Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The August 19 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

Omnichannel is everywhere and the most pressing point is managing content effectively.

You may do it for a huge company or even for your personal brand...

it's still content.

After years in the game, I am ready to show you 👀

P.S. I've published a new article on Seotistics and more coming this week!

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The Necessity Of Content Management

Content Management is not a trend but a necessity.

We've always been doing that but before it was NOT formalized into a discipline.

The most common problems are:

Updating content over time
Pruning/deleting it
Finding a way to label and archive it
Plan content

Bloggers have done this for a long time and they are quite familiar with the drill.

There is no better way but let's face it, some methods are plain wrong.

We face too much misinformation in Marketing and even more in SEO...

that's why I recommend the omnichannel approach to avoid sticking to one channel.

Content Distribution & Repurposing

The absolute MVP of Content and the best method to get the most out of your content.

Instead of relying on one channel and simply hitting publish, you should do this.

The main issue with the so-called "SEO Content" is that it's perceived as a necessity to rank on Google.

It's true that you need to accept compromises to rank on Google.

The issue is that you restrict your mindset to just one channel.

Airtable can help you draft your content plans/databases.

If you consider content as channel-agnostic, you will get better results.

What changes across channels is the format since every channel has its rules and quirks.

P.S. I will be quick since I always mention it. You need to store content like in the Airtable picture above, I said it everywhere!

Operational Flow

Plan from Day One and evangelize the omnichannel mindset.

The big issue with doing only SEO is that it's often slow or well, not as fast as social media and email.

Content takes some time to rank unless you are working on a domain with good links.

This is why you should pair different channels and test their combinations.

Social (organic) helps SEO because the feedback loop is faster.

Ads have a complementary effect because they push and are super quick.

After the HCU, this has become even more apparent.

An example flow can look like this:

This a detailed example and you can do much less!

Seotistics has a smoother and easier flow consisting of 2-3 channels:

These emails will be eventually converted into a more complete article and the bits will be reused for LinkedIn/X (top-down approach).

The bottom-up approach does the opposite and it's a method I use to get new content ideas.

Content Operations are also referred to as ContentOps and are often displayed like this:

Quite vague but true.

Your operations rely on these 3 components and people are always what make or break it.

Same But Different... But Still Same!

As you may have guessed, posting to multiple platforms without changes is equally BAD.

I've seen many agencies (yep, agencies) post naked URLs on social media and this practice is super wrong!!!

People want to consume content that is suitable for them.

Instagram prefers visual content, TikTok videos and LinkedIn is clearly skewed toward carousels.

The differences between formats affect the success of the distribution process.

They allow for different leverage and exploration.

You can say the same stuff in different formats and achieve completely different results.

This is great, it means you can play around more!

Data + Content

I've talked extensively about using data to assess content, you know.

The basic data you have access to is related to traffic:

Google Search Console
Google Analytics 4
Paid tools (please, don't use them for this lol)

The very basics but still enough to gauge SEO success (kinda).

Adding custom events and dimensions is what makes GA4 more powerful and relevant for your audits.

For those of you who don't recall my flow:

You can apply exactly the same method for any other channel.

The usual recommendation is to also check backlinks and the # of internal links.

After years of experience, I can say I prefer the latter to the former.

Semrush and Ahrefs cost a lot and bad pages don't tend to have links anyway...

Once you have all the data, it's time for some of my usual advice.

Have processes and build systems. The simpler the better.

If you want to get better at using data to drive SEO (and business) value, this course contains it all:

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If you want to be guided and start from scratch, this is the course for you!

It's even more true if you work with content websites.

You will:

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✅ Learn Python/SQL for your needs

✅ Get a complete blueprint for auditing websites

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I teach you what's needed to go from 0 to a professional Data Analyst.

Even if you leave SEO, the foundations are the same for other jobs!

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Measuring Incorrectly

Data is cool but it often gets used incorrectly.

If you read Seotistics, you will notice that most of the mainstream stuff I attack is incomplete or incorrect.

One of them is using likes to gauge the success of social media content.

Engagement is better yes... but you can still make big bucks with a post with 1 like.

Sometimes you just have to accept chaos and focus on the process rather than the outcome.

Attribution, reasoning and all are cool but should NEVER stop you from testing.

Just do it is great advice if you feel stuck.

Knowing Analytics is not enough and you need to understand what you are actually measuring.

Research VS Writing

Should a writer handle research too?

This is one of the most common questions I read online and the answer is... often yes!

A skilled writer should know the niche or be able to research to craft quality content.

In practice, you may want to separate the 2, especially if:

Your topic is extremely niche
It's a small project

I have had contrasting experiences in my life but I prefer separating research from writing.

Still New + There Is More

Outside of the Anglosphere, this topic is Sci-Fi.

I rarely hear about it and it's quite niche.

If you are not operating in an EN market, this may be your chance to start promoting it.

I still see outdated practices being used like only focusing on one channel or measuring only GA4 or GSC data.

I will also tell you 3 things that matter with content but not many people cover:

developing a taste for "content"
understanding planning
estimating costs

They will be discussed in the next issues/articles on Seotistics.

And I didn't even touch all of the topics... there is so much to say on this.

The era of silos has died, it's time to become a little bit more generalists (without becoming generalists).

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