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Looking for a way to unify your blog posts, add structure and purpose to an overly long piece of content, and see massive gains in the search rankings? Incorporating topic clusters could be an ideal way to improve your website’s user experience and refine your content strategy.

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Read on to learn how the use of a content cluster can transform a broad topic with disjointed blog posts into a focused strategy that produces significant organic traffic.

What are topic clusters in content marketing?

A topic cluster is a series of articles that covers various aspects of a single broad topic that is selected strategically to achieve content marketing goals. Topic clusters help you organize and structure the content on your website. Considering your marketing goals and target audience, you create a topic cluster of specific, related subtopics. Individually and as a whole, this content satisfies the search intent of potential customers.

Also known as a “content hub,” its structure resembles a bicycle wheel. Your core topic is the wheel itself. The central hub is the pillar page—a longer, wide-ranging article on the cope topic. The spokes are the various content cluster pages, each on a specific subject.

Why do I need topic clusters in content marketing?

Topic clusters make it easier for search engines to understand and rank your website. Creating a more comprehensive and interconnected set of content that covers a wider range of related topics helps establish your authority in your industry or niche. This can lead to higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). You may see increased organic traffic to your site and, ultimately, more conversions and sales. One internal linking campaign from Ninja Outreach found a 40% increase in organic traffic to their web pages thanks to implementing a topic cluster model.

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In short, topic clusters help you:

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• Create content that's more comprehensive and interconnected, and optimized for search engines.
• Improve user experience on your site.
• Support your overall content marketing strategy.

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It can also create content more efficiently. Once you’ve done the bulk of the work creating a pillar page, topic cluster pages are simpler to create since the research will apply to all of that content.

What’s an example of a topic cluster?

For example, let's say you run a website selling shoes. You have a long-form article that’s the definitive guide to women’s footwear. While the length of your article might promote your "E-E-A-T"—experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—the search results show that few people in your shoe-buying target audience want to read 6,000 words on the subject. This article, and your strategy behind it, isn’t working.

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Instead of hoping that one massive article with the targeted keyword "women’s footwear" will do the trick, you can use it as the hub of your topic cluster. You then break the topic of "women's footwear" into smaller, more targeted topics, based on keyword research.

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Restructure your original article on "women’s footwear" to be a pillar article that gives an overview of the subject with a focus on shoe-buying. This article is tighter and more concise than the original, but still provides an authoritative review of the subject to establish subject matter expertise. You probably can pull some of the original's material into your new "spoke" articles. These smaller, supporting articles might cover topics like boots, sandals, sneakers, stilettos, wedges, shoe sizes, summer footwear, and style trends.

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Organize your site to clearly show the relationship of these articles and make the effort of internally linking related content. Add internal links from the hub article to the cluster content and from spoke to spoke.

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Once you’ve published your articles, see where you’re getting traction so you can sharpen your understanding of user intent. Suppose you notice your audience is loving your page on sneakers but ignoring the one on stilettos. In that case, you might want to gear your future content marketing strategy towards casual footwear versus formal shoes. You might also improve the search engine optimization facets of that underperforming article.

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Because your content is relevant, insightful, well-researched, organized, and strategized, you should see substantial gains and more organic traffic.

How do I create a topic cluster?

So how do you get from one meandering article with disappointing search volume to a series of articles that boost each other's success? A topic cluster consists of a few key components that work together. Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Audit your existing content

Before you begin creating content, audit your website and that of your competitors to see what you already have and what you need. At rellify, our experienced experts perform thorough content audits. One of the main focuses of our free content audits is topic coverage or content gap analysis, which sets the foundation of a content strategy. That way, you can produce high-quality content that will outshine your competitors in a search query.

2. Establish your core topic

Based on the audit and additional keyword research, plus your marketing goals, you select a core topic or topics. Some of your subtopics—the spokes from your hub article—will use long-tail keywords to draw in different sets of readers who are on different points of the customer journey. Each article also will have a set of specific keywords meant to improve SEO performance, site authority, and search results. Now the stage is set for producing quality content.

3. Anchor with a pillar article

Write a pillar article to establish a base for the topic. Use the core topic as the focus keyword. However, if your core topic is broad enough, you might have more than one pillar article. One will have the core topic as the focus keyword. Choose the focus keyword for the others based on your research.

4. Create your content cluster pages

These cluster pages, also known as subpages or subtopic pages, will expand on the pillar article and include links to it and each other. These pages can help direct a customer journey from research to purchase. The structure of the pillar article should make it easy to find the section on summer footwear, and a reader interested in flip-flops can click on the link to it. Or, a Google search might take a reader straight to the spoke article.

5. Organize internal linking

If we have not made it clear by now, internal linking is a vital part of this strategy. Organizing internal links is a way of guiding users on the content journey. You want to give your audience the right tools, aka “cluster pages,” that will fully answer any user query. The traffic generated by those links also signals to Google that your site has authority and relevance.

6. Use analytics to track your results

What gets measured gets done, and SEO tools like Google Analytics can give you great insights into the success of this marketing strategy. Track the average user journey. What part of the content do your users like? What aren’t they reading? Use these analytics to guide your content strategy and next steps.

What if I’m not seeing results from my topic clusters?

While several bloggers and companies have successfully transformed long-form content into multiple topic clusters, extraordinary results might not always be the case. If you still lack the traffic boost you’re looking for, go back to your core keyword and ensure your pillar article and cluster pages support it effectively. Here are a few questions to consider.

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• Have you identified the appropriate target topics your audience really cares about?
• Are there gaps in supporting pages you need to fill to be the industry authority? So if you’re writing a topic cluster about ice cream, do you only have the basics like chocolate and vanilla? Are there other related keywords like strawberry or caramel that you should pay attention to boost your results?
• Does this particular topic cluster match my company’s overall mission and area of expertise? If not, how can you ensure that what you’re writing about aligns with those objectives?

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If you can answer those questions and still aren’t seeing a content boost, be patient. Sometimes it takes a while for your pillar pages and their offshoots to index on Google. You might also want to make sure your technical SEO components are optimized. When you write targeted, well-structured articles your audience cares about, you should soon see the desired search engine results.

Need help creating topic clusters?

While topic clusters can generate big results in your content marketing strategy, they can be difficult to implement effectively on your own. That’s where the experts at rellify come in. Their expert content teams can work with your business to help produce an in-depth content audit. They’ll also help you hone in on your audience and create quality content people want to read. Contact them for a consultation to ensure your new articles and content clusters deliver the value you need.

By Jayne Schultheis — Do you have product pages, blog posts, or landing pages that fail to drive much web traffic despite you jumping through all the right SEO hoops? The cause may be something that many site owners have never considered: keyword cannibalization.

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Keyword cannibalization is a common, yet often overlooked issue that can do a lot of damage to your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) performance. In this article, we’ll delve into what it is and why it’s detrimental to a site’s search engine rankings. Most importantly, we’ll cover how to resolve it effectively.

What is keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is the negative impact of multiple pages on a website targeting the same keyword or phrase. When this occurs, it’s difficult for search engines to determine which of the multiple URLs to rank for that keyword. As a result, the pages may end up competing against each other in search results.

What are the negative effects of keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization, and the closely related content cannibalization, can significantly impact how Google crawlers interact with your website and subsequently affect your rankings. When multiple pages target the same keyword, it:

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• Dilutes the website's authority on that topic, making it harder for any single page to emerge as a definitive source of information.
• Leads to inefficient use of your crawl budget, as bots spend more time navigating through similar content rather than focusing on more unique, high-value pages.
• Damages the user experience.
• Depresses conversion rates.
• Confuses potential customers who are redirected between competing pages.
• Reduces the likelihood of any single page achieving its intended goal.

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As a result, the visibility of your primary or preferred page diminishes, leading to a lower overall search ranking. If you notice that rankings of your URLs is changing rapidly, that's a potential clue that keyword cannibalization is taking place.

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Your backlinks will also become diluted when they're spread across multiple pages instead of a single page. In other words, five backlinks to one article is better than two backlinks for one article and three for its keyword cannibalization companion. Considering how difficult link-building is, this is a tragedy.

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With all of these factors combined, your overall domain authority may become weakened. This often leads to a lower overall ranking on SERPs.

How do you avoid keyword cannibalization?

To avoid keyword cannibalization, you have to start at the very beginning of the pipeline: conduct thorough keyword research before diving into content production. This will include determining a unique focus keyword or phrase for each web page. Long-tail keywords are often best, as they provide more unique content and a better chance of ranking.

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Beyond the diversification of the content itself, it's also crucial to ensure that your meta-tags and URLs are distinct and do not overlap in addressing the same user questions.

How do you fix keyword cannibalization?

To address keyword cannibalization, several strategies can be employed, tailored to the performance of the competing content.

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One effective approach is to merge the overlapping content by implementing redirects or canonical tags. In this method, you should evaluate which page has:

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• Better web traffic
• Higher SERP rankings
• Lower bounce rates
• Stronger social media signals
• Better keyword density
• Better synchronization with user search intent

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Then, consolidate the competing pages into the one with superior metrics.

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Alternatively, if certain pages are underperforming or offer minimal value to your business or blog, consider deleting them or applying a noindex tag to prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This helps eliminate unnecessary competition and directs the search engine's focus to your most valuable content, enhancing overall site authority and improving search rankings.

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Here's a five-step process for solving this problem.

1. Identify keyword cannibalization

To identify where two or more pages are targeting the same (or closely related) keywords, crawl your website using SEO tools like Ahrefs, Google Search Console, or SemRush. You can also use a Google Search Operator. Simply type “site:(insert your website) (insert keyword)” into a Google search if you suspect you have two pages targeting the same keyword. If you have content that's published on different URLs, this is more accurately described as "duplicate content," which will inevitably lead to cannibalization. If you want a comprehensive content audit, contact an expert at Rellify. We recognize the harm that keyword cannibalization and duplicate content can cause. That's wy the Rellify platform also alerts authors if they try to create an article with a focus keyword that’s already been used.

