Do you know the biggest reason why? 

Because they’re not creating anything worth linking back to—and this is seriously slowing down their journey to online success.

Websites that aren’t creating link-worthy content often end up paying for backlinks – understanding our link-building pricing is essential before investing.

That’s why I created this guide to help you understand the #1 rule for attracting links naturally: content is king.

So if you want to stop wasting your time and money, and if you want to get those highly coveted editorial links, the best way to do it is to create linkable assets: high-quality content that people actually want to see and share.

This article explains:

• What linkable assets are
• How to utilize linkable assets in your link-building campaigns
• How to share your linkable assets
• How to track your link-building progress

Let’s get started…

What Are Linkable Assets?

A “linkable asset” is any piece of content that other people want to link back to.

Linkable assets attract backlinks, shares, and citations because they provide something of value to your target audience.

It could be a unique take on a current issue, a new solution to an old problem, something interesting, exciting, controversial, educational, or entertaining, or all of the above.

Linkable assets can take many forms, such as infographics, guides, and case studies. You can use any format that works for you and the topic you’re trying to highlight.

BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links​

What linkable assets usually aren’t: product or service pages, commercial sections of your site, and other pages that don’t really do much for your readers (except promote your brand).

The bottom line? Linkable assets are linkable precisely because they offer something of value. If something is useful, educational, or even just entertaining, then you’ve got a good linkable asset on your hands.

The Benefits of Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are so powerful that they can benefit your business in a multitude of ways.

Here’s a snapshot of how linkable assets can give you a return on your investment:

Linkable assets increase traffic to your website

Creating something helpful and relevant to your niche is a great way to drive traffic to your website. After all, if your linkable assets are that good, then people will seek out more high-quality content from you—and, as a bonus, they’ll probably check out your other pages, too.

Linkable assets increase brand awareness

If someone links to your content from their website, then you get to engage with an entirely new audience. The more great content pieces you produce, the more your reputation will grow among these new visitors. 

Now, that’s how you become a thought leader within your industry and edge out the competition!

Linkable assets build your website authority

A backlink is a vote of confidence. It tells Google and other search engines, “Hey, this page is extremely helpful and worth boosting.” 

Each backlink you get adds points to your domain authority, which in turn helps you rise through the search engine results page rankings.

The Challenge of Linkable Assets

Of course every business would love to go viral, but there are a number of challenges to producing linkable assets, namely:

Most content isn’t valuable enough

According to Backlinko, out of the millions of blog posts that they analyzed, a whopping 94% of them don’t have any backlinks at all. 

Source: Backlinko

Your content might be good, but it needs to be genuinely valuable to get lots of people sharing it and linking to it.

Linkable assets are difficult to create

Linkable assets take a lot of time, money, and resources to create. Even then, there’s no guarantee they will be successful.

For example, if you were to create a research report, you might need to:

Carry out the research.

Analyze your findings.

Write the report.

Create assets like a PDF report, blog article, accompanying video, etc.

Publicize your research.

This takes a lot of time and expertise. In most cases, companies will pay others to do this, but that can cost a lot of money.

Success is difficult to predict

It’s often difficult to predict how your linkable assets will perform. You might think you have a killer idea, only for it to fail for reasons you couldn’t foresee.

For example, let’s say you provide online music lessons. You know that a competitor site offers a free online instrument tuner that is attracting links. But you also know the tuner isn’t very good and it could include several more advanced functions. 

You spend months developing your own free tuner that incorporates all the missing features and offers more functionality than your competitor’s tuner does. But when it comes to the launch, your tuner generates few external links. 

There could be several reasons behind this:

People habitually use the competitor’s tuner, despite its flaws.

The competitor brand has strong brand loyalty.

There are too many other free tuners available.

A bigger competitor launches their own advanced free tuner on the same day.

Now that you know the pros and cons of linkable assets, I’m going to list some common types of linkable assets and provide tips for building powerful backlinks with them.

7 Types of Linkable Assets

1. Studies and research

This is when you conduct your own original research into a topic related to your business. 

It usually takes a lot of time, money, and manpower.

Original data is super linkable—you’ll get links from other people in the industry who want to share your findings. You’ll also get external links from people, writers, and journalists using your research to back up their points.

And the best part?

Your research provides original information and a unique perspective that your competition doesn’t offer.

Tips for creating original research

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating research reports:

1. Brainstorm useful data and analysis that people in your industry need to know. Choose a topic that best aligns with your area of expertise.
2. Develop a thorough research methodology to gather and analyze your data—otherwise, your research may not be deemed credible. If you can’t do this, then you should outsource the research to a freelancer or a specialist agency.
3. Create a PDF report, videos, and other collateral so that audiences can engage with your research across different channels. You may wish to hire a graphic designer and a writer to help you with this. 
4. Publicize your research over social media channels and reach out to others in your industry to tell them about it and ask them to consider linking to it. 

Example: Ahrefs’ link building case study

A great example of original research is Ahrefs’ study on organic search. It revealed that 96.55% of all content gets no traffic from Google. 

This is naturally shareable because it’s a surprising finding that most people wouldn’t be aware of. 

