In this webinar for Kerboo I took a detailed look at how an agile thinking approach to your content can lead to SEO dividends. With an agile approach, the audience's needs come first, & by combining this with user-centred keyword research which looks at intent as well as language you create a content development environment where SEO content, UX & content strategy meet. This environment encourages creating content that is useful, that answers questions, & this matches the moves being made by Google to present the best possible answer to the implied question behind every search.

1. Understanding your audience;
Agile thinking & our content
Kerboo webinar
15th December 2015
@pagesauce

2. Charlie Williams
Head of Marketing
charlie (at) white.net
@pagesauce

3. @pagesauce
Previously on SEMRush…

4. @pagesauce

5. @pagesauce
Content = our best method to
offer a unique experience in
markets increasingly filled with
similar products

6. Putting the audience first
We can harness the power of our
audience to build better content
experiences
@pagesauce

7. @pagesauce
A story…
About how I learned
to make content

8. A story…
to make content
with ferries
About how I learned

9. What I’ve built…

10. ferries to France
What I’ve built…

11. ferries from France
ferries to France
What I’ve built…

12. France ferries
ferries from France
ferries to France
What I’ve built…

13. France ferries
ferries from France
ferries to France
And more… oh dear
cross-channel ferries
What I’ve built…

14. @pagesauce

15. @pagesauce
Optimising for search query topic
buckets, not individual keywords
Thinking in topics
https://moz.com/blog/topics-people-
over-keywords-rankings-whiteboard-
friday/
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/
content/future-seo-topics-instead-
keywords

16. & content marketing
SEO content, keyword research,
UX, content strategy, social media,
= Content development
@pagesauce

17. @pagesauce
Agile
Richard Prowse
https://gathercontent.com/blog/adopting-agile-approach-content
helps organisations… focus on
meeting user needs, prioritising
delivery and helping people to
collaborate

18. @pagesauce
An agile project is about creating
fast iterations of products based on
the feedback of real users -
Prioritise features for users over
everyone else gov.uk
https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile

19. But…
Agile’s for developers, right?
@pagesauce

20. @pagesauce
content marketing & agile approach
SEO content, keyword research,
UX, content strategy, social media,
= Content development

21. @pagesauce
https://moz.com/blog/user-behaviour-data-as-a-ranking-signal
http://searchengineland.com/meet-rankbrain-google-search-results-234386

22. Build great content
= the new content is king…
@pagesauce

23. @pagesauce
Product pages
How do we make these great?

24. @pagesauce

25. Challenging or new industries
What counts as great content?
@pagesauce

26. Helping the audience
needs?
So, how do we create content that
actually serves our audience’s
@pagesauce

27. @pagesauce
Questions

28. @pagesauce
When you do a search, you
generally want an answer
Gabriel Weinberg
http://www.fastcompany.com/3026698/inside-
duckduckgo-googles-tiniest-fiercest-competitor

29. @pagesauce
Types of searches

30. Listening to the audience
@pagesauce

31. @pagesauce
Understand what is working;
what does your audience enjoy?
Google Analytics

32. @pagesauce
Understand what is working;
what does your audience enjoy?
Google Analytics

33. @pagesauce

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35. @pagesauce
What’s earned your
audience’s interest?

36. @pagesauce
What’s earned your
audience’s interest?

37. @pagesauce
talking about?
What is our audience
Topsy

38. @pagesauce
content
User testing
Eye-opening insight into what
your audience wants from your
https://www.usertesting.com/product/videos-and-metrics

39. Surveys
want & incentivise
Ask your audience what they
@pagesauce
SurveyMonkey
www.surveymonkey.com
SurveyGizmo
www.surveygizmo.com
Google
https://www.google.co.uk/forms/about/
https://www.google.com/insights/
consumersurveys/home
http://www.siegemedia.com/google-consumer-surveys-
for-content-marketers

40. questions
Questions
Competitor FAQs & Quora
for researching common
@pagesauce
http://faqfox.com/

41. User-centred
http://www.momentology.com/7216-user-centric-keyword-research-topics/
@pagesauce
keyword research
Quality keyword research
unveils your audience’s needs

42. @pagesauce
User-centred
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design
“design tries to optimise the
product around how users can,
want, or need to use the product”

43. @pagesauce
SEMrush
Dig into the topics your
competitors earn traffic with
http://refugeeks.com/semrush/

44. @pagesauce

45. @pagesauce
Google Trends
Is this a growing topic?

46. @pagesauce
Scrape Google suggest

47. Kewordtool.io
KeywordKiwi
Ubersuggest
Scrape Google suggest
@pagesauce

48. @pagesauce
Ask the audience
http://answerthepublic.com/

49. @pagesauce

50. User stories
audience wants, & map the journey
Take your personas, & what your
https://gathercontent.com/blog/adopting-agile-approach-content
https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile/writing-user-stories.html
@pagesauce
http://seedkeywords.com/

51. @pagesauce
User stories
https://yougov.co.uk/profiler

52. @pagesauce
Wireframes
Be able to show how your content
will work
Balsamiq Mockups

53. @pagesauce
http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique
An example
To get your own ideas going

54. Tell your stories of your product
product or service
Content can be about the user
experiences to be had with your
@pagesauce

55. @pagesauce
Agile thinking
helps our SEO in two ways:
Focus on one issue at a time,
& helping us understand the
audience, so we know what to
make

56. @pagesauce
User-led content = useful content
Useful to audience = Google’s aim

57. @pagesauce

58. @pagesauce
charlie (at) white.net
THANK YOU
Questions?
@pagesauce