A quick, actionable guide for developing a content development roadmap. Presented at MNSearch #12.

2. ABOUT ME
@scott_dodge
@threedeep
SEO @ThreeDeep.
Car Guy.
Hater of Sports.
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@scott_dodge

3. AGENDA
Caring about Content
Approaching Content Differently
Developing an Actionable Content Development
Roadmap
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4. ch
Confidential and Proprietary Information

5. Confidential and Proprietary Information

6. CONTENT IS A WEIRD THING.
It’s a buzzword to some, and a lifeblood to
others.
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7. SOME DON’T CARE ENOUGH. OTHERS CARE TOO MUCH.
“Um…. I’ll just have the burger.”
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8. PEOPLE HAVE VARYING LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING.
Content = Blog posts!
More blog posts = more traffic!
Content = more traffic!
*Rapid crapsourcing ensues
You can’t say that!
That needs to go through legal.
That needs approval from the
CEO and his Grandmother.
*Nothing gets done
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9. HERE’S WHAT WE HAVE TO DO.
k
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10. STOP THINKING ABOUT CONTENT AS A SINGLE ENTITY.
What makes a car good?
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11. THINK ABOUT IT AS A CULMINATION OF MANY FACTORS.
=
=
It’s a combination of quality (power, handling,
reliability, styling) and most importantly,
RELEVANCE.
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12. A QUANTUM LEAP.
Change is haaaaard.
Crapsourcing content is easy and cheap.
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13. CRAPSOURCING.
Here’s what crapsourcing gets you.
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14. MANY DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN.
So… there’s this content thing that I’m
supposed to be doing…
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15. LET ME SHOW YOU THE WAY.
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16. STEP 1 – START CARING.
The first step in any Content Development
project is to actually CARE.
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17. STEP 2 – PRIORITIZE AND FOCUS.
Start breaking down key service lines, product
categories or markets.
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This will help make execution less intimidating.
@scott_dodge

18. STEP 3 – UNDERSTAND THE CUSTOMER.
To ensure you’re developing content that
resonates, make sure you have some semblance
of understanding your customer, their
interests, and their desires.
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19. STEP 4 – BUILD A ROADMAP OF KEYWORD THEMES.
The most important step, and the focus of this
presentation entails building a roadmap of
keyword themes.
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20. STEP 5 – EXECUTE.
The final step in this process is to execute.
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21. The Players
Pen and Paper
Scrapebox
Adwords Keyword Tool / Planner
Excel
Your Brain
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22. PEN AND PAPER.
Start with focus area #1. Grab a pen and paper, and
start sketching out the customer path to
conversion. This is where customer
understanding is vital.
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23. REFINE A BIT.
Start to refine, and go into a little depth in each
of these areas.
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24. TRANSLATE TO SEED KEYWORDS THAT WILL GROW INTO
THEMES.
Translate these barely legible ramblings into
something a living, breathing human would
actually search for.
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25. FIRE UP SCRAPEBOX.
Dump these seed keywords into Scrapebox
Suggest Scraper.
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26. RE-SCRAPE LIST A COUPLE TIMES.
Review the scraped list. If you feel like
it, remove a few non-applicable KWs.
Transfer left, and re-scrape.
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27. DUMP LIST INTO ADWORDS KEYWORD TOOL
Once you have the big list, dump them into the
Adwords Keyword Tool / planner / whatever
they’re calling it now.
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28. TAKE NOTE OF HOW HIGH-VOLUME KEYWORD INTENT
DIFFERS.
These will start to inform your main themes,
which you can then begin to break down.
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29. EXPORT INTO EXCEL, BREAK IT DOWN.
Get sorting. Look at your high-volume keywords,
and search for related keywords to create
detailed keyword themes.
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30. BBBBBBBREAK IT DOWN
Pretty easy to understand what you need to
do, and how to prioritize it, right?
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31. A WILD ROADMAP APPEARS…
Right in front of your eyes, this informationoverload turns into an actionable outline that
you could get started on TODAY.
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32. EXECUTE AND ENJOY!
Execution is up to you. Turn this into an editorial
calendar, use it to break down a new service line
section, or create a wiki-style monster resource
page.
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33. 1. Content is important.
Care.
2. Map out a conversion
path.
3. Use ScrapeBox & KW
Tool to get a monster
list of KWs with
volume.
4. Break down KW list
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34. @scott_dodge
@threedeep