Content is king. If you want to build customer engagement, you need to focus on your content marketing strategy. Do you know people have been sharing some interesting stories for as long as 44,000 years? The medium might be different, but people have never stopped sharing content. It is one of the best ways to resonate with your audience. Content marketing can be defined as a promotional strategy that aims to draw the attention of your audience by solving their common issues.
You don’t have to convince the readers to visit your website and check out your blog. They do it because they find your content engaging enough to be read and considered. That’s the power of high-quality content. Creating great content isn’t a cakewalk. People end up spending days crafting a single blog. That’s when content marketing tools like SEMrush steps in.
Note that high-quality content alone isn’t enough. In order to get ahead of your competitors, you are supposed to focus on the other aspects of content marketing. This includes content audit, content plan, keyword strategies, SEO, technical audit, and so on.
The best tool the SEMrush subscribers get in the content marketing toolkit is the content marketplace. It is a platform that enables webmasters and SEO specialists to connect with content writers, bloggers, product reviewers, journalists, and more. Before we go ahead, I would like to mention that only the Guru and Business level subscribers get access to the full SEMrush content marketing toolkit. Make sure you purchase the SEMrush subscription if you haven’t done it already. Let’s get started.
- Topic Research
Brainstorming topic ideas is the first step for building a great content writing strategy. As easy as it sounds, it gets quite challenging for beginners to come up with the best topic ideas. Even if you are familiar with content writing, finding the best and most relevant topics can be hard. The phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply to content writing. If you want to grab audiences’ attention, then you need to find a remarkable title. The goal is to create curiosity among your readers and make them wonder what the post is about.
If you are having a hard time brainstorming the topic ideas, then the Topic Research tool is there to your rescue. All you gotta do is type the topic you are interested in and get a list of the interesting titles around the subject. The tool will also list the subheadings that can be added to the content for higher customer engagement. You can’t rank your post in the search engine with a copied title. Sure, you can rephrase the heading, but what’s the chance your audience would like to read the same post as other websites? Customers want engaging and informative content. They visit your website to get answers to their problems. One way to publish unique and exciting content is by using the content gap analysis tool. It helps you find the best content opportunities.
The SEMrush topic research tool makes it easier for bloggers and webmasters to find:
· Hundreds of titles around a particular subject
· The most popular questions the audience asks
· Exceptional content ideas for an audience based in a specific location
Why Do You Need Topic Research?
There is a good chance your readers will select your competitor’s website if they don’t find the title of your posts engaging. The efforts and time you have invested in producing a great blog post will be of no use if you can’t enhance your post with a perfect title. Remember that the title of your post will appear on social media, your website, guest blogs, and other channels. More than 80% of the readers don’t go past your title. That’s one of the reasons why bloggers often struggle with traffic. You can’t expect your audience to convert into your leads when you can’t even come up with a catchy title.
No matter what your niche is, chances are hundreds of thousands of blog posts are already published on similar topics on Google. Even if you manage to secure a good SERP ranking, there is only a slim chance your readers will like to give your post with a boring title a read. Additionally, it isn’t only about the heading. You also need to consider the subheadings you are going to cover in the post. Before you move on to the SEO part, you need to work on your topics, subtopics, and overall content.
- SEO Content Template
The next important step is to optimize your content for search engines. SEMrush SEO content template provides you with certain recommendations that make your content ready for publishing. Even though search engines prioritize engaging and quality content that’s written for the audience rather than bots, SEO still matters. You can’t rank your blogs on Google and other search engines without getting the SEO right. The template appears when you input your target keyword. You could also add a bunch of keywords in the search bar to create an SEO template for your content.
It doesn’t only recommend the keyword placement, but it also helps you detect the readability score. The template offers you keyword recommendations based on your top 10 competitors that are ranking on top of the search engine. You don’t have to copy their content style, but using it as a reference for keyword placement isn’t a bad idea. It also generates a list of reputable websites for backlinks.
The main objective of the tool is to help webmasters outcompete their top rivals in the search engine. The template suggests multiple options that can be used to optimize your content for SEO and maximize its chances of ranking high on Google. It also suggests the best length for the post. You can improve your readability score and make it easier for your audience to read and understand your post. You can export the SEO content template to your system or get it on your Google Docs to get quick updates on the readability and SEO of your content.