2. Evaluate the pages and choose a primary

Review all the pages competing for the same keyword. What's the purpose and quality of each page? Identify which one is the most relevant and valuable for that target keyword. It should be the page with the highest relevance, value, user search intent match, and potential to rank well in search engine results. This is your primary page.

3. Decide on the most effective resolution

What do you do with the non-primary page or pages? If it has valuable content that can complement the primary page, consider merging the content and redirecting the old URL(s) to the primary page by implementing redirects or canonical tags. Alternatively, if certain pages are underperforming or offer minimal value to your business or blog, consider deleting them or applying a noindex tag to prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This helps eliminate unnecessary competition and directs the search engine's focus to your most valuable content.

4. Improve the primary page

Optimize the primary page for the target keyword by strengthening the title tag, meta description, headings, and content. Boost the page's authority by adding internal links from other relevant pages on your website. Use descriptive anchor text that includes the targeted keyword. A canonical tag can also help search engines understand that this is the “master page” among any similar content on your website. Since you are revisiting this page, update it with any fresh information or developments. Make sure the page provides valuable and unique information to users and follows SEO best practices.

5. Monitor performance

Use analytics tools to monitor the performance of the primary page in search engine rankings. Choose the right KPIs to track, check for improvements, and adjust your strategy as needed. Regularly review your website for instances of keyword cannibalism and address any issues that arise. Regular audits will help you maintain a healthy site structure and maximize your SEO efforts. Be sure to educate your content marketing team on keyword cannibalization, how to identify it, and how to address it.

Get help fixing keyword cannibalization

Identifying keyword cannibalization can be a tricky task, especially if you have a robust website filled with lots of content. And once you find it, fixing keyword cannibalization problems can take a lot of time and effort. That’s where Rellify comes in.

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The experts at Rellify can help by quickly conducting a thorough audit of your website and its content. We’ll flag instances of multiple pages targeting the same keyword. And we’ll help determine a keyword strategy that most effectively gets your content ranking higher on Google search results pages. Contact an expert at Rellify to learn how our state-of-the-art content optimization and creation services can help revamp your entire digital marketing strategy.

By Dan Duke — Blogs have come a long way since their inception in 1994. And they’re still at the forefront of online marketing. Blogs have become a tremendous asset for businesses looking to reach their target audience via web searches. Ready to get more site visitors who will turn into valuable customers? Read on to learn why your business needs a blog and how to use one effectively.

What is a blog?

Think of a blog as a kind of forum. The term “weblog” surfaced in 1997, when people had begun sharing information about their personal lives and observations on their websites. People still use blogs the same way, and many have found that monetization enables them to turn their blogs into a lucrative business.

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Some blogs are websites that present a series of brief items with links to other web pages, presented with the newest items at the top. For most businesses, the blog is a section of the website placed under a header of "Insights," "Learning Center," "Resources," or, simply, "Blog."

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In that blog section, a business can engage branding and storytelling to reach potential customers and establish itself as a serious player in its niche. The posts lined up there can include product updates, company announcements, explorations of industry trends, and articles — from quick-hitters to in-depth guides — that show thought leadership.

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Blogs have become an essential part of content marketing. As such, businesses realize the need for a content strategy and finding the best blogging platforms. (WordPress is the most popular content management system.)

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According to Forbes Advisor report on content marketing, 74% of companies say that it has boosted lead generation. The report also says content marketing campaigns cost 62% less to launch and maintain compared to other types of campaigns.

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Blogging is an excellent technique for reader engagement. Far from the "mommy blogs" of the 2000s, today's business blogs provide a cost-effective way to market your business and engage with customers.

What are the benefits of having a blog?

With the power and extended reach of the internet, blogs are a powerful tool for both small businesses and big guys alike who are looking to establish or expand a strong customer base and boost brand presence. Let’s look at nine specific ways a blog can help.

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1. It drives traffic to your website

Whenever you create and publish a blog post with fresh, relevant content, it’s one more indexed page on your website. This means one more opportunity for you to show up on the search engine results pages and drive organic search traffic to your website.

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According to Hubspot, businesses with blogs get 55% more website traffic than businesses without one.

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However, it’s important to note that blogs provide an opportunity for this type of boost in traffic. To maximize your returns on this content, you’ll want to focus on search engine optimization as you write. This means using the right SEO tools for keyword research, following SEO best practices, tracking the right analytics, and refining your process to see what works.

2. It produces long-term results

When you buy ads, any gain in traffic ends when your ad-buy ends. A blog can yield results for years.

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This is welcome news, because content creation isn't easy — at least not for quality content. It requires planning, creativity, and great attention to detail. It pays off for the long haul, though. Once you post a new page on your blog, it can immediately start getting traffic. Because of internal linking and backlinks, each new blog page can generate traffic for other parts of your website, too.

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Even better, those pages can pay dividends for years. That's especially true for evergreen content, which is written specifically to stay relevant for a long time. The only thing you need to do is update the blog posts from time to time to make sure the information is up to date and the links still work. Tools like Google Analytics — and Rellify's Monitoring services — will help you keep track of your contents' performance so you'll know when to update.

3. It builds and expands brand recognition

People tend to choose what is most familiar to them. Visibility is crucial if you want potential customers to recognize and choose your brand. This is where a blog with highly-optimized and well-written content comes in handy. You’ll start to show up higher in search engines when people search for topics, long-tail keywords, and related terms that your blog incorporates.

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Guest posting is another way to use blogs to increase your brand's exposure. Invite a recognized expert in your field to write a blog post for you. Each party can link to the other's website to build readership. With the right guest blogger — like a popular social media personality — this can become a form of influencer collaboration. You might even produce that rare and delightful internet phenomenon: viral content. The catch is, trying to go viral doesn't work. It happens when creativity and genuine love for a topic come together.

4. It establishes expertise, authority, and trust

To take it a step further, the people exposed to your brand must associate it with trust and expertise. Content marketing through blogging can help convey your business’s value and expertise in ways that traditional advertising can’t. Fill your content calendar with a steady flow of creative, authoritative blog posts that demonstrate expert knowledge and experience. You'll encourage people who are saying “I know this brand” to start saying: “I trust this brand.”

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Additionally, you can use your blog to respond to comments and feedback from readers. This helps build relationships with customers and demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction through communication. Increasing trust with your audience is a powerful way to persuade them to choose you over a competitor.

5. You can repurpose blog content for marketing across channels

Blog content on your website has value beyond indexing on search engines. The content you publish can be repurposed and distributed wherever your target audience likes to hang out. Content distribution strategy can include using multiple channels to deliver messages to customers. Digital marketing experts know that choosing the right ways to distribute your content is just as important as the content itself.

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You can re-purpose your company blogs in different, creative ways. To start, we recommend breaking down a blog article into smaller, stand-alone segments. From there, you can post it on social media platforms as a series. An alternative is to boil one blog post down to just the main points. You can also create visuals that explain the key points of the blog post or use quotes from the post to create a social media post or drive an email marketing campaign.

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Going in the other direction, individual blog posts can be combined to form a guide or a white paper and promoted across marketing channels. White papers are great for supplementing a company newsletter or an email campaign and for getting leads by requiring people to register to download them.

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When blogs consist primarily of video content, we call it vlogging. Video is a powerful tool for reader engagement on blogs, and it can work great in social media posts.

6. Blogs help convert traffic into leads

A blog is an effective tool for moving potential customers through a sales funnel. According to DemandCentric, companies with blogs generate an average of 67% more leads every month than companies without one.

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More and more, shoppers do research on the internet before making a purchase. When they search for answers related to your product and service, you want to have quality content developed to pop up at the top of search engine results. The care and expertise you show in that content can turn traffic into leads and leads into buyers.

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This is why seemingly esoteric things, like user experience and blog design, are really bottom-line issues. A clean, well-designed blog with quality content and calls to action make it easy for a shopper to realize your value. Consistent use of calls to action will encourage visitors to fill out a contact form, subscribe to an email list, schedule a product demonstration, or even buy your product.

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You can build relationships with readers by tailoring your blog content to visitors’ interests. They may become loyal followers, re-visiting and sharing your content, and driving traffic to your website. Loyal blog followers are a great asset when it comes to finding a steady stream of potential leads and boosting your conversion rate.

7. It promotes link building

Proper internal linking is rewarded in search engine indexing because it establishes “page authority.” Having a quantity of internal links proves that you’re more than a one-trick (or a one blog post) pony. It shows you have an abundance of interesting content and a broad understanding of related topics in your industry. “Experts” have lots to say.

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Furthermore, blogging provides a platform for content that includes relevant links to other high-quality websites. This type of external linking can help increase the content’s visibility and improve the website’s search engine rankings. Just be sure you’re not linking to the websites of your competitors.

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Blogging can also be used to create mutual relationships with other well-established websites, resulting in backlinks to your site.

8. A blog helps you share company news

Your brand is likely doing exciting new things — growing as a business, releasing new products, providing new services. When you keep your visitors updated with news and new content on the company blog, you show that your brand is relevant. Visitors want to see that people are increasingly investing in and engaging with your brand for a good reason.

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9. You experience continued education and expertise

A blog isn’t just about educating your audience and customers. Blogging can be a helpful tool in your own education and research as you continue to grow as a company. By researching and distilling the information into palatable formats, you’re becoming an expert on topics important to your audiences. That information also educates your entire workforce. The mass of knowledge becomes a powerful resource as your company grows.

