How do you find appropriate content marketing topics? Whether you’re doing content marketing for clients or looking for exciting content for your own website: I’ll show you 5 methods that make your topic search easier.

My goal is to give you instructions on how to make your topic search successful for relevant marketing content. In addition to the classic keyword research, there are a few other promising methods to help you find topics.

Be aware of who you are writing the content for!

Regardless of whether you create content for your own website or for a customer, the most important question is and remains: who should the content reach?

At this point, I assume that you already know and have defined your target audience. If you are still unsure, watch for my next article on Buyer Personas. Fast forward: You should have at least one answer to the following questions:

  • Which socio-demographic characteristics does your target group have?
  • Which needs (related to your product, services) does your target group have?
  • Is your target group internet-user and makes purchase decisions online?
  • Does he/she use social networks and which ones?
  • Does your target group use the Internet for research purposes, for example for further information on products in which it is interested?

Someone who is looking for fashion blogging inspiration for his outfit, for example, or the latest fashion trends, at the time, will hardly be interested in topics around impact drills. The more you know your target group, the easier it is to find topics.

Content Audit: Which content already exists?

Before you enter the topic research, it makes sense to do an audit. This is also the first step in our topic search: Make a note of which aspects you are missing in the analysis of your content and which you can revise and expand. The following questions will be of great help to you:

  • Are you starting from scratch or have information-oriented content already been created?
  • How useful is the content?
  • Is the content up-to-date or can you do that better now?
  • Does the content address your target audience or buyer personas and solve their problems?
  • How can you better implement these topics?
  • Which content is especially popular?
  • What content is missing?
  • Can or need to delete outdated content?

Tip: You can do a site query for a quick audit. In that case, I checked whether there is something about topic-finding in content marketing on the level of secrets or what content. So you make sure that you do not treat a topic twice and get an overview of your articles. It is interesting, above all, which topic does not exist yet. And which topics need a new facelift.

It is recommended to review and maintain your content from time to time. The next point is the development of new topics.

A tip on the edge: Search operators can make life easier for you. The ones that exist and how you use them can be found at Google for web search optimization or in this article on Google search operators.

Strategic topic finding

After you have “reviewed” the existing content, you can start searching for new topics. There are several different approaches available to you. It is not always necessary to apply all. But I want to give you all the tools.

Use your “close group” as subject suppliers!

“Why to go wander into the distance, when the good is so close”, Goethe already knew. So put the proverb into action and get inspiration from colleagues, friends, customers and your competition for your topics.

Spanking the competition

Look around on your competitor’s websites. And also on related journals and magazines. Spitting is expressly allowed! However, here is also true: having a snack is ok, but eating at home is better. Be inspired by content for your collection of topics, but please do not just copy the entire contents!

customer surveys

Your content is aimed at your (potential) customers. Why not just ask them what they want to read and what information they want from you? Either in the context of a written customer survey or you simply call your trusted customer for an input.

Information from the sales and service team

Is there a customer support group? Hardly any other contact group knows so much about the problems, worries, and challenges of your customers as the customer service team. This is your chance to find topics that are directly related to your customers and that you can answer with your planned content.

Consult colleagues and friends

Often wrongly underestimated or simply forgotten: The opinions of colleagues and friends. If you do not (yet) have any customers or support – which I’m not expecting now – ask people who surround you. What content would your colleagues and friends like to read on the website? What needs are satisfied and which questions are answered?

Content Curation

Content Curation stands for collecting, organizing and reworking “foreign” information on specific topics. Also a kind of spitting on the competition. However, this approach is rather about presenting views and opinions of other experts on a topic – of course with a link to the original sources. The basic idea is to enrich your content with added value.

The challenge here is to enrich one’s own content by changing perspectives or by (critically) illuminating one’s own point of view, thus distinguishing one from the other.

Tools for finding topics

Probably the most classic method of topic search in online marketing is the search using various tools.

Google Suggest

Please use Google Suggest for your research. Ask Google a question, but WITHOUT pressing Enter.

Think about a specific question about a topic or topic that is relevant to you. The question should begin with a question word (also “W-word”) such as “who / how / what / when”. Then the topic follows as a keyword. The important thing is “Do not hit enter on Google”. Otherwise, you will not be able to see the topics suggested by Google Suggest.

