Erika Varangouli, Head of SEO Branding at Semrush, explains how she and her team transformed and grew Semrush's organic visibility in three years by applying a 'minimum viable product' strategy to content creation. Follow Erika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varangouli Follow Erika on X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/finderika Sign up for future #SearchNorwich events: https://www.searchnorwich.org/ Thank you to the sponsors of SearchNorwich 13: Search Intelligence: https://search-intelligence.co.uk/ AlsoAsked: https://alsoasked.com/ Matthew Potter Photo and Video: https://www.mpphotovideo.co.uk/ Thank to Fuel Studios for hosting us: https://www.tcnuk.co.uk/fuel-studios

2. Content MVP
How to grow your
organic visibility by
treating content as a
product

3. Erika Varangouli
Head of SEO Branding, Semrush
Yia!
/varangouli
@finderika

4. Content MVP
How to grow your
organic visibility by
treating content as a
product

5. Erika Varangouli
Head of SEO Branding, Semrush
Yia!
/varangouli
@finderika

6. Why content is so important for
organic growth
Content as a product
How I applied the content MVP
framework at Semrush
Results and key takeaways
What I will
talk about
today
1
2
3
4

7. Why is content
so important?

8. 8
Content is what makes or breaks your
online success
● Traffic
● Authority
● Engagement
● Leads and
revenue
● Plus more…

9. 9
Higher Google
rankings =
MUCH more traffic
#1 ranking gets 10x+
the traffic of position
#10, for a single
keyword.
Based on 4M search results

11. 11
Which content succeeds in Search
We recommend that you focus on
creating people-first content to be
successful with Google Search, rather
than search engine-first content made
primarily to gain search engine rankings.
Google Search Central
Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

13. 13
Creating successful content is not easy

15. 15
The solution: Content as a product
1
A defined
audience
2
A need to
be met
3
A value
exchange

16. 16
What is “content MVP”?
The minimum information required in
a piece of content to bring results
after being published.

17. 17
What “content MVP” is not
AI
content
Rehashed
ranking
content

18. Success in Search is not a heist

19. It is continuous, hard effort.
But it doesn’t mean it can’t also be smart.

20. How Content
MVP helped
scale content at
Semrush

21. 21
I joined Semrush in January 2020
I had one job:
Grow our
organic
visibility
through
content.

22. 22
We had to figure out a way to grow.
Fast. Reliably. With limited resources.

23. We started with the blog: Easy to publish
on and suitable for our goals

24. 24
My action plan relied on 4 key elements
1
Keyword
research
2
Content
strategy
3
Templatization
4
Resource
management

25. Keyword
research
Keyword
strategy
Content plan
We pivoted from keyword research to
content planning
Content
strategy
25

26. How to prioritise 300 articles?

27. 27
How to produce quality content at scale?
(Quality standards + Cadence)
/ (Resources + Time) =

28. 28
This is when “content MVP” was born
MVP Content
��

29. 29
5 criteria to qualify as content “MVP”
1.Primary &
secondary
keyword
coverage
2.Table of
contents
3.Semrush tools
& workflows
4.Minimum
quality
5.Added value

30. Results and key
takeaways

31. 31
Content MVP came to life in 3 key stages
Briefing
Writing
Editing

32. This is what a brief looked like

33. 33
We published 291 pieces within the first
12 months
By shifting our
focus to the
things that
mattered.

34. 34
We published 291 pieces within the first
12 months
By shifting our
focus to the
things that
mattered.

35. By the end of 2020: +600% YoY in
monthly organic traffic

36. Growth through content compounds

37. We applied our learnings in 2021

38. 38
Key takeaways
1
Content
MVP ≠ thin
content
2
Research
and planning
are key
3
Clear
standards
and
guidelines
4
Iterate

39. 39
3 thoughts before I leave you…
1
Does content
MVP work in the
era of HCU and
AI-generated
content?
2
Does content
MVP only work
for SaaS or big
brands?
3
How many
iterations after
content MVP #1
do you need?

40. 40
Thank you!