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Here’s why your business needs a blog

The bottom line: Most likely, your business needs a blog. Any company with an online presence can reap the benefits of this tried-and-true marketing strategy. If you’re ready to start blogging but need guidance from experts, Rellify can help. We work with companies of all sizes in many industries, providing auditing, creating content, and optimizing existing content. With Rellify’s help, your blog and your business can be found more easily by search engines.

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Contact a rellify representative to learn how our expert content services can provide your business with real, relevant results.

By Dan Duke -Content performance doesn’t hinge on how much time, money, and resources you have. Spend them all in abundance, but you’ll get results only if you create compelling content that resonates with your target audience.

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If you want to know how well your content marketing efforts are working — in other words, your content performance — keep two things in focus: your goals for the content and the KPIs for those goals. And in this article, we will show you how to maintain that focus.

How do you measure content performance?

To gauge how well your content performs, develop a clear picture of precisely what you want it to accomplish. You can’t really determine your content marketing ROI until you know what returns you are after.

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In the context of digital marketing, we can assess content performance across a wide range of measurable, quantifiable key performance indicators (KPIs). These include things like total page views, bounce rate, conversion rates, and revenue.

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The key is to prioritize the KPIs and content marketing metrics that matter most to your specific company. If you want to increase brand awareness, measurements relating to total Google impressions might be a good place to start. Are you trying to captivate your audience so they spend hours on your page? Then focus your content strategy on high search traffic, low bounce rate, and average session duration.

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It feels great when your content checks all the boxes. But that actually could be a sign that you are wasting resources. Ideally, you want to exert only enough to achieve or surpass your business goals.

How to use KPIs to boost content performance

To maximize your online content efforts, you must measure the right metrics. But how do you pick the right ones?

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“Better user experience” and “increased brand awareness” are hard to pin down, so attempts to measure them aren’t likely to provide actionable insights. When you’re measuring content performance, stick with categories that quantify content engagement and give reliable performance data.

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Let’s say you’re investing a lot of resources in content marketing related to content optimization and higher search rankings. If so, it could take up to six months or even a year in a competitive topic before seeing traction. Alternatively, you could know right away whether your social media channels or email marketing campaigns are engaging your audience.

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That said, your company should evaluate several digital marketing KPIs. Remember, even after implementing a new marketing campaign, it could take at least a few months to get the insights you’re looking for from your audience analytics.

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The good news is that if you are creating quality, relevant content, most of these marketing metrics will reflect that. If your digital marketing efforts aren’t great, your KPIs will show you how to improve it. Here are a few performance metrics to choose from for evaluating your content marketing strategy.

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• Search engine rankings. How well are your pages performing compared with your competitors in search engine results? Many factors are involved here, but domain authority and SEO optimization are crucial.
• Unique page visits. This is the number of different visitors who come to your page from an external site within a certain period. Repeat visits don't count.
• Impressions. Every time a person sees a link to an ad, video, or search result online, it counts as an impression. The user doesn't need to actually click on something or interact with it for it to count.
• Total page views. This shows that your pages are establishing authority and pulling in visitors. Here's a tip: Use Google Analytics to learn how those visitors find you and what they do on your site.
• Time on page. The more time people spend on your pages (measured as the average session duration), the more value those pages provide. Visual content is an important factor here.
• Bounce rate. This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site altogether rather than progressing to other pages. You want a low bounce rate, with people going from a blog post to a product page or to a page where they can sign up for a demo.
• Click-through rate. This compares the number of times a visitor clicks on a link on a page (or email or online ad) to the total number of people who saw the link. If 100 readers call up a blog post and 6 of them click on a video on that page, that's a 6% click-through rate.
• Cost per click. This is a way of measuring the cost of advertising. It shows how much you pay per click for an ad.
• Cost per acquisition. This reflects how much you spend to gain a new customer.
• Comments, likes, social shares. These are great engagement metrics, because they show that your content compelled users to react. It can help you tailor future content. This is how viral content gets its start.
• Links. You can guide people to other pages on your site with internal links. External links send people to you from other sites. An external link from a high-traffic, trusted website is quite valuable. It pays to have a good backlink strategy for building up external links.
• Conversion rate. Divide the total number of visitors by the number of people who take the desired action (click on an ad or download a white paper, for example) to get the conversion rate. And conversion is the ultimate form of user engagement.
• Organic search/paid search. When people come to you through search engine results, it's organic search. Paid search comes to you through ads.
• Revenue. This is the money you bring in from your digital marketing efforts.

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How to improve content performance

Having clear, quantifiable digital marketing objectives makes it easier to improve your performance. Traffic growth alone is not enough; you need to reach the right people — the ones likely to become customers. You may need the help of experienced content marketers with the right tools to help you refine your future content marketing strategy.

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To give you an example of how that can work in your favor, let's look at what Rellify can do to help you improve content performance.

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We develop AI-driven content strategy to deliver measurable results. We can create a Relliverse™ for each client — a custom-AI subject-matter expert trained on your relevant focus topics. Using deep machine learning, we'll crawl and analyze your website and those of your competitors. It's like a content audit on steroids, and we can use the data to identify your best content opportunities.

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In a few minutes, you can accomplish the kind of competitive analysis, topic modeling and keyword research that otherwise can take days or weeks. With a few clicks, you can have a content calendar filled with relevant material.

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Use our generative AI tools and the expertise of your own writers and editors in any combination you wish to develop briefs and content at scale. And after our platform helps to make content creation efficient and effective, our performance tracking tools will help you monitor the results of the work.

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In addition to creating new content for your target audience, Rellify can help you update blog posts, white papers and FAQs to reflect content trends, improve your company image and boost search engine rankings. We'll also guide you on content repurposing.

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‍Contact Rellify today to discover how to revolutionize your content strategy and create meaningful content that engages your target audience.

By Dan Duke — The term "organic traffic" refers to all the visits to your website that result from clicks on search engine results for which you have not paid. Organic traffic is the opposite of paid traffic, which is generated, for example, by Google Ads or sponsored entries on a search engine.

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Organic traffic doesn't pile up recurring pay per click (PPC) costs, like Google Ads or ads in other search engines, but it's not free either. To generate organic traffic to your website, you need to offer relevant content. This is because search engines use AI to recognize whether content is relevant and will fully answer a search query. If your content achieves this, it may be ranked highly and show up on the first page of SERPs. If your content is not relevant, search engines probably won't offer it up as one of the top results, and it will have little chance of generating organic traffic.

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In short: relevance increases the visibility of your content. More visibility, especially on the first page of search results, leads to more clicks. More clicks on unpaid links means more organic traffic for your website.

How dependent is organic traffic on Google ranking?

Organic traffic depends almost entirely on Google rankings. When you do a search, you might see the top few results labeled as "Sponsored" or "Ad." However, research indicates that about 94% of all consumers skip those paid placements to look for the unpaid links below. Organic traffic comes from clicks on those unpaid links. Content marketers also know that very few people go to the second page of search results. Therefore, to increase organic traffic, it is necessary to appear in the top 10 or so search results whenever possible.

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The competition for those top spots is fierce, and a huge content marketing industry is dedicated to nothing other than search engine optimization (SEO). This is the name given to the efforts made to place content at the top of search engine results. Much of that effort involves satisfying certain formal and technical requirements of Google and the Google search algorithms.

How can I boost Google rankings to drive organic traffic?

The field of search engine optimization is all about helping your blogging efforts  generate more organic traffic. It's a complicated, multi-faceted undertaking. Let's look at the different types of SEO measures that can lead to success.

Content SEO

Content optimization focuses on the quality of the content offered. The first step in producing relevant content that can generate organic traffic is to find the right topics to cover.

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Keyword research is at the heart of relevant content. When Google looks for content to answer a search query, a keyword-rich article will have more credibility than an article with few of the keywords. How could an article answer a query about, for example, organic traffic, without using that phrase and many related words?

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At Rellify, we provide clients with a Relliverse™, an in-house, customized AI subject-matter expert that identifies their best content opportunities. Using deep machine learning, we analyze a client's website and its competitors' sites and then cluster the data by main topics, level 1 subtopics, level 2 subtopics, and level 3 subtopics, taking into account millions of data points.

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This competitive analysis helps clients to quickly create highly personalized and relevant content that resonates with their target audiences. We supply a list of focus keywords for articles — often the long-tail keywords that are more specific than general terms and thus reflect the user intent behind online searches.

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Let's look at some other aspects of content optimization.

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• On-page SEO refers to the optimization of individual web pages to improve their search engine rankings. It involves elements like content quality, keyword use, meta tags, alt text, and internal linking. Its effectiveness can be measured through SEO metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic, bounce rates, and page speed.
• ‍Off-page SEO involves factors outside a website that affect its search engine rankings. It centers on building high-quality backlinks from other reputable sites, online brand mentions, and social media marketing. (Social media marketing will help build social traffic — users who come to you through social networks and platforms.) Off-page SEO can be measured through metrics like link building, domain authority, referral traffic, and social signals, which collectively indicate the website's credibility and popularity on the internet.
• Local SEO is part of off-page SEO. It focuses on search results for location-specific queries, helping businesses attract customers from their geographic area. It involves strategies like optimizing Google My Business listings, using local keywords, and acquiring customer reviews.
• E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Google wants to make every user experience satisfying by immediately providing exactly what a searcher wants. Part of how it achieves that is an emphasis on E-E-A-T. This type of content exudes relevance. It builds the credibility of your website and brand. It can attract highly coveted backlinks from other reputable websites. It has long-lasting value because the information it provides is not "of the moment," it is evergreen. It has the potential to generate organic traffic for years.
• ‍‍Vigilance is an often-overlooked part of generating organic traffic. Even the most evergreen of content needs to be updated from time to time. Perhaps a new study has been done that could make an important point in your article. Some information might need to be updated. Or the keywords simply need to be refreshed. Regular monitoring and updating of website content is vital. You can use tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor how your content is doing. Rellify's AI-powered platform makes this an easy task.

