability to manage up to 10 separate Twitter accounts.
55. Pocket: Pocket allows you to save articles, resources, and videos for viewing at a later time. Ideal for organizing content from all of your social media platforms and apps, this app can help you get organized and create better content.
Content Marketing Tools: Which Ones Do You Like?
While content marketing may seem like an impossible feat, our list of 55 top content marketing tools can help make your content marketing efforts easier and more effective in the coming year.
Have a favorite not listed here? Share in the comments below!
Interested in getting good content? Make our Content Shop one of your destinations this year for the fundamentals you need: good content to use with all your newfound tools!
Blogging is such an incredible tool within content marketing—one of the most powerful ones, too. It gives you a unique ability to reach out to a wider audience and gives you the chance to write on a variety of things from why people need your product to what colors a dress might be.
Most importantly, it also gives you the ability to grow your traffic and bring in new visitors, giving you the possibility of increasing revenue. Let’s look at just how you can do this with a few excellent blogging practices.
18 Incredible Ways to Increase Traffic With Great Blogging Practices
Just how can you grow your traffic through your blog? Let me walk you through some great points that can help you improve your overall content marketing campaign! Be sure to let me know which of these practices reach out to you in the comments.
Blogging Can Increase Rankings and Bring in More Organic Search Traffic. A great reason why blogging can be great to grow your traffic is because it helps you rank higher on the search engines. Organic traffic is great, and the more you blog, the more likely you are to increase that. Remember that each blog you write is just one more landing page that gives readers and visitors a chance to see your web page and products. The more you write, the more landing pages you create, which helps you create more opportunities for your site to rank and be found.
Write Different Content Types to Drive Traffic. A good idea to help create blog posts that help drive traffic is to follow some of the findings from Newscred’s social media study. Researchers found that things such as “how-to” posts and lists brought in more social media traffic, as did blogs with evergreen topics. One thing the study also noted is that content types tended to be shared differently at different times throughout the year. This is a good reason as to why you should always research your audience and pay attention to your analytics. You can figure out which blog topics will do best at which times, giving you the chance to create great blog posts that increase traffic.
Share Your Blogs on Social Media to Increase Traffic Even More. Increasing traffic to your blog isn’t going to happen as soon as you write and publish. In fact, you are going to need to do a little more work to drive traffic through blogging. A great place to start with is social media. Social media is an incredible way to help boost blog traffic to your site, and you can do so in many different ways. Just work with your social channels and research your analytics to see what things you need to tweak and which things are working well for you.
Never Ever Forget About Email Newsletters. Another way to bring in more traffic with and to your blog is to send out information about your blogs in your email newsletters. You can promote a wide variety of things in your newsletters, and your blogs should be one of those items. Encourage readers to click and read your blog postings, and encourage new visitors to your site to sign up for a newsletter to know when you’ve posted a new blog.
Write On the Latest, Trendiest Things to Bring in Viewers. Something that can really help drive traffic with your blogs is when you blog about the latest, trendiest items out there. You can blog about new films and how they can inspire people in your industry, use memes that have gone viral, or any other currently trending item to help bring in visitors. Remember, you shouldn’t only focus on viral, trendy content. But it is a great idea to boost traffic.
Always Make Sure Your Blogs Have Epic, Impactful Headlines. According to Lindsay Kolowich over at HubSpot, headlines are a vital part of every single content marketing strategy. A headline is what convinces someone to click on your link, which then helps to improve traffic. If you want to boost your traffic through blogging, then always make sure you are creating powerful headlines that encourage people to click. This could be your only chance to bring in new viewers.
Utilize Different Keywords, Especially Long-Tail, In Your Blogs. Neil Patel points out that keywords, especially long-tail keywords, are vital to your blogging campaign. You need to make sure you are using excellent keywords that can drive traffic, and you should also make sure you use a variety to bring in a wider audience. Patel shows that you can increase your traffic and clicks by 78 percent when you use long-tail keywords, which is truly remarkable! Use your keywords, and bring in more traffic.
