SEO
8 Brands Using Twitter Effectively
Twitter has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 2006 as a 140-character microblogging site.
Today, more than 436 million people use the social media site every month to follow the news, interact with celebrities, and share information.
It was initially a platform for individuals to share thoughts, opinions, and ideas with the world. Enterprising marketing strategists soon realized it was the perfect app for engaging with consumers and initiating conversations about brands.
That’s not to say there weren’t several missteps along the way.
In the early days of social media, which was sometimes called “new media,” so-called “experts” didn’t know much more than your average early tech adopter.
Without much data to back up their strategies, they often made things up as they went along. And this sometimes had disastrous results (remember when DiGiorno coopted a trending hashtag without realizing it was about domestic abuse?)
But as is usually the case, as Twitter became a regular part of global culture, savvy marketers began to understand how to use the platform effectively.
But like no two businesses are alike, no two tweet strategies will be identical.
Let’s take a look at some brands that are top performers on Twitter and discuss what it is about them that makes them so successful.
The Fan Interaction Master
Few fanbases are as rabid as gamers.
From sharing gameplay footage to discussing the latest release rumors, video games are a consistently popular topic on social media platforms.
And in the Twitterverse, no one is more popular than PlayStation.
At the time of writing, the primary account for the Sony gaming console had 26.6 million followers. Used to promote games via trailers, advertise sales on the PlayStation store, and tease new content, nearly every post receives hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes.
And this is just one of the accounts under the PS brand.
In addition to the main account mentioned earlier, they also have a dedicated support account to help users resolve hardware issues and bugs, an account dedicated to Vita (its handheld gaming system), and different accounts for different global regions.
Working together under one umbrella, PlayStation provides remarkable brand consistency and offers everything from technical support to game recommendations.
But what separates PlayStation from lesser brands is the responsiveness with which its accounts are managed.
From resolving hardware issues and bugs to recommending games for purchase, the account is known for being approachable and seeking to help the gaming community in any way it can.
They’re not stingy with the retweets, and fans have rewarded them with engagement.
What you can learn from PlayStation’s Twitter: Social media is all about conversations. Whereas traditional media like television or outdoor are a one-way street where brands speak at their targets, Twitter allows you actually to hold a conversation. Engage with your audience for maximum results.
The Entertainer
Once known as the fast-food place with the square burgers, Wendy’s has lapped the competition through social media.
And the main reason for that is how the account is run. With 3.9 million followers, Wendy’s outperforms the bigger burger joints in interaction and engagement.
This may be because, unlike most companies, Wendy’s doesn’t play it safe on Twitter.
Looking for a way to stand out (circa 2017), it went all-in on hilarious takedowns of the competition and savage clap backs on consumers. And people love it.
In 2018, Wendy’s launched National Roast Day with its hashtag.
This social media holiday quickly became a can’t-miss event for the platform, with the fast-food brand pulling no punches and showing no mercy in short and insulting tweets aimed at competitors and customers alike.
And every year, people and companies of all types lined up for their roast, hoping to snag a little bit of Wendy’s social media clout.
What makes Wendy’s Twitter so successful? It’s the consistency, creativity, and wit with which it is run. Wendy’s has created a brand voice that is unique and authentic, adding to conversations in a humorous manner that resonates with audiences.
In an era where many brands are afraid of taking chances, lest they fall afoul of public opinion, Wendy’s is unabashedly outspoken. Their content is relevant and on-topic with current events, insulting without verging into the offensive. It’s a fine line to walk, but Wendy’s has mastered it.
What you can learn from Wendy’s Twitter: Funny will get you a long way. Your Twitter account doesn’t have to be run by an insult comedian, but developing humorous content will generate a lot more follows and shares that boring vanilla “look how great we are” or “this is our new product” posts.
The Account With Humanity
Flying is stressful. Just ask anyone who has run through a terminal to catch a connecting flight or remove their belt, shoes, and jacket, only to set off the metal detector at security.
And in this high-stress, often the uncomfortable environment, one brand manages to stand out on Twitter: JetBlue.
On an all-too-often impersonal platform, JetBlue has found a way to convey authenticity and personality while demonstrating an exceptional level of customer service.
Unafraid to tackle complicated customer service issues or address negative feedback, this account provides unexpected responsiveness from a corporation this size – or any size, for that matter.
