Hey toy hackers welcome to this week’s Episode in this week we are going to be Talking about our editorial process and How it has changed with the advent of Search intent because search intent has Changed the way a lot of people need to Create content and it’s been a bit of a Debate and you’ve probably heard me rant Quite a lot about it and the fact that You know you need to create copy based Content to actually rank well it’s not Exactly the truth we have been able to Kind of work around it and find ways to You know be better do better with our Content while at the same time using Search intent to be sure our content is Going to rank really high so if you want To create content that ranks high on Google very very often i can’t tell you Every time because that’s not how seo Works but very often This is going to be useful i also Recommend if you have freelance writers If you have full-time writers to give Them this podcast episode to listen Because one it boosts our downloads and Makes me happy and two they will Probably be able to pick a bunch of tips To actually do better content for your Sites so i’m not going to tease you more And let’s get started [Music] Hey everyone welcome to the atari hacker Podcast as you can hear in my voice i’m
A little bit more energetic than usual On the podcast mostly because usually we Recall this at night and i’m quite tired To be honest i had a whole day of work And today we are actually traveling Tomorrow to portugal with mark to do our Quarterly planning and do a bunch of Stuff and therefore we are kind of Catching up on podcasts and we’re Calling in the morning so i’m pretty Excited for that one but mostly because It’s the morning and because i get to Ask mark how it’s going again and i is Probably the best part of my week and I’ve been doing it like two or three Times this week because we’ve recorded a Pretty local podcast so mark for the Ends times this week How’s it going still going good i have Two interesting updates to to give so This wall behind you um it’s gonna Probably look a different color next Time you uh you see me on the the show Because it’s getting Uh i’m getting the plaster in and some Paint i just got some paint mixed Yesterday so it’s it’s still going to be Super plain i haven’t bought any Decorations i haven’t got a pink Flamingo for myself yet but i promise You something Maybe not a pink flamingo but something Along those lines Will be making an appearance
Over there sometime soon Your background is like british cuisine You know very plain the second thing i Have i Want to say is for anyone who’s really Confused about why we’re doing or Quarterly planning in mid-february we Don’t run normal quarters we run over Like halfway through the quarter just For reasons so yeah Yeah because it’s cheaper because all The corporate uh corporations look at The right dates and we just booked uh It’s really we just started doing it one Mid-november once and then decided all Right well we just better do every three Months so Yeah well it’s fine it’s like i’m just Excited to go to portugal to be honest Uh that’s gonna be exciting uh but yeah Actually you gotta tell people the truth About your background really it’s a Green screen and you have like all Golden house behind it and then you just Put a plane back that’s where all my Sports cars live you know yeah exactly Just to not not brag uh we went through Extensive technical changes just for That so that you put that it’s just a Jpeg really uh anyway let’s talk about The pa today’s podcast and today’s Podcast is going to be breaking down our Editorial process and i think it’s uh We’ve done that in the past but um that
Was before such intent was so big that Was before a lot of things changed and Overall we have personally progressed And figured new stuff out etc so i Thought it would be an interesting one To anyone who is Really producing content on their site And uh and we’re just going to make a Sequencer podcast again so we’re going To be step one step two step three et Cetera And share kind of like practical tips For each one and how we do things uh and Actually it’s like i was pleased because I have several examples of like youtube Videos that kind of fit in that process That i’ve done i’m like oh finally i Start to have actually a little bit of a Youtube backlog of stuff i’ve put there That people can go check for more Details so i will be quoting them in Time um but i think you wanted to start With what has changed in content yeah so Just a few years ago you could produce Let’s say like a decent article Uh that was unique and you could kind of Brute force your way to the top of the Serps with a Good seo and a lot of link building but That’s kind of changed over the last Couple years with the advent of of Search intent so if you Google any Popular commercial or even info query
These days You tend to find that a lot of the Results are are pretty similar they have A similar structure and this is Especially true for Any affiliate reviews or roundup reviews Um so what’s going on here like is Everyone just producing the same thing How do we stand out um and and how do we Make content in such a way that we’re Actually going to be able to to rank so There’s a lot of nuance to it and it’s Not just oh pick a keyword write about It and post it anymore which it kind of Was not so long ago so that’s what Today’s podcast i guess is all about It’s like the nuance behind every step Of that so we’ve we’ve made this into uh An 11-step process Um and yeah sounds like uh like a conv Like uh some kind of weird sector Something like an 11 step plan to lose Weight or something like it well that’s Pretty much that that’s what 11 steps 11 Steps to rank number one on google guys Let’s get started let’s just uh bring The hype up um but yeah it’s our answer To search intent and it’s kind of like It’s been a while now it’s been refined I i you know it’s like people often like I read discussions on reddit and stuff And people are like oh they’re quite Slow to adapt etc well we’re not Necessarily slow to
Do these things but we’re slow to talk About them because we like to have some Experience behind us like the process We’re going to talk about has produced Hundreds of articles now and even Probably like getting to the thousands And it’s like it’s it’s like We are confident in it and i don’t like Talking about something i’ve been doing For a week or two weeks And so that’s why Often it takes time for us to talk about These things because we You know refine them explore things Observe what people do talk to people And eventually we talk about it when We’re like okay that’s that’s pretty Good um and so let’s get started with The first step and the first step when You create content is to not start Writing the first step is to Uh Google the keywords keyword slash Keywords that you want to rank for And the first thing to do is understand The high level of the search intent Which is understand what format of Article google is looking for really if You don’t match the format of article Google wants for a query It’s still possible to rank but it’s Very rare like you find 80 Plus of the result of any keyword will Have the same format whether it’s a