Make Sure Your Posts are Perfect for Your Audience. In the article I shared above, Neil Patel also points out how important it is to know your audience and have posts that are specifically for them. Research your demographic and the clients you already have to gather information on what your audience will like and want to see. You can also send out questionnaires and ask your social media followers what type of posts they’d like to see. The more you write posts that are perfect for your audience, the better your chances are of increasing your overall site traffic.
Have a Stunning, Professional Blog Layout and Design. Written content isn’t the only thing you should consider when trying to use your blog to drive traffic. You should also consider making sure you have a great and professional blog design with an easy-to-follow layout. This can help encourage your readers to come back and read future blog posts, and can even encourage them to read your past pieces. If your blog looks like it is thrown together, your readers aren’t likely to stick around for very long.
Utilize Images, Videos, and Infographics in Your Blog Posts. Along with a great design, you should also focus on visual content on your blog, as well. You can share videos with your clients, create an infographic out of a longer post, and attach images to your written content. This can help get more attention from a wider audience. People enjoy having multiple content formats to consume, and each of us consumes content differently. Give you readers and visitors options to help drive continual traffic.
Create Evergreen Content to Drive Traffic Constantly. Trendy topics are a great way to drive traffic, but those will only last for a few weeks or even a few days. Once the trend goes away, the traffic will dwindle; so how can you keep it going, as well as increasing it? You can write evergreen content that focuses on topics that don’t go stale. A great way to know if you’re writing evergreen topics is to pay attention to your topic and how you write. If you write something without focusing on trends or current pop culture references, chances are it is evergreen. If you’re writing or referencing something that is popular right now, then it isn’t.
Always Craft Excellent, High-Quality Articles. Increasing and maintaining traffic are two sides of the same coin, meaning you need to focus on both when creating your blog content. One of the best ways to make sure you are working on both is to write amazing, high-quality content. If you aren’t sure if you are writing high quality, you can always hire a copyeditor to look over it or simply hire a copywriter with training in high-quality web content.
Consider Covering News Topics on Your Blog. Writing on fun trends can make your blog pop and bring people in, but sometimes you should focus on writing something a bit more serious and informative. A great way to increase traffic through blogging is to write blogs on news pieces. If you’re in the social media world, then writing on what new thing Facebook is doing or a new social media channel will be great for news content. News content can be amazingly captivating for your audience while providing them with top information from the latest news sources.
Write and Publish Blogs Consistently. A consistent blogging schedule can also help increase your traffic. People like to know when to expect blogs from their favorite sites and companies, and if you set a schedule, they are likely to keep an eye out for your new blog. Set a schedule and play with it for a bit to see how often and which days work the best for you. Make sure you keep your schedule the same for a few months to get the best measure of what days work and also so that you aren’t constantly changing things around on your readers.
Engage With Your Audience to Promote Further Clicks and Engagement. Another great way to increase traffic with your blogs is to engage with your readers when they comment. Always be sure that you reply to a comment and consider doing more than the cursory, “Thank you for reading” response. You can ask your reader a specific question in reply to their comment or answer a specific question they asked. Engaging and conversing with them can help encourage them to come back and read your newer blogs, and can eventually convince them to become clients instead of just readers.
Don’t Hesitate to Pay to Promote Your Blog. Organic traffic is great, but sometimes you need that extra push to help increase website traffic with your blog. You can promote your blog through various ways such as pay-per-click ads or utilizing social media ads on channels like Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. This can help drive some traffic, and when people find your blog and see that you’ve spent a good portion of time and energy on it, they’ll stay. Once this happens, then you can be well on your way to getting organic traffic.
Comment on Industry Blogs and Link to Your Blog. You can also encourage people to visit your blog by commenting on industry blogs with a link back to yours. This doesn’t mean to promote your blog and get all spam-like. Write something that provides value to the writer of the blog, and if you have a similar blog you can mention it. In addition, many comment forms allow for people to share a website along with their name, which is a great way to help link people to your page without even mentioning it in the comment.
