As a part of our SEO Reality Show series, we keep telling you our story of how one SEO agency is developing a blog for their bakery client Edelweiss from Florida.
The agency has already chosen the list of impactful topics with a blog research process detailed here, and a website content plan discussed here. Now it’s time to create content! Anyone who has ever tried to convey what end results they want to a third-party or inhouse copywriter knows that this can be a significant challenge. It’s easy to end up on two completely different pages, and even if the content is great, the SEO work may not be.
In order to create for the bakery’s blog not only engaging, but high-ranking content that would rank well, the agency knew they should craft a list of technical specifications for their inhouse copywriters to follow. In this blog post, we’ll show you the example of preparing such a technical content brief for the article topic “How to make a Cuban sandwich”.
Step 1 — Defining the main keyword
The first step is to define the main keyword for the chosen topic. The idea is to choose a keyword with a high potential search volume and a high potential sales intent. In this case, the agency has revealed [Cuban sandwich recipe] as a potentially high-value keyword: it had a lower keyword density and a higher search volume than the [Cuban sandwich] keyword. You can find the detailed process of choosing the main keyword in our past episode about content strategy creation.
Step 2 — Gathering semantics
The next step involves gathering semantics after choosing the main keyword.
In one of our previous episode recaps, we detailed the process of collecting the semantic core for the bakery’s homepage: How to Conduct Semantic SEO Research for an Artisan Bakery.
Collecting the semantic core for a blog article follows a similar pattern and includes the following steps:
- Collecting keywords using keyword research tools. For the bakery’s content, the agency uses Semrush’s Keyword Overview and Keyword Magic Tool
- Analyzing competitor articles to expand the keyword list. There may be a number of relevant secondary keywords which competitors use to show Google that their content is relevant and authoritative. These keywords don’t contain the target keyword, but they perfectly complement the article. So while you might be writing an article on “Cuban sandwich recipe,” you might discover relevant secondary keywords like “best bread for Cuban sandwiches” or “what toppings to add to Cuban sandwiches” that work well with your post.
The agency strongly recommends gathering secondary keyword data and compiling it in a separate column for easy use later on.
Step 3 — Defining the post’s structure
While not all freelance writers or internal writers necessarily need an outline of a blog post’s structure, the agency prefers outlining a post’s structure for third-party writers to ensure that the client receives a very specific end result that will be comparable to top-ranking posts already published.