Lease post a step-by-step post a recipe A review Whatever it is a random preview At least That kind of stuff it it you will have To merge the format otherwise you’re Really reducing your chances massively It doesn’t mean you can’t rank but it’s Much much lower so sometimes for very Low competition keywords where not Less than 10 people actually targeted it With a specific Post you will see a list post uh a Longer question post type format and it Will vary a bit more but That’s when there’s nothing else that Fits perfectly so if you’re in that Situation look for the Uh the articles or the the pages which Are Specifically targeting that keyword They’ve got it in the title that’s what The content’s about and then Yeah another thing that i like to do uh I mean first of all when you when you Google that query you kind of want to Like click on most results and identify The best pages so like Usually it’s kind of a subjective thing It’s like which one is actually like Answering the query the best and do i Like the most and would i be happy to Find if i was searching for that topic Um and that’s how you pick the computers
To model after you first pick Uh like the pages that just do the best Job at being an answer to a query but Also what i like to do is i like to look At the domain metrics so i tend to have The ahrefs extension when i google stuff So you see all the hs metrics in google And I’m looking for the pages that have the Lowest domain metrics so both uh lowest Link metrics both on the domain level so The dr should be like what is the lowest Dr that’s ranking top five for example And also on the page level right which Which pages have like low ish domain Rating and not too many links and are Still ranking quite well because what It’s telling me is that this page is not Ranking because of all the links that Page has it’s ranking because google Likes what’s on the page and since i’m Here to create content i want to match The people who do the best job at that And so like yeah when i pick the pages i Want to model after i pick the pages That i subjectively believe are doing The best job Combined with the pages with the lowest Link metrics both on the domain level And on the page level and so that you Kind of like make a selection of like Three four pages And you just like take note of these Urls and they are going to be kind of
Like your north star for the content you Want to create and your goal is going to Be Not to just copy them but to do Something better than them um but to to To To match them to them after the oh i’ll Do them you first need to make sure you Take the best out of each page and That’s what we’re going to be attempting To do here uh during that step i also Like to consolidate my keyword selection So uh what i mean is that very like a Given page doesn’t just rank for one Keyword and that’s it a page is ranked For hundreds of keyword and google kind Of like Matches keywords together so for example If you google Best vacuum cleaner and you google easy To use vacuum cleaner you will find that Actually the best vacuum cleaner page is Ranked for easy to use vacuum cleaner Right and it’s like you don’t need to Create two pages you can target this Query with the same page these two Queries with the same page and so i like To get to kind of like write down the Spectrum of keywords i can target with The one page of content that i’m going To create there’s two reasons for that The first one is you get to Let’s say you’re trying to rank for best Vacuum cleaner for example it’s a very
Hard query to rank for you’re unlikely To rank for it at the beginning but easy To use vacuum cleaner might be a lot Easier to rank for so you might want to Optimize your content for easy to use Vacuum cleaner you know build authority Build something to it because there’s no Way you’re running for best vacuum Cleaner without links to page uh and Then eventually when uh when the page Has enough authority switch it to best Vacuum cleaner and keep both keys Basically and so like i like to to Understand that and kind of like have a Strategy for my page maybe the easy Keyword to bring for it had a visit at The beginning and eventually transition And pivot to the more difficult keywords That would bring more traffic and make Me more money so that’s That’s the time where i’m thinking about This as i’m looking at these things Are trying to understand like what Percentage of pages rank for easy to use Vacuum cleaner that rank for best vacuum Cleaner how related are the queries that Kind of stuff and and decide overpass Basically so that’s That’s the first step of creating Content it doesn’t sound like you’re Creating much content but that’s really Uh that understanding in your head is Very important it’s really important to Do that
Up front because it makes the next part Um so much easier as well because Once we’ve done that analysis we’re then Going to map out Every article that we’re we’ve chosen as Part of our comparison and we’re going To put it into Gail likes to use a google sheet um and Then we’re going to say like a specific Thing to me using google sheets Well Well it’s good because you have all These columns right and you can compare The structure of the r so you take all The h2s maybe some of the h3s as well Depending on all the important sections And you label them And because different articles have Different names for sections you might Have like a buying guide or a how to Pick a vacuum cleaner or whatever it is What you can do is you can actually Color code in excel those different Sections so you can see okay this one Has the buying guide at the top this one Has a buying guide down here but they Both have it or all of these articles Have it but this one doesn’t And you really build up a visual picture Of the structure of each article and Then you can look at the whole Sheet and then say okay what are the Important sections which i must have Which is likely to be the sections which
Appear in multiple or all of the Um the articles i mean one wants them Right if all the pages that rank have Them it’s like if you don’t have this You probably won’t rank so you should Have them and then occasionally you’ll See one article which is just you feels Doing a really good job because they’ve Had this extra section like oh that’s a Good idea and then you can take that and You can uh include that in yours as well Uh so it really just gives you an Overview of everything uh to put in and It makes it easy for you to to select Which sections you want to do now Once you once you have an i just want to Say i did a youtube video where i show An example of that uh in this revival Content so we’ll put a link And you guys can check but uh there’s You can see an example of the exact Spreadsheet in one of these videos and I’m pretty sure the case study page i Took now ranks top three on google Actually in that video so it shows you It works basically so what we want to do Is we want to take the best bits uh the Most common bits and anything that you Think is missing that would make an even Better article And then we want to put that into an Initial structure and what we use for That is a tool called dynalist which is Basically just a bullet point tool you