JetBlue’s dedicated customer service team seeks to respond to every Tweet directed their way. From helping travelers change reservations to tracking down lost luggage, their Twitter account shows a remarkable amount of compassion and self-awareness.
And on top of this, the airline has a clearly defined brand persona that is warm, inviting, and above all, human.
From vacation ideas to silly puns to employee photos, JetBlue posts various original content that doesn’t feel like mechanical branding delivered by mindless marketing drones.
What you can learn from JetBlue’s Twitter: Be authentic, own up to your mistakes, and show a bit of personality. Stiff and robotic Twitter accounts are a dime a dozen and easily forgettable. Show your audience that there is a real person behind yours, and they’ll respond positively.
The Content King
If there’s one thing baseball fans love, it’s statistics.
From basic numbers like batting average to complex stats like wins above replacement, the numbers tell a story you can’t find in most other sports. And no one knows this better than Major League Baseball.
But there’s also so much more to the game than just data. There are also diving catches, clutch extra-base hits, and tense squeeze play scenarios.
So, how does a major sporting league deal with this diversity? With segmentation, of course.
MLB’s main account is chock full of numbers for the stats geeks. Infographics give baseball fans appealing visuals about things like Albert Pujols’ on-base and slugging percentages over the last ten games.
Are you looking for something with more flash? MLB utilizes the full power of GIFs with a Twitter account dedicated to them, MLBgifs.
And for the fans still upset about an umpire’s call or those who want to brush up on the nuances of the rulebook, MLBReplays gives them another look at close and controversial plays.
Major League Baseball does a wonderful job of creating and posting the type of content its fans want for a league sometimes accused of losing touch with its fanbase.
What you can learn from MLB’s Twitter: Content reigns supreme over everything else. Give your followers the kind of content that only you can deliver.
And don’t be afraid to branch out. If your content is too diverse for a single account, create another – make sure you’re dedicating the resources to make that one successful, too.
The One Who Speaks Up
A lot is going on in the world right now, and it can sometimes feel like we’ve reached an unprecedented level of polarization. And nowhere is this more evident than on Twitter.
This is partly due to the platform’s algorithm, which promotes content similar to what a person has already interacted with. The anonymity provides for trolls and other bad actors.
In this climate, it’s no surprise many brands are afraid to take a hard stance on anything. After all, changing political winds could lead to calls for a boycott ala Keurig or Chick-fil-a.
However, one brand isn’t afraid to buck this trend and stand up for its values: Ben & Jerry’s.
From working with controversial NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to develop a new flavor to speaking out against the gender pay gap, the Vermont-based ice cream company has demonstrated a willingness to risk social backlash in the name of its principles.
And while this strategy may cost them some sales from people who oppose them ideologically, Ben & Jerry’s places its ability to influence the world above its corporate profits.
What you can learn from Ben & Jerry’s Twitter: Don’t be a milquetoast brand. You risk alienating a portion of your target audience by taking a stand, but you also boldly display your company’s values. And this may benefit you more in the long run.
The Thought Leader
The technology Twitter-sphere is filled with all sorts of companies run by all kinds of people.
And while some do a great job at sharing their organization’s vision of the future with the world, too many are only interested in telling you about their latest product.
And then there’s General Electric. Look at its bio: “Every minute of every day, GE rises to the challenge of building a world that works.”
GE isn’t using its Twitter account to sell you lightbulbs or washing machines.
Instead, it’s being used to establish the company as an expert in the tech industry. From green energy and healthcare to the NFL draft, GE effectively explains complex concepts within the character limit.
It uses the platform to highlight GE’s commitment to innovation while simultaneously maintaining a commitment to accessibility and personality.
Much like your favorite high school science teacher, they’ve found a way to showcase their excitement about new technologies without boring you with the minute details.
What you can learn from GE’s Twitter: Own your expertise and share your passion. It comes through with unmistakable authenticity when someone is legitimately enthusiastic about a topic. And it’s contagious. Use your Twitter account to promote what it is that excites you.
The Interesting One
Do you know that one person at a party who is incredibly captivating and is surrounded by a crowd the entire time? On Twitter, that’s Forrester.
If right now, you’re saying, “Wait, who?” don’t feel bad. Forrester isn’t a major consumer brand, unlike the other brands on this list.