 

google suggest search ideas

Take the W-word “which” and the topic “dog”. Already during the input search phrases are offered. If you run an online dog shop, you immediately found some good ideas for your content. The great thing about these suggestions is reflected in what users are actually looking for! So nothing like the suggestions in your topic collection.

Here’s an article with tips on finding ideas for your content marketing: Spark New Ideas with Keyword Research Tools /Tips.

exploringtopics.com

Exploringtopics.com offers you good help with a topic search. It shows you how and what users are looking for on the net, how your competition deals with the topic and which niche topics are available for you. Exploding Topics is a new tool that analyzes millions of data points around the web from sources like:

⚡Search
⚡Shopping
⚡Online communities
⚡Tech news

And it identifies new topics that are starting to explode. 💥That way, you can create content around these topics… before they get super competitive.

 

exploring content ideas and topics

SISTRIX

With Sistrix, you can identify unused keywords under “Keywords à Opportunities”. All you have to do is compare your domain with competing sites:

 

SEO Sistrix keywords finder

Sistrix will now show you a list of keywords for which your competition will be found in the top 100, but you will not. If you go through these search terms now and filter and sort them by relevance to you, you have again found new topic ideas.

Hypersuggest

Hypersuggest, for example, is a tool based on Google Suggest. Here you can find relevant search terms for all topics collected so far. Particularly interesting is the W-questions search. So you’ll find out how exactly users are looking for these topics. Use this potential by answering as many questions as possible to the topics that are relevant to you.

 

SEO Keyword search Hypersuggest

BuzzSumo

With BuzzSumo, for example, you’ll find not only influencers but also the most shared content on social media channels. Of course, it makes no sense to take over this 1: 1. Still, it’s interesting to see what type of content is especially popular. You can add these topics to your topic collection afterward.

Do you want to become fit in online marketing? With our newsletter, you will automatically receive the latest Seocrats contributions directly into your mailbox! Click here for the registration form.

 

buzzsumo tool for research

Search forums and portals

Forums are an old hat? They are still useful, online forums and portals such as Quora or Reddit have great potential to find out what motivates readers of each target group. The information from the tools and the network will help you find the right topics on these platforms. Here you can find individual questions from different users. For example, if a question is asked very frequently, it seems relevant. And especially interesting: apparently there is still no satisfactory answer. The search volume of questions asked in such portals often has great potential, even if they do not appear in keyword tools.

 

Quora content topic ideas

Social media

Another helper in the search for target group-specific topics is social media, such as Facebook. Based on the “likes” and “shares” you can read what the user employs. A big plus of social media channels is the interactivity. Sometimes a topic call on Facebook can be a good idea supplier. In an illustrated post  “What is important to you …?” You can get interesting and inspiring answers. Also, use Facebook groups to find out what your users are talking about and what they are working on.

Join topic-relevant groups and observe what people are talking about, what questions they have. And ask yourself questions to find out what the group members are doing.

content marketing facebook groups

Conclusion

To find the relevant content topics for your users, you need to know them and know who you are writing for. Before the topic search comes the target group analysis. Once this is done, you can start with my tips on finding a topic right away. Do not let the thought of completeness keep you away. Just start and try it out. But also take breaks to regain some distance and continue fresh. Focus yourself on these questions:

  • Are there any frequently asked sales or support questions that you can answer?
  • What challenges do your customers have and what are their problems?
  • Are there typical case studies from customer or business life?
  • Do your customers follow discussions in topic-related forums and social media groups?
  • What is your target group discussing in Internet forums or question platforms?
  • What is the most talked about topic in the media and social media?

Are you also doing this or do you have a completely different approach to finding relevant topics? What is your approach? I look forward to suggestions and opinions…

How to reuse your old content to gain more traffic. Do not ignore your old content marketing.

We know it, you work hard and surely wasted many resources to maintain a permanent activity and a constant presence on your Internet site.

Displaying new content, checking the accuracy, possible correction or rewriting, SEO optimization is an integral part of daily work. All this by ensuring that your SEO is the most work possible even if it is a small fraction of the work that should be done to keep your website content up to date and interesting.

