Strategic SEO Content Creation – Episode 13

Episode 13 – Strategic SEO Content Creation
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Hi, I’m Christine Abela from Oxygen8 Consulting. I’m a business consultant with a strong tech background helping small business owners move from chaos to calm and take their business to the next level. In this podcast, I share practical ideas and simple systems to make your business easier to run, more profitable and more enjoyable to own.

Some of the content is created with the help of AI tools, but the voice you are hearing right now is mine and everything is grounded in real world experience. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch or download free notes and resources, head over to [00:01:00] GoBeyondBusy.com.

Did you know that something like 96.55% of all pages on the internet get absolutely zero traffic from Google? Wow. That’s, that’s a staggering number.

Right. You put in all this effort creating content, hours and hours, and for most of it, it’s just, well, crickets. It’s like shouting your brilliant ideas into this massive void and hoping someone, anyone, hears you.

It’s such a common thing and incredibly frustrating, especially for small business owners. I mean, you’re already juggling so much, right?

Exactly.

And then you pour time, money, creative energy into content that just vanishes. It feels like a huge waste. It really does.

And that’s exactly why today we’re doing a deep dive into transforming content creation.

Taking it from, you know, guesswork into something systematic, something high impact.

Making it work smarter, not just harder.

Precisely. Think of this as your shortcut. Mm. Now our insights [00:02:00] today, they come from a really fantastic collection of resources tailored for small business owners. These materials are brought to us by Christine Abela.

She’s a very tech savvy business consultant. She works with businesses turning over, say, one to $10 million.

And Christine’s Go Beyond Busy materials, they really focus on smart, practical ways to grow and simplify your business. What’s key, I think, is that her advice is non-technical.

It’s grounded in real world stuff.

Which is invaluable if you’re a small business owner, not necessarily a marketing guru or a coder. Absolutely. So our mission today is to unpack these strategies. We wanna give you practical steps to create content that doesn’t just rank high in search engines, um, but genuinely connects with your audience.

Yeah. Leads to real business results.

Like getting a masterclass on strategic content straight from an expert network, but you know, tailored just for you.

Exactly.

So let’s really get into that core problem. Why does so much content fail? That 96.55% statistic isn’t just a [00:03:00] number.

No. It highlights something fundamental.

Most content fails not because it’s badly written necessarily, but because as the sources really emphasize, creators are basically shouting into the void. The key difference isn’t just quality, it’s about strategic validation before you even type a single word.

Okay. Strategic validation. That’s a huge distinction.

It’s not just what you write, but uh, how you plan it.

Mm-hmm.

And this is where it gets really interesting. The sources talk about a skyscraper analogy.

Uh, yeah. The skyscraper.

Imagine your content architecture, the structure of your article, like the blueprint of a skyscraper. A strong blueprint means the building stands tall and stable, right?

Makes sense.

Well, proper content structure ensures your content stands strong in search rankings and, importantly, guides readers effectively. There’s this great anecdote in the materials about a health tech startup. Oh yeah. They publish this meticulously structured blog post, really focused on heading hierarchy, clear flow, and get this, it [00:04:00] outranked an older, more established article on the same topic in just six weeks.

Six weeks. Wow. Even if the older one had more backlinks?

Even though the older post had more backlinks. The success was put down solely to structure.

That’s fascinating. It proves that a clear, well organized piece that just thoroughly answers the user’s question can actually beat older, maybe more authoritative content.

Which is incredibly empowering for a small business owner, isn’t it?

Totally. It means no more wasted time or resources on content that goes nowhere. This deep dive, it’s about showing you how to build content that serves as the definitive resource.

The go-to place.

Yeah. Building an authoritative asset, not just, you know, another blog post.

Okay. So if structure is that powerful, how do you even start building that blueprint? Which takes us to phase one.

Finding those rank-worthy ideas. This is all about what you do before you write.

Right. And it starts with understanding your audience through something called search listening.

Search listening, [00:05:00] not just guessing.

Exactly. This isn’t about guessing what your audience wants based on like surveys or your gut feeling.

Search listening means understanding how your potential customers actually express their needs when they go online.

How they talk about their problems.

Precisely. Observing the exact language they use when they’re looking for solutions on Google or Reddit or forums.