However, it’s particularly useful for those in the SEO industry, as it shows the competitive advantage that companies get from optimizing their websites for search. 

This incredible insight rightly resulted in a ton of backlinks, including some from well-known SEOs like Neil Patel, as well as websites like Search Engine Journal and Backlinko:

Source: Ahrefs

2. Infographics

Infographics are when you present data or information as graphics or images. You have many options to choose from, including:

• Highlighting interesting statistics.
• Quickly communicating complex concepts.
• Explaining a process.
• Comparing two things side-by-side.
• Presenting geographical information.
• Explaining the different parts of something.

People often share infographics for the same reason as original research. However, people are more likely to share infographics just because they find them cool or interesting, rather than wanting to prove a point. 

Tips for creating infographics

The process for creating infographics is largely the same as that of original research. 

In fact, infographics are often produced as part of original research collateral.

The main difference is that you must use a professional designer to create your infographic. Infographic link building is competitive, and yours needs to be high-caliber if you want it shared online.  

Infographic example: Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

For example, Virgin Media commissioned this infographic of TV series Doctor Who in 2013 to celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary.  

The infographic provides interesting information about the series, including:

The names and tenure of each actor who played the role of the Doctor.

The period they portrayed the character.

How many episodes they starred in.

Key facts about the Doctor.

Interesting facts from throughout the show’s existence. 

This campaign works on several levels. First, it’s interesting, especially for fans of the show. 

Second, it was connected to a current event that was getting a lot of attention online at the time. And third, it’s relevant to Virgin Media’s services, as the company provides broadband and TV entertainment packages. 

3. Free tools

Free tools and online calculators are another great way to attract links. 

It’s especially useful for SaaS companies that can offer access to a part of their software for free. This means that the basic code is already in place, so creating a free tool takes less time than starting from scratch. 

It also encourages casual users of your free tools to eventually become paying customers. 

But even if you’re not a SaaS company, there is enough software available to you—as well as affordable freelance developers on Upwork—to make it easier for you.

Tips for creating free tools

Before you set out to create a tool, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a process or formula that people in your industry rely on, but it’s too complicated or time-consuming to do on your own? This is a good way to determine what kind of tools you can make.
2. Do you have the time and skill to develop the tool yourself? Or are you going to outsource it to another developer?

Examples of free tools

Here are some examples of good online tools: 

HubSpot’s Advertising ROI calculator allows you to quickly see the ROI you can expect to make from your online ad campaigns. 

Third Love’s Fit Finder interactive tool helps you find the right bra, providing tailoring services that you would normally have to visit a shop for. 

This Coolors color scheme generator provides the kind of color scheme suggestions that you would typically have to pay a graphic designer for.

We’ve even created our own Domain Authority Checker tool, which allows you to quickly and easily see a site’s authority rating. 

4. Videos

Videos can cram a lot of information into a short period of time, thanks to a combination of words (audio narration/voiceover) and visuals. 

One of the reasons videos are so popular is that our brains can process images 60,000 times faster than text. 

This makes videos perfect for explaining a complex concept, describing a process, or instructing people on how to do things. Alternatively, they could just be entertaining—the possibilities are endless.

Tips for making linkable videos

When producing linkable videos you have two options: 

• Post them on your website
• Post them on social media (think YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram)

But which is better? 

From a link-building perspective, posting on your website results in far more valuable links. That’s because any shares or links from social media going back to your website will be “no follow”.

However, your video is more likely to be discovered if you post it on social media—especially on popular platforms like YouTube—so it’s well worth posting on them. 

Video link building example

This video from music retailer PMT explains how to make your music sound like that of British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. 

In the video, two presenters take you through the different instruments and equipment you’d need to reproduce the artist’s sound. 

Needless to say, the company supplies all of these products!

This works well because Sheeran is a hugely popular artist, and other musicians will be keen to sound like him. 

The page currently has 25 backlinks from 19 domains. Not bad.

When you take a look on YouTube, you’ll see that the video has 152,340 views and over 3,900 likes. 

Because it’s so popular, the video is likely to be shown on Google and YouTube for search queries relating to Ed Sheeran’s musical equipment. People watching it will likely visit the company’s online store, resulting in increased organic traffic.

5. Rankings and other roundups

Articles like “Top 10 Burger Joints In Manhattan” or “The 20 Best Ad Campaigns Of 2021” are extremely powerful linkable assets for a few different reasons.

1. People love lists and rankings because they get information on multiple options in one place.
2. Readers aren’t interested in the mediocre—they want to know which brands to trust, buy from, and listen to.
3. The individuals or companies that make the list will want to show it off, increasing your reach and earning you that all-important backlink.

BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links​

Tips for creating rankings and roundups

The tricky part about making it onto award lists or rankings is that you need to have some level of credibility or authority already established to really reap the benefits from this type of asset. 

Awards are only as meaningful as the award-giving body, and rankings given by a small business are less trustworthy (and newsworthy) than rankings given by an industry leader.

Of course, if you’re a new or small business, that doesn’t mean that you can’t publish your own top 10 list! Just make sure that your list is well-researched and based on what people who are trusted authorities within your niche are saying.