If your job doesn’t regularly require you to seek out business reports and analysis, there’s a good chance you may never have come across it.
But there’s a good reason it belongs on this list: Nearly every Tweet posted by this research company is packed with links to interesting and valuable information.
For example, suppose inclusivity is integral to your customer acquisition and retention strategy (and it should be). In that case, Forrester has a Tweet and related blog post on the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) language.
Many of Forrester’s tweets include tips, statistics, or infographics that interest their target audience (primarily business professionals). It’s good at pulling out a key statistic, then linking to one of its studies after your interest is piqued.
What you can learn from Forrester’s Twitter: People love to learn. Use your Twitter account to share your knowledge. This will not only paint you as an expert but also garner interest from your target audience.
The One Who Is Unabashedly Itself
Whether or not you’re a coffee drinker, you probably have strong feelings about Starbucks.
From the controversy around the design of its holiday cups to accusations of union-busting, the Seattle-based coffee giant has been a lightning rod for controversy.
And yet, through it all, the brand has thrived, with a Twitter account with more than 11 million followers.
How has it done this? Simply by being itself.
Starbucks embraces its role on the social media platform by creatively employing different types of media.
Everything posted, from clever headlines to GIFs of the latest drink creation, shares a certain joie de vivre while maintaining a bit of the Pacific Northwest quirkiness for which the brand is known.
For such a massive corporation, Starbucks’ Twitter account does a remarkable job of coming across as friendly and approachable.
And it probably doesn’t hurt that the account is well-known for its fan interactions. It responds to mentions with a joyfulness that is often lost in the digital sphere.
The Starbucks’ social media account team is highly skilled at portraying the brand’s confidence without venturing into arrogance.
Product images tempt Twitter users scrolling through their feeds, while witty banter keeps the brand engaging.
What you can learn from Starbucks’ Twitter: Don’t be afraid to show the Twitter world what your brand is all about. Rather than seeking to conform, celebrate your differences from the competition. Project confidence and joy, and people will love interacting with you.
Find Your Own Voice
As you’ve probably already ascertained, there’s no magic bullet to Twitter success.
Each brand must determine what works best for them and its audience. And while it may take you some time to do that, it’s well worth the effort.
According to a Hootsuite study, the average Twitter user spends more than five hours per month on the site, nearly double that of Snapchat or Messenger.
That’s a lot of opportunity for exposure, especially when you consider many people use the platform to conduct brand research.
For some brands, a successful Twitter strategy may only require posting original content twice daily.
For others, it may mean round-the-clock social listening and rapid response to questions and concerns.
Your Twitter persona may be serious or silly – make sure it matches your overall brand voice. You may be informative or inquisitive. It all depends on your industry and your audience.
But one thing you may have noticed all the brands listed above have in common: They’re all authentic. None of the examples provided give you the impression that they’re putting on a façade or attempting to portray something false.
Instead, they all find ways to find or create value in their vertical while building relationships with followers. Exactly how you do, that is up to you and will probably require some experimentation.
But one thing is sure: Twitter is only increasing in popularity, and you may miss out every day. You may not use it effectively.
So, get started today. Sit down with your team for a brainstorming session, and identify your goals, values, and voice. Then develop your strategy and then get Tweeting.
More Resources:
Featured Image: George Rudy/Shutterstock
SEO
OpenAI Claims New “o1” Model Can Reason Like A Human
OpenAI has unveiled its latest language model, “o1,” touting advancements in complex reasoning capabilities.
In an announcement, the company claimed its new o1 model can match human performance on math, programming, and scientific knowledge tests.
However, the true impact remains speculative.
Extraordinary Claims
According to OpenAI, o1 can score in the 89th percentile on competitive programming challenges hosted by Codeforces.
The company insists its model can perform at a level that would place it among the top 500 students nationally on the elite American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME).
Further, OpenAI states that o1 exceeds the average performance of human subject matter experts holding PhD credentials on a combined physics, chemistry, and biology benchmark exam.
These are extraordinary claims, and it’s important to remain skeptical until we see open scrutiny and real-world testing.
Reinforcement Learning
The purported breakthrough is o1’s reinforcement learning process, designed to teach the model to break down complex problems using an approach called the “chain of thought.”