Allow Readers to Share Your Blogs Easily on Social Media. As I mentioned earlier, social media is a great way to increase your traffic through blogging. You can post your blogs to social media, but you can also allow your readers to share your blog easily through social share buttons. Putting up social share buttons on each post can help you reach a wider audience because, if a reader likes one of your posts, he or she can then click the social button and share to their channel quickly and easily. This can help bring in more viewers, and end up converting those visitors into clients. Never underestimate the power of a social share button on each and every blog post.
Remember, Patience Truly is a Blogging Virtue
When it comes to increasing your traffic through blogging, remember that it might take some time. Even though a lot of viral content can make it seem like things happen in a snap on the Internet, the reality is that it takes time to build your presence. You want to be a trusted source, so follow these tips with your blogs to create a great presence and drive traffic. If you need help with creating blog posts that are engaging, then contact Express Writers. Our blogging services provide you with excellent, high-quality material that you and your readers will enjoy.
The New Year has been rung in: 2015. Can you believe it? I can’t either. I’m sure I will be saying the same thing when 2016 is on the horizon, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. If anything was learned in 2014, it is that high quality content is not going away. It seems like content is continuing to dominate both the search engines and digital marketing strategies, with its value only continuing to increase. It’s safe to say that content is not a trend or ploy to pull traffic in your direction; it is an online marketing staple with nearly limitless potential.
When it comes to preparing your content for 2015, you might be asking yourself exactly which direction you should take. Content marketing has several layers, and they nearly all need to be tapped into in order to yield the best results.
To help you prepare your content for the New Year, we are breaking down the essential steps to getting your content on track in 2015. Furthermore, we will provide you with a guide to finding the best content to share with your readers, and we’ll throw in a few helpful how-to’s on getting inspiration and producing the very best content in your industry.
It’s another big year for content in 2015, and here are the best 3 prep techniques for reaching your audience and converting that content into cash.
Foolproof Technique #1: Starting 2015 With a Bang . . . And an Audit
So, audits are not exactly fun, but they are a very logical starting point for preparing your content for 2015. There are several strategies for performing content audits, and the best approach really depends on how what tools you have access to and the platform that you use.
The Manual Audit: Overview of Keywords and Word Count
If your website contains a high volume of content, start with an Excel spreadsheet that lists the URL of every individual page. Take note of the keywords used within the content, the date it was published, and the word count. This is an opportunity to discover what content on your website needs improvement, whether it is from a word count standpoint, or your content is simply outdated and no longer relevant.
Broken Links Bring Down Page Value
Another essential step in your content audit is to identify broken links within your text. Google considers websites with broken links and bad information as low quality, which can ultimately hurt your website search rankings. Whether the link is internal within your own website or outbound, clicking on all existing anchor text can save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
Identify Content Gaps: What’s Missing?
Although you are analyzing all of the existing content on your website, there is another audit approach that’s just as important: content gaps. Identifying content gaps will help you understand where your website falls short in terms of content. For example, you built out your website several months ago, but forgot all about adding an About Us page. Believe it or not, Google looks for signs of a legit business through your content. If you are missing pages such as About Us or Mission Statement, it could potentially hurt your rankings.
Identifying content gaps is also important from a competition standpoint. In fact, this is yet another way to help determine what’s missing from your own website. When you are visiting your competitor’s website, take note of the content that they have available. What do they have that you don’t? Whether it is a blog or a staple subpage, competitors can leave clues to what you are missing. In order to stay in the content game, you need to know where your content gaps lie.
Extensive Guide For Manual Content Audits
Manual content audits can be grueling, but luckily there are extensive and helpful guides that can help you through the process. In particular, Moz has a pretty in-depth guide that explains the process and purpose of a content audit. Following this guide can give you a clear understanding of the content audit.
If you are looking for reading that is a little bit lighter, here is a shorter version of a content audit breakdown with some informative instructions.