Example of a roundup: Experts share their SEO secrets

We compiled an article called “Link Building: 30+ SEO Experts Share Their Secrets”—it’s a listicle-style article with opinions from 30 SEO experts. 

We published it back in 2018, so it’s quite dated by now. But it nevertheless gained 256 backlinks from 64 referring domains at one point or another since then.

It works because of point number three above—the people featured in an article are likely to share it. In this case, the article was shared by LeapFroggr, SEO-Hacker, and SEOteric. 

5. Guides, tutorials, and how-tos

Most people want to learn something useful, so there’s demand for well-written, thorough, and easy-to-understand guides.

Tips/tricks, how-tos, and other short-form articles are great to share on their own. But if you really want to milk your linkable assets for all their worth, then a “definitive” guide or resource is the way to go.

By “definitive” I mean those guides that cover literally everything you need to know about a particular topic.

It’s much easier to read and link to one “ultimate” guide than it is to go through dozens of different pages, websites, and blogs just to get all the information you need.

Tip for creating guides, tutorials, and how-tos

If you’re going to compile a definitive guide, you need to be an expert on what you’re talking about. Sure, you could always do research, but writing from personal experience and knowledge is always going to be more genuine, more unique, and more helpful for your readers.

Example of a guide: anchor text optimization

I created this guide to anchor text optimization. At a length of around 12,000 words, it covers everything you need to know about optimizing your anchor text for SEO. 

Because of this, it has a ton of backlinks. 

6. Coined terms

A “coined term” is any term that you create to describe a method or concept within your niche. 

Examples include:

Stoozing: Named after Motley Fool UK discussion board contributor Stooz, it refers to the practice of living off 0% interest credit, while putting your spending money into high interest savings accounts.

Cyberspace: This term was created by science fiction writer William Gibson in his 1982 book Burning Chrome.

Podcast: A portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcast”, first coined by journalist Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper. 

If you can successfully coin a term and it gains actual traction, then you will get tons of links from people referencing your work.

Tips for coining terms

Of course, the real challenge is getting your coined term popular enough to be linked to. You can popularize your term through guest posts, keyword alerts, and a strong marketing push.

There are two other requirements:

1. The name needs to resonate with people.
2. There’s a need for a new name. 

Example of a coined term

Just think about the term “Skyscraper Technique”, created by Brian Dean of Backlinko. 

It’s likely that others were applying the technique at the time, but they hadn’t put a name on it—and even if they did, it probably wasn’t as evocative.

The SEO industry adopted it, and now its original page has a ton of backlinks—and it continues to get even more every month.

As you can see, the original article that coined the term has gained a whopping 7,700 backlinks from 2,100 referring domains.

7. Other interactive assets

This is similar to tools and online calculators—only much broader. Hereby, I mean:

Polls

Quizzes

Assessments 

Games

Interactive infographics

Augmented reality and virtual reality

You would create these in a similar way to tools and calculators. However, interactive content is often more about education or entertainment than fulfilling any sort of practical function.

However, it is also a great way to attract links and traffic, especially if you take your time to execute it right.

That means providing useful information in a unique format.

An added bonus? You can often mine this particular asset for data about your target market, helping you improve your business

Example of an interactive asset: Oracle Cloud Stacker

Here’s an example from the technology firm Oracle. The business is known for providing cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems. 

Source: Oracle

The interactive asset is a simple game where players must catch red cloud blocks and avoid enemies. Each cloud block represents a layer of a real-life cloud solution and layers must be placed in the correct order.

This helps players learn about cloud infrastructure while bringing some fun to a rather dry subject.

How to Create Incredible Linkable Assets

1. Identify and understand your target audience

One of the first things you need to do is to determine who you want your linkable assets to cater to. 

In fact, this step is so crucial to success that “understanding your audience” doesn’t just apply to creating linkable assets, it also applies to any marketing effort—period.

BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links​

If you know who your audience is, you are in a much better position to create content that will actually get backlinks. 

Take your time to identify your audience’s interests, likes, dislikes, challenges, and pain points—then use that information to narrow down topics, choose the right medium, and market your linkable asset.

2. Figure out search intent and what your competitors are doing

Next, you need to do some keyword research to see what is ranking. You can find relevant topics to create linkable content around through competitor research and trend analysis.

For competitor research, enter the keyword you want to rank for in Google. Then, check out the top three or five hits on the page—what kinds of content do they feature?

If they’re all videos, then you should make a video. If they’re all in-depth articles, then that might be the best format for your own linkable asset.

Say you wanted to create a linkable asset for the keyword ‘SEO Tools’. When we take a look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) for the term ‘SEO Tools‘, we can see that the large majority of the top results are all listicles.

So, taking that into account, the best linkable asset format for this keyword would be a listicle.

New and trending topics are another great source of inspiration. Check Google Trends, social media, and other trend-spotting tools to find out which keywords are in high demand.

3. Pull from multiple sources for information

Whether you’re creating a video or conducting your own research, chances are you will have to turn to other websites, books, films, and studies for additional information. 