A Study done by We are Social Media (WeRSM), one of the largest sites dealing with social networks, found that 76% of visits to his blog related to the reading of old articles posted sometimes several months ago. This means that 3 out of 4 Internet users visit a site to read the content of old articles and not to read new articles recently posted.

This study explains that it is also very important to optimize your old content to ensure that it is in sync with current news. Then edit it, add relevant information and recent facts and do not wait to share it.

It’s time to face hard facts. Your brand new content will soon turn into old and will end up on the periphery of your website and in your memory.

So here are 5 reasons why you should not neglect your old content and continue to invest in it:

1. Your old content is already present in the search engines

Anyone with even basic knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knows that it takes time for the new content to make its way to the top of your search engine rankings.

Your new content mainly draws its exposure from direct traffic, email marketing, and relay via social networks. To be effective, it takes a while. After this time, it may be that your content is already irrelevant.

To support this theory, let’s go back to the analysis made by WeRSM and note that, indeed, of the 76% of Internet users who visited the old article, almost all were directed to the content via the search engines.

It is, therefore, crucial to use your own analysis tools to check where and how your clients are redirected.

2. Your used content may no longer be relevant and accurate

Marketers tend to forget that all content needs to be checked on a regular basis. They tend to consider only content that directly jumps out at them. Just because the content does not appear on the home page does not mean that your users will not find it at one time or another. Remember to keep your old articles up to date; it’s even essential to avoid misleading your readers or letting them acquire inaccurate or outdated information.

Updating keywords for your SEO is also an element to take into account and that can change a lot of things. Frequently check their relevance is important to continue to attract new customers to your website.

3. Save your resources – editing is much easier than rewriting

Investing in new content is a task that will use all your time and resources. In order to maximize your efficiency, it is strongly recommended to ‘refresh’ your old content as much as possible rather than writing new text for your site.

Keep a list of all your old, up-to-date pages that are always relevant and use them to create your new content by adding new keywords and of course, by editing them if necessary.

4. Do not shoot yourself in the foot – repeated content is competitive content

ActiveTrail’s blog contains countless articles and advice in the field of marketing. Sometimes we create an article about a topic we’ve already written on, which creates a kind of duplicate content. Be careful, more pages do not mean more exposure on search engines, but it does mean that you will be competing against yourself for clicks and exposure.

Indeed, if you write an article dealing with a subject already studied, you will have two different web pages (for a single subject treated). This will allow you to get a moderate number of users. On the other hand, a single good article, with less competition, could significantly improve the visibility of your pages on the web and thus attract new users.

In this case, instead of writing a new article, take the old article and refresh it, make sure it is up to date. Your web referencing rate could only improve and you would find yourself, little by little, at the top of the poster!

5. Making sure your content is up-to-date is the best way to get new leads

If we assume that most of your website traffic is generated by your old content, then it’s the same for most of your prospects. A Lead is a potential customer and in order to turn that prospect into a real customer, we need to direct him to some sort of action.

Make sure your call to action is still relevant and active on all your old pages, at the risk of losing potential customers. Make sure that all the links on the old pages are active and bring your users to the pages you want them to come to.

Keeping track of all the contents of your site is not an easy task. Here are some tips to avoid neglecting your old content:

Set up a monthly task of modifying and optimizing your old content;
Create a list of your most successful pages – make sure they are always up to date;
Whenever you want to add new content to your site, stop for a moment and check your old content first. It is possible that you do not have to work so hard.

We tend to forget what’s right in front of us, so, even more, when it’s gone. From now on, it’s up to you to remember your old content. Remember, words make sense and your website is the sum of all its pages. Remember to keep your content always up to date.

At a time when the majority of companies have realized that the content they produced for the web should allow valuing their brand (s), many are now looking for ways to optimize their content marketing strategy.

To do this, they can use surveys. Read more

Sustainable web content is possible, but most importantly for businesses that want to create value and stay profitable.

What is sustainable web content? What are the challenges for a company or a brand? Read more

The world of content marketing is constantly evolving: new tools and new technologies are emerging, strategies are evolving to scan old ones, etc.

