The document outlines an SEO-driven approach to content marketing that focuses on topics over keywords. It details six key learnings: 1) relevant internal and external links fuel organic traffic, 2) backlinks should be from high-quality, relevant sites, 3) social shares did not increase engagement, 4) optimizing historical content around related topics boosted traffic, 5) long-tail keywords contributed significantly to traffic, and 6) dominating an entire topic across multiple types of content led to the best results. The approach emphasizes comprehensively covering topics in optimized site pages and supporting them with long-tail focused posts and links across related internal and external content.

1. Topics Over
Keywords
an SEO-driven approach
to content marketing

2. 0
Hi, I’m @anum.
Beyoncé is my patronus.

3. I work with a team
of incredible
content muggles.

4. This squad was
dedicated to brewing
the perfect recipe for
content magic.

5. We wanted to concoct three potions
that would …

6. We wanted to concoct three potions
that would …
1
Scale production of SEO site pages to fuel organic traffic.

7. Generate a mass of backlinks to help those site pages rank.
We wanted to concoct three potions
that would …
1
2
Scale production of SEO site pages to fuel organic traffic.

8. Increase the social share rate of our weekly blog content.
Generate a mass of backlinks to help those site pages rank.
We wanted to concoct three potions
that would …
1
2
3
Scale production of SEO site pages to fuel organic traffic.

9. Scale
production of
SEO site pages.
1

10. When experimenting with our own
content process, I grew obsessed with
HelpScout’s resources.

11. Each resource is a thorough, ungated,
web page guide.

12. Each resource is a thorough, ungated,
web page guide. This one particularly
caught my attention.

13. Customer Acquisition
Google Search
I’m Feeling Lucky

14. Customer Acquisition
In addressing an entrepreneur's most important early-stage question –
customer acquisition – it's easy to waste a lot of money in the wrong
channels, especially ...
Customer acquisition management - Wikipedia
Customer acquisition management is the set of methodologies and
systems to manage customer prospects and inquiries generated by a
variety of marketing techniques.
Customer Acquisition Strategy for Startups
www.helpscout.net/customer-acquisition/
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Customer_acquisition_management

15. Customer Acquisition
Customer acquisition management - Wikipedia
Customer acquisition management is the set of methodologies and
systems to manage customer prospects and inquiries generated by a
variety of marketing techniques.
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Customer_acquisition_management
In addressing an entrepreneur's most important early-stage question –
customer acquisition – it's easy to waste a lot of money in the wrong
channels, especially ...
Customer Acquisition Strategy for Startups
www.helpscout.net/customer-acquisition/
The HelpScout
guide ranks
ABOVE
Wikipedia.

16. This inspired us to develop our own
playbook for creating what we call
SEO Site Pages.

17. These site pages are comprehensive,
search-optimized guides built around
specific keywords.
EMAIL
ETIQUETTE
FOLLOW
UP EMAIL
EMAIL
TRACKING

18. Each strives to be 10x.
WATCH:
“Why ‘good unique
content’ needs to
die”

19. Of our first 10 Site Pages, five were
ranking in a top ten SERP position.

20. We found that the more links we included on
a page pointing to related, external content,
the higher we ranked.
# EXTERNAL LINKS
SERPIMRESSIONS

21. We also saw a similar correlation when we
linked together our own related content
through internal links.
# INTERNAL LINKS
SERPIMRESSIONS

22. Learnings Log:
q Relevant external & internal links fuel traffic from SERP.

23. Generate a mass
of backlinks to
site pages.
2

24. Of course, ranking in SERP requires far
more than targeting a keyword – we
needed backlinks from external sites.

25. Instead of simply hoping
that other websites would
find and link to our
content, we actively ran
backlinking outreach.

26. This outreach took two key forms.

27. This outreach took two key forms.
Guest blogging to earn a backlink within
the contributed post.

28. This outreach took two key forms.
Guest blogging to earn a backlink within
the contributed post.
Email outreach to earn a backlink
through email requests.

29. We later uncovered that backlinking success
was not dependent on a purely raw number
of links.
Site Page
SERP
Position
# of
Backlinks
Avg.
DA
Email
Etiquette
8 8 71
Networking
Email
12 13 44

30. We later uncovered that backlinking success
was not dependent on a purely raw number
of links.
Site Page
SERP
Position
# of
Backlinks
Avg.
DA
Email
Etiquette
8 8 71
Networking
Email
12 13 44
ß The Email
Etiquette page
has fewer, but
HIGHER QUALITY
links.

31. This “higher quality” link follows a simple
formula.
Relevant
content

32. This “higher quality” link follows a simple
formula.
Relevant
content
The external web page
linking to our site page
is on a similar topic.

33. This “higher quality” link follows a simple
formula.
Relevant
content
Strong
da

34. This “higher quality” link follows a simple
formula.
Relevant
content
Strong
da
The domain authority
of the external website
is 40 or above.

