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How To Plan A Blog Post In 6 Easy Steps

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How To Plan A Blog Post In 6 Easy Steps

With more than a billion websites across the World Wide Web, it’s not hard to understand that it’s tough to stand out among them.

That’s why the best content on the web has to be well-written, well-researched, and downright compelling to read, regardless of the subject matter being covered.

And that’s not always – or rarely is – an easy task. But breaking this daunting task into more straightforward steps makes the job much more manageable.

Creating content – not just blogs – should always start with planning. And that’s often the difference between mediocre content and excellent content.

To outline that plan, use these six steps for content-creation success and ensure what you and your brand is publishing is being found easily and digested by the right people at the right time.

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Readers won’t just respect this content and the brand behind it but will seek out this content and hold the brand in high regard.

Offering something valuable (high-quality content) to the people who matter most to your business (customers) is a no-brainer and a long-term-winning strategy that pays extreme dividends.

Doing so is also the natural way to build authority through your entity (a brand, person, etc.) for readers and search engines like Google.

1. Know The Brand You’re Representing

There can never be enough emphasis on this.

Too many times, when writing on behalf of a brand or business, writers forget (or never consider) said brand’s overall voice and tone.

This is a critical component for success regarding consistency, styling, and messaging.

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You want to ensure all of this is in line with general brand guidelines and its overall brand image.

Larger, well-established brands typically have guidelines that should include brand voice and tone.

But even if official brand guidelines aren’t available, there are still many ways you can better understand a brand, its voice and tone, and its general messaging with goals in mind.

Read Old Blogs By The Brand

A good starting point would be to look back and read older blog content published by the brand.

Depending on how long the brand has been creating well-developed, quality content, you could deeply understand the general style and brand voice used.

Work to recreate that with your insightful spin.

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Run A Content Audit (Or A Shorter, Modified Version Of One)

When in a position to run the overarching content strategy or consistently write content for the same brand, it would likely be worth a writer or content strategist’s time to run a micro content audit.

This will help you get the best idea of not just the overall style and voice of the content but also the brand’s goals and identify what works well in terms of traffic, engagement, and performance (and what does not).

This will also help develop ideas for blog topics and identify content gaps.

Look At Competitors

Another way to better understand the brand a writer represents – and what not to be – is to look at some of the brand’s main competitors.

Competitors will likely publish their quality content, but the content produced on behalf of a competing brand like the one you represent should be unique to that brand.

That is one of the main ways brands can stand out and are supposed to. Use it to your advantage.

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This is also a no-brainer when moving into a content role within a business or industry with which one may not be too familiar.

You want to understand the brand you represent and its messaging.

But it will also help to understand the brand’s main competitors, how they work to separate themselves from their competition, and ways you can surpass them in educating and enlightening potential customers.

2. Understand Your Audience

Understanding the audience you’re writing for goes hand-in-hand with knowing the brand you represent.

You can’t understand your audience without knowing the brand you’re writing for.

You can’t publish quality content without fully understanding those critical variables.

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The means mentioned above to better understand both will help a brand’s overall content strategy and execution.

Remember to use topics that interest your audience and vocabulary that makes sense to your audience.

3. Finding Topics To Write About

For many, this may be one of the most challenging steps of the planning process. But it shouldn’t be.

As a writer representing a brand – a brand that is an authority on specific topics and industries – there will always be valuable insight to offer current and potential customers.

Think about Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on many websites; they are built from topics/questions commonly asked repeatedly over time by those interested in the brand and its business. Those answers are sought out through search engines thousands of times per day.

Offering people (the right) answers to their questions will always build trust in a brand and the writers representing it.

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Competitive Analysis

Aside from the Frequently-Asked-Questions exercise to explore content ideas, writers should also lean on competitive analysis to develop more good topics to write about.

Some brands will do a decent job of covering many different topics within their industry. In contrast, other brands will do a better job covering only specific areas within that industry they may specialize in or have more experience in.

Use all this research to build out quality blog topics based on the abundance or lack of quality content on specific issues.

Identify competitors’ content gaps as areas to focus on, gain market share from the competition, and stand out in the areas that other brands lack.

An analysis of your brand similarly will help you identify where your brand is lacking as well.

Keyword Research

Conducting keyword research around topics and ideas helps writers develop keyword targets but also helps shape blog posts in terms of:

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  • Topics covered.
  • Questions to be answered.
  • The essential elements of more in-depth issues have various layers and subtopics.

Over the last 10 to 15 years, many keyword-research tools have hit the market to help content strategists with topic discovery.

In addition to traditional tools like Google Keyword Planner (formerly known as the Keyword Tool), Ubersuggest, Google Analytics, and traditional Google Autocomplete, new-and-improved platforms like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, and MarketMuse, to name a few, have also made quite the impact on the world of content.

Other proprietary tools that are higher in terms of cost but are ever-so-powerful, like Conductor and BrightEdge, offer even more content ideas and high-value keyword targets to help shape strategy, among other content marketing tools.