Performing Content Audits: Wordpress Edition
Wordpress is a large-scale content management system that is used by amateurs and professionals alike. It’s the perfect solution for publishing content, as well as implementing SEO techniques with built-in plugins like Yoast for Wordpress. Yoast is a highly effective plugin that helps content marketers properly optimize their websites using the best SEO practices. If you happen to be using Wordpress as your content management system, you can easily perform your very own content audit with the help of this tool.
Using Yoast as a Guide to Audit Content for 2015
Yoast is perfect for filling in the missing pieces of those little meta tags. Meta tags might be small in terms of content, but they are essential pieces to solving the content auditing puzzle. Your meta tags in Yoast can give clues as to how your audience views your website in the search engine pages, and they even impact your click-through rate that influences your web traffic.
Image credit: yoast.com
When you’re looking at the Yoast plugin, take note of your keyword and meta description. The first step to finding the best keywords for your website comes down to thorough research; this can be achieved with industry-leading keyword research tools such as SEMRush. Once you have your targeted keyword in place, be sure that it is used sparingly within the body of your content. The Yoast plugin also tracks keyword density, which is another vital factor to successfully ranking your content on Google. A high keyword density in your content can lead to trouble when Google’s Panda update rolls around.
Your focus keyword should be primarily present in your meta description. Since the meta description is so short, you only need to use your keyword once in this instance. Always fill out your meta tags; they may be tiny, but they can make or break your click-through-rate.
Questions to Ask Yourself During Your Audit
Asking key questions during your content audit can drastically change your results. The right questions will help you discover content gaps and find out how you can increase the overall value of your content. While you are combing through your content page-by-page, ask yourself the following questions:
Does my content serve the needs of my audience?
Does it educate, engage, and entertain?
Is it too long or too short?
Does it carry a consistent voice?
Do I contribute valuable information to my industry?
Am I using effective visuals?
Is it still relevant today?
Would I personally read this content or share it with friends?
Unfortunately, these questions cannot be answered with a simple auditing tool. In order to get relevant questions to these answers, a content marketing expert should review your content for best results.
Foolproof Technique #2: Curating Your Way to a Better New Year
Curating content in itself isn’t exactly new, but the importance of curating content has received a big push as of late. In case that you’re still in the dark on the wonders of curating content, it is the act of collecting and organizing high quality content to distribute to your audience.
The key to successful content curation involves discovering content that has that engagement factor while adding your own valuable comments. Copying and pasting a link is kind of curating, but thought-leader curating requires your own expert insight.
Now that you understand the goal of curating content, here is how you can start your curation strategy off with a bang:
Invest in content curating tools to escalate efficiency. While manually curating your content is an option, the downside to this is the amount of time that it takes. Browsing the Internet for hours on end is out of the questions for most marketers. You already have enough on your plate, and there are just not enough hours in a day to curate.Fortunately, there are highly efficient tools that help make your life much easier. One of those tools is called Scoop.it; it gathers all of the top content in your industry at the click of the button. From there, you can cherry pick the best results to share with your audience.
Add curating to your content calendar. Curating content is an efficient way to supplement your existing content. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with original content week after week. The goods news is that content curating can give you a break from brainstorming; all you need to do is add a bit of expert input.
Build new relationships with content curation. One of the advantages to curating content in the first place is establishing new connections. Tagging or tweeting your sources from your curated content is the perfect starting point. The goal is to get your primary sources to recognize your brand, and hopefully your sources can return the curation favor in the future.
Establish Credibility With Content Curation. If you are looking for a fast track to establishing credibility, content curation can help move you to that level. Sharing helpful and relevant content can get your audience accustomed to perceiving you as an information source. Furthermore, ensuring that your curated content is from credible sources also adds to your credibility while helping your rankings in the search engine.
Best Tips For Curating Content for 2015
The beauty of curating content is that it consistently serves as a fresh content stream. In order to keep churning out relevant curated content, there are several techniques to tap into the best content available in your industry. Other than using curation tools such as Scoop.it, here are some manual options to help you curate.
Explore social Q&A websites. An often-overlooked content curation source exists within social question and answer websites. One popular example is known as Quora. Quora is a community-based Q&A website that hosts thousands of questions and answers. These can easily be churned out into curated content.