So how do you actually do that? Where do you listen?

Well, the sources suggest diving into online communities. Reddit is huge for this. Quora threads too. Even customer reviews on Amazon for products in your niche.

Industry forums, social media groups.

Absolutely. Yeah. You’re looking for their raw language specific questions like, how do I fix X? Or, what’s the best way to achieve y?

You’re basically collecting the real world problems your audience is trying to solve – in their own words.

Okay, so let’s take an example. Say you sell productivity apps.

Right. You might browse, uh, Reddit’s productivity community. You’d spot threads like, How do I stop procrastinating on big projects? Or maybe What’s [00:06:00] the best system for managing both work and personal tasks?

And those immediately give you ideas for search terms.

Exactly. They translate directly into potential seed keywords like overcome project procrastination or work personal task management system. You’re turning their pain points directly into what they’re likely typing into a search bar.

That makes sense.

And the actionable advice here is pretty simple, isn’t it? Create a search listening database.

Yeah, just a spreadsheet. Keep it simple. Columns for that raw user language, the problem category, maybe their experience level. Are they a beginner or advanced? And what kind of content they seem to be after. Is it a guide, a template, a video?

This helps you move from just vague ideas to concrete, searchable topics that really match what people are actually looking for.

Building on that, the next step is transforming those real world problems into these seed keywords, using a powerful framework they call it the verb noun framework. Verb noun.

Okay. Think about common action words, the verbs. How to, fix, [00:07:00] improve, learn, compare. Then pair them with the subject, the noun. Website, loading, investing with little money, exercise motivation.

Got it. So if a customer complains, My website takes forever to load.

That transforms into a seed keyword like speed up WordPress site, or improve website loading speed.

Or I just can’t stay motivated to exercise regularly.

Becomes maybe maintain workout motivation or how to stay consistent with exercise. It’s about matching their natural language to likely search queries.

And what’s powerful here, the sources say, is creating variations too. Yeah, definitely. You might need a beginner’s guide to investing, but also offer advanced investment strategies.

Or maybe someone wants a spreadsheet template for budgeting while someone else prefers a video tutorial on budgeting.

So you’re targeting the right audience segment with the right format.

Exactly. Tailoring it.

Okay. So once you have these seed keywords, you need to validate them, right? Check the search intent and suss out the competition.[00:08:00]

Mm-hmm. This means figuring out why someone is searching for that term, what’s their goal?

Are they just looking for information, like how to do something, that’s informational intent.

Right. Or are they trying to find a specific website or brand? Mm-hmm. That’s navigational.

Or maybe they’re ready to buy.

Buy running shoes. Yeah. Transactional.

And then there’s commercial investigation. Comparing options, looking for reviews like best CRM for small business, or AHrefs versus SEMrush.

Knowing the intent is crucial because it tells you what kind of content Google expects to see for that search.

Then comes the Google reality check.

The reality check, love it.

Open an incognito browser window so your personal search history doesn’t skew things and search your target keyword. Then really analyze those top 10 results.

What kind of content is ranking? Are they long articles, short definitions, product pages, videos, lists?

What’s the common format?

What’s the depth of coverage? Are they from big media sites or niche blogs? [00:09:00] This tells you exactly what Google considers relevant and high quality for that specific query.

And crucially, you need to weigh that against how hard it might be to rank considering your own site’s authority, your domain authority, or DA.

Right. Think of DA like your website’s reputation score. Mm-hmm. If your site is pretty new, maybe a DA under 30, you probably want to target keywords with lower competition, like a difficulty score under 10.

Don’t try to climb Everest on day one.

Exactly. Pick your battles. Growing sites, maybe DA 30 to 50 can target slightly harder keywords, maybe difficulty 10 to 30. Established sites, DA over 50, can go after the more competitive terms, like 30 to 70.

But what if a keyword looks difficult? Can a smaller site still win?

Yes. This is where the competitive gap analysis comes in. Look closely at the top ranking content. Are there weaknesses?

Like is the information outdated? Maybe the statistics are from five years ago.

Or is the coverage just superficial? Does it only scratch the surface when users clearly need more [00:10:00] depth?

Or maybe it’s the wrong format, like a wall of text for a topic that screams out for visuals or a video tutorial.