Make Sure It’s Interesting

Most of all – and it may sound simple, but it is all too often ignored – make sure the content you’re planning is interesting to the audience for which it is being written.

If you’re well-versed in a brand and industry and don’t personally find a blog topic interesting, helpful, or educational, chances are the audience won’t think it is.

Write about interesting topics while offering expert opinions, feedback, and insights.

The audience will reward it by trusting the brand, its content, and its messaging.

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4. Do Your Research

Thorough research from credible sources is the main pillar of quality content.

Readers will look for expert opinions and analyses based on research done.

That allows writers and brands to stand out – real-life experience and a deeper explanation of sometimes complex situations.

But that research is paramount to building authoritative content that will have a long-standing impact.

As with all published content, check and double-check all facts and properly source proprietary knowledge to its original publisher.

This can be done using outbound links, in line with SEO best practices.

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5. Create A Strong, Enticing Headline

Headline writing is an art, even more so in the internet age.

Now, more than ever, humans are consuming vast amounts of information from everywhere.

Headlines must be great to stand out.

Otherwise, the content will likely never be seen.

There are a variety of different approaches to take when developing a crafty and attractive headline that will grab readers’ attention.

All headlines must:

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  • Relate directly back to the content they represent.
  • Be well-written.
  • Not be too long.

Some successful ways to create good headlines include using formulas and headline-generating tools and other innovative ways to ensure readers are enticed by the content meant for them.

6. Consider Visual Content

Rich media will always help a blog post in terms of click-through rate and the general likelihood that someone would be more enticed to click on it and learn more.

This also helps if headline writing isn’t your craft; a good visual typically attracts readers, and it’s easier for the eyes to understand and retain visuals than written words.

Know what works best for your content and your audience.

Next Steps After The Blog Post Is Prepared

Now is when the real work begins! The following are steps you will need to take to transform your idea into a successful piece of content!

  1. Write it!
  2. Optimize it all.
  3. Copyedit it, then copyedit it again.
  4. Then have someone else copyedit it for you.
  5. Publish it.
  6. Ensure the post has visible share buttons for social media and valid rich media previews.
  7. QA the live blog post yourself.
  8. Have a colleague QA the blog post.

More Resources:


Featured Image: puhhha/Shutterstock



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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?

In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.

Price: Free

Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.

Most common reporting use case

GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.

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As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:

  • Total Impressions
  • Average CTR
  • Average Position
gsc-performance-overviewgsc-performance-overview

Tip

If you’ve signed up for AWT using Google Search Console, you can view your GSC performance data in Ahrefs by clicking “GSC Performance” from the main dashboard.

But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.

organic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-yearorganic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-year

Favorite feature

One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.

google-search-console-indexed-pages-reportgoogle-search-console-indexed-pages-report

If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.

Price: Free

Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.

Most common reporting use case

Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.

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Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.

Such as:

  • Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
  • Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
  • Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
  • Social media platformsFacebook, Reddit, and Twitter
  • Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage

Sidenote.

If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks

google-looker-studio-partner-connectorsgoogle-looker-studio-partner-connectors

Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:

ahrefs-seo-audit-dashboardahrefs-seo-audit-dashboard
Ahrefs Google Looker Studio integration

With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.

Favorite feature

The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.

Price: Free for 500 URLs

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.

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Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.

screaming-frog-user-interface-screenshotscreaming-frog-user-interface-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.

Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.

Favorite feature

Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs. 

If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.

screaming-frog-api-accessscreaming-frog-api-access

Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.

Price: Free

Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.

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when-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustrationwhen-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustration

For example, you could use our:

Most common reporting use case

One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.

With AWT, you can:

  • Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
  • See the performance of your website
  • Check all known backlinks for your website
ahrefs-overviewahrefs-overview

Favorite feature

Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.

If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).

Price: Free

Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.

Most common reporting use case

For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.

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ahrefs-seo-toolbar-overviewahrefs-seo-toolbar-overview

With the free version, you get the following features:

  • On-page SEO report
  • Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
  • Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
  • SERP positions
  • Country changer for SERP

The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.

If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.

severity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbarseverity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Favorite feature

The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.

indexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbarindexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.

Price: Free

Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.

google-analytics-screenshotgoogle-analytics-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.

Favorite feature

You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.

Price: Free

Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.

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Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.

google-slides-screenshotgoogle-slides-screenshot

Most common reporting use cases

The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.

Favorite feature

One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.

share-video-chat-google-slidesshare-video-chat-google-slides

This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.

Price: Free

Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.

Most common reporting use cases

Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.

Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.

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Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.

bbq-google-trends-graphbbq-google-trends-graph

Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.

Favorite feature

Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.

google-trends-comparison-examplegoogle-trends-comparison-example

Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.

You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.

regional-trends-via-google-trendsregional-trends-via-google-trends

Final thoughts

These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.

The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.

Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂

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Study Reveals Potential Disruption For Brands & SEO

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Study Reveals Potential Disruption For Brands & SEO

A new study by Authoritas suggests that Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), currently being tested with a limited group of users, could adversely impact brand visibility and organic search traffic.

These findings include:

  • When an SGE box is expanded, the top organic result drops by over 1,200 pixels on average, significantly reducing visibility.
  • 62% of SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results.
  • Ecommerce, electronics, and fashion-related searches saw the greatest disruption, though all verticals were somewhat impacted.

Adapting to generative search may require a shift in SEO strategies, focusing more on long-form content, expert insights, and multimedia formats.

As Google continues to invest in AI-powered search, the Authoritas study provides an early look at the potential challenges and opportunities ahead.

High Penetration Rate & Industry-Wide Effects

The study analyzed 2,900 brand and product-related keywords across 15 industry verticals and found that Google displays SGE results for 91.4% of all search queries.

The prevalence of SGE results indicates they impact a majority of websites across various industries.

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The research analyzed the typical composition of SGE results. On average, each SGE element contained between 10-11 links sourced from an average of four different domains.

This indicates brands may need to earn multiple links and listings within these AI-curated results to maintain visibility and traffic.

The research also suggests that larger, well-established websites like Quora and Reddit will likely perform better in SGE results than smaller websites and lesser-known brands.

Shifting Dynamics In Organic Search Results

With SGE results occupying the entire first page, websites that currently hold the top positions may experience a significant decrease in traffic and click-through rates.

When a user clicks to expand the SGE element, the study found that, on average, the #1 ranked organic result drops a sizeable 1,255 pixels down the page.

Even if a website ranks number one in organic search, it may effectively be pushed down to the second page due to the prominence of SGE results.

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New Competition From Unexpected Sources

The study revealed that SGE frequently surfaces links and content from websites that didn’t appear in the top organic rankings.

On average, only 20.1% of SGE links exactly matched a URL from the first page of Google search results.

An additional 17.9% of SGE links were from the same domains as page one results but linked to different pages. The remaining 62% of SGE links came from sources outside the top organic results.

Challenges For Brand Term Optimization & Local Search

The study reveals that SGE results for branded terms may include competitors’ websites alongside the brand’s own site, potentially leading to increased competition for brand visibility.

Laurence O’Toole, CEO and founder of Authoritas, states:

“Brands are not immune. These new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and even competitors to rank for your brand terms and related brand and product terms that you care about.”

Additionally, local businesses may face similar challenges, as SGE results could feature competing local brands even when users search for a specific brand in a regional context.

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Methodology & Limitations

To arrive at these insights, Authoritas analyzed a robust dataset of 2,900 search keywords across a spectrum of query types, including specific brand names, brand + generic terms, brand + product names, generic terms, and specific product names. The keywords were distributed across 15 industry verticals.

The study utilized a consistent desktop browser viewport to quantify pixel-based changes in the search results. Authoritas also developed proprietary “alignment scores” to measure the degree of overlap between traditional organic search results and the new SGE links.

While acknowledging some limitations, such as the keyword set needing to be fully representative of each vertical and the still-evolving nature of SGE, Authoritas maintains that the insights hold value in preparing brands for the new realities of an AI-powered search ecosystem.

Why We Care

The findings of the Authoritas study have implications for businesses, marketers, and SEO professionals. As Google’s SGE becomes more prevalent, it could disrupt traditional organic search rankings and traffic patterns.

Brands that have invested heavily in SEO and have achieved top rankings for key terms may find their visibility and click-through rates diminished by the prominence of SGE results.

SGE introduces new competition from unexpected sources, as most SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results. This means businesses may need to compete not only with their traditional rivals but also with a broader range of websites that gain visibility through SGE.

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As Google is a primary source of traffic and leads for many businesses, any changes to its search results can impact visibility, brand awareness, and revenue.

How This Could Help You

While the rise of SGE presents challenges, it also offers opportunities.

Taking into account what we’ve learned from the Authoritas study, here are some actionable takeaways:

  • As SGE favors in-depth, informative content, businesses may benefit from investing in comprehensive, well-researched articles and guides that provide value to users.
  • Incorporating expert quotes, interviews, and authoritative sources within your content could increase the likelihood of being featured in SGE results.
  • Enriching your content with images, videos, and other multimedia elements may help capture the attention of both users and the SGE algorithm.
  • Building a strong brand presence across multiple channels, including social media, industry forums, and relevant websites, can increase your chances of appearing in SGE.
  • Creating a trustworthy brand and managing your online reputation will be crucial, as SGE may feature competitors alongside your website.

Looking Ahead

While the long-term impact of SGE will depend on user adoption and the perceived usefulness of results, this study’s findings serve as a valuable starting point for businesses and SEO professionals.

By proactively addressing the challenges and opportunities SGE presents, you can increase your chances of success in the new search environment.


Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

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