Can’t do anything except make bullet Points indent them and stuff and that Forces you to Not turn it in or not start writing uh And you can kind of move things around Very easily just it’s a free tool as Well so uh check that out it’s also Featured in that video Uh so that’s that’s kind of what we’re Using that the goal for that section is To create that initial dynalist Structure of what our article is going To look like that’s all we have to do we Don’t have to figure out the detail or Anything that that comes next and it’s Just the h2s and h3s you don’t really go Deeper yet um and uh what i like about This is like because you’re taking like Three to five inspiration websites You’re not just a cop a carbon copy of Like one article which a lot of people Do right you just you find in this Website people just find one article and It’s just lazy and just copy that one The fact that you take multiple Inspirations kind of help you develop Something a bit unique you take that Beat from the article that other bit From this article that was cool mixed With like the sections they all have in Common so that you match your search Intent and you’re able to come with Something that’s a little more refined Than just like picking a random article
And just copy pasting exactly what they Did which a lot of people do it works to Some extent but i think you’re kind of Missing yeah first of all i wouldn’t Feel good running out of sights that way Like i don’t i don’t like the idea of Just copying someone directly exactly um But at the same time you’ve got to Understand that if google is looking for These sections you need to have them so Yeah and that is overall you get better Content you know that is ultimately what Development is and what um You know there’s not someone said once There’s no such thing as a new idea it’s Just things built on other ideas so That’s what you’re doing here you’re Taking what’s working you’re taking what You know is going to match the search Intent what google is telling you uh They want and then you’re making Something better and that’s the thing Make it better don’t just do the same Because if you try and imitate you’re Not you make it better but you don’t Start from scratch as well it’s kind of Like that hybrid thing where it’s like You are uh conscient of what is needed And you’re understanding that google Will reward articles that are structured That way but you try to go a bit deeper And that’s kind of the point of the next Step actually which is uh that’s when You’re going to like spend more time
Reading the articles etc but the point Is going to take each subheading that You’ve put in your dynalist And research it as if it was its own Article almost but in still Be conscious of like what the whole Article is um and that’s when you can go A little bit deeper than uh just copying What people have done you can actually Research these topics on like youtube Videos you can go on reddit and see what People say you can read uh if you’re Talking about products and doing product Reviews i go and read the reviews on Amazon for the products and like see What people say about it do they like it And not like it and you’ll find a lot of Points that are not mentioned On the articles that are ranking on Google And it’s kind of like that thing where You create value by adding new Information while still matching the Search intense structure that is Expected and that’s how you bring Originality to content these days while Being constrained by google in terms of Subtopics and all that stuff etc that’s This phase of research so and usually When you do that research you go back to Your dynalist where you only had your Headline structure And you add the points you want i tend To for each point i want to make in the
Article for each subsection i make a Point in dino it’s usually like five six Words maybe a link or something like This uh just so that when i’m going to Be writing my article i can refer to These things and i think You know like a lot of people complained About having fluffy content That’s because this phase is not done Right if you have done this phase right And you have like Four or five bullet points per Subheading on your article so your Dental is pretty big i think we can Probably show some examples on screen as We’re talking about this um You and then you will just write like a Couple of sentences per like two three Four sentences per bullet point then That’s your article you know and it’s Like this article is full Fully packed with facts and it’s not Fluffy uh It’s not just repeating the same thing All again again and that’s this face Like actually you know i really want People who have editorial teams to give This podcast to their uh writers so if You’re like go ahead give this podcast To your writers and and and focu tell Them to focus on that because if you’re Struggling with fluffy content that is This section here and the way you build Your dynalist that is the reason why you
Have fluffy content so uh that’s how do And go past the subs so that you create Something a bit more original while Being very likely to rank so i i think The key thing with the research phase Specifically is is giving people one Goal to to focus on and that’s really to To just like dump in all of the thoughts And all the cool things you you find Then you can have a separate Phase after that where you sort of tweak And finalize the the full structure and You don’t when you’re doing all this Research you really just want to be like Throwing it in there and then yeah i Think later come come come through and Organize it and that would be the the Sort of like full structure phase where You get all your h2 three four five if You’re if you’re using them you have Every point you want to make Uh in a bullet point it could be messy You’re not writing at this phase yet but You have every point you want to make Under every heading um and then you go Even further in any extra resource you Want any quotes any stats and if you Need to link to someone say this person Says this or according to users they had This problem with the battery or Something like that get those quotes get Those links get those references uh Graphics as well if you’re thinking of Getting uh anything anything made up
