Part of any good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is producing high-quality, relevant content on your website. Even if you are the best writer in the world, this can also be the hardest thing to do. The reason for this is not the actual writing; you are creating content to write about.
Your field has very likely been around for a long time, and if you’ve been writing about it for a while, it may seem like you’ve exhausted every possible topic. It may be true, but chances are you just need a little inspiration to get started.
Identify New Ideas And Topics
Yearly Trends
Do you see what we are doing here? We are creating a guide you must follow to keep your content up to date. You can do it yourself, no matter what industry or sector you work in. Believe it or not, this isn’t just a way to get a topic to write about, it’s also a good SEO tactic.
After a while, it can be difficult to think of new keywords to use that aren’t buried. However, when creating an annual guide, you will have a keyword to rank. Also, people like to see trends and what to look for as the calendar changes. You can even earn some traffic with this strategy.
Solve Problems
It can be easy for companies to follow the path of least resistance. When you have ideas, you can put them aside, as you are not very interested in writing about them. However, it is not always a good idea. What you need to do is think about what your readers and consumers want to read, not what you like to write about.
Try to get into your audience’s heads and find out what they need. Can you answer questions for them? Answering potential questions has become more important in recent years and will only become more vital over time. With the increased use of voice search, many users verbally ask questions on their mobile devices to get answers. If you are prepared and anticipated these questions, you will be well ahead of the game.
Keep a Swipe File
When you browse the web to suit your own needs and find something interesting, save it to a file. Even if it is not related to your niche, you can still use it for inspiration. Your swipe file can be a repository for anything you find that sparks your interest, inspires ideas, or just seems to have value in some way.
The next time you try to suggest a topic, you will only be able to find one in that file. Download an app on your phone or designate a notepad so you can keep track of your file at all times. You can also use this file for any ideas that come up when you’re on the go. Ideas often come and go quickly, and despite our best intentions, we forget them.
Check Twitter
It’s amazing how Twitter can be used for just about anything. You can get your news, sports updates, gossip, and everything else. Yes, you can get ideas for content topics there too. The best way to do this is to search for hashtags. Pick something broad that is related to your industry.
For example, you can use #SEO or #digitalmarketing. You will end up receiving hundreds of tweets with these hashtags, and there will certainly be something that will be good for various topic ideas. You can even tag the hashtags that deliver the most results so you can check back later when you run out of ideas again.
Suss Out Your Competitors
Anything goes in love and war, and SEO marketing too. When it comes to ideas, you can always check with your competitors. Don’t steal its content, but reading it can give you inspiration. You can also choose some of the same content topics, as long as you don’t regurgitate everything that has already been said.
If you are wondering what will generate the most engagement, there is a useful trick you can use when accessing YouTube. Visit a competitor’s YouTube page and get their list of videos. Then sort them by popularity to see which ones are the most viewed. Then you can get some ideas from these popular videos.
Update Your Content
Sometimes you may just need to update old content instead of coming up with new ideas. Restarting what you’ve already typed is cool in a way. On the one hand, it offers new content, which will keep your website updated, what the search engines like.
You can also serve content to users who missed it the first time. You can always mark it as a relaunch, and there is always new information from your niche that you can add to keep things current.
Ask Your Audience
Obviously, if you want content that your readers like, you can always ask them what they want. However, don’t just post the question. Take the time to develop a survey that they can answer to help guide your content. Don’t take the survey too long, and don’t be discouraged if only a fraction of your readers responds.
Your questions should be open so that you can get the full context of your answers. Avoid yes or no and multiple-choice questions as they can be difficult to interpret.
Producing original content is one of the most difficult aspects of SEO. Search engines tend to love up-to-date sites with current and original content, so you can’t stop producing them. Finding new topics can be difficult after a while, but with these tips, you can overcome your writer’s block and generate new ideas.