Every user that comes to visit your site has their own reason. They might come for information, sometimes purchase, and sometimes explore. Thus, it is important to create SEO content mapping that aligns with the buyer journey stage.
This content strategy involves aligning specific content with relevant keywords and search intent, ultimately enhancing the user experience and driving targeted organic traffic. In this article, you will learn the strategy of SEO content mapping and its best practices.
What is SEO Content Mapping?
SEO content mapping is a strategic approach that involves aligning specific content pieces with relevant keywords and the underlying intent of users' searches. It's like creating a roadmap that guides both search engines and users to the most valuable and relevant content on your website.
In essence, SEO content mapping is about ensuring that your content effectively addresses the questions, concerns, and interests of your target audience while aligning with the keywords they use to find information on the internet.
Role of Content Mapping in SEO Campaigns
Now, let's explore why content mapping is a crucial element of any successful SEO campaign. In the digital realm, your website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) is determined not just by the presence of keywords but also by the context and relevance of your content.
Creating a content map is a strategic approach that ensures your brand's content is well-aligned with the needs and interests of your various buyer personas throughout their journey from initial awareness to becoming loyal advocates.
This journey is often visualized as the marketing funnel, a conceptual framework that represents the stages a potential customer goes through before making a purchase decision. The marketing funnel is a model that illustrates the different stages a potential customer goes through on their way to making a purchase.
These stages are typically divided into three main categories:
Top of the Funnel (TOFU): This is the awareness stage, where individuals become aware of a problem or need.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): At this stage, individuals are considering solutions or products to address their needs.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): The final stage involves potential customers deciding to make a purchase or take a specific action.
Picture 1 - Illustration of marketing Funnel
How to Create SEO Content Mapping
After knowing the definition of SEO content mapping and its role, it is important to know how to create one. Below is the step-by-step to create SEO content mapping for your website:
1. Create Buyer Persona
Creating buyer personas is the foundational step in content mapping. Buyer personas are detailed, semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. To develop these personas effectively:
Research and Data: Collect and analyze data from your existing customers, surveys, interviews, and market research to understand your audience's demographics, behaviors, goals, and pain points.
Segmentation: Identify distinct segments within your target audience based on common characteristics and behaviors. For instance, you may have personas like "Small Business Owners," "Tech-Savvy Millennials," or "Senior Executives."
Detailed Profiles: Develop detailed persona profiles for each segment. Include information such as age, gender, job title, challenges they face, goals they want to achieve, and where they spend time online.
Empathy: Try to understand your personas on a personal level, empathizing with their needs and aspirations. This will help you create content that truly resonates with them.
Here is an example of a buyer persona:
Name: Sarah Wood
Age: 35
Job Title: Founder and Owner
Business: Wood's Sweets (Local Candy Shop)
Industry: Retail/Food & Beverage
Location: Texas
Marital Status: Married with two children
Gender: Female
Education: Bachelor's degree in Business
Income: Household income of $80,000 per year
Business Growth: Sarah is passionate about her candy shop and wants to expand her customer base and revenue. She's looking for effective ways to market her business online.
Time Constraints: As a small business owner, Sarah wears multiple hats, including managing inventory, finances, and staff. She has limited time for marketing efforts.
Budget Concerns: Sarah is conscious of her marketing budget and wants cost-effective strategies that yield results.
Digital Marketing Knowledge: While she's tech-savvy, Sarah lacks in-depth knowledge of digital marketing tactics and tools.
However, you don't have to create all buyer persona since it will consume a lot of time. You can create categories of personas with similar traits. This way, you can create content that aligns better.
2. Map Existing Content for Each Persona
Once you have your buyer personas in place, the next step is to assess your existing content and map it to each persona and funnel stage. Here's how to do it:
Content Audit: Conduct a thorough content audit to identify all the content assets you currently have. This includes blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, whitepapers, and more.
Persona Alignment: Analyze each piece of content and determine which personas it caters to and which stage of the funnel it serves. Some content may apply to multiple personas or stages.
Content Mapping Matrix: Create a content mapping matrix that visually represents which content pieces align with specific personas and stages. This matrix will serve as a valuable reference for your content strategy.
Identify Gaps: During the mapping process, you may discover gaps where you lack content for specific personas or stages. Note these gaps, as they will guide your content creation efforts.
3. Create Content to Fill Any Gap
Once you've identified content gaps, it's time to bridge them by creating new, relevant content. Here's how to proceed:
Topic Research: Research topics and keywords that resonate with the personas and stages you're targeting. Use keyword research tools to identify high-potential keywords.
Content Planning: Develop a content plan or editorial calendar that outlines the new content you need to create. Assign topics, keywords, and deadlines to ensure a systematic approach.
Content Creation: Produce high-quality content that addresses the specific needs and interests of the personas and funnel stages. Content can take various forms, from blog posts and videos to eBooks and webinars.
Example of Content Map
Using the above persona, here is an example of a content map that can be an inspiration to your SEO strategy.
A. Marketing Funnel Stages
1. Top of the Funnel (TOFU) - Awareness
Content Type: Blog Post
Topic: "5 Digital Marketing Essentials for Small Businesses"
Keyword: "Digital Marketing for Small Businesses"
Content Summary: This blog post provides an overview of essential digital marketing strategies tailored to small businesses. It addresses common challenges and introduces Sarah to the agency's expertise.
2. Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) - Consideration:
Content Type: eBook
Title: "The SMB Guide to Cost-Effective Digital Marketing"
Keyword: "Cost-Effective Digital Marketing Strategies"
Content Summary: This downloadable eBook dives deeper into digital marketing tactics suitable for SMBs. It outlines various strategies, costs, and potential outcomes, positioning the agency as a valuable resource.
3. Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) - Decision:
Content Type: Webinar
Topic: "Digital Marketing Success Stories: How Local Businesses Thrived"
Keyword: "Digital Marketing Success Stories"
Content Summary: This live webinar features success stories from local businesses similar to Sarah's. It highlights how the agency's services helped them achieve growth and provides a limited-time offer for personalized consultations.
From here, we can see that each funnel has a different type of content. This is because each funnel indicates different consent of the reader. Once your content fulfills the readers’ needs, it means that the content map is successful.
Take Away
All in all, content mapping is a strategy to spread content targeted to each marketing funnel. This is an important approach to engage with readers and lead them to the final journey (buying, registering, or else).
Once you have mapped out your content, you need to regularly monitor their performance. You should not stop after posting great content, monitoring should be done regularly. You can use Sequence Stats to get the daily performance of your keywords. Here is how it looks.
Picture 2 - Sequence Stats Rank Dashboard to monitor ranking.
By having this valuable data, you can identify the area of improvement and see the progress of your targeted keywords and pages. To explore more on Sequence Stats features, please register and enjoy the free trial!