It’s important to pull from as many sources as possible, for two major reasons.

The first reason is that collating information from different sources means that you’ll have a more complete and thorough understanding of your subject matter, and it will be easier to write your own expert take on it. 

The second reason is that you’ll be better able to identify knowledge gaps that current published content isn’t filling—providing you with the opportunity to fill them.

4. Create content with S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

The S.U.C.C.E.S.S. framework was created by Dan and Chip Heath and introduced in their book Made to Stick. While this model wasn’t designed specifically for linkable assets, it was created to help people communicate more effectively, especially when it comes to business or sales.

According to the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. model, these are the elements that your linkable assets should have to resonate with your audience and really “stick”:

• Simple: Break your idea down to its core concept and don’t try to tackle too many things at once. Structure your thoughts simply but logically and use easy-to-understand language.
• Unexpected: Don’t say something that people already know. Surprise them with a unique idea or innovative execution. Create curiosity and grab their attention!
• Concrete: Talking in vague abstracts only muddles your message. To illustrate your point, use concrete images, definitions, and examples that make it easier to grasp and remember.
• Credible: Back your claims up with proof, statistics, or even just personal experience and anecdotal evidence. If your readers can test out your ideas and come to their own conclusions, even better.
• Emotional attachment: Emotions play a huge role in our decision-making process and memory retention. Appeal to the wide range of human emotions to get people reading, clicking, and converting into customers.
• Stories: Narratives are extremely powerful because they give context (and emotion) to otherwise disjointed ideas, which allow us to make sense of things and inspire us to take action.

As always, focus on creating high-quality content instead of a lot of content. If you are more thorough and more accurate than your competitors, then chances are that you will earn the link, not them. 

It will take a lot of time and effort, but the results will be worth your money and energy many times over.

6. Design it to look beautiful

The prettier your piece, the more likely it is that someone would link to it. Don’t sleep on this—it matters more than you think.

In this day and age, busy people sometimes won’t take the time to read your entire article, but they could make a linking decision based on a quick overview and how your article looks.

Looking for an example of a well-designed piece? Check out this lead generation article by Hook Agency.

The article has it all:

• Custom graphics
• Social proof
• Responsive design
• Call-outs
• Multimedia 

6. Share your linkable asset

You’ve probably heard the saying “great content shares itself”. And this is true to some extent—if you make linkable assets that people care about, then it’s more likely that they’ll share it with the people they care about. But you can’t get those clicks (much less those backlinks) if no one knows about the amazing piece of content you created.

BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links​

Gain exposure by sharing your content as much as possible. There are many different ways to do this, such as posting on your blog, guest posting, sharing it via your email list, putting up Facebook ads, reaching out to influencers and other website owners, and more.

7. Track your progress

Just because your linkable asset is out there in the wild, it doesn’t mean that your work is over. 

In fact, what you do after you’ve finished and shared your content is just as important as creating it! 

After all, how can you truly say that your linkable content was “great” and “effective” if you have no data to back that up?

Tools like Ahrefs make this easy. You can check how many referring domains and backlinks any single page has received, as well as the overall dollar value of the traffic you’ve received.

For example, here’s a report on a keyword cannibalization article I created:

I got 46 backlinks from 40 domains and it cost me only my time to create this asset. Here’s a list of its referring domains. Not too shabby:

8. Regularly update your content 

Some industries are super fast-paced, and things change all the time. 

If this sounds like your industry, your “definitive” guides and “ultimate” how-tos could become outdated in just a few months! Stay on top of your linkable assets by regularly updating your content when applicable.

It’s always going to be easier to update your main resource materials than it is to create entirely new ones. 

In addition to that, you can always re-promote your linkable content and make it gain even more backlinks.

The Secret to Backlink Building

It doesn’t matter how much effort you put into link building, if you don’t create anything worth linking to, then you’re not making the most out of your backlinks. 

Creating a successful linkable asset is one of the best ways to get more backlinks and citations, but you have to do it right.

At this point, you should be armed with the following knowledge:

• What linkable assets are and how they can be a valuable tool in your link-building arsenal.
• 7 unique linkable asset strategies to implement into your next link-building campaign.
• How to share your linkable assets to gain the maximum number of backlinks.
• How to track the link-building progress of your linkable assets with tools such as Ahrefs.

Now it’s up to you to put that knowledge to good use. If you need help promoting your linkable content, then contact us. We’ve been building links for businesses since 2016 and we know how to help you rank higher on search engines and drive traffic to your site.

Got Questions or Comments?

Join the discussion here on Facebook.

Ready to unlock its full potential? This step-by-step guide will equip you with the tools to build an effective content strategy that captivates, converts, and delivers a lasting impact.

What Is a Digital Content Strategy?

Why Should You Have a Digital Content Strategy?

10 Steps to Creating a Successful Digital Content Strategy

Digital Content Strategy Tips

Final Thoughts: Creating an Effective Digital Content Strategy

What Is a Digital Content Strategy?

A formal digital content strategy is a comprehensive plan that leverages online content to achieve your business goals. It’s how you attract, engage, and convert your audience into loyal customers or clients through valuable and relevant content.