Read more

Content Marketing is one of the six channels of a company’s Digital Marketing, which is to provide visitors with quality information on your website.

It’s not about pushing directly for sales, but creating and distributing relevant and consistent web content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience Read more

This has not escaped you, traditional marketing is becoming a topic of digital marketing news and the marketing trend to be essentially digital is leading to new practices for companies looking to grow their business.
In my recent article, I illustrated the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing, I explained what are the new practices to implement to communicate well on the Internet. Among these practices, emerges the need for companies to become their own media. This state of affairs requires companies to produce their content in order to feed the various digital media networks (blog, website, YouTube, Instagram, etc.).

Finally, you will understand that if these contents must be produced by the companies, they can not be produced in a disorganized way or they will blur the tracks for their customers. The competition and noise on social networks force companies to develop a digital marketing strategy that targets its audience.

Some areas in which your content creation is crucial

SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

In other words, optimizing your website on the Google search engine organic results. Instead of thinking about the first page for the homepage of your site, rather think that it is the opportunity to offer great quality content (especially around your products & services) to users who are looking for a solution.

Let’s look at how Google search results are displayed. When you enter a question in google search bar, you will get results that Google finds on the question entered and displays pages with the most relevant that it has found to answer the question and showcase it. The results that Google offers on the first result page are based on multiple criteria. First, Google uses the relevance, popularity, and authority of the publishing source as pillars of the quality of ‘high value’ content.
You’ll easily understand how important it is for your business to offer high-potential content to attract prospects in search of a solution. Finally, rather than a sales pitch, demonstrating your expertise is the most direct way to persuade a prospect to become a customer, isn’t it?

SEA (Search Engine Advertising):

A must in this category is Google AdWords (very recently renamed Google Ads). Here again, the content is very important. Google gives a mark of quality to the keywords you buy. Including, this quality score is calculated based on the keyword, related ads, and landing page. This grade of quality is very important because it allows you to be more relevant at low cost.

Once again, nothing really good, but it means that content and quality are at the center of the debate. A high-quality landing page, on which a prospect is landed, is vital to convert an intention (search for a solution by a user) into business, with the help of an offer (value proposition).

Social networks: Is it still necessary to specify?

Without social media, your visibility will be reduced. They are floods and without a fine strategy of editorial choices (images, semantics, keywords, etc.) and audience targeting, you will certainly encounter the greatest difficulties in organizing a community of loyal fans around your brand.
Again, a defined content creation strategy to reach your audience is crucial. It allows bringing to your community elements of knowledge around your products & services which directs them correctly towards the consideration of your solutions.
Think about the format of your images, your ads to bring consistency between all the content elements around your brand.

Email marketing:

If the bulk of sending unsolicited emails is completely discouraged because of its very bad reputation generator, email marketing remains a very effective channel when it is used wisely. Whether it is a newsletter or transactional emails (online purchases, reservations, interaction with online services, etc.), the quality of content creation is also crucial. Indeed, given the number of newsletters to which we are all subscribed in order to make a substantial watch on our niche of activity, our attention will naturally be on ‘high added value’ content. It is, of course, your content that will allow your customers to understand your offer and your expertise. Similarly, in transactional emails, opportunities to cross-sell, for example, are important. That’s why your business strategy coupled with an effective content strategy (for comparison, a classic marketing think catalog, product list, advertising, print, etc.) will allow you to turn your prospects into customers.

In Conclusion

I would say that more than ever, thinking about your brand and value proposition will help you define a content creation strategy for your online media. This properly formatted content for digital media is the key to successful digital marketing. It is very important, in my opinion, to define this content creation strategy even before using tools. The reason is that they just risk complicating your communication processes without giving you the opportunity to provide your clients with quality information and therefore, give them the benefit of your products and services.

 What defines high-quality content to Google

The key to success for your website: create the best possible user experience with original and high-quality content!
Producing quality content is essential if you want to stand out in Google’s search results (more than 95% of the search market). Original and quality content will make your site useful and unique, it is possible that your visitors come back and even refer your content on their own website. Engaging high-quality content is essential to attract as many Internet users as possible over time. Read more

When writing content for the web, this means that users are reading our text will across a screen. However, this interface induces very particular and different constraints of the paper reading:

  • Longer reading time
  • Less fluid reading
  • Less reading comfort
  • A more difficult understanding

Web editors must, therefore, adapt their writing to these specificities to capture the interest of Internet users. Here are a few tips to help you achieve this goal.