Dive into Google News. Depending on your niche, topics regarding your industry might be discovered in the news section of Google. If your industry happens to be news-heavy, this is the perfect opportunity to curate content on a daily basis.
Dig on social media. Find the popular pieces of content that others are sharing. Content that is heavily shared and re-tweeted can give insight as to what is hot and trending in your industry. Use this to your advantage and share with your audience, along with added an original thought or two.
Explore different content types. Curated content does not always have to be in the form of a blog post. Consider curating content like infographics, slideshows, and videos. This will stretch your curated content base while offering more data to your audience.
Tap into the unknown. There is an incomprehensible amount of content on the Internet with millions of sources at your fingertips. Instead of always reaching for the same old sources, expand your horizons and dig into the unknown. There are plenty of content sources with untapped potential, such as Digg’s newsletter The Daily Digg, and even your own e-mail inbox. Here’s a great list that highlights 17 unique places to discover new content.
The future of curating content is looking bright in 2015. It is helpful for filling up your editorial calendar, establishing credibility, posting content on a regular basis, and becoming a thought leader in your industry. If you have yet to implement content curating into your content marketing strategy, 2015 is a great time to start.
Foolproof Technique #3: Creative Strategies For Original Content
Brainstorming unique content ideas is a tough gig. It’s difficult enough to compose an engaging blog post, but coming up with a new idea for every blog can turn into a huge hassle. Although your content does not need to come from your own brain 100 percent of the time, at least 65 percent of your content should be original to your brand. That’s a lot of pressure, even for a professional content marketer.
As tough as it seems, I’m going to let you in on some content secrets of the pros. Fresh topic ideas are everywhere if you know where to look; and I’ll tell you exactly where to find them.
Overview your competitors’ content. Your competitor’s content can give all kinds of inspiration for new ideas if you know what you are looking for. Similar to a content audit, dig deep and find what content they have that you don’t. You can also review their existing content and see what options you have for building off of their content. Just remember: if you choose to build off of your competitor’s content, it needs to come from an entirely new angle and offer new insight.
Explore the comments area of your competitors’ websites. The comments section can be a gold mine of new content opportunities. Analyze the feedback and take note of any unanswered questions. Those questions can turn into a brand new blog post for your own company.
Take advantage of Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. I personally love this tool and recommend it whenever I get the chance. To use the tool, enter 3 nouns that pertain to your industry. The generator tool then gives you a list of ideas blog topic ideas. Keep in mind that not all topics will apply to your niche, but it can help you branch off in other directions.
Repurpose old content. There’s a chance that you may already be sitting on top of new content opportunities without even knowing it. If you have spent the last year perfecting your blogging skills, now is the time to try something new. Take those old blog posts and present the information in a new light, such as a slideshow or infographic.
Google’s auto fill search helps fill in the gaps. Type in a search phrase or keyword for your industry into Google. Google’s auto fill search provides an additional list of opportunities that you can turn into new content. The auto search feature showcases key phrases that are commonly searched, so there’s no question that there is an audience for your new topic.
Don’t forget YouTube. YouTube is video based, but it is the second largest search engine with over 6 billion hours of content. That means you could watch content on YouTube for 684,477 years without stopping. Still think there’s no opportunity on YouTube?
2015 is here. Quality content marketing opportunities are nearly limitless for the upcoming New Year, and having a strategy in place will help maximize your efforts. With these foolproof techniques in place, you will be well on your way to dominating your content for 2015.
Content pieces are the indispensable aids that highlight the cool factor of your company, products and services, increase brand awareness and customer loyalty and help you get (and stay) on the same page with your prospects.
But unless you are commercializing your product—whether it’s the fairy dust that can prevent aging or sleek cars that run on tap water—chances are that you have a lot of competition in your sector.
Why Should You Invest in Content Marketing Tools?