Unlike traditional advertising, which often focuses on direct sales pitches, a digital strategy emphasizes building relationships and trust. 

By consistently providing audiences with useful, interesting, or entertaining content, you position your brand as a helpful resource. This, in turn, fosters positive associations and increases the likelihood of future conversions.

What do we mean by “content”?

Content comes in many forms, engaging audiences through diverse channels:

Written materials: Blog posts, articles, e-books, whitepapers, case studies, social media updates, etc.

Videos: Explainer videos, product demos, online tutorials, testimonials, live streams, webinars, etc.

Infographics and images: Visual content that simplifies complex information or tells stories in an eye-catching way.

Podcasts and audio: Audio content for on-the-go consumption, including interviews, discussions, and educational content.

A robust digital content strategy leverages a multichannel approach to reach and engage your target audience:

• SEO (search engine optimization)
• Email marketing 
• In-person or online events
• Paid advertising
• Influencer marketing
• PR

A successful digital content strategy involves a carefully planned mix of content types and distribution channels, all working together to create a cohesive brand experience that resonates with your target audience.

Why Should You Have a Digital Content Strategy? 

A digital content strategy isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a critical tool for business growth, which is why 90% of marketers include content in their marketing strategies. 

Here’s why investing in a well-defined strategy is a smart move:

Build relationships: Nurture potential customers by providing valuable information and establishing your brand as a trusted resource.

Showcase expertise: Position your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Educate and inform: Help customers understand your products and services, addressing their needs and pain points.

Rank higher and keep visitors engaged: Optimize your content to rank high on search engine result pages and drive more organic traffic. Remember, users tend to spend 8% more time on a page ranked #1 compared to a page ranked #10.

Generate buzz: Spark conversations and engagement on social media.

Enable sales and boost lead generation: Equip your team with informative content; this strategy has been proven effective for 74% of companies.

While a strong content strategy can organically attract backlinks, some businesses still opt for paid links – our link-building pricing guide details typical costs.

10 Steps to Creating a Successful Digital Content Strategy

1. Understand your target audience

Understanding your target audience is essential for creating content that resonates and drives results. After all, these are your potential customers.

It’s like tailoring a suit—a one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it. To understand your audience’s preferences, you must delve deep into their demographics, interests, pain points, and online behavior.

Demographic information

Start by gathering basic demographic data about your target audience, such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Occupation
• Income level
• Education level
• Family status

This information provides a general overview and helps you create content that’s relevant to their stage of life and lifestyle.

What are their interests and preferences?

Dig deeper to understand your target audience’s interests, hobbies, values, and beliefs. Here are some questions to ask:

What kind of content do they consume? 

What topics are they passionate about? 

What problems are they trying to solve? 

This knowledge enables you to create content that speaks directly to their needs and desires.

Understand their pain points 

Identify the challenges or problems your audience faces. What are their frustrations? What keeps them up at night? Addressing these pain points through your content can position your business as a solution provider and build trust.

Where do they hang out online?

Analyze how your audience behaves online: 

What platforms do they use? 

What kind of content do they engage with? 

When are they most active online? 

This information helps you tailor your content distribution strategy and reach them where they’re most likely to see it.

Tools for audience research

There are plenty of ways you can gather valuable audience insights:

• Social media platforms like Facebook Audience Insights, X Analytics, and Instagram Insights offer data on your followers’ demographics and interests.
• Tools like Google Analytics reveal information about your website visitors’ behavior. 
• Leverage social listening to see what people are saying about your brand.
• Interview your customers. 
• Dive into customer reviews and testimonials.

Create audience personas

To bring your target audience to life, create detailed buyer personas. These are fictional representations of your ideal customers, with names, demographics, interests, goals, and challenges. Personas help you visualize your audience and tailor your content accordingly.

By thoroughly understanding your target audience, you can create content that speaks directly to them, solves their problems, and builds lasting relationships. Remember, the more you know about your audience, the more effective your digital content strategy will be.

2. Consider your goals

If your digital content strategy were a map, your goals would be the destination. So, before creating anything, consider what you want to get out of your content marketing strategy. 

Your goals provide direction, focus your efforts, and allow you to measure key performance indicators and success. Some common goals include: 

• Increase conversions
• Increase brand awareness
• Lead generation 
• Generate organic traffic
• Boost topical authority
• Improve audience engagement 
• Improve online visibility 

While these business goals are reasonable, they could be SMART-er. Here’s what we mean: 

Specific: Your goals should be clear and unambiguous. Avoid vague statements. 

Measurable: Establish concrete metrics to track your progress.

Achievable: Set realistic goals that are attainable with your available resources and time frame. Don’t overextend yourself or set unrealistic expectations.

Relevant: Ensure your goals align with your overall business objectives.

Time-bound: Set deadlines for achieving your goals. This creates a sense of urgency and helps you stay on track.

SMART goal example

Let’s take the business goal of increasing conversions as an example. This goal lacks specificity, measurability, and a timeframe, making it difficult to track progress or determine success.