Specifically for the article like Illustrations uh we’re a big fan of uh Going old school on this so Literally a pen and paper yeah remember Those take a photo of it uh just sketch Something out and honestly like we’re Terrible at this we draw like stick man And pointing i’ll give examples to maxim As well to put on the podcast because It’s like uh it’s pretty funny someone Might so maybe maybe he can like the Magic of video editing we can have like A before and an after yeah and uh we can Sort of comp compare them that way i and And you can see but it’s important to Start thinking about these things at This stage um because that can take a Little bit of time to to produce as well And it can be really important to Illustrate certain points yeah and you Know when you do it in dentalist you can Drag and drop things all around all the Time so it’s like don’t worry about Dumping something in the wrong place and Then once you’re done with your research Phase you probably have this Reorganization phase where you just like Move things around maybe oh this heading Would be better here etc now that you Have the information that’s the time When uh When you can do that um so don’t worry About dumping first and then organizing After that’s pretty much that research
Phase uh before you jump into the right Thing and it says writing it it’s quite Normal during the when you’re doing the Full structure that you’re questioning You’re You’re questioning you’re very existing Is this really the right way to do it Wouldn’t it make better doing it this Way and you go back and forth and back And forth having those Debates with yourself or with your team While you’re doing the structure um We’ll just make the the writing phase So easy and so painless like all the Hard work is up until this point so when We get to the actual writing phase Normally how writers do it is they just This is when they do all the research They start writing and think oh i need To find out about like the battery life Of this cordless vacuum cleaner so i’ll Go research that but because you’ve done It all before you have all the Information all that data everything you Want to quote you’ve even got your Images starting to be be made you Literally just fill in the blanks and And start writing and it’s another thing As well is if you researched your Subheadings and not your main topic it Makes your article more precise so for Example like as i said if you mention The battery life you’re really digging Into a battery life and like thinking
Like oh how big is the capacity of the Battery how many watts per hour can the Bat can can the battery take when it Charges does it charge slow does it Charge fast like you’re not asking the Question of like you know i don’t know Let’s say it was a drone review and like Let’s say you were reviewing a dj mavic Air 2 or something so it’s like uh You’re not really asking the question Like is this a good drone you’re asking Like what is the battery life like how Long does it take to charge and that’s Because most people when they research They just research my weekend to review And then it’s like the battery life is Such a small topic and it’s that most People just kind of brushed over you’re Not going to get a lot of information But if you kind of change your Perspective of your research on just That subheading as if it was it’s an Article you’re going to dig out a lot More interesting facts and that’s what Will make your article stand out Actually so uh yeah have that opinion Like diverge away from your main topic To your subheadings as if they were Single articles The order of Writing your article is also very Important uh so basically do your intro Last start start after your intro Finishes and just start starting the
Body go through it you should probably Be writing a couple two three sentences Per bullet point or per per point that You have on your in your on your Dynalist and You know depends on your style we’re big Advocates of very short paragraphs uh Gail sometimes does like you know two Word paragraphs if you’ve read any of His uh emails you can go to Authorityhacker.com for it i subscribe To get those every week Um but in terms of blog posts we we Really do write very very um short Succinct sentences and it’s a paragraph Sorry and it’s fine to have single Sentence paragraphs and several of them In a row even if you keep one point per Paragraph um that’s this makes it easier To read as well um And and that’s really it there’s not too Much complexity around the the body Because you’ve done all this work before When it comes to the outro uh and the Intro we’ll get to it as well these are Two point areas which people Often Fail at because they even if they write A really good article and the intro Sucks and the outro sucks it kind of Kills it the biggest problem that people Have is they they make it too long they Write 100 words or 150 words and they’re Kind of repeating themselves
Or especially when it comes to the intro It’s just super fluffy and Yeah you know just You can you can look at it and you think Yeah this is just another like Half-assed seo article that you know why Why am i going to read this especially In these days where people i people have Such short attention spans You don’t need to be around the boost Too much when it comes to the outro just Wrap up really quickly briefly summarize What you want to do and have a cta in There It doesn’t matter if it’s an affiliate Article then obviously you’re going to Link to the the product it was an info Article and they finished reading what Are they supposed to do next Most likely you have another info Article or a another article that you oh Obtained to your list out into your Email list Yeah or if you sell products then you Know maybe Push them towards that as well um but Don’t don’t just finish it off and say Oh thanks for reading goodbye you want To keep them you’ve earned their Attention you want to keep them on your Site uh take them to Another page And uh and and think of that now when it Comes to intros we have slightly
Differing opinions about this sometimes Uh so do you want to explain your your Thoughts on this uh first Yeah i mean uh for me it’s like uh the Way i write intros really comes from my The way i went through school like i Feel like nice so like it’s flashing Back and like The the image becomes black and white And everything It’s like but we used to write a lot Like french education system makes you Write a lot like we were we were having Like four hour dissertations to write on Saturday mornings and stuff like it was Like pretty intense but like The way the way they forced us to write Intros oh you would not Pass was Write a problematic so a problematic Would be defining the problem you want To answer in your article so for example Is a dji mavic air 2 Worth your money or can you put the same Amount of money somewhere else uh what Are shortcoming And Why is it shining over the competition Like you define the questions you want To ask In your introduction so that there’s a There’s a How do you how would they say there’s Like uh there’s a goal to your article