Or perhaps it’s written by a generalist site, but the topic really needs expert insight, which you can provide.

These gaps are your opportunities to create something genuinely better.

So the final step in this first phase is spotting those best opportunities and actually prioritizing your topics.

Yeah, the sources recommend using a keyword opportunity scorecard. It’s a systematic way to evaluate keywords based on search volume, difficulty, the intent match, what SRP features are present, and importantly, a gap score.

A gap score. So scoring how badly the current content meets user needs.

Pretty much, yeah. Where are the holes you can fill? And then this feeds into a prioritization framework. This uses a weighted scoring system, and this is where Christina Abela’s practical business focused advice really comes through.

How’s it weighted?

Business value gets the biggest chunk, 40%. Because ultimately the content needs to support your business [00:11:00] goals, right?

Makes sense. Leads sales.

Exactly. Then search volume is 20%. Competition scored inversely, so lower competition gets more points as 25%, and the opportunity based on content freshness or gaps is 15%.

So this framework really pushes you to prioritize not just what’s popular, but what will actually drive revenue and growth for your specific small business.

That small shift in focus can make a huge difference. When you have limited time and resources, focus on the highest ROI.

Okay, phase one done.

You’ve done your homework, you’ve validated your ideas, you’ve prioritized. Now it’s time for phase two. Structuring for skyscraper success. Building that blueprint.

Right. This is where you build your content architecture using strategic headings, starting with your H1.

The main title, the name plate on your skyscraper.

Exactly. You should only have one H1 per page. That’s crucial. And it needs to clearly state the single promise of your content with your primary keyword, preferably near the beginning.

Okay? One H1. Then you have your H2s. [00:12:00]

Think of H2s as the main floors of your skyscraper. They should map to your secondary keywords or those people also ask questions you found during research, they create logical subsections.

So if your H1 is how to start a small business, your H2s might be things like developing your business plan, understanding legal structures, funding your startup.

Perfect example. They break down the main topic into digestible chunks and signal the breadth of your coverage to Google.

And H3s and H4s add more detail within those floors.

Precisely. H3s are great for steps within a process, specific examples or answering frequently asked questions related to that H2 section. H4 can break down even more complex points under an H3.

What are the best practices here? Keep subheadings fairly concise.

Yeah, under 60 characters is a good guideline. Try to use keyword variations in maybe half of them naturally. And a big one.

Mm-hmm.

Never skip heading levels. Don’t go from an H2 straight to an H4.

Keep the hierarchy logical, like building floors in order.

Exactly. This structure helps both readers [00:13:00] scan and understand and helps search engines grasp the relationships between different parts of your content.

And common mistakes to avoid.

Oh, plenty. Don’t just bold text and pretend it’s a heading. Use the actual H1, H2, H3 tags. Definitely avoid multiple H1s. Confuses Google. Totally. And avoid flat structures with only H2s, that makes long articles hard to navigate.

And please, please, no keyword stuffing and headings. They need to sound natural for humans first.

Okay, architecture is planned. Now, crafting the flow to keep readers hooked. That introduction seems critical.

Those first a hundred, 150 words, absolutely crucial. They basically decide if someone sticks around or hits the back button.

The bounce.

Yeah. The sources recommend a simple three-part formula for intros. First, identify the reader’s problem or pain point. Second, make a clear promise about what they’ll gain from reading your piece. And third, briefly preview the structure or what you’ll cover.

Sets expectations. And what about that initial hook?

How do you grab them immediately?

There are proven formulas. You could start [00:14:00] with a compelling mini story, a really startling statistic related to the topic.

Like the 96% one we started with.

Exactly. Or ask a direct engaging question. Bust a common myth, use a relatable analogy or make a bold, maybe slightly controversial claim.

Any of these can work to pique curiosity.

And keeping them engaged throughout the piece.

Readability is paramount. Short paragraphs, two or three sentences is often ideal. Vary your sentence lengths to create rhythm. Avoid jargon where possible. Aim for a good reading ease score, something like 60 plus on the Flesch scale.

Like having a conversation, not reading a textbook.

Precisely. And use pattern interrupts.

Pattern interrupts?

Yeah. Visual breaks. Things like relevant images, pull quotes, bullet points, short embedded videos, statistic callouts. Add something like this every 300, 400 words or so.

