![keyword target](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7HEA3vbcmPKhrOiQ2nYt61/be2249e4d1d5223a3ad6e3d997e7b171/keyword_target.png)
SEO content marketing is a powerful strategy startups can use to capture sales leads and new customers from people researching solutions to their problems. 

The universe of people searching for an answer to a use-case that a product can help solve far exceeds those searching for the features or benefits of the product itself.

However, one of the most difficult parts of finding good SEO content topics to write about is knowing what to write about and where to start. This is where SEO keyword research can assist.

Keyword research is used to find out within the Google search engine what questions people are asking and how many people are asking it on a given monthly basis.

Here are 5 tactics for picking topics that drive demand generation:
1. [Brainstorm](#brainstorm):  How to brainstorm use-cases
2. [Pick Keywords](#pick-keywords): SEO Keyword Planner tool tips
3. [Assess Competition](#assess-competition): Competitor content assessment framework
4. [Frame Content](#frame-content): What to write about
5. [Measure & Track](#measure-and-track): Topic goal tracking template

Imagine we are a B2B startup with a product that helps customers perform food safety checks in the manufacturing sector.

### <a name="brainstorm"></a>1. How to brainstorm use-cases
Bad SEO content strategies often focus on highly competitive or low volume search topics related to product features and benefits. Good SEO content strategies focus on the use-cases and struggle of the user leading up to the need to use the product or service.

| 👎 Bad SEO Content Topics     | 👍 Good SEO Content Topics     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| The Best Food Safety Software       | HACCP Food Safety Hazards       |
| How Food Safety Software Saves you Money       | GMP Food Safety Audits   |
| Food Safety Photo Sharing and Digital Tracking Features | Template Food Safety Logs |

Start by brainstorming a list of specific use-cases and tasks that your customers would use either your product or their existing solution for (e.g. even if it’s paper or spreadsheets). Pull out general keyword ideas.

| Use-case     | Keywords     |
| ------------ | ---------- |
| Spotting and recording food safety hazards       | Food safety hazard, contamination, hazard types, salmonella, thawing, violations       |
| Preparing for food safety regulatory audits       | HACCP, GMP, CCP, ISO22000       |
| Managing food product recalls       | Food recall, food outbreak       |
| Food safety prevention       | Food safety control measures, food safety program and training       |

### <a name="pick-keywords"></a>2. SEO Keyword Planner tool tips
Enter your list of brainstorm use-case keywords in [Google Keyword Planner](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en-AU) and record the monthly search volume. Keyword Planner is a free tool built by Google to assist marketers with conducting paid google search campaigns. You can get free access to it by signing up for a free [Google Ads account](https://ads.google.com/intl/en_AU/home/#!/). 

![keyword planner](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3W21OY8PVYFnz72hcCgdKn/05fdc98c3f88cb549d0648a847daff24/keyword_planner.png)

The important properties and metrics include:
- __Keyword (by relevance)__: list of exact keyword searches that broadly match the term you searched including other keyword ideas that Google identified based on people’s search patterns
- __Avg. monthly searches__: Google’s estimate of the total average monthly searches for that specific term based on the selected location. Very low search volume is likely to yield low results even if your content ranks whilst high search volume is likely to be highly competitive and will be difficult to rank for
- __Competition__: how competitive a term is in terms of paid search. High competition keywords will likely be dominated by paid search ads at the top of the search results, meaning even if you rank you will likely achieve low click through rates
- __Locations__: country and region for the search volume. Narrow this down for your core regions where you are targeting potential customers or a specific topic 

[Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/trends/) can also be a helpful tool as a leading indicator as to whether a keyword term is trending higher or has recently broken out. In the example below we can see that kinder salmonella has been a breakout term and could be a case study topic for customers to learn about. 

![google trends](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7xAIsakmODo3zx9IXyEVrU/79748b017194a175fc200b12db88f0d0/google_trends.png)

In a spreadsheet, create a list of your keywords including the avg. monthly searches, competition and general trend.

In our food safety example above, we follow the systematic approach and come to the following conclusion: “__HACCP Plan__” will be the target keyword we should research and write content on:

| Exact Keyword     | Avg. Monthly Searches     | Comments     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Food safety       | 60,500       | 👎 Broad term covering restaurants, at home, manufacturing. Google may only pick 1 or 2 manufacturing specific results for page 1 given how broad the term is       |
| Food safety manufacturing       | 70       | 👎 Relevant to manufacturing food safety standards but search volume is too low       |
| HACCP       | 246,000       | 👎 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is certification of a food safety management system that food manufacturers follow. However, it is quite competitive with lots of great regulatory content on it already. Will need to write lots of amazing content to outrank       |
| HACCP Plan       | 8,100       | 👍 Bingo. The specific plan that is written to implement HACCP certification. Medium competition, not amazing content on a HACCP Plan.       |

### <a name="assess-competition"></a>3. Competitor content assessment framework
Google has one job: 
> “To match a person’s question being searched for with the best possible answer”

After you have determined the keyword is worth chasing after (e.g. sufficient volume, the right audience and where your product could offer a solution related to that use-case) you will need to evaluate the current ranking content to determine what content you will be competing with.