Technical SEO

‍Technical SEO focuses on satisfying certain formal and technical requirements of Google through site architecture, structure, content and more. The goal is to help search engines and website users quickly find what they are looking for. Here are some technical SEO issues you might need to address.

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• Maximize site and page speed. This helps to improve the user experience.
• Find and fix crawl errors. Crawl errors occur when a search engine tries to reach a page on a website but fails. If the page isn't reachable, it's not indexable and won't be ranked for SERPs.
• Fix broken internal and external links. Problems with internal linking (links between your own web pages) and external linking (links between your website's pages and other sites' pages) frustrate both users and search engines. To fix broken links, update the target URL or remove the link if the destination page no longer exists.
• Avoid duplicate content. While doing periodic website audits, look for duplicate content, which may arise from scrapped or copied content or the replication of pages from faceted navigation when multiple versions of the site are live.
• Migrate to HTTPS. Hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), the secure version of HTTP, is a technical SEO ranking factor. HTTPS protects your visitors’ data their web browser interacts with your website.
• Use a clean URL structure. Overly complex URLs can cause problems for crawlers. Whenever possible, clean up and shorten your URLs by trimming unnecessary parameters.
• Optimize the XML sitemap. Sitemaps are files that webmasters can create and submit to tell search engines about web pages they would like crawled and indexed for SERPs. Check the index coverage report in Google Search Console to discover and fix index errors related to your XML sitemap.
• Optimize your robots.txt file. Robots.txt files guide Googlebot and other search engine robots on how to access, crawl and index your website. Include the location of your XML sitemap in your robots.txt file and make sure your robots.txt file does not block pages that you want found by the public. Google’s robots.txt tester can tell you if your file is working.
• Add structured data or schema markup. Schema markup and other structured data give Google context about the importance of a page and helps your organic listings stand out in SERPs.
• Use responsive design. Mobile-first indexing is a significant ranking factor, so mobile optimization is a critical aspect of technical SEO. Responsive design allows a web page to look its best whether the user is on a smartphone, laptop or any other device.

Pros and cons of organic traffic

As you can see, organic traffic does not come easily. Let's review the positive and negative aspects.

Advantages of organic traffic

• Higher user trust in organic search results compared to paid results.
• Generation of continuous and free traffic.
• Gaining expert status in a specific field.

Disadvantages of organic traffic

• It takes weeks or possibly months to build organic traffic with quality content.
• It requires a great deal of expertise.
• SEO strategy must be constantly adapted and content must be monitored and updated, otherwise there is a risk of losing organic traffic.

How to build organic traffic

‍Google uses AI to decide what content is placed in a position to generate organic traffic. Shouldn't you use AI to create meaningful blog articles that have a shot to rank at the top of SERPs?

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At Rellify, no aspect of content creation is left to chance. We use a unique, award-winning approach to content marketing backed by AI. But we go further by giving you the option to employ human intelligence and creativity along the way. Or, if you like, we can supply you with expert services and create content for you.

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Get your content at the top of search engine results. Pull users to your site with a high click-through rate. Turn people searching for answers on the internet into customers and then advocates for your business. Contact Rellify today to revolutionize your content strategy and create meaningful content that engages your target audience.

By Dan Duke — You need your content to be seen by a specific audience, to generate quality leads, and to encourage those leads to become customers. Everyone does. But not everyone knows how to use SEO writing to craft messages to accomplish that.

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SEO writing means creating content for two very different audiences. The first audience is the people looking for answers from Google and other search engines. The second audience is the search engines themselves, and content should be structured to make it easy for them to find and assess.

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SEO writing involves a lot of moving parts. We will cover a lot in this article, and will start with the thing that's at the heart of the matter: content quality.

Content quality

Content quality determines how well a piece of writing communicates its message to its audience. High-quality content is clear, accurate, and easy to understand. It's relevant to your target audience and satisfies their search intent. It also delivers reliable, expert-level insights and information. Blog posts with high content quality can help to establish credibility, build trust, and attract and retain readers

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Content quality helps to drive search engine rankings and increase the chances of getting shared and linked to by other websites. Producing high-quality content is one of the most important of all SEO strategies.

What is SEO writing?

SEO writing focuses on producing content that is optimized for search engines so it has a better chance of ranking well and being more visible to more people.

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It's a close cousin to content optimization, which is creating content with the depth and expertise necessary to answer a user's query on a search engine. Content optimization gives readers something worth finding and SEO writing increases that content's chances of being found. They go hand in hand, and there is some overlap between the two.

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Both processes start with researching and identifying target keywords that are relevant to the topic and can act as the theme of an article that has a good chance to rank well. These often are long-tail keywords, keywords that closely reflect the specific intent and wording that people use in online searches. They have good search volume, which indicates an opportunity to reach people, but are not competing with broad, overarching terms that will be tough to rank high in.

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Writers then use related keywords strategically in the text, subheads, and other parts of the article. Keyword density helps search engines determine that the content will provide the answers people are looking for.

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To excel at SEO writing, we need to understand how search engines work and what ranking factors are used to rank websites. We must consider what is motivating the people searching for information. Are they just beginning to research a product or service? Are they ready to buy? What problem is causing them to search for answers? By satisfying those demands, good SEO writing can help you reach your target customers and drive more traffic to a website.

Why is getting on Google’s first page so important?

Google is the most widely used, largest search engine in the world. Appearing on the first page of Google's organic search results significantly increases the visibility of a website. The higher your content ranks in Google searches, the higher the click-through rate (CTR) will be. Users not only find your content, but click on it and go to your website.

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According to research by Sistrix on Google and CTR, 28.5% of Google users click the first organic result. The second position gets 15.7%, and the third position gets 11%. The click-through rate for results beyond the 10th organic ranking were so low that Sistrex didn't even bother to analyze them.

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Appearing on the first page of Google search results not only gets you organic traffic, but also helps build credibility and name recognition with potential customers.

9 must-follow SEO writing rules

To produce high-quality content and boost your organic traffic, add these techniques to your writing process. Content is the key to driving more traffic to your site.‍

Have a plan for topics and keywords

Before writing anything, you should have a plan for your content. We call it content ideation. You should know the goals for this content and your target readers. Do the research necessary to develop a list of topics, using search volume and keyword difficulty.

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Before writing blog posts for each topic, identify the target keywords and related words that you will optimize for. Keyword research can help you create content that's relevant and focused on the topics most important to your business, website, and audience. We mentioned long-tail keywords earlier, but here's an important fact. The Sistrix study also showed that when people searched for long-tail keywords on Google, the results included fewer featured snippets, boxes, and other items that take attention away from organic results. So using long-tail keywords for your content means users will will see fewer distracting features from Google and a higher proportion of organic results.

Use keywords in your on-page SEO elements

Use your identified keywords strategically in your content's meta tags — the title, meta description, and headings — as well as the body of your content. On-page SEO includes a wide range of techniques for tailoring your site and each page to gain the most traffic. This particular technique helps search engines understand the content's topic and rank it more highly on search engine results pages.

Write for people

Your content should be informative and engaging, providing value to readers and addressing their needs and interests. This can help to build trust and credibility with your audience and improve user engagement. Use a clear structure and formatting to make the article easy to read and understand. Subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs break up the text and make it easier to scan.‍

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Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have come a long way. But they aren't sophisticated enough to cover all the SEO bases while addressing topics with creativity and the specific voice suited to a target customer. You want to write content with natural language that seamlessly includes relevant keywords. At the end of the day, quality content is king.

Develop a strategy for backlinks

Link-building, an essential part of off-page SEO, involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own site. These links, called backlinks or inbound links, are a ranking factor for Google SERPs. Backlinks from well-respected sites show search engines that your website is reputable, trustworthy, and authoritative. Search engines see such links as a vote of confidence for your site.

Use external and internal links

Use internal links to send readers from one article on your site to other relevant content. This can improve the user experience on your site and keep people there longer. They also make it easier for search engines to discover, crawl, and index your pages. Show Google that you're not a one-trick-pony by directing them to other great content on your site.

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External links send readers from your site to another authoritative source to get more information. Avoid sending them to your competitor's site and choose only relevant, authoritative sites for external links.

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In either case, use a keyword or phrase whenever possible as your anchor text, which appears as the highlighted text users can click on. You'll want to choose anchor text that reflects the language in the meta title of the linked article.

Produce evergreen content

Evergreen content is material you post on your website that is optimized to offer value and rank high in search engine results for a long period of time. It provides in-depth information that’s relevant to a user’s search on core topics. Because the content stays meaningful and useful for years, it gives consistent content marketing results.

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Evergreen pieces save you time and energy. You write them once and update them occasionally, and they give you a strong, lasting return on your investment (ROI).

Optimize images and other media

Images and other media can play a valuable role in SEO content. Use your focus keyword in the image alt data — fields that provide captions and otherwise describe the images. This helps search engines understand the content of your images and media, as well as give you credit for them.

Regularly update and refresh your content

Search engines prioritize fresh, up-to-date, quality content. In addition, the Google algorithms for search change from time to time. To stay current and relevant, and to react to changes in search engines and marketing, regularly update and refresh your content.

Monitor and analyze your performance

Use SEO tools, analytics, and KPIs (key performance indicators) to monitor the performance of your content. This can help you understand what is working well and what can be improved. Then, you can make changes to your content and SEO strategy as needed to pull up your SEO metrics, such as bounce rate, page speed, domain authority, and backlinks.