Right if i answer these questions it’s Pretty good and usually you would Also um before you expose your Problematic you would go you would start The very beginning of your intro Either quoting a statistic so for Example be like well dji is the biggest Drone manufacturer in the world they Actually have sold over six million Drones just in the past quarter and Everyone’s just like fighting to get Theirs they’re actually out of stock now The new dji mavic air 2 just came out is It what is it the worst successor of the Previous dj and mavic air does it fix The shortcomings and has the competition Heated up and caught up with them or is Dji still the king of the industry that Would be something like i would write Like this you could either do that or You could start if you don’t have styles You can start with a short personal Story uh Around that or so it’d be maybe like uh Ah when the first dj maybe came out i Was very excited because it was much Smaller than the previous phantom 4 that Was really big and heavy and you did a Whole backpack whereas this would fit in Your pocket but i never ended up using It because this and this and this the Dji mavic air 2 just came out and It has this feature in this feature that Addresses my issue is it now i was it
Drone for everyone to buy or is it still A very enthusiastic market that is Trying to go mainstream and then that Would be my interest something so that Like you can you basically always ask a Question and you start either with a Stat or with a short personal story that Makes people interested uh or all makes People react i think i think the the Power in that is that you’re you’re Making it more about you the author and People follow people people like to to Hear what people have to say rather than Just this like generic faceless review On a some unknown unknown third-party Website um what i like to do that’s Slightly different Is to actually answer the question Straight away so is it is it good yes or No and and briefly in one sentence say Why so the dji mavic is a great drone Because it has a 30 minute battery life Which is 20 30 more than this closest competitor for Half the price or i’m just making that Up but whatever it is say something like That it’s it’s a lot easier to do that In commercial content though than than Info content sometimes Um but i like to do that because i’m a Skim reader so i don’t read everything Word for word when i’m reading a 2 000 Word review i look for the key like the The juicy points like what are the the
Things i want to i get out of it i i Scroll like sometimes go up and down and You know my my attention is caught by All the bullet points and images and Headings and stuff so that’s how i Consume content and a lot of people are The same so that’s why i like to start It off by giving the answer and it also Gives you in commercial content the Opportunity to Link to the the product as well and Sometimes people will be like this is a Great product because this here’s the Link click buy okay you can make your Your commission on that i agree i agree On that it’s funny actually one thing That’s revealing is actually the way You’re describing is the way you’re Taught to write in the anglo-saxon Culture and the way i’m describing is The way we talk to right in the french Sculpture because Anglo-saxon french originally like Doesn’t that word like Probably it might be The saxons were from france and they Came to england yeah yeah but then they Invaded each other a million times and It was just like But anyway like i switched from the French education system to the to the American one when i did my uh studies uh In university and so the way we had to Write i had to how to swap to the way
You’re describing um the way i counter That uh is that i make my subheadings Answer like you can read the article With just reading the sub headings i Think a really good example of that work On subheadings is actually the Authorized system sales page you can go Check on autoecho.com system you can Pretty much read the sales page without Reading any of the small content just Reading the headlines and understand What’s going on here um so i kind of Like counter that More open-ended intros that don’t give You the answer with the fact that you Can just scroll down and read the Headlines and just kind of get your Answer like you know i’d be like Mavic air to uh mavic air 2 has 28 minute battery life was like a beats The competition by 10 minutes a bachelor Of vision like something like this so That you don’t have to read the whole Section below you can just get your Answers through that um but it’s i don’t Think there’s a right or wrong way i Think it just depends on uh it depends How talented you are at executing them i Believe uh both ways can work but you Need to do it well so for example a Problem we have is i try to tell some of Our writers sometimes to do the personal Stories thing but they go way too far You know like when i write personal
Story it’s like Three four lines you know it’s really Really short and then i just jump into My topic otherwise it’s like story of my Life not really the article you know Um and writers tend to like literally Write like a whole like two paragraphs Of like a whole story it’s like i’m like Well you’ve lost me i came for this page About this and now you’re just telling Me that story about your grandma and i Don’t really care you know and it’s like So it’s like you’ve got a you’ve got to Know how to do it uh really well i think One one that is pretty good is the site Architecture on the otohacker I give these examples on to hacker Because i wrote them you know um but Like the site architecture intro Yeah We’ll link it here yeah i think we can Even show it but like literally the the Personal story Is one two three four five six seven Eight nine it’s ten words right it just Says Poor website architecture is like a Messy desktop it’s unbearable and i put A screenshot of like a horrible desktop With millions of images and files etc um Um and then i say but you shouldn’t try To organize your seo structure for me You should do it for your rankings and I’ll just show the rankings going up on
The site that we fixed basically um and It’s like That is how short you can make a Personal story it’s like you you start With something that’s completely Unrelated a messy desktop but like it’s Just i make the analogy with the messy Side structure and i jump back right in The topic right away like i don’t spend Too much time Telling people why messy desktops are Annoying etc i’m just using an image to Illustrate people get it and then just Let’s get on to the topic so you can do These things but it’s all about Execution i think this one is like one Of the most brief versions of that you Know okay i think we should move on to Editing because we could probably do a Whole podcast on Article intros if we really really Wanted to and maybe we will at some Point in the future uh but to get Through the rest of the points the next Section is editing and there’s really Two types of editing There’s the the technical spelling and Grammar type editing which I mean to be honest you you can do a lot Or you’ll get a lot just typing in Google docs or word like the spell Checker yeah we’ll pick stuff up But But there are better tools uh like