Why?

It resets the reader’s attention. Makes dense information easier to digest, stops their eyes glazing over on long stretches of text.

It significantly increases time on page.

[00:15:00] Smart. And for longer posts, say over 1500 words?

A table of contents with jump links is pretty much essential. Huge boost for user experience. Plus, it can help Google create site links or understand sections for voice search and featured snippets.

Okay, that covers the visible structure and flow.

What about the invisible elements? The stuff readers don’t see as much, but search engines do.

Right. Like your SEO title. That’s the blue link text in search results and the text in the browser tab. Keep it concise. 50-60 characters, primary keyword near the start, make it compelling.

And the meta description, the little snippet underneath.

Yeah, that’s about 150 – 155 characters.

It doesn’t directly impact rankings, but a well-written one acts like ad copy. It needs to convince someone to click your link over the others. Include your keyword, highlight the benefit, maybe add a call to action.

And the URL slug itself, the bit after the domain name.

Keep it short, descriptive. Maybe 3 – 5 words. Definitely include the primary keyword.

Clean URLs are better for users and search [00:16:00] engines.

And schema markup. Sounds technical.

It can be. But it’s basically adding structured data code to your page that helps search engines understand the context of your content better.

Like putting labels on things for Google.

Exactly. You can label your content as an article, a how to guide, an FAQ page, a recipe, a product.

This helps Google show those rich results like star ratings, FAQ dropdowns or image thumbnails directly in the search results. Big potential CTR booster.

Okay. Structure sorted. Now bringing it to life with multimedia and interactive bits.

Absolutely crucial for engagement. For images. Hmm. Use descriptive file names like StrategicContent-Planning.jpg, not img001.jpg. Always fill in the alt text. Describe the image accurately for accessibility in SEO.

And compress them so they don’t slow the page down.

Yes. Use modern formats like webp if possible. Make sure they’re responsive, meaning they resize for different screens. And place them logically, usually right after the text they illustrate.

What about [00:17:00] video?

Embedding relevant videos, especially your own if you have them, is great for increasing time on page. Use custom thumbnails to make them look appealing.

And interactive elements?

These can be gold. Think calculators like a mortgage calculator on a finance site or quizzes related to your topic.

Clickable diagrams. Anything that gets the user actively involved. Why are they so good? Superior engagement signals to Google. Plus, they often attract natural back links and social shares because they’re genuinely useful or fun. There’s a case study mentioned where a marketing agency added FAQ schema markup to a guide.

You mentioned schema.

Right. Specifically FAQ schema. This helped them get a featured snippet in Google for key terms, and their click-through rate jumped by 26%.

Wow. Just from adding that structured data.

Shows the power of optimizing those details.

Okay. Phase three then. Connecting the dots. Going beyond just the single page to strengthen the whole website.

Starting with internal links.

Think of internal links as the pathways or corridors within your website. [00:18:00] They guide users and search engine crawlers from one page to another.

Keeping people on your site longer.

And distributing link equity or authority. The pillar cluster model is key here. You create a comprehensive pillar page on a broad topic.

Like a definitive guide.

Exactly. Then you create several more specific cluster pages that dive deeper into subtopics mentioned in the pillar. You link from the pillar out to the clusters and the clusters link back to the pillar.

Creates a really strong interconnected topic hub.

Builds topical authority in Google’s eyes. And when you create those links, the anchor text, the clickable words, matters. Use natural descriptive phrases may be three to six words long. Avoid generic stuff like click here or learn more.

Good tip. What about link depth?

You want your most important pages, your core content to be easily discoverable. Ideally, no more than three clicks away from your homepage.

Use internal linking to make sure important pages aren’t buried too deep, and look for orphan pages.

Orphan pages.

Pages [00:19:00] that have no internal links pointing to them. They’re effectively lost. Find them and link to them from relevant existing pages.

Okay, linking sorted. What about page speed and user experience?

The technical side.

Hugely important. Now, Google directly measures user experience with its core web vitals.

Right. LCP, INP, CLS. Sounds like alphabet soup.

Huh? Yeah. LCP – Largest Contentful Paint – is about loading speed, how quickly the main content appears. Should be under 2.5 seconds.

INP – Interaction to Next Paint – is about interactivity.