Now let’s turn it into a SMART goal:

“Increase our website’s overall conversion rate from 2% to 3% within the next six months, focusing on our blog and product pages.”

3. Carry out a content audit 

Another component of a strong digital content strategy is to audit your existing content. A content audit systematically evaluates all the content on your website or digital channels.

It involves cataloging, analyzing, and assessing each piece of content to determine its performance, relevance, and alignment with your overall goals. Think of it as taking inventory of your content assets to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Here’s how to conduct a content audit:

1. Create an inventory of existing content

Create a comprehensive list of all your content assets, including:

• Web pages (blog posts, landing pages, product pages)
• Social media posts
• Video content 
• Emails
• Podcasts 
• Infographics 
• Webinars and presentations 
• Downloadable assets (whitepapers, e-books)

Create a spreadsheet to document each piece of content. Include details like the title, type, publication date, URL, and other relevant information.

2. Collect data

Once you have your inventory, it’s time to evaluate how each piece of content is performing. This involves analyzing various metrics to understand what works and what doesn’t. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include:

Assess each piece of content based on your business goals and collected data. Categorize it as:

• High-performing: Keep and promote
• Needs improvement: Update or repurpose
• Low-performing: Remove or consolidate

3. Identify gaps 

Once you’ve evaluated your existing content, it’s time to capitalize on the gems you’ve uncovered—the gaps in your content strategy. These gaps represent untapped potential to captivate your audience, outshine competitors, and drive meaningful results. Here’s what to look for:

• Untapped topics: Are there burning questions your audience is asking that your content doesn’t answer? Dig into your buyer personas and their journey to discover anything you haven’t covered. 
• Format variety: Are you utilizing a variety of content formats (e.g., video, infographics, articles) to keep your audience engaged? 
• Unmet needs: Are there needs or pain points that your current content does not address? Use feedback from surveys, comments, and direct interactions with your audience.
• Competitor intel: Don’t just admire your rivals, learn from them! Examine their content to identify areas where you can offer something unique, better, or more valuable.

4. Keyword research

Keywords are the specific words and phrases that your target audience uses when searching online for information related to your product or services. 

By understanding their language use, you can tailor your content to match their search intent, boosting your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attracting organic traffic.

This section is for SEO-focused strategies. If you aren’t focusing on SEO, skip to step 6.

How to do keyword research

Brainstorm seed keywords

Seed keywords are initial, broad terms people use that you’ll want to target. Here are some practical ways to uncover them:

Think like your customer: Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. What words or phrases would they use to search for your products or services?

Consider your offerings: List the main products, services, or topics you cover. 

Look at competitor websites: See what keywords your competitors target in their content and meta descriptions.

Use keyword research tools

The next step is to input your seed keywords into a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz Keyword Explorer to expand your list. These tools provide data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and related keywords.

When doing keyword research for your own content, focus on keywords that: 

• Are relevant to your business.
• Have a decent search volume.
• Have manageable competition.

For example, “digital content strategy” is the keyword that we’re targeting for this article in Ahrefs. This term has a medium keyword difficulty and 500 searches a month, which is ideal:  

Source: Ahrefs

To refine your keyword strategy, expand your list with long-tail keywords—those niche phrases that resonate with your specific audience. These often lead to higher conversion rates due to their precise match to user intent. Ahrefs provides suggestions, which you can see below:

Source: Ahrefs

Analyze search intent

By analyzing search intent, you can determine the purpose behind each keyword—whether users are: 

• Seeking information (informational intent)
• Looking to buy (transactional intent),
• Trying to find a specific website (navigational intent). 

This understanding helps to create the right type of content for each stage of the customer journey, ensuring it effectively addresses readers’ needs.

Map keywords to content

Once you have identified keywords and phrases your audience is searching for, match each keyword to the piece of content that best addresses the searcher’s intent. 

This process is known as keyword mapping. By connecting specific keywords and phrases to relevant pieces of content, you ensure your content is not only valuable to your audience, but also easily discoverable by search engines.

Let’s use the keyword “digital content strategy” as an example:

Blog post

• Title: What is Digital Content Strategy and Why It Matters
• Primary keyword: what is a digital content strategy
• Secondary keywords: importance of digital content strategy, benefits of digital content strategy, digital content strategy examples

Service page

• Title: Expert Digital Content Strategy Services to Elevate Your Brand
• Primary keyword: digital content strategy services
• Secondary keywords: content strategy agency, content strategy consulting, hire a content strategist

Pro Tip: Incorporate keywords naturally into your content—i.e., titles, headings, body text, meta descriptions—without sacrificing readability or quality.

Assign relevant keywords to specific pieces of content, which ensures a natural fit between the keyword and the topic. We’ll explain more about monitoring your content later in this article. 

Monitor and refine

Keyword research is an ongoing process. To stay ahead of the competition, monitor your rankings, track performance, and adjust your keyword strategy accordingly.

Pro Tip: Remember, keyword stuffing (overloading your content with keywords) is a big no-no because it leads to a poor user experience and is penalized by search engines. Focus on creating high-quality content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords and provides value to your audience.

5. Plan content hubs

Separating your content into hubs is a great way to organize your website and improve your SEO. 