General Recommendations
The SEMrush SEO content template enables users to get SEO templates for 30 keywords a day. The good news is that the tool allows you to set your location when conducting research. This is especially important when your audience is based in a specific location. Once you have set the location, the tool will help you shape your content based on the particular audience.
In the general recommendation section, you will get the average number of words you must add to the title of the post. You also need to insert your target keywords in a natural way so that your title is optimized for search engines. Don’t force keywords in the title. The last thing you want is to drive your prospects away with a poor and irrelevant title. The general recommendations also include the suggested keywords for meta-description.
The most difficult part is to use your target keywords in the H1, H2, and other subheads for higher ranking. That’s because you are supposed to keep the sub-headings short. Remember that how you place your target keywords in the post matters.
Key Recommendations
As soon as you enter your top keywords in the search bar, the tool will craft the SEO content template based on your top 10 competitors’ posts. It will also display some “key” and “general” recommendations. Let’s see what’s included in the key recommendations:
· Similar topics and sub-topics you could include in the post
· A list of domains you can collect a backlink from
· Readability of your post (in terms of the sentence length, active/passive voice, and complexity of the words).
· The average words you must include in the blog
Take the text length, for example. Search engines prioritize content with in-depth answers. Google, in general, gives long blog posts a higher ranking than the average-length content. However, the length of the blog isn’t the only factor that determines the quality of your post. You also need to cover the right and relevant sub-topics. The tool also checks the readability score of your content, allowing you to make the necessary changes in order to make your post easy and readable for your audience.
Next, we have the backlinks section. Here, the tool suggests some credible and high-authority domains that can link to your post. You can take a look at these domains, scan their websites, and pitch to those who accept guest blogs.
The tool allows you to export the template so that you can view it at your convenience. Make sure you export the SEO template to either Google Docs or word document to save it.
- SEO Writing Assistant
The originality of the content is the first thing you must consider when crafting the blog. You can’t copy an article from your competitor’s website or rewrite a blog and expect Google to rank your post on the top. If you need to check the uniqueness of your content and optimize the post for search engines, then you must definitely give the SEO writing assistant a shot. It helps you check SEO, determine the originality of the post, and check its readability. The tool features a built-in plagiarism tool that compares your content with millions of posts published on Google.
The SEO writing assistant does wonders when it comes to crafting a high-quality piece of content. You can check the readability of your post to ensure that it is easy for your audience to read and understand the blog. It gives you a range of tools you need to improve your post before publishing it on the internet. You get the following features from the SEMrush SEO writing assistant:
· Create high-quality content that resonates with your target audience
· Check the readability score of your post and make improvements to optimize the post for your readers.
· Check the originality of the post using the built-in plagiarism checker
· Assess the SEO performance of the article before publishing it
· Make necessary improvements
You can also run the SEO writing assistant on Google Docs. All you need to do is get the tool in the G-suite marketplace and hit the Install option. You can find this tool in the “Add-ons” section on Google Docs. The good news is that Google Writing Assistance can also be used as your WordPress plugin. Log into your WordPress account and search for the SEO writing assistant plugin. It is quite simple on WordPress. Like other plugins, you can install this plugin on your WordPress and activate it.
You could use the same template for all your posts or optimize each post for different locations and devices by switching the template – whatever fits your requirements. In order to change the SEO template, you can input the new set of keywords and mention the new location and device.
As soon as you activate the SWA on your WordPress or Google Doc, you will get recommendations from the tool. Right on the top of the screen, you will find a score graph that ranks your article based on certain features. This gives you an opportunity to find the weak and strong points in your post and optimize it accordingly. As mentioned above, the tool ranks your articles based on four crucial factors:
· Readability
· SEO
· Content originality
· Tone
If you would like to make changes to the keywords or device, then click the pencil button and type your new keyword. Make sure you save the changes after entering the new details. It is important to note that new details will create a new SEO content template. You will lose all the recommendations from the previous template.
Tone of Voice
Blogs are written in an informal tone. These informal posts help you connect with your audience. Some types of articles, press releases, and research papers need a formal tone. You can keep your content formal, informal, and neutral. That’s exactly what the tone of voice helps you determine. If the tool detects certain sentences in your post that do not go well with your blog, then it will highlight those sentences. You could change these sentences or remove them completely from the post.