Hemingway app and grammarly which Address Things which that’s not going to pick up Such as Is it easy to read is a sentence way too Long we see a lot of You um like university college graduates Who have been writing longer Dissertations In a more academic way when they come to Write for the web Their writing their sentence structure Is way too long you stick it in Hemingway app and it’s all red and Yellow and the sentences are too long so They need to learn to shorten the Sentences if you have more than one Comma in a sentence Really think is this is this necessary Can this be be two sentences can this Even be more more paragraphs um i know You’ve been using grammarly a lot um To fix certain things what do you like Most about it Um i like that it’s not just about Fixing grammar it’s like um it Identifies sentences that are too long It fixes like proper coma issues Uh it identifies when you repeat the Same words all the time which like for Non-native speakers is very common it Like proposes synonyms for example to Make the to make the Vocabulary more rich
You can do the settings like you can say Like usually i always set it to like Casual and like the lowest level of Reading pretty much and it really helps Me like Break down sentences like long sentences Into multiple sentences etc it’s Expensive i mean it’s 144 dollars per Year What’s the difference between the free Version and the paid version then so the Free version is basically a glory filed Spell checker from microsoft what you Know and then uh Grammarly premium literally has like Pretty much ai writing in there right so You can it rewrites your sentences as Well for you quite often so quite often I click on the suggestion And i literally have rewritten the Sentence for me broken it down multi in Two sentences etc and i just click Accept and it’s done you know um it Saves me a lot of time like it makes the Editing fast like let’s say i’m like Putting a newsletter into that like it’s Only a five minute process to go through Like eight nine Hundred a thousand words or something um And uh and yeah it’s pretty good the Only there’s two things that are Annoying i mean first thing the premium Also has uh the duplicate checker so you Can check for plagiarism if your writers
Give you copy-pasted content which can Happen Quite nice and it works just as well as Copyscape so it’s like you know if you Were already spending money on a Duplicate checker tool maybe you can Allocate that budget to grammarly and Then it’s not as bad the price um But uh the problem is that Most functions do not work They don’t all work with the chrome Plug-in so there’s a chrome plug-in and You can edit your your stuff in like Google docs for example if you’re Writing and get grammarly suggestions Right there but they don’t have as many As if you go in the app so you also need To like if you want the full power of The application you need to copy your Content from google docs put it in Grammarly then you get the full Suggestion and bring it back to google Docs And that’s a little annoying i really Wish the chrome extension did everything And that would be uh totally worth it But if you’re not native speaker and you Want to create your own content i think It’s a it’s it’s like I’ll go as far as saying this is uh this Is Almost like an ai Writing tool like it’s becoming that i Can see grammar is going to become
Like a jarvis one day you know like this Is the direction of the company and it’s Like there’s already a little bit of That i’m not or jasper’s or they’re Going back To changing their name for the third Time I mean that eight three months is going To be another name so it’s like it’s Going to be updated first this podcast Um but yeah overall uh i really really Like it i don’t think it’s cheap i wish I think 99 a year would be fair this is A little bit expensive i think i think But i wouldn’t i wouldn’t work without It if you can afford it it’s pretty good One other strategy you can use for for The technical editing side is just to Read your article but speak it aloud Often when you’re reading things uh you You read what you want to see there and You can miss things which are missing or Again when you have these situations Where you’re saying this the the start Of two sentences is the same or there’s A lot of word repetition um you’ll pick Those up much Much quicker if you’re speaking the Article so that can be a good strategy And it’s free as well The other type of editing editing you Have is the more sort of subjective Editing so you want to Look through it and
Really ask yourself does this Communicate well to the typical person Searching for this so you have to put Yourself in the mindset of someone who’s Searching for How long does a dji mavic battery last For And you what do they know what do they Not know and then look to see if your Article presumes the right things Because if you start your article by Saying a dji mavic is a drone that does Xyz i mean they already know that stuff So you really have to be careful that You’re not preaching to the choir here And telling them telling them What they already know Yeah and you need to go a little bit in The details like if i read a review that Talks about battery life i expect them To talk about uh weather conditions Uh whether that’s the wind the Temperatures or matters a lot for Batteries as people who have electric Vehicles probably know things like that Like um and you know altitude things Like that because the air gets thinner As you get higher so the battery needs Like yeah you would expect that it goes To that level of detail if you’re Actually someone who is interested in That topic and I’ll be honest most articles don’t and So that’s one of these things that you
Can go and pick up like on reddit or Youtube videos often do a better job at Talking about these very precise things So that that’s your research like that’s Going back to your research and that’s How you go the extra mile that’s how you Make better content than everyone while Matching search intent like it’s i’ve Often been complaining about that but That’s how you do this you know i think So reddit is great because people just Give their unfiltered opinion and you You get the you get to the meat and Bones of a topic youtube is also good Sometimes because the editorial barrier And the effort people put in to create Content for youtube is much higher than It is on social media or writing writing A blog post and typically people will Get torn apart if they’re speaking Whereas that doesn’t really happen on Blog posts to the same extent yeah so You can often not always but often rely On the content better for the comments On the youtube videos as well Like if you don’t find discussions about Topics comments on youtube are one of The most active community online like i Would say it’s probably first or second There’s a lot of in there but you Know there are some you can do some Stuff yeah exactly like you obviously Need to go through this but that’s That’s the research phase basically uh
