Content Strategy – Blog Channel Questions

[Smart_Start]

We are currently blogging at a high volume to hit keywords for our 1,500 locations across the country. We are trying to make sure we rank well near each location and we have been using our blog to create content for that reason. With recent changes on Google, I am seeing that it is more about content topics than hitting all variations of your keywords and including state and city specific terms.

We are now asking ourselves if the blog channel portion of our content strategy is incorrect. Below are some of the main questions we have and any input that is backed by experience would be helpful.

1. Can it hurt us to blog at a high volume (4 blogs per day) in an effort to include all of our keywords and attach them to state and city specific keywords (ie. "keyword one" with "keyword one city" and "keyword one different city")?

2. Is it more valuable to blog only a couple of times per month with deeper content, or more times per month with thinner connect but more keyword involvement?

3. Our customers are forced to use our type of product by the government. We are one of the vendors that provide this service. Because of this our customers may not care at all about anything we would blog about. Do we blog for them, or do we blog for the keyword and try and reach partners and others who would read the content and hope that it also ranks us high when our potential customers search?

4. Is there an advantage/disadvantage or does it matter if we have multiple blog authors?

Big questions for sure, but if you have insight on any one of them, please provide and maybe we can answer them all with a group effort. Thanks to all of you who are taking the time to read this and contribute.

[seoman10]

Blogging is still important, just don't lose sight of the fact that he is not the only thing.

I think the answer to most of your questions is:  Google looks at how often the site is updated, but it also looks at the quality, relevance and uniqueness of that content.

Sounds like you could be in danger of keyword surfing, which won't help, and in worst case could hinder.  Remember that Google uses semantic search which relates and cross connects keywords and topics.  For instance, it's probably a waste of time to do two separate blog posts with one optimising for "pictures" and the other optimising for "images" depending on the scenario, Google will most likely see the two keywords is the same.

Regarding authors I don't think it matters, just avoid having every single one different.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Here's what I would do when it comes to your content marketing:

• Research your audience

• Research your competitors

• Research your keyword opportunities / content gaps (and content audit)

• Focus on writing relevant content based on your research

• Topics

• Format

• Distribution methods

• Repurposing

• Focus on a content strategy that encompasses more than just blogging

My fear is that you may be teetering on content overload. This is going to burn your team out and, most importantly, your audience, potentially. You need to be writing based on relevance and what your audience actually wants. What it sounds like your doing right now is creating content for the sake of content. It may not be necessary what you're doing and you need to work efficiently, because when you do that, you create more relevant content that is based on research and quality effort. THAT'S the content that audiences want!

Take the time to do some research, take a step back and look honestly at your site, and prioritize how you want to approach your content marketing strategy and marketing. Don't spam and abuse keywords, make them work for you in a natural and organic fashion. Everything else will fall into place.

Let me know if this helps! Good luck!
P

[KristinaKledzik]

Hey John,

I'm going to try to go through all of your answers, one by one:

1. Can it hurt us to blog at a high volume (4 blogs per day) in an effort to include all of our keywords and attach them to state and city specific keywords (ie. "keyword one" with "keyword one city" and "keyword one different city")?

Yes, if the articles end up too short or too similar. 4 posts per day isn't necessarily a bad pace, it's just the quality of the writing that can get you into trouble.

I don't know what your service is, but, do you need to have a variation for every city? I work for a business that provides city-specific services, but we write blog posts that are relevant for the whole nation, then have pages describing what we offer for each city. We do have some location-specific content, but most of our blog posts are not.

Here's the way I'd figure it out: when people are looking for a given keyword, do they usually use the city name? When you search for the keyword without the city name, does Google return map results? If the answers are no, you can write one article that isn't location specific, and Google will rank it in all locations.

**2. Is it more valuable to blog only a couple of times per month with deeper content, or more times per month with thinner connect but more keyword involvement? **

Totally depends on your industry. And company. Deeper content can rank for more keywords and has a better chance of getting inbound links, but it can limit the keywords you target. You really need to think about ... (next question) ...

3. Our customers are forced to use our type of product by the government. We are one of the vendors that provide this service. Because of this our customers may not care at all about anything we would blog about. Do we blog for them, or do we blog for the keyword and try and reach partners and others who would read the content and hope that it also ranks us high when our potential customers search?

You should write content that appeals to whoever makes the decision to use your product.

How often does the government choose whether or not to provide your service? If there's any chance at all that you could eventually lose your contract, write content that appeals to the people who choose vendors. How can you make their decision to work with you easier? Write articles about how your service solves their problem easily. Interview some government officials. Make it clear that you understand them. Also, write about whatever your company is knowledgeable in, so it's clear that you're the thought leader in your space.

If it's really unlikely that you'll lose your government contract, or the government track doesn't work, I'd just focus on the last part: what knowledge does your company have that others don't? OKCupid, for example, got great links through their blog, which showed in depth analysis of how we date (making it a great purchase for Match.com, who, alas, stopped blogging). Pinterest developers have a Tumblr called Pingineering that talks about how their engineering team tackles big data issues (granted, this isn't on their site, but they're not struggling for links or rankings).

4. Is there an advantage/disadvantage or does it matter if we have multiple blog authors?

Nope. Go for it.

Hope this helps! I wasn't able to be very specific without knowing your specific industry, but this should point you in the right direction.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Kristina