Apply technical SEO

Remember when we mentioned at the beginning of this article that SEO writing has a lot of moving parts? In addition to everything else we've talked about, there is the matter of of technical SEO. There are dozens of details to attend to regarding content, site architecture, structure, and other factors that help search engines and website users find, assess, and enjoy your content. Here are a few key elements that will augment your efforts at great SEO writing.

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• Site speed and performance. Optimize your page load times and minimize your server response times. You can also leverage caching techniques and image optimization to improve the user experience. This helps keep bounce rates low, too. If you're doing site updates or maintenance, implement 301 redirects to keep the website easy to navigate for both crawlers and visitors. A website with too many 404 errors will inevitably have poor SEO.
• Mobile optimization. The website should use responsive design and operate well on different devices and screen sizes.
• Indexing and crawling. Make sure search engine bots are able to crawl and index the website effectively by properly using robots.txt, meta robots tags, and XML sitemaps.
• Schema markup. Add structured data to help search engines understand the content and context of web pages.
• Canonicalization. Avoid duplicate content issues by using canonical tags and setting preferred URLs.

SEO writing tools

Every SEO writer should be familiar with tools to help bridge the gap between content creation and optimization. Here are a few common tools for content writers.‍

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• Keyword research and analysis tools. These tools can help you identify the most relevant and valuable keywords or phrases to target in your content. They can also provide data on the search volume and competition for search queries and important keywords. This kind of data can help you understand how to use the words effectively in your content. Examples include Rellify, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Keywords Everywhere.
• Content creation and editing tools. These tools can help you create and edit your content. Features can include spell check, grammar check, and suggestions for improving the readability of your text. Examples include Grammarly and OneLook Reverse Dictionary.
• SEO optimization tools. These tools can provide suggestions for improving the use of keywords. They can also help optimize the structure and formatting of content and implement other factors affecting your search engine rankings. Examples include Rellify, SEO Surfer, and Frase.
• Analytics and reporting tools. These tools can help you track the performance of your content in organic search results. They can provide data on your rankings, traffic, and other metrics. The information can help you understand exactly how your content is performing. It can also help address what changes you can make to improve your search engine rankings. Examples include Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Moz, and SemRush.
• Collaboration and project management tools. These tools can help you coordinate and communicate effectively. They're especially useful if you are working with a team on your SEO-friendly content. These platforms can provide features like shared calendars, task lists, and document sharing to help manage projects and work efficiently. Examples include Asana, ClickUp, Monday, and Trello.‍

What skills should an SEO writer have?

To become a complete SEO content writer, you need to offer more than good writing and editing. Develop or sharpen these skills:

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• Research and keyword analysis. Learn to research and identify target keywords or phrases that rank and are relevant to your content. You should also be able to analyze keyword data like search volume and keyword difficulty to understand how to use guide content creation.
• Understanding of search engine algorithms. Become an expert on how search engines work and what factors they consider when ranking content. This knowledge will help you write blog posts that account for factors like topic relevance, SEO, readability, and expert authority.
• Flexibility and adaptability. Learn to adapt your writing style and approach for different clients and projects. Be prepared to adjust your SEO writing based on changes to search engine algorithms and best practices.
• Strong communication skills. Communicate effectively with clients, team members, and other stakeholders. That will help you meet the needs and requirements of each project and connect with each target audience. Also, you might work with clients who have different levels of expertise in SEO content and will need to communication with them at different levels.  

Get help with SEO writing from the experts

As you can see, SEO writing is an important part of content strategy, but it's not an easy thing to master. Writing simultaneously for search engines and people can challenge even experienced SEO writers. That’s why so many businesses have found success by combining dynamic new technology with human expertise. That's where Rellify comes in.

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Our content management system can help you create the right content now with AI-driven content strategy for your best topics. With our winning blend of technology and human capabilities, Rellify covers the entire lifecycle of the content creation process. Rellify's expertise carries through ideation, keyword research, writing, deployment, continuous monitoring, and everything in between.

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There are plenty of ways to get your message out there. Whether you have a website, webpage, blog post, email campaign, whitepaper, or social media presence, it needs to be found. No matter your inbound marketing challenge, learn how to achieve more search visibility in less time by booking a meeting today.

What is a content marketing platform, and should you use one to propel your marketing efforts? We’ll get into the nuances of great content and the benefits of joining a content marketing platform. But first, there’s a fundamental question to consider.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing means getting your message to your target audience. The use of media has always been essential. The current state of the digital age further broadens the scope of factors and possibilities. Blogs, social media, email, and search engines can be a bottomless pit. Naturally, you don’t want to reach just anyone on the internet. You want to make sure your message reaches the right people. Your content needs to be topic-specific and provide added value for users through entertainment, information, personalization, or knowledge.

Why do we use content marketing?

Because it works! Content marketing provides a meaningful way for customers to engage with your brand positively. If you publish quality, relevant content, you serve people who want to learn more about your brand and work. As a result, the content analytics you track will improve. You’ll see more leads, followers, views, conversions, and more.

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Content marketing is no secret in the industry. According to the Content Marketing Institute, over 91% of B2B companies use content marketing. And of the 9% who aren’t using content marketing, more than half plan to implement content marketing in the future. From these statistics alone, it’s clear that content platforms are essential tools for brand management and strengthening an online presence.

What is a content marketing platform?

A content marketing platform (CMP) is a software solution that helps businesses and marketers streamline their content marketing processes. Ultimately, it aims to help clients drive awareness, leads, and revenue from their content to their brand.

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Many software tools fall under the umbrella of “content marketing platforms.” Any utility or website that helps content marketers create, organize, optimize, and distribute content can be a content marketing platform. If an app or website enables you to brainstorm content ideas, implement a content strategy, or even monitor how your content performs after publishing, it’s a content marketing platform.

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CMPs can provide functions ranging from keyword and topic ideation andcontent creation to social media management, and everything in between. Some marketing platforms offer marketing automation across various channels to streamline your workflow. Others support your efforts to devise a solid SEO strategy as a part of a larger content marketing strategy. Content marketers often use several platforms as part of their digital strategy since many offer complementary functionality.

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4 questions to ask before adopting a content marketing platform

Now that you have an overview of CMPs, it’s up to you to decide. Which ones will benefit your marketing efforts and help you achieve your goals? There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to content marketing software. Social platforms might be crucial for a B2C company that handles lots of social media marketing, for example. However, the same top marketing platforms might not provide strong ROI for a B2B business targeting a specific niche.

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Before you invest in a marketing platform for your content, here are a few questions to ask.

Who (and where) is my target audience?

Be as specific as possible. Consider standard attributes such as age, gender, income, and location. You also want to consider where your target audience shops and what they do in their free time. Do they spend more time online on their phones or their desktop? The more specific you make your target audience, the more precisely you can target them with your content marketing platform.

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‍Let’s say you’re a B2C company selling shoes to Gen-Z. You’ll probably want to look into marketing platforms that can boost your social media performance on platforms like Instagram. You’ll need a different approach if you’re a B2B company with a focused niche like industrial safety ladders. Creating high-fidelity evergreen articles might be much more integral to your strategy. Regardless of your target audience, the right CMP can help you create content they’ll want to engage with.

What are my goals and challenges?

How will your product help your consumer? Is your goal to generate more sales? Create more brand awareness? Establish yourself as a leader in your field? Make sure your goals are measurable by setting benchmarks. How will you know if you have met your goals? For example, are you trying to increase website traffic by 25%? Increase sales by 10%? What unique challenges does your organization face in the realm of digital marketing? Low website traffic? Poor communication between team members? Write it all down and keep it at the forefront of your mind as you begin weighing your options.

What is my budget?

If you’re a small startup with limited resources, some content marketing platforms might be cost-prohibitive. At the same time, you get what you pay for when it comes to quality content. So you could get a better ROI from a more expensive, quality platform than a less expensive one. This concept is especially true when it comes to paying for ads on social media platforms or Google ads. You will see better engagement, more impressions, and stronger conversions from quality content that does well organically. But you can incorporate both paid and organic search in your marketing strategy.

What tools do I need to reach my audience?

Do you need engaging social content across multiple channels? Then invest in content platforms that will empower you to produce quality graphics. Additionally, find marketers who can ensure you’re using the right message across the proper channels. You probably would need scheduling functionality with a calendar planning tool to efficiently plan all your posts across marketing channels.

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Do you need to improve engagement within your email marketing campaigns? The right tools will let you send quality emails and monitor their performance.

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Do you need web content and blog posts to fill out your site? Invest in a content performance platform that helps you produce and monitor evergreen content that will result in high search engine results.

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What is the best content performance platform?

We're glad you asked.

Rellify

Since search marketing is the backbone of relevance in the digital world, the most valuable tool you can use in content marketing is Rellify. Rellify is a comprehensive all-in-one content marketing platform that uses machine learning to identify topics, subtopics, and keywords that will help your content be better found on search engines. But Rellify's data-driven, AI-advised path doesn't just work to get you more web traffic, but better traffic without relying on paid promotion.

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Rellify also helps organizations establish a sustainable content performance strategy to support corporate goals. Besides the advanced tools it uses, Rellify stands out because it is a full-service performance platform. Not only can you develop valuable content in real-time with collaborators, but also monitor its performance with analytics and composable architecture so you can keep track of your chosen KPIs.Rellify operates with a six-pronged approach:

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• Discover topics that will be highly relevant to your target audience.
• Plan a content strategy. Make data-driven strategic decisions based on a custom-AI subject-matter expert trained on your relevant focus topics.
• Smart briefs. Create smart briefs using sophisticated AI prompts with just a few mouse clicks and get more relevant generative results.
• Write content honed by AI and SEO tools (including an R-score which helps conceptualize your content's effectiveness). With collaborative editing, writer and editor can work together in real time to polish your articles.
• Publish reviewed and approved articles directly to your CMS or export them as HTML.
• Monitor the success of your content based on pages and topics and compare it with your competition. Optimize your articles for search engine results with detailed AI suggestions. Never miss an opportunity to improve your content!