A hub is a collection of content pages related to a specific topic. This makes it easier for users to find the information they are looking for and for search engines to understand what your website is about.

 Creating hubs has many benefits:

Improved search engine optimization (SEO): Hubs can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) by building topical authority. When you have a lot of content on a particular topic, it signals to search engines that you are an expert. This can help you rank higher for keywords related to that topic.

Better user experience: Hubs make it easier for users to find the information they seek. By grouping related content, users can easily find everything they need on a particular topic in one place.

Increased engagement: Hubs help increase engagement with your content. When users find a hub relevant to their interests, they would probably spend more time on your website and consume more of your content.

How to create a hub

1. Choose a topic for your hub. This should be a topic that is relevant to your target audience and that you are knowledgeable about.
2. Create a pillar page for your hub. This is the main page, and it should provide an overview of the topic.
3. Create subpages for your hub. These pages should provide more in-depth information on specific aspects of the topic.
4. Link your subpages to your pillar page and each other. This will help users navigate your hub and find the information they are looking for.

To illustrate our point, let’s use Cyclingnews.com. This website is a decent example of a website using hubs. Their cycling news pillar pages are split into: 

• Cycling news
• Road
• Gravel
• MTB
• Track 
• Cyclo-cross
• Women’s cycling news

Here’s how it looks on the home page: 

Source: Cyclingnews.com

6. Establish a content calendar

Once you have your content hubs set up, you must consistently publish fresh, valuable content. Regularly publishing content is essential for a few reasons: 

Engaged audience: Consistent content keeps your audience hooked and eager for what’s next.

Faster indexing: Search engines notice when you publish regularly and will crawl your site more often, which means that your new content will get indexed and appear in search results faster.

Keyword expansion: The more content you create, the more keywords you can potentially rank for, expanding your reach.

This won’t just happen automatically. You’ll need to create a content calendar that aligns your content marketing efforts with your larger content marketing strategy. 

How to create a content calendar

Choose the type of calendar you want to use 

Choose a format that suits your budget, tech comfort level, and the complexity of your content creation process: 

• Spreadsheets (e.g., Google Sheets, Excel) are a simple, free option that offers flexibility.
• Project management tools (e.g., Asana, Trello) are great for visual organization and collaboration.
• Specialized content calendar software like CoSchedule or Hootsuite.

Your editorial calendar should include these core columns:

• Date: When the content is scheduled for publication.
• Topic/title: A working title or description of the content.
• Content format: (in-depth blog posts, videos, social media posts, etc.)
• Author/creator: Who’s responsible for creating the content?
• Status: (Drafting, Editing, Ready to Publish, or Published)
• Distribution channels: Where you’ll share the content (website, social media platforms, etc.)

You can add more columns such as target keywords, notes, or relevant details like content ideas.

Start planning

Begin by filling in your calendar with upcoming events, holidays, or product launches you want to create content around. Then, brainstorm ideas for your regular content and space them over time.

Consider frequency

How often you publish depends on your resources and audience. Start with a realistic schedule and gradually increase the frequency as you produce content and gain momentum.

Collaboration (if applicable)

If you have a team, share the calendar and assign tasks to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

When working with a team, a shared calendar is essential for effective collaboration. Assign each team member a specific task like writing, editing, proofreading, design, or uploading, along with clear deadlines. This ensures everyone understands their responsibilities and timelines. 

Review and adapt

Your calendar isn’t set in stone.  Regularly review and update it to reflect new ideas, changing priorities, or performance insights.

7. Create great content 

Creating content that truly resonates with your audience entails more than just putting words on a page. It’s a meticulous process that combines research, creativity, and technical know-how. Here’s how to approach it.

1⃣ Research 

Thorough research is the foundation of compelling content. Dive into your topic, seeking out:

• Statistics and data: Back up your claims with credible numbers and trends.
• Expert insights: Interviews or quotes from industry leaders add authority and depth.
• Unique angles: Offer a fresh perspective or original research to stand out.

Remember, originality is key. Don’t just rehash what’s already out there. Add your voice and insights to create content that truly resonates.

2⃣ Produce 

Crafting high-quality content often involves a team effort. Consider enlisting the help of professional writers, editors, or designers. Having multiple sets of eyes on your work ensures quality, catches errors, and polishes your piece to perfection.

3⃣ Optimize

Optimization is how you ensure your content is chosen by search algorithms to show users. You’ll need to strategically incorporate relevant keywords into your:

• Body text: Use keywords naturally throughout your content.
• Metadata: Craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions that include your keywords.
• Image alt text: Describe images accurately with keywords to boost SEO.

SurferSEO is an excellent tool for optimizing copy. It analyzes and measures your content’s performance against top-ranking pages and suggests keyword density, structure improvements, and more.

4⃣ Publish content 

Before you hit that “publish” button, look at your content’s layout and formatting. Ensure it’s visually appealing, easy to read, and mobile-friendly. 

Don’t underestimate the power of a professional content team. “A dedicated team of content professionals can elevate your brand’s voice and reach. Whether you build an in-house team, work with freelancers, or partner with an agency, having experts on your side ensures consistent, high-quality content that delivers results.”