Okay so once you’ve done the editing Where we can talk about surfer and kind Of like on-page tools now i think it’s Kind of the time um we use software seo We use the content editor and we use the Chrome plugin with it so we write in Google docs and we see the suggestions On the right we suffer telling us the Keys and usually you kind of like you Know as you write you kind of like check On the right it is like a filtering Function if you’re writing something Specific and you add your keyboards as You go and try to go as high as you Possibly can right That’s usually how we do that i actually Made another youtube video as i said i Have several i can mention in this Podcast i’m creating the perfect seo Editor so i’ll mention how we use it a Little bit deeper there But i that’s how we use this tool we use Server but you could be using phrase for Example it’s pretty good and a few Others like it surfer is not the only One in town anymore uh that’s how we do That and then after that we do the i Started on writing we moved things to The editing so that’s when we copy paste In grammarly do all these things etc and I bring it back to google doc quite Often and then we do kind of like one Last layer of checking that we didn’t De-optimize the article as we did the
Editing uh and then that’s pretty much How we use on-page tools here and then We make sure we are i mean people will Want me to give a score usually we make Sure our articles are above 66 so kind Of like in the green for surfer I know a lot of people are obsessed over Getting like the 100 score or 90 et Cetera like it’s quite often now Articles get to like 75.80 but Like these tools are not google i i want To say like a lot of writers focus on That as well And it’s kind of like host metrics like Hr dr is not google as well and google Is much more sophisticated than all of These tools these are merely guidelines And so like as long as you’re kind of in The green you are good you don’t need to Obsess Over being the perfect score you will Probably not rank higher you’re better Off creating a second article that is in The green as well than obsessing over Making that one article perfect just Throw it in there publish it see where You rank and then tweak it after if you Want if you don’t rank as high as you Expected uh but often this is not really Going to be the Deciding factor of whether you’re doing Well or not things like site structure Internal links etc will matter more than You having the perfect score on these
Tools so they’re useful but don’t go Overboard like many people do these days It’s kind of like i’m like yeah dude you Don’t get it like i see a lot of people You know posting the screenshots on the Surface group or something like oh my God 99 etc i’m like yeah that you you Wasted probably diminishing returns yeah Division returns there for sure yeah i i Like it but we use it but You need to take all these tools like They’re all extremely vague data and That’s how you take their guidelines Yeah so the important thing there though Is you surfer a little bit as you’re as You’re writing don’t obsess over there After you’ve done the editing because Remember when you do the editing a lot Of the text is going to change and you May have to like redo certain sections It’s amazing yeah you might end up De-optimizing so that’s why you have a Second Like proper run-through of surfer and Like take it to how far you want it at That point now after we’ve after we’ve Done that we can we can talk about Images if you want so Uh if you’ve been working with an Illustrator or a designer then you know You you probably got them you stick them In the the article at this point it’s Not not a big deal um a lot of the time Though you’ll want to find your own
Images using something like uh Unsplash or pixels which are free stock Image tools uh tools They’re okay Um they’re pretty good that’s okay like For succulents it’s but stock images are Stuck images you know Yeah So back Back in the day Not too long not too long ago Uh people would just fight if they were Doing less posted 10 things they’d stick 10 stock images in there and call it a Day okay we’ve got got some images and Uh you used to find a lot of articles Using the same images and they just Weren’t particularly good and they lose A bit off from each other because They’re all taken in different light Conditions and things like that you can Actually use Uh like image editing tools like canva Or what was the other free one that was Really good um Like you could apply like a filter to it I mean i guess any image editing canva Has a feature you can do that So if you if you apply the same filter To every image you can sometimes make Them look just a little bit more Consistent and it can add this like just Subtle effect to your yeah it’s like Branding of your sizes
Yeah yeah Uh If you want to go i just want to say i Use another tool i use and now i use Pixelmator pro it’s if you have a mac It’s great it’s like it’s 35 euros but for for life you know you Pay once no subscription no no it’s Pretty good it’s like eighty percent of Photoshop but eighty percent easier to Use you know yeah um And uh if you have a mac it’s a it’s a Cool and you don’t want to add another Subscription because i always try to Find alternatives that don’t have Subscriptions for people because like That is kind of like the youtube made Profit drainer is like start again too Many subscriptions Uh yeah pixelmator pro is excellent uh They have a good youtube channel where You can learn how to use it as well And you will probably need to it’s a Little bit less intuitive than canva but Not a lot Uh and Yeah you can actually do better stuff With it so most of the stuff we do i do That and this is also a good time to Think about your headline image or Featured image that you you want to use This is going to be what’s displayed Like in your blog feed or on your home Page or category page where
