Content strategy and SEO

There’s nothing worse than spending hours creating endless content, to not see any results. This is why it’s important to craft a clever content strategy and always consider search engine optimisation (SEO) when building any new piece of content.

Working on your content and SEO strategy can help improve your website traffic, engage your audience and increase brand awareness – amongst many other things. Click through the resources below to find out more about improving your SEO and creating content that packs a punch.

Books :

1. Content Marketing Strategy: Harness the Power of Your Brand’s Voice by Robert Rose – Robert Rose explains what top brands are doing to streamline their content and how marketing strategists can scale their methods to create business success.
2. The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media by Mathew Sweezey – In this book, Sweezey proposes and discusses a profound question: In a transformed world where customers shape their own experience, what is the key to breaking through and motivating them to buy?
3. SEO 2024: Learn search engine optimization with smart internet marketing strategies by Adam Clarke – SEO 2024 will walk you through search engine optimization techniques used to grow countless websites, increase your Google rankings and ultimately gain customers.
4. Advanced SEO: A step-by-step guide on getting to the top of Google (Advanced Digital Marketing) by Joe Gilbert – In this comprehensive book, you will learn the advanced techniques and strategies that SEO professionals use to achieve top rankings.
5. How To Get To The Top of Google: The Plain English Guide to SEO (Digital Marketing by Exposure Ninja) by Tim Cameron-Kitchen – From SEO newbies looking to claim their share of the ranking pie, to seasoned professionals needing to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices, this book will help you increase your rankings and sell more.

Articles :

1. 40 of the Best SEO Tools for Auditing & Monitoring Your Website in 2024 by Hubspot – There’s an array of tools out there that can help with automation, research, reporting and more. This article by Hubspot highlights some of the best ones you can use to improve your SEO.
2. Google September 2023 Helpful Content Update – Changes To The Algorithm by Search Engine Journal – Back in August 2022, Google updated it’s algorithm to prioritise ‘people-first’ content, which impacted how content ranked in its search engine. This article covers the basics on what you should know about the update.
3. 3 Content Marketing Tips For Startups by Forbes – This article includes three, quick-fire tips for creating better content.

Guides:

1. SEO Ranking Factors in 2024: A Look Inside Google’s Search Algorithm by SEO.com – This guide is a helpful overview of the search engine ranking factors that still hold value even as algorithms become more complex.
2. The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz – This guide is designed to describe all major aspects of SEO, from finding the terms and phrases to making your site friendly to search engines, to building links and marketing the unique value of your site.
3. The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2024 by Hubspot – Discover how to create a successful content marketing strategy to help you reach your audience and boost conversions.
4. How to Develop a Content Strategy in 7 Steps: A Start-to-Finish Guide by Hubspot – In this guide, Hubspot dives into what content strategy is, why your business needs a content marketing plan and what steps you need to take to create your strategy.

Reports:

1. State of Content Marketing Report by Semrush – Get all of the important insights into this year’s content marketing trends, wins, projections, and more.
2. Think Big with AI: Small Business Content Marketing in 2024 by Semrush – Explore the key benchmarks, trends and tips for using AI effectively.
3. Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2023 by Kantar – Explore how the world’s most valuable brands have faced the challenges of the past year and the opportunities to chart a path to future growth through differentiation, pricing, sustainability and more in Kantar’s global report.
4. B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 by Content Marketing Institute – B2B marketers reveal their most common challenges, what they’re really using AI to do, whether their leaders understand their work, and where they’ll spend their budget.

Podcasts:

1. The Search Engine Journal Show by The Search Engine Journal – On this podcast, Loren Baker talks all things SEO, PPC, social media, content marketing, and digital marketing with the top industry experts and authorities.
2. The Content Strategy Podcast by Kristina Halvorson – Join host Kristina Halvorson as she interviews the expert leaders and exciting new voices who are shaping the field of content strategy.
3. Voices of Search Podcast by Benjamin Shapiro – This is an SEO focused podcast that covers topics from content creation to B2B marketing strategies.
4. How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz – Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands.

Tools :

1. Moz – Moz offers a range of free SEO tools, from keyword research to domain analysis.
2. Keyword Density Checker by SEO Review Tools – This tool quickly scans your written content, telling you what your main keywords are, how often they’re used and whether there’s any sign of keyword stuffing in your content.
3. ChatGPT – ChatGPT is one of the many powerful AI tools that are now readily available at your fingertips. It’s a great resource that can simplify marketers jobs with research, idea generation and more. However, ChatGPT comes with its limitations, so you may want to avoid becoming too reliant on it.
4. Google Search Console – Search Console’s tools and reports help you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues and make your site shine in Google Search results.
5. Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a platform that collects data from your websites and apps to create reports that provide insights into your business.
6. Google Keyword Planner – This tool can help you identify terms, phrases, and words potential customers are searching for related to your business that you may not have thought of before.
7. Hemingway Editor – Hemingway Editor can help you improve your copy by correcting grammatical errors, spelling, fluency and sentence structure.
8. Grammarly – Grammarly provides AI writing assistance and text generation on any app or website.
9. Yoast SEO – A plug-in for WordPress, Yoast SEO is built specifically to help you optimise all your website content, so that it’s best suited for good SEO performance.

By leveraging the above resources, founders can better navigate content strategy and SEO practices, driving online visibility, brand engagement, website traffic and success in the long-run.