1- Take into account the peculiarities of reading on the screen

In web content writing, it is essential to keep in mind that between your text and the reader is a screen.

You have to adapt because; the ways to read a text on a screen are different compared to reading in a magazine.

An eye-tracking study led by Jakob Nielsen is used to define essential reading areas on the screen. It is, therefore, necessary to consider these strategic areas to include relevant information or the links on which you want to direct the user.

Reading behaviours on the web is entirely different from reading on paper. The user is a reader with his characteristics, often less attentive; he seeks accurate and targeted information.

Here are some ways to help you better understand the behaviour of readers on the web, and allow you to adapt your web writing.

These hot areas are located mainly on the left of the screen, and we see that the user sweeps the web page from left to right by forming an F.
These are the strategic locations on the screen, to give priority to highlight essential elements of your content.

Even if the scroll is no longer a brake to the user, used to scroller on social networks, in particular, the location of hot spots is at the waterline. So remember to include the critical information and call-to-action at this level, and the relevance of your content will urge the reader to want to scroll down to find out more.

Adapt your content to all screens

Web browsing is also performed on different media devices with different screen sizes:

  • Tablets
  • Smartphones
  • Computers

To make your content readable regardless of the terminal device used by the reader, it is essential to adopt a responsive design for your site. The display of your web page will fit the screen size and will maintain a good quality of reading. It is also essential to consider the smaller size of mobile screens, so sentences and short paragraphs will be more natural to read rather than a thick pad that will discourage the reader.

When writing your content, it is, therefore, necessary to take into account all these specificities in order to strategically position the information in the right places on your page.

2 – The Internet user is an impatient reader

And yes, generally the user is an eager reader who scans the screen more than he reads its content. In fact, only 10 to 20% of Internet users read an entire article on the web.

The challenge is to capture the attention of the user to make him want to read your content. Now that you know the hot areas of reading on the screen take the opportunity to put relevant and impactful information in these strategic places.

The user gives only a little time to read; he wants to access the information he seeks quickly. You can, therefore, facilitate his reading by highlighting the critical information on your page, in bold, for example.

Also, take care of the paragraphs’ titles so that the reader can see the elements present in each of them and can organize his reading according to his needs.

You will understand with the web reader; the length of an article is not a guarantee of success. This reader seeks above all relevant information, concise that provides him a real added value; he favors the quality of content.

3 – How to improve your web’s reading rate

How to improve your web's reading rate

In web writing, one of the secrets to capturing the attention of your reader from the first lines is to adopt a text structure in an inverted pyramid.

The principle is simple; it is to write your text starting with the most crucial information and then go into the details and secondary information.
This writing principle allows you to hook the reader quickly by delivering the information he was seeking, and by encouraging them to further to learn more about the subject.
This technique completely corresponds to the behavior of the readers on the web, who expect concise texts that go straight to the point.

To avoid anything, this reverse pyramid structure allows you to back up your most important keywords at the top of the page, where they are most visible for search engines.

The technique of the inverted pyramid is the golden rule in web copywriting. Let’s go back to the basic principles of this method.

The basics of the technique of the inverted pyramid,

Let’s take a quick step backward: remember, at school, we were taught well for our essays on respecting the following plan: introduction, development, and conclusion. In journalism and web copywriting, it’s just the opposite: we directly announced the conclusion (= the essential message) from the first lines. In other words, the primary information must be condensed in the title and Cap (or “Chapo”).

To support the ideas in the different paragraphs, it will always be based on this principle: the web editor should highlight the key concepts in the headings and develop them in the first lines of each part of the text. Developing one idea per paragraph, being captured by subheadings.

Likewise, keywords, which reflect the subject and topic, must appear at the beginning of the text in the title in this case (“title”), in the first part and in the opening lines of the article. The inverted pyramid is, therefore, at the heart of web copywriting techniques.