By simulating human-like step-by-step logic, correcting mistakes, and adjusting strategies before outputting a final answer, OpenAI contends that o1 has developed superior reasoning skills compared to standard language models.
Implications
It’s unclear how o1’s claimed reasoning could enhance understanding of queries—or generation of responses—across math, coding, science, and other technical topics.
From an SEO perspective, anything that improves content interpretation and the ability to answer queries directly could be impactful. However, it’s wise to be cautious until we see objective third-party testing.
OpenAI must move beyond benchmark browbeating and provide objective, reproducible evidence to support its claims. Adding o1’s capabilities to ChatGPT in planned real-world pilots should help showcase realistic use cases.
Featured Image: JarTee/Shutterstock
SEO
How to Build a Fandom by Talent-Scouting Great Content
At a time when anyone can create content, the real challenge—and opportunity—is in saying something new.
I think content curation can help with that.
Curation is all about finding undiscovered stories and repackaging ideas in ways your audience really respond to.
In this article, you’ll learn why content curation is great for growth, and how to talent scout quality underground or left-field content.
Gathering and sharing content is a popular social media tactic, but content curation extends to mediums and channels far beyond social.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
| Example | Type | What is it? |
|---|---|---|
| The Pudding | Article | A data journalism publication that curates a range of rich media (e.g. social comments, headline snippets, literature reviews) to tell compelling visual stories – like this one. |
| Ahrefs’ digest | Newsletter | Our Senior Content Marketing Manager, Si Quan Ong (SQ), curates key SEO/marketing news, accompanied by snappy annotations. |
| Near Media Memo | Podcast | Conversations at the intersection of search, social, and commerce. Hosts curate and discuss the latest industry content. |
| KFC’s “Bucket Bangers” Spotify Playlist | Playlist | A playlist curated by KFC as part of a PR campaign, containing 46 tracks that name drop the brand. |
| Campaign Inspiration | Image carousel | This LinkedIn page curates visual examples of existing PR campaigns to inspire marketers. |
Newsletters, in particular, have become the go-to platform for curation, since they’re fairly cheap to run and easy to set up.
The numbers back this up. A quick look at Site Explorer shows newsletter platform Substack experiencing a 373% leap in organic traffic from September 5th, 2023 to September 5th, 2024.
You can see some great examples of curated SEO newsletters here: I Subscribed to 72 SEO Newsletters. Here Are My 11 Favorites.
Now you know about content curation in all its forms and guises, let me tell you what’s so great about it…
From saving money, to building traffic, and cementing your authority, content curation comes with plenty of benefits.
1. Content curation saves time and money
At Ahrefs, we follow The Pareto Principle: the idea that 80% of the reward comes from 20% of the effort.
If you want to improve your effort:reward ratio, curation is a great option.
I asked SQ about the benefits of content curation, and he had this to say:
“One benefit is that I don’t have to write an essay from scratch each week (which is what most newsletters are).”
While content curation has the potential to save you time, resources, and money, I do want to add two important caveats:
- Curating niche, underground content examples can still take time – especially when you’re first finding your sources.
- If you’re doing deep-dive investigations into those examples, you may spend just as long curating as you would creating.
2. Curation helps you build links, traffic, and engagement
Marketing Examples is a goldmine of curated marketing snippets.
Founder, Harry Dry, doesn’t just gather content — he dissects real-world marketing copy, name drops the creator, and breaks down their winning formulas, making it easy for readers to replicate that success.
As a result, his site has earned fairly consistent links and traffic over time, growing organically by 88% in the last two years.
Curating content is an example of what I call “awareness you prepared earlier”. Your chances of driving traction are vastly improved when you crowdsource ideas.
Not only do your audience consume your curated content, they publicize it to their own network via social posts or reciprocal links when they get featured.
Some refer to this as “ego bait”. Obviously there’s an element of flattery involved, but in my experience, the top curators prioritize content that genuinely helped or inspired them, rather than chasing big names with the widest reach.
3. Curating content is great for EEAT
Few people have direct experience with every topic they’ve ever written about.
But, since 2022, first-hand experience has become a prerequisite for ranking in Google.
Curating others’ lived experiences and knowledge in your content is a powerful way to build your EEAT and improve your rankings.
4. You become credible by association
We tend to categorize people according to their social group memberships – this is known as social categorization.