#### How to view competitor pages in the relevant region
Google tailors its search results to individual browsing history and specific localised region. You will need to use Google’s free [Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool](https://ads.google.com/aw/diagnostic/AdPreview?ocid=97975120&__c=7032476880&__u=2081691172&authuser=1&__o=kp&lang=en&loc=9060914&device=30001) to preview competitor search results as it would most likely appear to your target customers.

![adnetwork](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1Qs3FWJsvp6ataujgFVh5y/7303672f510529687a187e5c4b6aa2f2/adnetwork.png)

Go through each page and assess for the following:
- __Audience__: is this audience right for our solution? 
- __Authority__: is the writer a high authority figure on the topic? Regulatory agencies will be more difficult to beat, however not impossible if the content is of low value
- __Relevance__: is the answer relevant to the question being asked? Is it still timely or has not been updated in a long time?

In assessing the top search result for our keyword example: HACCP Plan

| Category     | Competitor Assessment     | Good Fit     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| __Audience__       | Good fit audience likely food safety officers       | 👍       |
| __Authority__       | US FDA ultimate authority hard to beat       | 👎       |
| __Relevance__       | Long set of legal regulatory guidelines, difficult for people to digest and understand.        | 👍       |

The audience is a good fit with a relevance to our solution but the competing authority is very high. However, given the highly technical nature of the page there exists an opportunity for us to create better content summarising the key aspects of the HACCP Plan that would be more digestible for a non-regulatory audience. 

Following the competitor assessment and before framing a topic, ask yourself: 
*“Can we write a piece of content within the time constraints that would be better than these pages”? *

### <a name="frame-content"></a>4. What to write about
Frame your content to ask the who, what and why of your customer’s struggle related to the keyword. In our example for the keyword: "__HACCP Plan__"

| Question     | Answer     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Who is the target audience?       | Food safety officers working in food manufacturing       |
| What questions would they ask?       | How to develop a HACCP Plan       |
| Why are they asking this question?       | Preparing information and processes to provide to food safety auditor to comply with HACCP       |

With the target customer, struggle and intent established we can propose a title and meta and see how it would compare against the first page results (in essence our book cover).

Proposed title and meta for our content:

__How to Develop a HACCP Plan - Preparing for Audit__
*What is a HACCP Plan? What information to provide to HACCP auditors? Choosing the right food safety management software to document your records.*

This can then be added to the content management plan for further detailed research and content drafting. [See my previous article for a detailed guide on how to write SEO content](https://mannhowie.com/how-to-rank-without-backlinks).

### <a name="measure-and-track"></a>5. Topic goal tracking template
After publishing your content (via your web CMS), request for the page to be indexed via Google Search Console ([click here to learn how](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/ask-google-to-recrawl)). 

Track the content published in a spreadsheet with the following columns:
- __Exact Keyword__: the name of the main keyword we are targeting (e.g. HACCP Plan)
- __Avg. Monthly Searches__: from Keyword Planner above (e.g. 8,100)
- __Date Published__: date article was published and google search index request made
- __URL__: url of the content page

It will take a few weeks for Google to start gathering search performance data on your newly published page. Use Google Search Console to track the organic performance of your pages by entering the specific URL.  
![search console](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1VSax2eXPQT4BoofYrZ5vC/277c852f990ce053e518dc2a3364dddc/search_console.png)

The important properties and metrics to understand are:
- __Clicks__: organic unique SEO visits to your page during the date range
- __Impressions__: number of times your page has come up in search query results
- __CTR__: % Click Through Rate being Clicks / Impressions (i.e. the % of people who clicked on your result upon seeing it on the page against other results)
- __Position__: the average position ranking of your page across all queries

Track these results in your same spreadsheet and follow the discipline of benchmarking and measuring the results of your content pages against your original keyword targets. Review your results at the end of each quarter to identify whether further content optimisation is needed to improve the relevance of your pages, or optimisation to the title and description may increase your CTR, or whether further content improvement is required to reflect change in competing pages.   