A customized, cohesive content marketing strategy can help you separate yourself from other players in your field, reflect the best features/most notable benefits of your products and interact with your target audience in an ideal manner. In this context, great storytelling skills could guarantee your success. You may ask: what makes a good story? While your merchandise may be truly mundane, the story of your company and the message that you’re trying to send to your potential buyers should be anything but tedious and unoriginal.
A Plethora of Handy Tools for Every Conceivable Marketing-Related Problem
Maybe you’ve got a mean case of writer’s block. Perhaps you don’t speak SEO or don’t know how to adapt your content flow to the real necessities and expectations of your audience. Maybe in the absence of awesome content distribution strategies, your web writing looks like a crowned king who is yet to find his influent queen. Last but not least, maybe you’re the real ninja of words, but can’t or don’t know how to measure the success of your current content marketing strategy. Regardless of the real root of your problem, a great variety of content marketing tools can enable you to overcome any challenge and step up your marketing efforts the easy way.
What Are the Main Categories of Content Marketing Tools That You Should Focus on?
According to an awesome infographic introduced by ClickZ, content marketing enhancement tools can be broken down into 5 main categories, based on the specific purposes that they have been designed to serve:
Content research
Content organization
Content creation
Content organization
Content marketing analysis
It is advisable to use at least 1 or 2 tools listed in each category, to make sure that all your everyday tasks, ranging from extensive research that represents a major first step to content marketing analysis, are absolutely flawless.
15 Excellent Content Marketing Tools That Will Help You Steer in the Right Direction
Most content marketing tools are free or almost free. If you need another great reason to put them to good use, think about the fact that everybody else is already doing it. Without any further ado, here are 15 excellent aids that every online marketer needs in his life.
Quora. One of the most popular sources of knowledge, Quora is one of the basic tools that you should use while doing your homework. By simply selecting the topics that actually interest you (technology, luxury fashion, economics, history, psychology and so on) and following them you can stay in the loop and expand your knowledge database. Moreover, Quora defines itself as an accessible place to create new content and share existing pieces that float around the Internet.
Content Forest. Do you feel lost in the middle of a thick, dark forest of unwritten thoughts? If so, you should know that you can actually exit this labyrinth by using Content Forest, a handy end-to-end, complete marketing solution that ensures the hassle-free automation of all your daily operations, ranging from content creation to marketing and analytics. Flexible, modulated and powerful, this tool could become a valid substitute for your marketing consultants who are costing you a small fortune.
Pinterest. A great image is more valuable than 1,000 carefully chosen words. This is not a cliché; it represents the mechanism that made Pinterest so popular in the first place. People like to collect and organize images that reflect their style and aesthetic demands. Why wouldn’t you turn this hobby into an activity that could boost your content research efforts? Analyze different boards and create your own to become a cool trend scout and find out how you could put your products and services in a different light, to increase their power of seduction.
Curata. Content curation is one of the hottest trends that you cannot afford to ignore. If you are an avid collector of rare written gems that are only a few clicks away, give this useful tool a try to achieve business success in 3 easy steps. With Curata, you just have to find, curate and share first-class web content that can truly make a difference in the lives of your readers.
Contently. In case you are interested in finding the ultimate storytelling platform, remember to check out Contently. This handy tool ensures a win-win situation for brands looking forward to perfecting their marketing strategy and also for freelancers who are eager to get new assignments. Driven by the desire to create a “better media world” governed by great content and not by mercantile goals expressed via more or less compelling ads, Contently arms brands with all the tools and the talent that they could ever require to compete with the most gifted and influent publishers.
Storify. Your images are breathtaking and your calls-to-action are compelling. Your body copy is 100% unique and your headlines make your visitors ignore the fact that curiosity killed the cat. But what is all these essential elements don’t add up? Use Storify to glue all the pieces together and create an awesome whole. You just have to collect media online, publish the best pieces on Storify, share your content with the whole world and go viral. In addition, a Storify VIP subscription would enable you to unlock real-time updates and additional customization options that could come in handy, when it comes to telling a convincing story about your brand.
