Do you know what sort of content your audience wants to see? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many old-school search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing advice maintains that you should start with keyword research. The trouble is, that’s no longer relevant. Instead, you need to find the right topics <\/em>to write on, then build your keywords out from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As for how to find those topics? If your goal is to establish yourself as an expert or thought leader, your best bet is to do a bit of research into the sorts of questions they’re asking. Figure out what they want to know, and from there, it’s only a short jump to some great content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few places you can look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social networks are good for more than just relationship-building. Pay attention to what prospective customers talk about, and keep a particularly close eye on the sorts of questions they address to your competitors. Reddit is the holy grail in this regard \u2014 if you can find a subreddit related to any of your products or services, then there’s a good chance you’ll find plenty of potential topic ideas, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook aren’t the only communities you can seek out online. Communities like Quora tend to be a goldmine, too. But, of course, if Quora is too general, you can also seek out industry-specific sites for a bit of inspiration, as well \u2014 Github, for instance, tends to attract a lot of tech geeks, making it an ideal community to check if that’s your primary demographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’d rather not spend time trawling Reddit or poring over Quora, you can simply use a tool like AlsoAsked. There are also plenty of AI-driven content creation and research tools, such as Market Muse, that generate a list of possible questions based on content. And even keyword research tools may occasionally have questions mixed into their results as long-tail keywords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to devising a content creation strategy, knowing your audience is a crucial starting point. By understanding what they know, what they’re asking, and ultimately, what they want <\/em>to know, you can gear yourself up to create more compelling, engaging content. Finding those questions need not be difficult, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day, you simply need to know where to look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Keywords still have their place in SEO. But it’s far more valuable to know what your audience wants to see. Here are a few ways you can determine that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tTake Your Research to Social Media<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Check Online Discussion Boards<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Use a Q&A Tool<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
It’s All About Answering the Right Questions<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n