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Rellify's latest and greatest innovation is the Relliverse™, an in-house, customized, AI subject matter expert that shows your team the best content opportunities. With a custom Relliverse™, Rellify can quickly crawl huge volumes of your top competitors' content, as well as your own, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses. Then, Rellify suggests how exactly your content can best be focused and crafted in order to outpace and outrank your competition on search engines.

Revolutionize your marketing with a content marketing platform

If you’ve assessed your company’s content marketing needs, you’re ready to decide on a platform. No matter your company’s unique challenges, the right content marketing tool is out there. If you're looking for a marketing tool with customized solutions that leverage the integration of machine learning and AI to produce and optimize content that will climb the search engine rankings, then Rellify is the way to go. Contact a Rellify expert today for a demo and price quote for your organization's specific needs. With multiple tiers of service offerings, you're able to find the exact solution for your business.

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About the author

Jayne Schultheis has been in the business of crafting and optimizing articles for five years and has seen Rellify change the game since its inception. With strategic research, a strong voice, and a sharp eye for detail, she's helped many Rellify customers connect with their target audiences.

The evergreen content she writes helps companies achieve long-term gains in search results

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Her subject expertise and experience covers a wide range of topics, including tech, finance, food, family, travel, psychology, human resources, health, business, retail products, and education.

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If you're looking for a Rellify expert to wield a mighty pen (well, keyboard) and craft real, optimized content that will get great results, Jayne's your person.

By Dan Duke — Long-tail keywords can be a powerful part of a successful search engine optimization strategy. Because they speak to the search intent of users, they can help you reach people who are not just browsing for info but ready to take action.

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Keywords are one of the top Google ranking factors, and expert use of long-tail keywords should be part of any online content strategy. In this article, we'll explain why they are so powerful and how they can be used to boost search engine rankings. But first, let's review the fundamentals.

What are long-tail keywords?

Long-tail keywords are more specific than other keywords, and generally have a lower search volume than broader keywords. The thing that matters is the specificity, not the number of words, although they are typically over two or three words in length.

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They tend to be longer than two or three words because it takes more words to be more specific, but there is no set rule for the length. ‍In fact, the phrase long-tail keyword doesn't really come from the number of words. It comes from a common way of illustrating how they work.

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Imagine that you are looking at the profile of a kangaroo. The creature stands tall and looks to the left. His very, very long tail tapers off to the right. Draw a line from his toes to his head and label it "internet search volume." Label the horizontal line from his toes to the tip of his tail as "the number of search queries."

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Research shows that 60.7% of search volume or search demand is found in our friend's heads and shoulders. All that traffic is generated by a tiny number of keywords, 0.16%.

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The other roughly 40% of search traffic is represented by the sloping back and tapering tail of the kangaroo. This percentage involves millions of less popular search terms, keywords, and strings of words.

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Long-tail keywords got the name because they are in the long tail of the kangaroo. In the terminology of on-page SEO, the opposite of the long-tail is called a "head term" or a "short tail."

‍Go where the competition doesn't

Clearly, long-tail phrases don't generate as much search volume as head terms. But here's a little SEO strategy tip: They can benefit your business and bring you more website traffic. A tremendous amount of competition is trying to climb to the top of SERPs for head terms. To establish the domain authority necessary to rank at or near the top for search terms like "money" or "cars" takes resources far beyond most businesses.

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Instead, you can focus your content marketing by identifying long-tail keywords that don't have such intense competition and that are specific to your business.

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Even while targeting lower search volumes, keyword-rich content can bring excellent search results. By developing content that is relevant to your target audience, you can efficiently reduce your bounce rate, improve your click-through rates, and earn higher conversion rates.

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For example, Google's search results for "ice cream" bring billions of hits. It's a "head term" that could give marketers brain freeze. The top SERPs include brand names, recipes, trends (such as product recalls), and general information.

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A related phrase — ice cream shop — is a little more specific. We've moved away from the head term. The top results are more likely to be shops that sell ice cream, review sites, and news articles about ice cream shops. From the added word "shop," Google's search engine algorithms infer that users are looking for places to buy ice cream, and its page rankings reflect that.

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If you refine that search — ice cream shop Pittsburgh — that longer long-tail keyword gets similar results, but they are more specific. The shops are all in Pittsburgh, the reviews and news are all from that city. If you choose an even more specific phrase — ice cream shop fifth avenue Pittsburgh — the results show a similar refocusing.

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Someone doing that last search probably is interested in buying ice cream on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh. If you sell ice cream on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh, you could try to get more website traffic with content using "head terms." But a better marketing strategy would be to create content about the products and services you offer on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh and to make sure your site makes your location, hours and tasty treats perfectly clear to search engines and ice cream lovers alike.

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National and international brands have "won" the head keywords, like "ice cream." But long-tail keywords allow countless opportunities for smaller players to use content creation for niche targeting.

How do I develop and execute long-tail SEO?

Long-tail keywords are one of the most important SEO tools available. Most SEO campaigns use them to achieve three goals:‍

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• Increase organic traffic
• Improve conversions
• Build brand loyalty

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Notice anything about these goals, as well as the example in the previous section about ice cream-related keywords? They mirror the customer journey. People use different search terms as they move from researching toward buying and, possibly, advocating for a product. Long-tail keywords can be chosen to reach people in different stages of that journey and move them to the next stage.

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It takes a sophisticated understanding of content optimization to make the most of these powerful phrases. That's why many businesses turn to Rellify for help.

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First, we can develop a Relliverse™, providing you with a custom-AI subject-matter expert trained on your relevant focus topics. We'll do a gap analysis to identify your best content opportunities — finding the places where you and your competitors don't have relevant content that has a good chance to perform well. In other words, we can point to topics with lower search volume that can be "hidden gems" — especially where the competition does not have content or visibility in that area.

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Our AI-powered tools, whether you use them yourself for keyword research or have our experts use them for you, can give clear, actionable information on a wide range of factors, including:

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• Keyword difficulty. We show how difficult it would be to outrank competitors in Google’s top 20 for a keyword.
• Search volume. We provide estimates of monthly searches to help you assess potential search engine traffic for a keyword.
• Average ranking. This shows how well your content, and that of your competitors, is performing.

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Once we've established the best keywords to target, Rellify can take you with one click to extensive lists of articles based on those keywords. We can help you develop a comprehensive strategy for creating blog posts targeting those keywords. It's not enough to simply create content. It must be properly structured and organized on your site to gain the maximum value and provide the best user experience.

Long-tail keywords and user intent

When you choose keywords and create content, keep user intent in mind. ‍Search queries fall into three categories based on intent:

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• Transactional. The user wants to find a site and do something, often make a purchase. The user has decided to do something, or is all but ready to.
• Informational. The user wants to know something about a topic. Businesses can appeal to these users with relevant, in-depth content that includes a call-to-action that moves them into the transactional column.
• Navigational. The user wants to go to a particular website. If it’s not your site, there’s almost nothing you can do to pull them your way.

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These categories help to illustrate why it's important to target the right traffic, not just any traffic.

How to use long-tail keywords

Whether you write long-form content, listicles, or FAQs, the way you use keywords in your content impacts your success.

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Keyword placement is an important concept. To achieve full page optimization, place your long-tail keywords in strategic spots, such as:

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• The beginning of a blog post. Help bots and readers get off to a quick, solid start.
• Meta tags. The meta title and meta description of your article tell search bots what you are focusing on. Try to use the keyword at the beginning of the title and description, or as close to it as possible.
• Headings and subheadings. This reinforces the relevance of the article.
• URLs. This helps readers and search engines navigate your site and understand its organization.
• Image titles and alt text. These are text fields associated with photographs and illustrations in your content. They also help to show the relevance of your content.
• Anchor text. This is the clickable text in a hyperlink. When you link to a related article on your site, use the long-tail keyword for that article as your anchor text. If you can get backlinks for your articles — links from another authoritative site to your site — ask them to use the main keyword for each article.
• Social media. The use of long-tail keywords will boost the effectiveness of that content in the same way it helps your website content.

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On the other hand, it's counterproductive to try to force your keywords into an article too often. Keyword density is a measure of how often keywords are used in an article. Google used to penalize articles and sites that engaged in keyword stuffing, which involved cramming keywords into articles artificially to boost rankings. Now, it's more of an issue for readers. While there is no specific ideal keyword density, a range of 1-3% is generally recommended.

How do I find long-tail keywords for SEO?

To find the long-tail keywords that can gain you a competitive advantage, you need to conduct keyword research. This is a big part of every SEO strategy.

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In addition to Rellify's comprehensive platform, several tools for keyword research are available at a range of prices, including some that are free.

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‍Google Analytics is one of the best free keyword search tools available. You can use it to track the traffic coming into your website and understand what keywords drove that specific traffic. In addition, Google Trends can show you what keywords are hot at the moment.

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‍‍SemRush is a popular paid keyword search tool, and ‍Moz has also gained a large fanbase over the years.

Simple ways to do long-tail keyword research

Let's return to our ice cream shop example. We already know that something like “ice cream shop Main Street” is a possible long-tail keyword. Let’s try to identify three more.

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One easy method is to use Google search. Simply go to Google’s home page and begin to type “ice cream” into the search bar. Google's autocomplete suggestions will list long-tail keywords that are generating a lot of activity. These suggestions can help you develop content that people are, literally, searching for.