Percolate. Percolate defines itself as the complete content marketing software that is good enough to provide great answers to all your daily web writing-related problems and concerns. From proper planning, brand governance, content creation and outsourcing to comprehensive audience acquisition and analytics, Percolate is focused on all key marketing assignments that you need to conduct and monitor to grow your company and boost your profit margins.
Buffer. A content marketing strategy is pretty much dead and buried before its time without a proper social component. Buffer lets you discover the easiest way to distribute your content on networking websites, engage with your followers and build longer-lasting relationships with your audience. If you need to handle multiple social media accounts simultaneously, Buffer can lend a helping hand by enabling you to schedule posts, work closely with the members of your team and measure the success rate of your updates.
SlideShare. Maybe you feel the need to repurpose your old content. According to Quicksprout, it wouldn’t hurt to turn some of your articles into slide decks and promote them using SlideShare, the content marketing tool that brings you in front of more than 15 million presentations. By allowing you to discover, wrap and share what you love the most, SlideShare lets you build a bridge between your brand and your targeted audience and draw your inspiration from other people’s slides.
BuzzStream. Are you constantly tossing and turning in bed, trying to come up with new ways to build buzz around your brand and develop relationships with trusted influencers in your industry? If so, BuzzStream can provide the best solution for you and your team. Focus on two major components, link building and PR & social media, BuzzStream lets you source prospects, simplify your SEO and social workflow and improve your online presence in different environments without wasting time and money in the process.
Outbrain. Dreaming about simplified long-term monetization? Want to find the easiest way to turn your words into solid gold? If that’s the case, you may want to start using Outbrain. Known as a premium content discovery platform, Outbrain displays two handy components: Outbrain Engage (created to help you make great recommendations on your website and count on an extra revenue stream by promoting quality third-party content), and Outbrain Amplify (designed to help you broaden your audience by distributing your web writing on other platforms). No matter which options you choose to use, Outbrain will help you understand that engagement matters a great deal.
Addvocate. Want to empower all your team members by giving them access to a tool that turns content marketing into a child’s play? Try Addvocate, a neat advocacy platform that prioritizes content and internal messaging. According to a TopRank Blog on top content marketing tools, Addvocate lets your employees understand how, when and what to say about your business and helps them use analytics to improve their own performance.
Google Analytics. Launched by the mastermind that regulates and monitors all your online activities, Google Analytics allows users to breathe new life into their marketing strategy on a daily basis. Encompassing a wide range of killer features focused on different segments (analyzing and testing, campaign performance, audience behavior and characteristics, data collection and management and so on), Google Analytics gives you everything you may need to run a perfectly healthy online business and follow your plans for expansion.
Facebook Insights. According to Mashable, Facebook Insights dashboards let you assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategies and implement the right changes. By examining both user insights (likes, unlikes, demographics, total number of page links, media consumption and so on) and interaction insights (feedback for your daily stories) you’ll find out where you are, determine where you want to be, and estimate the distance between these two points.
Optimizely. Looking for a testing tool that doesn’t play with your nerves and doesn’t actually demand otherworldly technical skills? In this case, look no further. Optimizely is perhaps one of the most user-oriented A/B testing software that you could profit from at this point. Basically, it gives you prompt, precise answers to any questions that you may have on level of engagement, conversion rates, signups and clicks and more. It gives you the opportunity to test every little thing that goes on your website, from assets placement to the color of your buttons. Coding skills are not required, but constitute a major plus as they enable you to take this handy tool a step up.
You can definitely survive without all these handy tools, but why sweat more when you can have all the extra support that you may require at your fingertips? Whether you need a helping hand when it comes to creating, distributing and promoting content or analyzing the overall performance of your web writing, there are plenty of tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. Choose wisely and put them to good use to harvest the ripe, juicy fruits of your labor before anyone else.
Download your Free copy of How to Use BuzzSumo: The Ultimate Guide on Uncovering Hot Topics to Create Content Your Audience Will Love
[bctt tweet=”5 ways to use @buzzsumo to discover hot topics: 1️⃣ Analyze top-shared content 2️⃣ Find top niche influencers 3️⃣ Find trending topics 4️⃣ Use Topic Discovery to generate ideas 5️⃣ Analyze top YouTube content ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
We at Express Writers absolutely love BuzzSumo. In fact, we use it extensively for our content strategy services.