How quickly the page responds when you click or tap something. Under 200 milliseconds is the goal.

And CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift – measures visual stability. Does the page jump around unexpectedly while loading? That score should be less than 0.1.

So how do you improve these?

A lot comes down to optimizing images, like we talked about.

Compression, correct sizing, lazy loading, so images below the fold, only load when needed. Mm. Also, minimizing heavy JavaScript, preloading important fonts. And setting specific [00:20:00] width and height dimensions for images in videos, so the browser reserves space for them.

Prevents that annoying jumping.

Exactly.

And accessibility is part of this too. Following WCAG 2.2 standards, good alt text, proper use of ARIA labels for screen readers. Sufficient color contrast, readable font sizes. 16 PX minimum is a good baseline. Making sure everything works with keyboard navigation.

It’s not just the right thing to do.

It helps SEO too.

Absolutely. Yeah. A site that’s accessible is often a site that provides a better experience for everyone, and Google rewards that. Plus, remember mobile first indexing.

Google primarily looks at the mobile version of your site now.

Right? So your site has to look great and work flawlessly on a phone.

It’s not optional anymore.

Okay. Technical bits covered. What about tools and workflows to manage all this?

The sources mention different categories of tools that can help research and planning tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, content optimization tools like Clearscope or Surfer SEO, that help you write comprehensively.

Writing and [00:21:00] readability checkers like Hemingway or Grammarly.

Technical SEO tools like Google’s Page Speed Insights or Screaming Frog for site audits.

And of course analytics like Google Search Console and Google Analytics, maybe even heat mapping tools like Hotjar.

You don’t need all of them. Right. Especially a small business.

No, definitely not. Pick what addresses your biggest needs.

But what’s really powerful is thinking about the content creation flywheel.

The flywheel.

It’s this idea that content creation is a continuous cycle. You do research, you outline, you write, you optimize, you promote, you analyze the results, and that analysis feeds back into your next round of research.

Each step builds momentum.

It’s not just one and done.

Not at all. It compounds over time.

The source even outlines a potential one week content sprint for creating a long form piece. How does that break down?

Something like Monday for deep research and keyword analysis. Tuesday for detailed outlining and structure. Wednesday dedicated to writing the first draft. Thursday [00:22:00] for optimizing editing, adding visuals.

Friday for final checks, publishing and starting initial promotion.

Provides a clear, actionable workflow. Makes it less overwhelming.

Exactly. Turns it into a manageable process.

Okay. Final phase, phase four. Promotion, links and continuous wins. The ongoing momentum stage. Because hitting publish isn’t the end, is it?

Definitely not. It’s really just the beginning of getting your content seen and working for you. Your launch promotion playbook needs to kick in immediately.

Using your own channels first.

Yeah, send it to your email list. Share it across all your relevant social media platforms, but tailor the message and format for each one.

Don’t just blast the same link everywhere.

Good point. Maybe even directly notify specific people or communities you know would find it valuable.

Yes, if you’ve built those relationships. And then there’s the repurposing matrix.

Taking that one big piece and slicing it up.

Exactly. Turn key points into tweets or a LinkedIn post.

Create an infographic from the data. [00:23:00] Make a short video summarizing the main ideas. Record a quick audio clip. Maximize the reach of your core effort.

Smart. What about promoting it to other websites? Outreach.

Focus on value first outreach. Don’t just ask for a link. Show them why your content is valuable to their audience.

Maybe you have new data they could cite, or offer a unique infographic they could embed. Or point out an outdated resource on their site that your new piece could replace.

Offer value. Don’t just ask for favors.

Precisely. And for maximum impact, try a three touch promotion cycle.

Three touches?

Announce it immediately on launch day.

Follow up maybe three days later with a different angle or highlight. Then maybe a couple of weeks later, share some results or reader feedback. Keep it visible without being annoying.

Okay, promotion covered. What about link building that lasts? Getting those valuable back links?

Quality over quantity is the mantra here.

Focus on getting links from sites that are topically relevant sites already covering your subject matter, where a link to your detailed piece [00:24:00] makes sense contextually. Semantic proximity matters.

How do you find those opportunities?

One effective tactic mentioned is broken link building. Use tools to find resource pages or articles on relevant sites that have links pointing to pages that no longer exist.