The rule of the inverted pyramid: Interests and benefits

Let’s now make a brief comparison web press/clipboard. With magazines and traditional newspapers, the reader enjoys a comfortable reading: well wedged in his sofa, he takes the time to read, flip through the pages of his favorite mag, browse through the texts and images.
On the Internet, it is rather fishing for information, as the information ‘overflows,’ so is the competition between news sites, both the info goes quickly, always faster.

Why am I doing this aside? Because this is the whole point of articles written with the technique of the inverted pyramid. The reader in a hurry and ultra solicited from the outset at the heart of the information. And to be even more effective, the inverted pyramid rule must go hand in hand with quality writing: simple words, short sentences, a well-structured article, and soon.

The essential thing to remember about the inverted pyramid technique:

The reverse pyramid technique offers many advantages. Mainly, this method allows us to hold the reader’s attention and satisfy him in his search for information.
Furthermore, a well-written text with the keywords and relevant information at the beginning of the text makes it possible to reference the page better.
Also, following the reverse pyramid rule allows you not only to be read but also to be better referenced.

It is also essential to prioritize the readability of your content. This may sound basic, but a bad-chosen font or a size of character too small and uncomfortable to read can slow down the end-user as soon as he landed on your page. Structuring your text is also good readability, avoid too dense texts that will again drive away your readers.

Also, you could select a fluid writing style and easy to read with short sentences.

Use precise vocabulary and do not knock out your readers with a too technical vocabulary that they will have difficulty understanding, except for a professional audience.

The web reader enjoys a concise and direct style that goes to the basics.

4 – A clear structure

In order to facilitate the user’s reading, it is vital to set up a clear text structure, with easily identifiable paragraphs and titles, which will help make the content reading more comfortable.

In addition to structured text, an open layout is also preferred to improve reading comfort but also encourage the user to read your writing.

It is especially important to avoid the impression of a very dense text, which will seem confusing for the user to read.

5 – Make the information standout

 

Make your Content Information Standout

In copywriting, it is essential to highlight some points on your web page, in order to facilitate the reading of the user but also to bring it quickly to the critical information of your content.
In fact, on a web page, the user scans the content more than he reads, so do not hesitate to highlight key phrases in your text by visual elements, for example by putting them in bold. This will attract his attention and make him want to read the rest.

6 – Go straight to the point

Clarity is one of the keywords of web writing, so keep it in mind when writing for your website or blog.

Get to the point

A concise text with a simple vocabulary will facilitate the reading again to the user. This will maintain his attention without losing it in the middle of a sentence too complex.

Short sentences and paragraphs, with only one information explained at a time, are therefore recommended.

You also pay attention to the length of the text; a long text may discourage the reader even before he has started to read it.

7 – Provide additional information to the reader

Unlike paper, web content writing allows you to provide further information to the reader through the addition of links to your content.

It is therefore advisable to use these internal and external links to provide additional information relevant to the reader, for example:

  • The explanation of a notion mentioned in an article
  • Support a cited statistic in a text
  • To discover a complimentary product in a product description

In addition to providing additional and useful information to the reader, this practice is also indicated for your SEO optimization, so you kill two birds with one stone.

8 – The importance of illustration

cornea illustration

Inserting images within your web content also allows you to lighten your text, to bring the comfort of reading, and to facilitate the understanding of the reader by illustrating the points discussed.

As the saying sometimes goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” this can also be applied to web content writing, yet we must select them well.

It is essential to pay attention to the choice of images, and they must be in correlation with the content and provide a value-added in terms of quality.

Conversely, a poorly chosen image might draw the quality of your content (article, product…) down.

You will understand, when writing for the web, you must first and foremost think about the user and organize your content to ensure optimal readability and thus turn it into a player.

If you need assistance with your web writing, you can ask our web editors who will produce content for your site that guarantees quality legibility for your users.

You also have our agency share your tips and tricks in web writing, by leaving a small comment at the bottom of this article.

An effective web editor must follow several golden rules to achieve its SEO and customer satisfaction goals. Here are ten golden rules that any web editor should follow. 10 golden rules to follow to be an effective web editor, achieve your SEO goals and satisfy your customers.

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