If you’re regularly associating yourself with respected thought leaders, your audience is more likely to group you with them, and hold you in higher regard as a result.
Mixing in your own content and opinion is important for building credibility, but be careful not to overdo the self-promotion.
Back to SQ:
“I don’t tend to include all of the blog posts we publish on our blog.“
5. You get closer to your customers and community
When you curate, you consume content holistically –like your customers– and stop being so introspective.
If you’re only consuming content from your brand or brand “friends”, there’s a limit to the value you can bring to your audience.
Content curators turn to their community to source content, so curating bridges the gap in two ways: by helping them consume like their customers, and by giving them a reason to connect.
6. When you curate, your content gets better
To create is to curate. All ideas are shaped and borrowed from somewhere – that’s how knowledge is acquired.
If I don’t curate, I tend to find my own content stagnates.
Curation introduces me to new ideas, reminds me of the things I have forgotten, allows me to build deeper, more informed arguments, and ultimately helps me produce better content – with a lot more in the way of information gain.
For instance, this blog started out as a simple list of content curation benefits, thunk up by yours truly.
But as I came across cool examples of novel content curation, it evolved into a more comprehensive (and hopefully, more interesting) guide.
“Another benefit of content curation is that I get to keep abreast of anything new in SEO and marketing, which informs my own work”
7. You build your personal “brand”
Curation gives you the chance to platform your own expertise and assert yourself as a thought leader.
Take a look at the search volume for one of the most prolific curators in SEO: Aleyda Solis.
Aleyda curates SEO news and insights across her newsletter, SEOFOMO, her podcast, Crawling Mondays, her owned social media channels, and industry talks.
As a result, her name now drives ~600 monthly organic searches, according to Site Explorer.
And over 19K “in content” mentions, according to Content Explorer.
Curation is about piecing together unrelated content to reveal new ideas and information.
You’re giving someone else’s content another shot at engagement – sometimes after a “failure” to launch.
“The same core information can be made more or less valuable by changing its format. Great ideas are sometimes locked away in places that render them inaccessible to people that would benefit from them.”
Here are 9 ways you can “talent scout” novel content, and carve out your own curation USP.
1. Pay attention to lesser-known voices
In every industry there are sources that audiences defer to for information and ideas.
Look beyond them.
Scout for “rising stars” and underground sources to give your curation exclusivity.
Mark Williams-Cook, Director at Candour and Founder of AlsoAsked, does just this when curating his newsletter: Core Updates.
“I’ve made a conscious effort not just to follow the ‘big names’, as there are some truly excellent SEOs that are very quiet on social media. I’d always recommend following someone if you see them putting out solid advice, even if you’ve never heard of them. I’ve made some good friends and excellent connections that way!”
This is probably something you’ll have to do manually at first.
I try to pay close attention to people leaving savvy comments on social media posts and industry communities.
2. Build an X list of “ones to watch”
Once you’ve found the right “ones to watch”, you can start building a list to refer back to whenever it’s time to curate.
SQ uses X lists and subscribes to others’ Substacks:
“I have my own Twitter list of marketers (getting poorer these days sadly) and follow other people’s substacks/newsletters and see if there are any links they recommend.”
3. Mine niche and atypical sources of information
Nicole DeLeon, Ed Zitron, Marie Haynes and other tech curators recently mined Google’s DoJ trial documentation to investigate “buried” information on how the search engine ranks content.
Search Engine Roundtable founder, Barry Schwartz, is always extracting content from Google rep social comments, Google developer docs, and Google’s Office Hours video series to curate hot-off-the-press news.
Techemails mines leaked tech company emails from court filings and curates them across social media and their website (p.s. they are preeetty eye-opening).
Finding and teasing out obscure information is a great skill to have when it comes to content curation.
Here are some more ways you can do that:
- Track updates in company documentation (e.g. brand Ts & Cs, Google Developer Docs, Anthropic Release Notes)
- Mine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request databases
- Monitor government data via fact finding bodies (e.g. Indeed curates content from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to inform content in their Hiring Lab)
- Study public datasets released by research institutions (e.g. Harvard Dataverse)
- Mine “hidden” or ephemeral content (e.g. podcasts, webinars, industry talks, seminars etc.) to curate quotes and promote relatively unheard information
- Monitor public announcements and press releases from organizations
4. Track down new and trending content
Be the first to break and curate news in your industry. Start by searching for industry-specific keywords in Content Explorer.