404 errors.

Ah. So you reach out and say, Hey, that link is broken, but here’s my similar up-to-date resource you could link to instead.

Exactly. It’s helpful, not just self promotional. The source mentioned a remote work productivity guide securing 23 high quality links in a month this way.

That’s impressive.

So a few really relevant links are better than tons of spammy ones.

Way better. Google understands context and relevance now. And when you do earn a good back link from an external site…

Yes.

…don’t forget to boost it internally. Add three to five internal links from your own strongest, most relevant pages to the page that just got the external link.

Funneling some of your own site’s authority to that newly linked page.

Exactly. Yeah. It helps Google recognize its importance faster and can speed up ranking improvements.

Okay. Makes sense. [00:25:00]

Now, what about keeping the momentum going long term? Content gets old.

It does. Content performance isn’t static. It experiences content decay. The sources suggest a 20% drop in key metrics like traffic or rankings over a 90 day period could be a refresh trigger.

Time to update it.

Right. This leads to the continuous performance optimization cycle. Plan for quarterly content audits. Look at your important pieces. Are the stats still current? Are there new subtopics you should add? Can you improve the examples? Fix any broken outbound links. Enhance the visuals.

Keep it fresh and accurate.

There’s a great example of a retirement planning guide. It was losing rankings. It refreshed it by updating regulatory details, adding an interactive calculator, updating all the statistics. It regained its top three position and saw a 40% lift in related conversions. Shows the power of maintenance.

Sometimes you might even consolidate content.

Yeah. If you have multiple older, shorter posts on very similar topics that are maybe competing with each other, [00:26:00] keyword cannibalization, merging them into one single comprehensive updated resource can be really effective. Creates a much stronger asset.

And always be testing.

Absolutely. AB Test different headlines. Try varying your introduction hooks. Experiment with different call to action button placements or wording. Small tweaks can sometimes lead to significant improvements.

And finally, track the right things, KPIs.

Key performance indicators. You need to define what success looks like.

Track organic metrics like keyword rankings, click-through rates, CTR, and organic traffic volume.

But also engagement metrics.

Yes. Dwell time, how long people stay, scroll depth, how far down they read, bounce rate. These tell you if the content is actually engaging users.

And most importantly for a business?

The business metrics.

How is this content contributing to leads generated, ebook downloads, demo requests, or even attributed sales? Tying content performance back to actual business results is crucial.

Wow. Okay. That was a really comprehensive deep dive. So [00:27:00] just to recap the core principles.

It really boils down to strategic validation before you write anything.

Yeah.

Meticulous structure, building that skyscraper.

Writing for humans first, but optimizing for search engines. Robust on page optimization, both visible and technical.

Then crucially, that continuous cycle of promotion, link earning and refinement. It’s an ongoing process.

So you the listener, now understand the blueprint.

It’s really time to start building.

Yeah. Take action on just one or two key things from this deep dive. Maybe start that search listening database this week, or pick one old blog post and re-audit its structure based on what we discussed. Consistency is key.

Remember these practical strategies come directly from Christine Abela and her Go Beyond Busy materials.

Seriously practical, non-technical advice.

Especially for those small business owners turning over, say, $1 million to $10 million. Looking for smart tech savvy ways to grow, but without getting bogged down in overly technical [00:28:00] jargon. We really recommend visiting GoBeyondBusy.com. You’ll find show notes there.

Free downloads, Christine offers, and ways to get in touch with her.

Honestly. Working with a business consultant who gets the tech side, but speaks plain English, someone like Christine, can be an absolute game changer for actually implementing these kinds of growth strategies effectively.

It really can.

So here’s a final thought to leave you with. The work you do before you even start writing, that strategic validation and planning, that will likely determine your content success more than almost any optimization you apply after it’s written. Mm-hmm. So the question is, what hidden content opportunities, what unmet audience needs are just waiting to be validated in your business right now?

Thanks for listening to Go Beyond Busy. If something in today’s episode struck a chord or you’d like support to get your business to the next level, head over to GoBeyondBusy.com. You’ll find more [00:29:00] resources there and an easy way to get in touch. I’m your host, Christine Abela from Oxygen8 Consulting, helping you to fall in love with your business all over again.

Thanks for joining me.