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Likewise, the bottom of the first page of a Google search offers Related Searches. This is a list of long-tail keywords related to your query.

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Another method is to use Google Analytics. Once you log in to your dashboard, you can click on Traffic Sources and then Keywords. From there, you will set up a goal, which can then be used to help you analyze your traffic data. Click on Goal Set Up and include as few or as many keywords as you have discovered. Over time, you will be able to see the conversion rates for each one. You can use this information to determine which ones are bringing in the most traffic.

‍Getting help from experts

Long-tail keywords are the bread and butter of a sound SEO strategy for finding and converting qualified leads. People searching for these specific phrases have a specific user intent in mind. You can easily address their needs with tailored SEO pages or blog posts on your website.

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If you’re ready to improve your SEO strategy, contact Rellify to learn what high-performing relevant content based on AI-assisted keyword research can do for you.

By Jayne Schultheis – Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves giving computers the ability to learn by analyzing data and past experiences without explicit programming. Computers use algorithms to find patterns within and from data to solve problems and make predictions.

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‍In a typical day, the average person might use several different machine learning systems. These could be simple, utility-based applications, like turning on a Roomba vacuum to clean a room. Or you could use machine learning for more complex tasks, like asking ChatGPT, OpenAI's NLP chatbot, to give you a gluten-free recipe for chocolate chip cookies in the pirate vernacular. Yes, we tried that prompt today.

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You also can use machine learning to drive a content marketing campaign — from analyzing your competitors' content and your own to finding the best topics for content to crafting that content to rank well in online searches.

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Even though machine learning seems new and modern, it’s based on the work of scientists from as far back as the 1700s.

When did machine learning start?

The first instances of machine learning go back to 1763, when an essay was published on the work of Thomas Bayes, a British statistician and minister. Bayes showed a way to update the probability of something based on new data, laying the groundwork for machine learning.

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In the years after WWII, Alan Turing, considered the Father of Computer Science, applied this principle within the context of machines. He gave a 1947 lecture describing a “machine that can learn from experience.” Three years later, he developed his own learning machine, an ancestor of the modern computer. In 1952, Arthur Samuel wrote the first learning program for IBM. It involved a checkers game, and he later coined the term “machine learning” in 1959.

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Today, with advances like neural networks, machines can function similarly to the human brain. Machine learning models have evolved to the point where they can predict patterns in human behavior and recognize voices and faces.

What’s the difference between AI and machine learning?

The father of artificial intelligence, John McCarthy, defined AI as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.” For McCarthy, AI could also be considered a way that computers assist humans in reaching a specific goal.

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Traditional programming involves coding rules and instructions for a computer to follow explicitly to perform a specific task. It relies on a programmer's understanding of the problem to craft algorithms and logic that dictate how the program behaves.

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Machine learning takes this concept a bit deeper. It’s a subset of AI that allows computers to learn from data and patterns without being directly programmed to do so. The machines can make predictions by observing datasets and teach themselves to get better at doing so. As a result of this automation, companies that use machine learning notice an uptick in human productivity.

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What are some examples of machine learning?

The Google algorithms are some of the most widely-used applications of machine learning techniques. Google trained its machines to scour all of the massive amounts of websites online, and recognize patterns. Its machine learning algorithms use natural language processing to break down the context of larger articles. That way, when you search for a term, Google provides relevant data placed in the proper context, rather than random pages stuffed with keywords.

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Some of its algorithms offer personalization with location tracking. For example, if you search for “Pizza near me,” the input from the algorithm has been trained to identify map patterns and locations. That way, it can predict the right place to send users.

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But that type of machine learning is pretty self-evident and has been around for decades now. What's notable is how the rapid proliferation of machine learning has brought it into almost every sector of commerce, science, and technology.

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In genomics, machine learning techniques aid in gene sequencing, identifying genetic mutations, and predicting disease susceptibility. In climate science, it is used to analyze climate data and predict weather patterns.

Rellify's unique use of machine learning

In content marketing, machine learning has created a revolution. Nearly every SaaS tool mentions that it uses AI technology to perform article topic selection, write articles, and carry out other functions. But while AI can help to make decisions, human intelligence still matters, as does the quality of data.

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That’s why Rellify’s machine learning process is so transformative. Rather than using generic website data from the entire Internet, Rellify has a new weapon: a custom Relliverse™. This in-house subject matter expert can research your business, industry, and competitors' offerings.

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Rellify then applies deep learning tools to this data, which is unique to your business and target audience. We build exclusive neural networks and deliver clusters of topics and keywords that provide a unique visualization of what's most relevant to your business and customers.

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Rellify's content marketing platform then enables writers and editors to craft engaging content, using AI tools every step of the way. Or, if you prefer, you can create an online marketing campaign with a few clicks and generate content automatically. What used to take weeks can be done, thanks to AI, in minutes.

Are there different types of machine learning?

Machine learning is only as good as your data set. So depending on the type of data you’re using, as well as your goals, you can break machine learning down into three general categories: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning.

Supervised learning

Supervised machine learning uses data sets that are well-labeled with clear input and output variables. The machines apply this data to predict the output of new data, often with the help of support vector machines for classification, regression analysis, and identifying outliers. In this model, you give machines input and output variables since you have a sense of what results to expect from the data.

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‍Facial recognition technology is a popular application of supervised learning. Companies like Apple or Facebook have trained machines to identify faces. When you take a new picture, thus adding to a database of millions of faces, the machines can predict the identity with accuracy.

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If you’re using unlabeled data, unsupervised machine learning is a better tool for validation of your data set. Unsupervised learning uses algorithms to identify unlabeled clusters of data.

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One practical use of unsupervised learning would be the recommendation engines for online shopping or music services. Algorithms can identify big patterns in the data and implement segmentation and categorization. For example, people who like watching "Star Wars" movies might also like "The Mandalorian," versus a Jane Austen period piece. (Although it's true that many people might enjoy both.) Unsupervised learning is used in your social media feeds and to generate personalized product recommendations when you shop online.

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Reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning is a dynamic process that incorporates a trial-and-error approach to train machines. Engineers and data scientists use it when they need to make a decision point and have several options to choose from. A room-cleaning robot uses reinforcement learning because once it bumps into one obstacle, it can choose several different directions based on the environment. The data set (the room layout) might constantly change, causing the machine to constantly adjust its trajectory.

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The Learning to Run project from deepsense.ai in collaboration with Stanford University is a more complex example of reinforcement learning. They created a computer model that had to learn all of the nuanced motions of an active runner. The machine learning tools had to follow a sequence of dynamic events to create movement like jumping. The successful project could lead to the design of better prosthetic devices to help real people walk.

Neural networks and deep learning

Deep learning is one of the most talked-about machine learning applications. We won’t dive deep into the details here, but we'll cover a few basics so you can get started.

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‍Deep learning is considered scalable because it is not as dependent on human intervention and can tackle large data sets. It’s a type of supervised machine-learning algorithm that consists of neural networks designed to mimic the human brain.  The “deep” part of deep machine learning comes from the multiple layers of neural networks.

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These artificial neural networks are a means for reinforcement learning. Like other forms of machine learning, they receive data, recognize patterns, and predict the outputs for similar data. They have a layer that receives data, a layer for output data, and several other connected layers where computation occurs.

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The ethical implications of machine learning

The use of machine learning (ML) raises several ethical implications, including issues related to bias, privacy, transparency, accountability, and fairness. Addressing these concerns will further the responsible development and use of ML systems.

Bias

ML models can inherit biases present in the data they are trained on. This, unfortunately, can lead to unfair or discriminatory outcomes against certain demographic groups. To address bias:

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• Consider the potential impacts of ML systems on different demographic groups.

• Conduct thorough bias assessments on training data and model outputs.

• Employ techniques such as fairness-aware learning algorithms to counter biases.

• Promote diversity and inclusivity in the teams developing and validating ML systems.

• Engage with marginalized communities and stakeholders to understand their concerns and perspectives.

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Privacy

ML systems often process large amounts of sensitive data, raising concerns about privacy infringement. Techniques like these can help protect individuals' privacy:

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• Use robust data protection measures, including encryption and access controls.

• Restrict data collection and retention to only what is necessary for the ML task.

• Obtain informed consent from individuals before using their data.

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Transparency, explainability, and accountability

Many ML algorithms, such as deep neural networks, are often complicated. This makes it challenging to understand their decision-making process. Lack of transparency can lead to distrust and hinder accountability. To combat this:

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• Use interpretable ML models when possible, such as decision trees or linear models.

• Provide explanations for model predictions.

• Document the entire ML pipeline, including data sources, preprocessing steps, and model architecture.

• Define clear roles and responsibilities for stakeholders involved in development and deployment.

• Conduct regular audits and evaluations of ML systems to monitor performance and compliance with ethical guidelines.

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Rellify and machine learning

Rellify uses deep learning to comb through large sets of data from around the Internet. Then, it provides a custom content roadmap, generative AI tools, and monitoring capabilities so you can seamlessly create and refine content that will resonate with your customer base.

With Rellify's unique AI capabilities, you can create and implement a content marketing plan that will boost your SEO. That means you'll get more (relevant) web traffic, leads, and loyal customers. Still curious about how a custom Relliverse™ works? We'd be happy to give you a demo, free of charge! Contact a Rellify expert today to find out how our groundbreaking platform expertly uses machine learning to maximize the returns on your marketing efforts.

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About the author

Jayne Schultheis has been in the business of crafting and optimizing articles for five years and has seen Rellify change the game since its inception. With strategic research, a strong voice, and a sharp eye for detail, she's helped many Rellify customers connect with their target audiences. The evergreen content she writes helps companies achieve long-term gains in search results Her subject expertise and experience covers a wide range of topics, including tech, finance, food, family, travel, psychology, human resources, health, business, retail products, and education. If you're looking for a Rellify expert to wield a mighty pen (well, keyboard) and craft real, optimized content that will get great results, Jayne's your person.