Then add filters to make sure you’re seeing the freshest and highest quality content.
In my experience, I find that:
- Adding a minimum Referring Domain of “30”
- Adding a minimum word count of “300”
- Sorting by “Date: newest first”
…shows me the newest and best SEO related content, but you should play around until you find what works in your industry.
Tip
When it comes to filtering, don’t get too prescriptive about it – remember, you want to find novel content that usually flies under the radar, so avoid being overly strict with minimum thresholds.
This next part is really important. Once you’re happy with your configuration, hit “Save filters” so that you can repeat this analysis for the next instalment of your newsletter, podcast, social post, article, or whatever else you might be curating.
With the Content Explorer, you’re searching for instances of a keyword in the title, content, URL or all of the above.
But relevant content won’t always contain the exact keywords or topics you’re searching for.
In which case, try searching for keywords in the anchor text linking to that content.
There’s a preconfigured search for this in Ahrefs’ Web Explorer. Just hit the “examples” tab, and select “Most quoted newly published pages about ChatGPT”:
This will load a full report of the most linked to pages about the topic “ChatGPT” over the last week. Then all you need to do is update the report with your chosen topic, and adjust any filters.
And hit “Save report”.
Another tip for breaking news was recently disclosed by SEO expert and founder of SEO blog Detailed, Glen Allsopp, on the Ahrefs Podcast (it’s a great episode – I highly recommend a full listen!)
He spoke about a technique that he refers to as the “iPhone Link Building” method.
“The reason I call it this, because it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter how old your website is, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been around. If you have a photo of the iPhone 16 before anyone else and you put that on [your site], the whole tech world is going to talk about it, right? You’re going to get links from every tech website on the planet. Doesn’t matter that [your site] has nothing to do with tech and gadgets. You’ve got the first iPhone link. People are going to talk about it. So I refer to it as the iPhone link building.“
To carry out “iPhone link building”, Glen sets up an alert using Visual Ping. This sends him a notification as soon as there’s an update on one of the webpages he’s tracking. If something new or interesting has changed, he’ll work this into his next piece of content.
5. Ask your network
Turning to your social network for examples of existing content is a great way to curate.
Here’s Chris Haines, Ahrefs’ Senior SEO Specialist, doing just this on LinkedIn…
And here I am posting in Women In Tech SEO (my #1 community) for contributions to my article: So You’ve Been Asked To Humanize AI Content
Often, Slack communities will dedicate a channel to self-promotion. This is another handy way to find new content to curate.
“In the Women in Tech SEO Slack group, we have a hashtag channel (#wts-amplify-me) that serves as a space for members to promote their work, and it’s wholesome to see lots of our members use it to highlight the work of others! This channel helps me curate content for our weekly WTSNewsletter. As newsletter creators, we are responsible for amplifying diverse voices, which was the driving force behind starting WTSNewsletter. The lack of diversity in industry newsletters motivated me to create our very own weekly newsletter that showcases the brilliant work of underrepresented individuals.”
Community content sourcing doesn’t begin and end with LinkedIn or Slack. Check out other pockets of the internet, including niche forums, Subreddits, Facebook groups, and Mastodon instances.
6. Bookmark everything
Some of my best articles have been inspired by the posts I’ve bookmarked.
Here are my top tips for bookmarking curated content:
Use web highlighters
Use a web highlighter plugin to bookmark interesting content for future curation.
Organize examples in a note taking app
Use a note taking app like Notion or Obsidian to organize your content examples.
Bookmark your saved social media content
You’ll undoubtedly have banked some great content on social media over the years, but navigating back to those archives can be a bit of a faff.
I bookmark mine to my browser so I can easily jump back in (e.g. LinkedIn “Saved”, X bookmarks, X advanced searches, TikTok saved, Instagram saved etc.)
7. Set up author notifications
Follow creators and journalists that inspire you. Subscribe to their channel, turn on notification bells on LinkedIn and X, and set up RSS feeds to get alerted whenever they push out new content.
Tip
When you’re searching for new content in the Content Explorer, check out the Authors tab for ideas on which thought leaders to follow in your industry.
8. Set up keyword alerts
Get notified as soon as on-topic content is published, with Ahrefs “Mention” alerts.
