Flipping the perspective, start with cheap minimal viable content. Use data. Then expand and scale up with expensive content for what works. It sounds simple and it is simple if you consider a few steps. 

SEO to start

Your biggest friend is data. First, you start with SEO as the main traffic driver. SEO is for 'free', no media budget needed.

Keywords

Get your main keywords in line with your content structure. Read more in 'Data for content' how to get them. 

To start, focus on one keyword or a specific combination of keywords for your pilot project. Then 'Analyse your competitors content' for better SEO ranking. Steal-copy-paste-and-adapt with pride.

Build a bunch of SEO optimized pages around this specific keyword.

Content pages

Create about 5 to 10 different landing pages for that one keyword. Each page with a different setup, different angel, different content. Variation is key. At the same time, you use 'cheap' content. The bare minimum text and visuals to answer the search query by your audience.

Minimal viable content

Meaning, do not produce expensive videos, go overboard in extensive long reads, create whitepapers, set up sales funnels, inspiring infographics, etcetera. Use an excellent copywriter and get great non-stock visuals. And you are good enough to start.

This 'minimal viable content' concept is stolen from the MVP in agile product development. If it works for products, for sure it can work for content. It is the philosophy and mindset that makes you nimble and fast to iteratively learn what works - before investing all of your budgets.

Data

Analyze weekly or monthly which pages are visited the most. Ergo, which page answers the search query and information needs by your audience. Rank the highest number of visitors, and score on the call to action.

This analysis takes time. After about 3 to 6 months you have a trend. Delete what doesn't work. Expand what works.

Now is the time to create that really kick-ass unicorn magic sparkling content. Spend serious time and money to produce this. Now it is worth the investment because you already know what works and what doesn't.

Rinse wash repeat

Do it again for the same keyword. SEO is a continuous process and does not end. Due to changes in your audiences' needs, changes in SEO, and changes in society, you always need to be monitoring and analyzing to learn and improve.

And do it again for your other keywords.

Expand to paid channels

Once you know what works, expand the distribution. From SEO to other channels as social and SEA. Now is the time to invest your media budget for boosting. 

Use your content eco-system for the overview. 

Budget savings

By producing and boosting 'expensive' content for what actually works, you can save yourself a lot of budget and time.  

SEO placeholder strategy

Very nice 'how to' by Klik Proces. Unfortunately only in Dutch available. 

• Why this works
• Requirements
• Cases
• How to implement this yourself

No need to explain an SEO strategy drives organic growth, is a ‘cheap’ way to drive traffic, and therefore is an indispensable part of your content strategy. Yet, once you know what content to produce, you have your themes, and you decided to go short-form or long-form, how to crack the code, and get a high ranking?

Simple, check out your competitors. This is so obvious and simple, yet actually never done by anybody. It’s a bonus and you take your advantage.

How to do the copy analysis 

It sounds complicated, actually, it is pretty easy once you know the trick. The keyword competitor SEO analysis for one keyword should take you about one hour. Start with your main themes, about 4 to 8. And you can always expand this SEO competitor analysis to all other keywords you want to be found on.

• Pick the keyword you want to rank on, in line with the core of your content piece and themes.
• Tip: open an incognito browser window to prevent your former search to influence the results.
• Go to Google and type in the keyword. Look at the organic top 5 or 10 first page results. Pick the credible sources. Reference: only select the links you would click on yourself and discharge the dodgy ones.
• Copy-paste the H1 and H2 headers from those pages and put them in excel. If there are a lot of H3, include these as well.
• Include the url in the excel. Learning by doing, I forgot this in the 'content' example.
• Make an analysis, break the H1 and H2 copy down in common topics and similarities.
• Tip: look at the style of writing. Depending on your industry, this writing can be very functional and not fancy marketing-driven at all. You should always write a ‘what’s in it for me’ copy, based on the needs of your audience. People google to find an answer to their question and to fulfill their needs, not to pro-actively read your beautifully written marketing sales pitch.

Go pro for copy

Now you know the difference between your competitors and your own copy. Three more tips.

First, get the copy pro on board for writing the content. It is an art, it is craftsmanship. The copy will make or break your content and your SEO ranking.

Second, involve your technical agency for the nerdy stuff in the backend to optimize for SEO. A part of the ranking is a threesome between the message, the copy and visuals, and the coding.

Last, not least. Obviously, there is much more to ranking on SEO than mentioned in this short blog. Think about URL structure, the naming of visuals, alt text, and meta tags.

Deep-dive in the nerdy details, do your homework, and optimize continuously. SEO is not a one-off, nor limited to copy. 

Google and Bing

Usually, in the EU, we focus on Google. Yet, don’t rule out Bing as a search engine. It is on the rise due to voice search, Bing is the go-to source for Alexa and Cortana if they cannot find the answer immediately. Great insights on voice search by The Drum.

Sources

A bit from myself and a bit stolen with pride from Content Marketing Institute https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/11/rank-blog-top-google/. And others https://blog.parse.ly/post/1511/the-ultimate-referral-guide-to-your-audience/, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/advertising-channels/search/google-website-seo/.

And some more background on SEO and the options to improve your ranking https://expresstext.net/blog/search-engine-optimization/