By Jayne Schultheis - A successful content marketing strategy can help your company achieve its business goals. But how do you get started? Read on for eight steps to create a content marketing strategy that delivers results.

Why does your company need a content marketing strategy?

The simple answer is that an effective content marketing strategy delivers results. The benefits of content marketing include increased organic traffic, improved brand awareness, an engaged target audience, and improved authority and expertise in your industry. One 2017 report found that content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound marketing but costs about 60% less.

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Digital marketing efforts have disrupted and outpaced traditional marketing. You can't build an impactful brand presence with a newsletter sent by snail mail. Instead, you need a marketing strategy that identifies and uses several content marketing channels. You might include SEO content on websites, content promotion on social media, email marketing campaigns, or all of the above.

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Amid the vast quantities of generic AI content, savvy marketers are moving towards a more robust content marketing strategy. Cranking out content that no one ever sees is a recipe for failure. Instead, AI can be used to determine the most effective way to both craft and distribute your content to be read by the right people. That is the way to gather leads and increase sales.

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‍The bottom line: a content marketing strategy can deliver solid results for less money than outbound marketing. That's why content marketers are investing a considerable amount of resources into these efforts.

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What are the essential elements of a content marketing strategy?

A successful content marketing strategy will incorporate these eight elements:

1. Know your mission, vision and values
2. Identify your target audience
3. Audit your existing content
4. Choose a content management platform
5. Establish appropriate KPIs
6. Create an editorial plan
7. Publish your work
8. Analyze your results

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Know your mission, vision, and values

You can’t begin to craft a successful content creation strategy, if you don’t know who you are and what your central mission is. When somebody asks you what your company does or what problem it solves, you should be ready with a clear, succinct answer. That will give your marketing backbone and character.

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If you’re a seasoned industry leader and you’re struggling to develop a content strategy, go back to basics and remember your company “why.” Look at your mission and values. Remind yourself of why you’re doing the work you do. Then make sure your entire content team catches that vision so they can create. content that resonates with your end user.

Identify your target audience

You can’t craft a compelling message if you don't know who you are trying to reach. Think about who your end user is and how they interact with your brand. You might have more than one target audience.

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Do competitive research to help form your strategy and find potential partnership opportunities. With Rellify's integrated AI capabilities, you can discover and analyze what your competitors are using to reach your target audience. We also will help you find gaps in their content that you can exploit. In the initial stages of topic ideation within a custom Relliverse™, our AI crawls the Internet in a targeted way — building a database of all the content surrounding your niche product/service and showing how it is resonating with online searchers.

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This type of research provides valuable information about what your target audience is looking for. It also can help you understand where they're most likely to encounter and positively interact with your content.

Audit your existing content

Before you embark on a new content strategy, you need to undergo a content audit on the assets you already have. Does this content line up with your goals? Is it appealing to your target audience? Is your content repurposed for channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and direct mail — where your audience can find you? What’s working, and what’s not?

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‍Content audits typically break down into three distinct categories: the content itself, the placement of your content, and the audience fit (i.e., is your content reaching the people you want to in the way that you want to?)

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Which social media posts have performed well with your audience? Which blog posts are reaching potential customers through organic search? If you’ve done paid search, evaluate those metrics — what worked and what didn’t? You might find after a content audit that you should remove or repurpose underperforming articles.

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Your content audit should also include a technical SEO audit. That’s where you make sure your page speed is fast and performs well on mobile search and desktop.

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Rellify provides thorough audits of website content as a service for clients, providing insights and suggestions to help inform strategy. Not only do our experts look at technical SEO, they also can evaluate your content's effectiveness when it comes to the topic ideation and messaging itself. Once you know what's working and what's not working, it becomes much clearer how to shape your marketing strategy to drive sales.

Choose a content management platform

A content management platform can be an instrumental component in organizing and delivering content for any digital marketer. Here are three examples of content marketing platforms that can help you achieve great results:

• Atlassian (including Trello/Jira/Confluence). These platforms help simplify communication between team members, especially when scheduling posts, recapping meetings, or brainstorming new ideas.
• WordPress. The most widespread publishing tool. WordPress allows you to schedule, write, and publish articles. You can also add plug-ins for extra analytic data.
• Rellify. The first-ever content intelligence platform, Rellify helps users from the content ideation process all the way through analytics by combining the best attributes of human expertise and machine learning

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Set key performance indicators

Now, it’s time to figure out which key performance indicators (KPIs) really matter for your goals. Choose a few to focus on, like improving your return on investment (ROI), lowering your cost of acquisition for new users, or increasing your Google impressions and click-through rate.

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If you choose too many KPIs, you risk getting overwhelmed and not accomplishing anything. Or, if your goals are vague, like "making more money," you won't be able to interpret the results usefully.

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The first task when defining your KPIs is determining your baseline performance. That will give you a foundation for setting realistic goals and gauging the results. Remember, the KPIs for your KPIs is that they be achievable and measurable.

Create an editorial plan

The Rellify platform helps you organize your editorial plan with its scheduling feature. Our interactive calendar enables clear and efficient organization and movement of your content from its planning phases to publishing and monitoring.

Your editorial plan serves as the backbone for creating and distributing relevant content. It will help you:

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• Stay on track with publishing content regularly.
• Develop your marketing budget and stick to it.
• Measure your KPI.
• Avoid publishing too many articles on the same topics.

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Publishing editorial plan

If you plan on blogging long-form content, choose a few core topics you want to write about and determine how frequently you wish to post. This is where Rellify's topic ideation can be helpful. It will show you the most relevant topics for your target audience and categorize them appropriately.

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Social editorial plan

Once you have completed the editorial component of your content marketing strategy, you can start planning your social editorial calendar. If you’re selling a physical product, your blog articles will likely have strong visuals to be shared as social content, so they’ll probably be appropriate across all social channels. Look for user-generated content from people using your product and reshare them on visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. Pair your visual content with great copywriting or give a behind-the-scenes look at your company.

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Be creative and unafraid to switch things up with this part of your content marketing strategy.

Create and publish your work

The next part of your successful content marketing plan is to create the content.

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Rellify specializes in helping to write content that will engage readers and rank at or near the top of online searches. Start by implementing AI-assisted content ideation and keyword clustering within a custom Relliverse. That enables you to craft content that's exactly in line with the information your target audience is searching for. Our writing platform furnishes the tools that allow people to generate content with AI at the touch of a button or write it themselves with various AI-powered tools.

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Remember to use a Call to Action (CTA) in your articles. They are vital for increasing conversion rates. This can be as simple as “Buy Now!” or “Click to Chat!” To write a good CTA, start with exactly what you would like the consumer to do. This could be download, shop, subscribe, click, order, or something else. Be persuasive and create a sense of urgency. Making something a “limited time offer” can motivate potential customers to act right away. Your web design should make it easy for a consumer to respond. The website should make it obvious where to click or where to find the form you would like them to fill out.

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Don't be afraid of innovation. Create multimedia assets by incorporating video, quizzes, polls, infographics, and photographs. Mix up the forms of your content to include e-books, Q&As, how-tos, guest blogs, live chats, customer testimonials, success stories, case studies, and others. Creative marketing efforts can help you stand out from the competition. It doesn't have to be expensive, either. You can re-purpose content you already have.

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For example, rather than publishing this article and relevant graphics once on the website, we’ll share links on LinkedIn. One week we might share an infographic, another a quote, and another one might be a link to the full article. Publishing the same content in different ways across different channels is a great way to maximize its impact.

Analyze the results

What gets measured gets done, and considering the blood, sweat, and tears that go into high-quality content, you want to make sure it’s working. The analysis isn’t about eliminating failure but understanding what works, what doesn’t, and why.

You’ll have several approaches, depending on your content marketing plan. These may include:

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• Google Analytics. This tool will let you know how different blog posts and articles on your website are performing. Other tools might also be able to give you SERPs data, but Google Analytics tends to be the most accurate.
• Hubspot. This platform can provide you with lots of insights, depending on which features you’re using for your marketing strategy. Hubspot can give you data on article views or social media insights, if you’re using it to publish your content. It also provides robust information on email open and click-through rates.
• Rellify. Rellify is proud to offer our robust "Monitor" feature. Provide the appropriate URL for your new content and when it is indexed by Google, we’ll start monitoring — all within the Rellify platform.
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Monitoring results helps keep existing content relevant. Doing keyword research periodically can yield big dividends since the terms your customers use will change over time. Simply updating a post by refreshing the keywords can help keep it at the top of search pages and yield a more steady stream of high-quality leads to your website.

How can I improve my content marketing strategy?

Carefully review these eight steps to see which parts of your content marketing strategy seem to be working well and which parts need improvement.

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Unfortunately, you never quite finish improving your content marketing strategy. Sometimes Google will change a key algorithm and your traffic will unexpectedly plummet. New technology or social platforms might impact the way you disseminate content. Or you might find that your consumers’ preferences change.

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Whatever the case, no matter how outstanding your content marketing strategy is today, it might need tweaks tomorrow. Be open to staying on top of your messaging and the surrounding digital marketplace.

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Rellify your content marketing strategy

Keeping up with all of the necessary components of a content marketing strategy can be challenging, from content creation to planning to analysis. So if your content team needs help, be sure to contact the experts at Rellify. We combine the best of human expertise and machine learning to deliver a strong content marketing strategy and results for our clients. Rellify's groundbreaking Relliverse™ uses machine learning to provide a thorough and custom digital roadmap for achieving your content marketing goals. Interested in a demo? Contact one of the experts at Rellify today!

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