9. Use AI to extract and annotate content
AI broadly summarizes outdated content, and has a habit of forgoing (or entirely fabricating) references. In other words, it’s pretty terrible for curating unique content.
Instead, use it to extract, summarize, and investigate the content you’ve selectively curated.
Extract nuggets from “hidden” content
I used AI to extract quotes and insights from webinars, interviews, and YouTube videos. The post I wrote for SpinSucks was inspired by content mined from interview transcripts and bookmarked social media content, using Claude AI.
Reverse-engineer successful content formulas
I fed ChatGPT examples of top-performing blogs to understand patterns of success, and inform my opinion of what “good” content looks like, while updating the post: 6 Simple Blog Post Templates (Download & Edit Along.
We’ve covered a lot of ground, but there are a few extra details worth mentioning before you jump into curation.
Make sure you have a clear theme
Curation isn’t just about sourcing and presenting the most unique content you can find.
Value also comes from carefully selecting content that fits a central concept or theme.
“[Content curation] helps build my taste, which in my opinion, is the hardest part of curation, because most people don’t seem to understand the concept of “curation”, i.e. selecting the best, or what fits a theme. They just seem to shoehorn every article on the internet.”
Build your exclude list
Be discerning about the content you create. Set out rules as to the content or people you will/won’t include, using your brand guidelines for inspiration.
Repurpose your knowledge
Content curation is usually cheaper and easier to produce, but don’t treat it as a “one and done” activity. Repurpose the things you learn both internally and externally.
“We actually use the news – that Jack (Chambers-Ward) and I curate for the Core Updates newsletter – internally at Candour during one of our weekly meetings when we are discussing changes in the industry. So it’s been a helpful task to make sure the agency is always up to date!”
Final thoughts
Content curation isn’t a “set it and forget it” tactic. It’s an ongoing process that demands a reasonable amount of effort, but the payoff is worth it. That’s because:
- It’s a traffic magnet: Curated content can outperform original content in terms of organic traffic, because you’re cherry-picking the best ideas.
- It builds your E-E-A-T: By sharing valuable experiences, you’re signaling to users and search engines that you know your stuff. This can boost your rankings across the board.
- It’s a networking opportunity: When you share others’ content, they notice. We’ve built relationships with industry giants simply by featuring their work on our blog or weekly digest.
Great curation is about adding value. You can just reshare content verbatim, but you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to add your own insight, and explain why the content you’ve painstakingly curated matters to your audience.
In a world where 70 million blog posts are published every month, skilled curators stand out. They don’t just share content – they build communities, spark discussions, and become go-to resources in their niches.
If you’re giving content curation a try, experiment with different formats and track what resonates (our Content Explorer can help with that too), then watch your influence grow.
SEO
Stop Overcomplicating Things. Entity SEO is Just SEO
“Entity SEO”.
Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Not only does the word “entity” sound foreign, it feels like yet another thing to add to your never-ending SEO to-do list. You’re barely afloat when it comes to SEO, but ohgawd here comes one more new thing to dedicate your scarce resources.
I have good news for you though: You don’t have to do entity SEO.
Why? Because you’re probably already doing it.
Let’s start from the beginning.
In 2012, Google announced the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them.
An entity is any object or concept that can be distinctly identified. This includes tangibles like people, places, and organizations, and intangibles like colors, concepts, and feelings.
For example, the footballer Federico Chiesa is an entity:
So is the famous British-Indian restaurant Dishoom:
Entities are connected by edges, which describe the relationships between them.
Introducing the Knowledge Graph helped improve Google’s search results because:
- Google could better understand search intent — People search for the same thing but describe it in different ways. Google can now understand this and serve the same results.
- It reduced reliance on keyword matching — Matching the number of keywords on a page doesn’t guarantee relevance; also it prevents crafty SEOs from keyword stuffing.
- It reduced Google’s computational load — The Internet is virtually infinite and Google simply cannot understand the meaning of every word, paragraph, webpage, and website. Entities provide a structure where Google can improve understanding while minimizing load.
For example, even though we didn’t mention the actor’s name, Google can understand we’re looking for Harrison Ford and therefore shows his filmography:
That’s because Hans Solo and Harrison Ford are closely connected entities in the Knowledge Graph. Google shows Knowledge Graph data in SERP features like Knowledge Panels and Knowledge Cards.