35. This “higher quality” link follows a simple
formula.
Quality
backlink
Relevant
content
Strong
da

36. Learnings Log:
q Relevant external & internal links fuel traffic from SERP.
q Backlinks should be strong in relevancy & DA.

37. Increase social
share rate of
blog content.
3

38. Beyond organic traffic, we wanted to
continually grow our blog readership.

39. We figured …
more
shares

40. We figured …
more
shares
more
exposure

41. We figured …
more
shares
more
exposure
more
readers

42. We figured …
more
shares
more
exposure
more
readers
… but things didn’t play out
exactly as predicted.

43. We found that more social shares was not
resulting in more views of our content.
SOCIAL SHARES
VIEWS

44. We also noticed that more social shares was
not contributing to more conversions.
CONVERSIONS
SOCIAL SHARES

45. Learnings Log:
q Relevant external & internal links fuel traffic from SERP.
q Backlinks should be strong in relevancy & DA.
q Social shares were not generating meaningful results.

46. Despite these learnings, we were still
puzzled.

47. Despite these learnings, we were still
puzzled.
Sure, we got some
things right. But not
enough to explain
how we grew our …

48. Domain authority from 49 to 60.
MAY JUNE JULY AUG

49. Weekly organic sessions 13% W/W.
JUNE JULY AUG SEPT

50. SERP clicks for one keyword over 500%.
Impressions
Clicks
Avg. Position
632.97% 564.53% 8.76%

51. We decided to take a closer look to
uncover the mechanics behind these
success metrics.

52. Let’s quickly review our findings so far.
I. Relevant external & internal links
fuel traffic from SERP.
II. Backlinks should be strong in
relevancy & DA.
III. Social shares were not generating
meaningful results.

53. Fortunately Hermione
uncovered even more
insightful findings.
Cambria Davies

54. Updating historical blog
content with related Site
Page links helped increase
organic traffic for the old
blog post as well as the new
site page.
Finding
IV

55. For example: We
published a post in 2014
that started with little
organic traffic.

56. Into early 2015, it saw a
few spikes in traffic.

57. When we launched a related site
page and linked the two together,
organic traffic spiked again.

58. But this time, traffic stayed
up and continues to grow.

59. Long-tail keywords are
building the mountain
that lifts Site Pages to the
top of Mount SERP.
Finding
V

60. This page ranks #1 in
SERP for “follow up
emails after a meeting.”

61. These are among 1,005
search variations
contributing that traffic.
Long-Tail Terms
12 templates for follow up after a meeting
email to recap meeting details
follow up email request for information
meeting follow up examples
wording for email after meeting
free meeting followup template

62. Our final learning is when everything
magically clicked.

63. Finding
VI
Doubling down on one
topic across all content
(Site Pages, Blog, Guest
Posts, etc.) is where max
growth is achieved.

64. Part of our Site Page brainstorming
involved looking for patterns of
success in historical blog content.

65. We then wove together all the similar-
themed posts to build a 10x site page.

66. So we now had a
comprehensive, designed,
SEO-optimized site page.

67. And a variety of posts on
the same subject across
our blog, guest blogs,
SlideShares, and more.
So we now had a
comprehensive, designed,
SEO-optimized site page.

68. It turns out linking these posts to one
another showed topic authority.

69. In fact, the more links to related content
we had across our site, the better we ranked.
# LINKS
TOTALIMPRESSIONS

70. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.

71. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.
TOPIC A
Step I:
CREATE 10X SITE PAGE
COMPREHENSIVELY
COVERING A TOPIC.

72. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.
TOPIC A
Step II:
CREATE SUPPORTING
CONTENT AROUND
TOPIC’S LONG-TAIL
KEYWORDS.
A
A
A
A

73. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.
TOPIC A
Step III:
LINK ALL THE RELATED
CONTENT TOGETHER –
ON INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL DOMAINS.
A
A
A
A

74. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.
Step IV:
REPEAT ANY TOPIC
OPPORTUNITIES THAT
MATCH YOUR
PRODUCT / BRAND.
TOPIC A
A
A
A
A
TOPIC B
B
B
B
B

75. This has led to a new content process on our
team emphasizing topics over keywords.
Step V:
ANALYZE AND TWEAK
PROCESS TO REFLECT
WHAT IS AND ISN’T
WORKING.
TOPIC A
A
A
A
A
TOPIC B
B
B
B
B

76. Topics over
keywords. That’s our
magic formula.

77. And these insights led us there:
q Relevant external & internal links fuel traffic from SERP.
q Backlinks should be strong in relevancy & DA.
q Social shares were not generating meaningful results.
q Optimize historical content for topic takeover.
q Support primary content with long-tail focused posts.
q Dominate a full topic across the web.

78. Thank You.
deck available:
ANUMHUSSAIN.COM/
PRESENTATIONS/TOPICS-
OVER-KEYWORDS