Readability Score
Even if you manage to get your audience to your blog, what are the chances they are going to stick around? Complex paragraphs and long sentences make it difficult for your audience to understand your post. SEO writing assistant not only ranks your article based on your sentence length and article structure, but it suggests changes that can help improve the quality and readability of your content.
To get your audience to engage with your post, you must check the readability score of your article and try to improve your content. The tool can be used to improve the readability of content published in English, Spanish, Dutch, German, and French. You can switch to your desired language by clicking on the pencil icon right next to the language button.
SEO writing assistant displays the common readability issues in your content. This includes your title, blog length, complexity, sentence structure, and so on. The tool compares your post with the top 10 competitors and recommends the ideal word count. It also checks the title of your post and recommends changes if it doesn’t seem up to par.
SEO
In this section, you get to see the recommendations for your target keyword and semantically related keywords. The tool displays the list of keywords that have a high search volume but are less competitive. You will also get some advanced keyword tips for your posts, such as how you can optimize your title and content for your target keywords.
Originality
The built-in plagiarism checker in the SEMrush SWA tool scans your post to detect plagiarism issues. It compares your post with the content published on the web and presents the list of copied sentences. If you notice a high percentage of copied content, then you are going to need to change certain texts. Plagiarism can get your website into trouble.
Google doesn’t tolerate copied content. The tool will present a list of the sources you have copied content from. You can check these websites and remove plagiarized sentences and paragraphs from your post. Alternatively, you can replace it with unique content. Either way, it is important to check the originality of your post before hitting the publish button.
- Brand Monitoring
Using the Brand Monitoring tool, the webmaster can find out the number of times a particular brand name or phrase appears on the search results. That way you can determine your brand mentions on different websites. A backlink isn’t the only thing Google takes into consideration when ranking a website. Your brand mentions also matter when it comes to SERP ranking. SEMrush’s brand monitoring tool gives you an opportunity to see how well your brand is performing in the search engine.
Most importantly, this tool can be used to find out the negative mentions. You can get a list of all the websites that have mentioned your brand and the posts where it is mentioned. If you spot any negative mention, you can reach out to the website owner and try to find out the reason they are unsatisfied with your brand. These are simple ways to improve your brand reputation in the digital market. Additionally, you can use it to advertise your brand to a wider audience by finding the right influencer for your business. You could also track recent market trends.
Brand monitoring is mainly used for finding link-building prospects. Using this tool, you can identify the websites you can approach for backlinks. It helps you improve public relations. Besides that, you get a chance to get an insight into your brand’s performance on the web. Not all websites and social media users use your website links when referring to your brand. They use your brand name or the USP of your business. The SEMrush brand monitoring tool gives you a complete report of the websites that have mentioned your brand and in what context.
- Content Analyzer
Content marketing isn’t only about the on-site content. Of course, it plays an integral part in ranking your content in the search engine. However, you are also supposed to pay attention to your off-site content, i.e. the posts published on other websites. SEMrush’s content analyzer helps you track your content outreach. It can also be used to improve on-site content. The tool counts the total social shares and links a particular post on your website has received. It also scans your website for outdated posts. You can’t improve your website’s SEO ranking without improving your outdated content.
If you have thousands of posts that you can’t manage at once, then use the content analyzer tool for a subfolder. You don’t have to work on all the posts simultaneously. You rather need focus on one post at a time. Find out the blog that ranks the lowest and has the most outdated content. You can delete it from your website if there’s no room for improvement. Alternatively, you can add new paragraphs, edit information, and optimize your post for your target audience.
While conducting the content audit, you get a chance to link your posts to Google Analytics and get a clear picture of the bounce rate of each post. The content analyzer can also be used to track the performance of your guest posts that are published on other websites. If you use the guest blogging technique for off-page SEO, then use a content analyzer to see how well your off-site content is performing in the search engine. Based on this information, you can plan your future guest blogging strategies.
Conclusion
Whether you run an online business or do blogging, the SEMrush content marketing toolkit acts as your one-stop platform for content marketing. So, why wait? Use the SEMrush content marketing toolkit and grow your audience with high-quality content.