8. Promote your content 

Creating amazing content is only half the battle.  You’ve poured your heart and expertise into it—now it’s time to share it with the world. Don’t just cross your fingers and hope people stumble upon your masterpiece. Take a proactive approach to distribute your content effectively:

Social media: Share your digital content across multiple channels, tailoring your message to each platform’s audience. Engaging visuals, compelling captions, and targeted hashtags can all boost visibility.

Industry press and outreach: Contact relevant publications, blogs, or influencers in your niche to gauge their interest in featuring your content. A well-placed article or mention can expose your work to a new audience.

Email newsletters: If you have an email list, share your latest content with your subscribers. It’s a direct way to connect with your most engaged audience.

Paid promotion: Consider using targeted ads on social media or search engines to reach specific demographics or interest groups.

Remember, the goal is to get your content in front of the right eyes.  Be strategic, track your results, and adjust your approach based on what works best for your audience and goals.

9. Monitor your performance

Monitoring your content’s performance doesn’t involve tracking ‘vanity metrics’—however tempting that might seem. it’s about understanding what resonates with your audience and drives your business goals.  

By tracking key metrics, you can make informed decisions about what’s working, what needs improvement, and where to focus your efforts.

Here are some key metrics to watch:

Website traffic: Overall visits, pageviews, unique visitors.

Engagement: Time on page, bounce rate, social shares, comments.

Conversions: Leads generated, sales, sign-ups, downloads.

Search rankings: Keyword positions in search engine results pages (SERPs).

You can use a range of tools to track these metrics. We’ll discuss three of them below.

Website analytics

Pro: Provides the most accurate data on user behavior directly from your website.

Con: The breadth of information available can be limited, especially for external factors like backlink data.

Google Search Console

Pro: Offers valuable insights into your website’s performance in Google search results.

Con: Limited to Google search data and doesn’t account for traffic from other sources.

Ahrefs

Pro: A comprehensive SEO toolkit with a wide range of data, including competitor analysis and backlink tracking.

Con: Data may not be as accurate as first-party data from Google Analytics or Search Console.

The ideal approach is to use a combination of tools to get a balanced view of your content performance.

Take actions based on performance data

Double down on success: Expand on topics or formats that prove to be popular with your audience.

Improve CTAs: For content like blog posts that attract traffic but don’t convert, refine your calls to action (CTAs) to encourage desired actions.

Address bounce rate: If your digital content has a high bounce rate, consider whether it aligns with user expectations or needs improvement to deliver more value.

Optimize for rankings: For good content that isn’t ranking well, revisit your SEO strategies, including keyword optimization and link building.

Scrap the underperformers: Eliminate low-quality or irrelevant content that fails to engage or rank.

10. Revisit and adapt your digital content marketing strategy

A robust digital content strategy isn’t a one-and-done deal. It should be a living document that evolves with your business, audience, and industry.

Regular reviews: Revisit your strategy at least once per year. Evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and where new opportunities lie.

Embrace change: Don’t be afraid to pivot your strategy in response to industry shifts, emerging trends, or changes in your target audience’s preferences.

By staying flexible and data-driven, you’ll ensure your content strategy remains relevant, effective, and aligned with your overarching business objectives.

Digital Content Strategy Tips

Align content with your sales funnel

Your content should guide your audience on a journey. Craft pieces that cater to each stage of the sales funnel:

• Top of Funnel (Awareness): Attract a broad audience with informative blog posts, social media posts, and engaging videos that address general pain points.
• Middle of Funnel (Consideration): Nurture leads by providing more in-depth content such as e-books, white papers, and webinars that showcase your expertise and solutions.
• Bottom of Funnel (Conversion): Drive action with targeted landing pages, case studies, testimonials, and product demos that persuade prospects to become customers.

By aligning content with the buyer’s journey, you increase the chances of converting leads into loyal customers.

Quality over quantity

While consistent posting is important, prioritize quality over churning out a high volume of mediocre content. Invest time and resources in creating well-researched, engaging, and informative pieces that resonate with your audience. 

Remember, one exceptional piece of content can have a much more significant impact than ten average ones.

Use AI as a tool, not a replacement

AI tools like ChatGPT can be powerful allies in content creation. They can assist with brainstorming ideas, generating outlines, and even drafting initial versions. However, it’s crucial to remember that AI should be seen as a tool to enhance your creativity—it’s not a substitute for it.

Use ChatGPT to streamline your workflow, overcome writer’s block, or explore new angles. But always review, edit, and infuse your unique voice and expertise into the final product. Your audience craves authentic connection, which only a human touch can provide.

Final Thoughts: Creating an Effective Digital Content Strategy

Digital content strategies are the engine that drives your online presence, fuels engagement, and ultimately delivers business results. By following these ten steps, you’ll be well on your way toward crafting a strategy that captivates your audience and positions your brand for long-term success.

Ready to take your content to the next level? Authority Builders can help. Book a call with our experts today, and let’s transform your content into a powerful asset that drives growth and delivers measurable results.