With this knowledge, we can then define entity SEO as optimizing your website or webpages for such entities.
If Google has moved to entity-oriented search, then entity SEO is just SEO. As my colleague Patrick Stox says, “The entity identification part is more on Google’s end than on our end.”
I mean, if you look at the ‘entity SEO’ tactics you find in blog posts, you’ll discover that they’re mostly just SEO tactics:
- Earn a Wikipedia page
- Create a Google Business Profile
- Add internal links
- Create all digital assets Google is representing on the page (e.g., videos, images, Twitter)
- Develop topical authority
- Include semantically related words on a page
- Add schema markup
Let’s be honest. If you’re serious about SEO and are investing in it, then it’s likely you’re already doing most of the above.
Regardless of entities, wouldn’t you want a Wikipedia page? After all, it confers benefits beyond “entity SEO”. Brand recognition, backlinks from one of the world’s most authoritative sites (albeit nofollow)—any company would want that.
If you’re a local business, you’ve probably created a Google Business Profile. Adding internal links is just SEO 101.
And billions of blistering barnacles, creating all digital assets Google wants to see, like images and videos, is practically marketing 101. If you’re a Korean recipe site and want to be associated with the kimchi jjigae entity, wouldn’t you already know you need to make a video and have photos of the cooking process?
When I started my breakdance site years ago, I knew nothing about SEO and content marketing but I still knew I needed to make YouTube videos. Because guess what? It’s hard to learn breakdancing from words. I don’t think I needed an entity SEO to tell me that.
Topical authority is an SEO concept where a website aims to become the go-to authority on one or more topics. Call me crazy, but it feels like blogging 101. Read most guides on how to start a blog and I’m sure you’ll find a subheading called “niche down”. And once you niche down, it’s inevitable you’ll create content surrounding that one topic.
If I start a breakdance site, what are the chances I’ll write about contemporary dance or pop art? Pretty low.
In fact, topical authority is similar to the Wiki Strategy, which Nat Eliason wrote about in 2017. There wasn’t a single mention of entities. It was just the right way to make content for the Internet.
I think the biggest problem here isn’t entities versus keywords or that topical authority is a brand-new strategy. It’s simply that many SEOs are driven by short-sightedness or the wrong incentives.
You can target a whole bunch of unrelated keywords that have high search volume, gain incredible amounts of search traffic, and brag about how successful you are as an SEO.
Some of the pages sending HubSpot the most search traffic has barely anything to do with their core product. A page on how to type the shrug emoji? The most famous quotes?
This is not to single out HubSpot—I’m sure they have their reasons, as explored by Ryan here—but to illustrate that many companies do the exact same thing. And when Google stops rewarding this behavior, all of a sudden companies realise they do need to write about their core competencies. They need to “build topical authority”.
I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater because I do see value in the last two ‘entity SEO tactics’. But again, if you’re doing something similar to the Wiki Strategy for your site, chances are you would have naturally included entities or semantically relevant words without thinking too much about it. It’s difficult to create content about kimchi jjigae without mentioning kimchi, pork, or gochujang.
However, to prevent the curse of knowledge or simply to avoid blindspots, checking for important subtopics you might have missed is useful. At Ahrefs, we run a page-level content gap analysis and look out for subtopics:
For example, if we ran a content gap analysis on “inbound marketing” for the top three ranking pages, we see that we might need to include these subtopics:
- What is inbound marketing
- Inbound marketing strategy
- Inbound marketing examples
- Inbound marketing tools
Finally, adding schema markup makes the most sense because it’s how Google recognizes entities and better understands the content of web pages. But if it’s just one new tactic—which I believe is already part of ‘standard’ SEO and you might already be doing it—then there’s no need to create a category to define the “new era” (voice SEO, where art thou?)
Final thoughts
Two years ago, someone on Reddit asked for an SEO workflow that utilized super advanced SEO methodologies:
The top answer: None of the above.
When our Chief Marketing Officer Tim Soulo tweeted about this Reddit thread, he got similar replies too:
And even though I don’t know him, this is a person after my own heart:
You don’t have to worry about entity SEO. If you have passion for a topic and are creating high-quality content that fulfills what people are looking for, then you’re likely already doing “entity SEO”.
Just follow this meme: Make stuff people like.
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