#### How long does it take to rank
Established websites with high quality pages should begin to rank on page 1 globally within a month and achieve top 3 ranking within 3 months. You can expect this to take longer if you have a newer website that has not published much content.

__Organic weekly traffic of pages published in December (redacted private data)__
![Screen Shot 2019-05-01 at 9.50.46 pm](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2jbNMVJbLPFob5wK2s7o4c/bfe8e57a46a652465520213df77392f3/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_9.50.46_pm.png)


5 tactics for picking topics that drive demand generation. 1) How to Brainstorm Use-Cases; 2) SEO Keyword Planner Tool Tips; 3) Competitor Content Assessment Framework; 4) What to Write About; 5) Keyword Goal Tracking Template 

How to Target SEO Keywords for Demand Generation - A Content Marketing Playbook

Google acquired YouTube for US$1.6bn in 2006. In 2022, YouTube could be worth over US$180bn achieving a +110x return. Analysis of YouTube revenue and usage statistics and financial metrics.

How Much is YouTube Worth? Over US$180bn in 2022

The average is the most commonly used metric we use to understand data and infer insights - it is also the most dangerous.
![beware_average](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/12kJw6jBqfvjjSCHyMxUNm/2dbf7edf379236641095dffe09c670fb/beware_average.png)

# The Pitfall of the Average
The US Air Force began life in the late 1940s with a high rate of aircraft accidents and pilot fatalities (excluding combat losses) with 23.6 aircraft destroyed per 100,000 flying hours. This dramatically reduced to 4.3 by the end of the 1960s driven largely by the work of one man, Lieutenant Gilbert S. Daniels who saw the pitfall of using “the average” to design solutions.

> The tendency to think in terms of the “average man” is a pitfall…it is virtually impossible to find an “average man” in the Air Force population.
[Gilbert S Daniels (1952 US Air Force Report)](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0010203)

US Army engineers had standardised the design of pilot cockpits to conform to the average dimensions of a 1926 pilot. This was revisited in the 1950s by Lt. Daniels who measured the bodily dimensions of more than 4,000 pilots and found that zero pilots matched the average dimensions.

The US Air Force responded and demanded that its manufacturers design its cockpits to be adjustable to individual dimensions vs the standardised average. As a consequence, both pilot performance and accident/ mishap rates dramatically improved.
![us_airforce](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6mtEbxaIXNU60Svdu9uGsO/3c61d041d241f4040e7269db2552b8eb/us_airforce.png)

# A Modern Example
A modern example of the pitfall of the average would be to look at user activity. Imagine we build software that helps users perform inspections and we are tasked with improving user engagement.

Looking at the data we find that the average count of monthly inspections performed by our active users is 32 inspections per month:

![table_inspections](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3SfYJ8CwfGsBPFptTVL3jB/44bd12fd8ec35a7fc0c8efe608a47ed3/table_inspections.png)

Knowing this, we can deduce that our users on average perform 32 inspections per month or approximately one inspection a day. We begin building solutions such as daily notifications to help remind our users to perform their daily inspection.

__Stop.__

Reducing a large data set into a single number can often mask useful information and give us the wrong answer. Instead we can look at the distribution of our data and graph the same data as a histogram to reveal how often each different value occurs in a dataset.
![histogram_inspections](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1UixJwtgp0xcrWIvV6I6J2/ce429dc02a478f3c49abb41f28b113bc/histogram_inspections.png)

Now looking at the distribution of our data we can see that none of our users perform the average number of 32 inspections per month. Instead we see that 60% of our users perform 10 or fewer inspections per month and a large group (+30% of users) perform 70 or more inspections per month.

The distribution of our data could suggest that the usage of our software differs widely by different cohorts of users. One cohort could be using it to perform monthly scheduled safety checks vs another cohort using it to perform factory line QA checks. 

Next time when using the average, pause before making any conclusions and ask: "How many instances of the data actually reflect the average?". 

__References:__
- [THE “AVERAGE MAN”? - Gilbert S Daniels (1952 US Air Force Report)](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0010203)
- [Trends in U.S. Air Force Aircraft Mishap Rates (1950-2018) - Thomas Light, Thomas Hamilton, Spencer Pfeifer](https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA200/RRA257-1/RAND_RRA257-1.pdf) 
- [The End of Average - Todd Rose (2015)](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-end-of-average-9780141980034) 


The average is a myth. Understand the pitfalls of the average and how it can conceal useful information. How the US Air Force threw out the average and saved lives. Use distributions to better understand your data.

