SEO Content Has a Packaging Problem — Whiteboard Friday

What I believe and why I think SEO content has a packaging problem, is because the traditional way that we, as SEO content creators, have been encouraged to create content looks like this. Right? If we’re talking about any particular topic, let’s say, “how to train for a marathon,” it’d be very common for us to include a section, in the above-the-fold experience, that talks about what a marathon is.

Again, back to the fact that Google is not only answering the “What is a marathon?” for us. They’re also measuring how users are engaging with our content. And if somebody who’s searching for “how to train for a marathon,” lands on your content and sees this above the fold that says, “what is a marathon?” Guess what? Chances are they’re going to bounce. You’re going to be counted as a bad click, and you might lose some rankings and some traffic.

So, instead, what are you supposed to do? The answer is good news, right? We have already created the content, and it’s a matter of repackaging what we’ve already created. So instead of targeting the keyword “how to train for a marathon,” “do email marketing,” “start on a particular diet”? We have to understand that users care about different perspectives given the topic, and this how query can actually be broken into a variety of different perspectives that the user is likely to care about within their search journey. Things like: “What to consider before training for a marathon.” “Mistakes I made while starting a particular diet.” “Reasons not to do email marketing or TikTok marketing” and “Should I even get into SEO in this day and age?”

These as perspectives are going to be much more engaging and click-worthy for the end user, and they are going to have content above-the-fold experiences that are how I did this. How I did email marketing, how I tested subject lines to improve our open rates by 40%, instead of the “how to do email marketing?” “What is email marketing?” Test your subject lines, right? Very, very different but similar content.

Again, that is why I believe SEO content has a packaging problem. More or less, the content that we’re producing is there. We just need to infuse it with more firsthand, relatable experiences that people are going to trust, and the future of your success and SEO content, I believe, hinges on your ability to think about the user and not the search engine. Thank you.