It allows us to:
[bctt tweet=”.@buzzsumo is your forensic tool for digging into your audience’s brain and finding out what they’re interested in ?️♀️. Learn how to use it like an expert:” username=”ExpWriters”]
[bctt tweet=”What if I told you about a hot content marketing tool that allows you to dig deep into your audience’s brain? ?✨ No, it’s not magic – it’s @buzzsumo! Learn how to use this mighty tool via @JuliaEMcCoy:” username=”ExpWriters”]
To get started, click on Content and select Web Content Analyzer.
Click on Search. What you’ll get is a list of content pieces with the highest number of engagement from your audience.
As you can see, a piece about Bill Gates and the coronavirus tops the list with 34.6K total engagements. This gives you a hint on what your audience is thinking about and the kind of content they want to read and share.
Want to filter your results by time? Simply click the filter button and select an option to see results from the last 24 hours, the past week, the past month, and as much as five years ago.
For example, here’s the result you’ll get when you choose the 24-hour filter.
The next step is to click on the top content pieces and find out why your audience loved them. What made them special? More importantly, how can you improve on them in your own content?
Here’s an example.
In the Authors search bar, you can find top authors by looking up a topic or domain. For example, here’s the results for a search on Forbes.com.
On the left side, you can see the author’s name and Twitter handle. On the right, you can see how many articles each author published, plus their average and total engagement.
Select View Top Content to see each author’s top pieces.
For example, here are the top results for Zack Friedman.
Looking for top influencers in your niche? Simply type in your desired keyword instead of a domain name in the search bar.
Here are the results for “content marketing.” (I come in at #2, yay! ?)
This will show you the top content pieces driving tons of engagement online.
On the left toolbar, you can filter your search by topics.
For example, click Fashion and you get this.
The magic is you can create your own custom feeds. Simply scroll down on the left-hand toolbar and click the plus sign beside the Custom Feeds option.
Use the filters to create your own custom feeds.
The filters allow you to add topics to your search, exclude results, and limit to or exclude certain domains. Here’s an example custom feed.
Click Update Feed and use it to filter your results. Here’s the top result for “content marketing trends.”
Is your audience looking for ways to win at SEO during COVID-19? Hmmm… You could write something on that.
[bctt tweet=”.@buzzsumo’s Topic Discovery tool is a great choice when you’re feeling stuck and need some inspirational brainwaves. Learn how to use it via @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
To start, go to Discover and select Topics.
Type a keyword in the search bar. Keep it broad to get a wide range of results. (You can always narrow it down later.)
What you’ll get is a brain cloud of content ideas for your chosen subject. The options in larger font are the options most relevant to your search.
Scroll down to go more in-depth on each keyword. You can find out great content ideas, common questions asked on the topics, and related keywords.
Want to test a term based on engagement? Click on it to view its performance over time. For instance, select “SEO tools” within the brain cloud. You get this.
Type your keyword into the search bar. For instance, this shows results for the keyword “guitar lessons.”
The amazing part is you can click on Analysis to find out the secrets behind high engagement on YouTube.
Want to find the top influencers on YouTube?
Head over to Influencers and select YouTube. Follow the same steps to finding top influencers in your industry.
Here are the top guitar lesson influencers on YouTube.
[bctt tweet=”Each piece of content you write must have its own specific goal. ? If you don’t have goals, you’ll be creating tons of random content that don’t fit into your overarching #contentmarketinggoals.” username=”ExpWriters”]
To guide my content, I came up with a unique concept I call the “three bucket strategy.” (Read more about this concept on my blog, Content Goals: Here’s How to Come Up With Profitable Content Marketing Ideas Using My 3-Bucket Topic Strategy. I also teach this in-depth in my comprehensive, 6-week Content Strategy and Marketing Course.)
See how BuzzSumo works flawlessly with an SEO tool?
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