How the US Air Force Ditched the "Average" and Saved Lives

![whose_problem_is_it](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7zzVyJsGJgxnmhrfEGmEI7/dc069116327d27b573068efce0725579/whose_problem_is_it.png)
Here are 4 simple questions you can ask to help identify and solve the right problems:
1. [Whose problem is it really?](#1)
2. [What is their problem?](#2)
3. [Where does the problem come from?](#3)
4. [Do we really need to solve it?](#4)

To understand the importance of identifying and solving the right problems, imagine you are in the strategy team of a B2B software company presented with a situation:

> “New free user signups are strong but paid conversion is dropping. Cost of acquisition is being bid up by marketing competition. Our development team is under-resourced and focused on solving existing user retention which is making great headway. The Board is reluctant to expand the marketing budget given the uncertain funding environment.”

__What is to be done about this situation?__

Our first instinct is often to jump directly to solutions, these may include:
1. Promote the benefits of our paid features earlier on
2. Send marketing campaigns to our free users to upgrade
3. Reduce our free user allowance
4. Increase our paid user allowances
5. Introduce referral bonuses
6. Create new features that our users are willing to pay for
7. Target new free user signup channels

__Stop.__

Before jumping to solutions we should begin by asking our 4 simple questions.

## <a name="1"></a>1) Whose Problem is it Really?
Let us look at each of the stakeholders and restate the problem statement based on the situation from their perspective:

| Stakeholder     | Problem       |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Free Users       | How can I get the most value out of the product?       |
| Marketing Team       | How can I achieve my user signup target with the given marketing budget?       |
| Development Team       | How can I keep my engineering resourcing focused on the current roadmap?       |
| CEO       | How can I convince the market that my strategy is working and keep stock high?       |
| Board/ Shareholders       | How can I ensure we have enough funding to get through current uncertainty?       |

By defining the problem owner we can already see markedly different solutions.

## <a name="2"></a>2) What is Their Problem?
Once we have identified who has the problem we can look deeper to what is their true problem (if any). Examples below could include:

| Stakeholder     | Problem     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Free Users       | I don’t want to get locked into paying for something I won’t use       |
| Marketing Team       | The cost of acquisition is getting too high for us to achieve our signup targets       |
| Development Team       | I don’t have sufficient development resources to work on multiple projects       |
| CEO       | Word may get out that our paid conversion is dropping and share price may fall        |
| Board/ Shareholders       | Market conditions are not conducive to raising new funding now       |

## <a name="3"></a>3) Where does the problem come from?
Once we have identified what is the true problem, we need to locate where the problem stems from. Examples below could include:

| Stakeholder     | Problem     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Free Users       | Past bad experiences from having to cancel or request refunds       |
| Marketing Team       | We set too ambitious new user signup targets vs. paid user targets       |
| Development Team       | The projects we are tasked with are often unscoped and variable        |
| CEO       | None. Our strategy is focused on high user engagement and not yet monetisation       |
| Board/ Shareholders       | We want to avoid dilution by not raising money at a lower valuation to fund growth       |

## <a name="4"></a>4) Do we really need to solve it?
Once we have identified who has the problem, what is the problem and located where the problem comes from we are in a final position to ask whether we really need to solve the problem. 

| Stakeholder     | Problem     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Free Users       | Yes. Test and promote a pause payment request to free users within first 12 months       |
| Marketing Team       | Yes. We want marketing focused on identifying new free user channels with lower cost of acquisition (we accept there will always be marketing competition)       |
| Development Team       | No. We want development team focused on retention which is a bigger problem       |
| CEO       | No. We are aligned on strategy       |
| Board/ Shareholders       | No. We are not asking for more marketing funding       |

Next time you are faced with a new problem, before jumping to solutions try to stop and ask yourself these 4 simple questions: 
1. Whose problem is it really? 
2. What is their problem? 
3. Where does the problem come from? 
4. Do we really need to solve it?.

__References__

[Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is](https://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/AYLO.html) by Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg (1982)


Ask: 1) Whose problem is it really? 2) What is their problem? 3) Where does the problem come from? 4) Do we really need to solve the problem?

Howie Mann
Startup & Investing Advice
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How to Target SEO Keywords for Demand Generation - A Content Marketing Playbook

How Much is YouTube Worth? Over US$180bn in 2022

How the US Air Force Ditched the "Average" and Saved Lives

How to Solve the Right Problem - 4 Simple Questions to ask

Howie MannStartup & Investing AdviceAboutArticlesStocks

About me

Recent Articles

How to Target SEO Keywords for Demand Generation - A Content Marketing Playbook

How Much is YouTube Worth? Over US$180bn in 2022

How the US Air Force Ditched the "Average" and Saved Lives

How to Solve the Right Problem - 4 Simple Questions to ask

Howie Mann
Startup & Investing Advice
About Articles Stocks