Wherever That’s being pulled but also When your article is being shared on Social or sometimes at the top of the Article if you if you do it that way it Can simply be a an image from from your Article and you can write some text on It and um call it a day it doesn’t have To be too too complicated We talked about unsplash and pixels as The free stock image sites you can also Use um paid ones so the deposit photos Which is kind of like the The value option has a lot of images in There absolutely It’s pretty it’s pretty cheap i don’t Think appsumo will run it they just they They have absolutely They have absolutely promotions but They’re not owned by absolutely yeah no No no it’s not but like The the the value way to get stock Images is wait for that one one or two Once or twice promo per year on absolute Buy a bunch of credit yeah and then it’s Like you know it’s like a third of the Price that you would pay normally it’s Like much much cheaper we’ve still got Credits from five years ago or whatever When they yeah because we bought so many Yeah and so like a lot of people uh in The age pro community or like every time This deal comes up they just share it on The group everyone buys a bunch and then
That’s how you get the best value for Stock images and then you it’s a one-off Payment you buy a lot of credits and Yeah you can fill your website with Images and it’s okay like it’s it still Looks like stock photos i would still Recommend deleting them a bit etc but Um as far as uh you know value per Dollar it’s probably one of the best for Paid stock photos And you have shutter stock right which Is like the the high end but to be Honest i don’t think most people Listening to this podcast will use Shutterstock it’s just expensive for Yeah it’s really expensive yeah Uh i would not recommend people do that My recommendation is use the free ones And grab some deposit photos deal when They come up and if you have a mac by Pixelmator pro and then you have zero Subscriptions for your images you just Buy one of craze for the cheapest on Appsumo and use the free ones and edit Them for i mean not for free but for That one time fee like i bought this Tool like five years ago now i’m still Using it and i’m still on it so it’s Like That’s my recommendation in terms of Value for creating your images while Still doing okay basically Um Go ahead uh so the next thing i want to
Talk about is links so there’s two Considerations here internal and External links so When you are You obviously haven’t published the Article yet so you can’t link to it yet Because the url doesn’t exist or it Would it would be a 404 we get we’ll get To that at the end when we publish Article but when you’re creating your Article at this point you want to find Opportunities to link Link out from this article to other Articles on your site so there’s a Couple ways to do that you should Ideally have a target list of top Targets pages that you want to push on Your site and the more internal links To that you can Push to those then the better Aside from that you can Go to google and search for Put it put in In their site colon yourdomain.com and Then just a keyword and that’s just Going to search on your site and it’s Going to find all of the results to do With Batteries or drones or whatever that’s The same don’t search for your main Keyword though search for sub topics That you’re talking about so if you’re Talking about battery life for example Search for that search for battery life
Things like that etc and look for Articles and what i like about that Tactic is that google gives you the Pages they deem the most relevant for This which means Like uh Like you get a layer of the algorithm That tells you which pages should be Linked here more than like a wordpress Search which is absolutely terrible or Something like this Uh Yeah and then the last one i think is The google doc internal link trick so Actually you can google from google docs Which is really powerful you can select A word you want to link and like for Example i’ll be typing auto hacker site Architecture and it will show me Like that page and i can click it it Will add the link actually so that works Pretty well i wanted to say as well About rewriting to add internal links so Very often when i want to push A page i often like i i re-edit my Article to bring up slightly that topic So that i have an opportunity to link or I edit the article to have the exact Anchor text of the keyword i’m trying to Rank the page i’m linking to for so that You boost that page further by giving Extra relevancy but like yeah that’s Uh That’s that’s that’s the how you do your
Item linking um That i don’t want to make like A lot of people use plugins these days To use internal links we don’t actually Like um i mean we tried link crystal It’s okay like if you want to use it It’s fine um But we like to have this kind of like Deliberate Decision of how we internally because i Think sometimes people internal link too Much to not that useful pages and what It does it kind of like Dissolves the page rank across too many Pages doesn’t make as much of an impact So having internal links is good but i Like i like to have that deliberate Intention from the seo person to do that Rather than just automate it with a Plugin but i mean Link crispr works fine if you want to Use it and uh it’s it’s fine but then You would do it later after you Published Not now Upload so uh do you want to do it or Should i do it oh you do this one Okay so if you’re doing simple uploads Very simple articles just like images And text you can even use automated Tools like wordable to to like basically Transfer a google doc to your wordpress Site it works pretty well why is that Better than just copy pasting it
Um Because it uploads the images to the Wall to the media library on wordpress Instead of hot linking to otherwise you Need to re-upload your images because When you copy paste it will link to the Google doc version of the image it will Not upload the image right okay which Means it’s like you did it the google Doc and all your images break um so like It will if you want to save some time You can do that Or you can just copy paste and then Re-upload the images and read it depends How many images you have right it really Depends but gutenberg handles copy paste A lot better than the classic editor so If you are doing that it’s okay um You can add cta styling boxes etc that’s The plan when you do that we use Generatepress for that now on prim on All our sites now that we switch over Hacker uh all our sites are now off page Builders and using that uh you write Your title tag at this point as well so Again you want your main keyword on top I made a whole article on that as well We’ve done data studies on that but you Want a keyword at the beginning uh you Want you might want to like that’s when You know the when you were selecting the Pass of your page maybe you picked a Lower competition keyword at first you Might want to optimize for this one and
We write your title tag later when You’re going to reoptimize for the Bigger one like best vacuum cleaner Uh so vary your title tag write your Meta description Uh write all of that and then uh we do If we are uploading the images ourselves We do image optimization at that point As well So We compress them like even though we’re Using Either bunny optimizer Or nitro pack depending on the sites Which have image optimizations things we Still compress the images to be quite Small using pixelmator pro as well we Use that tool um It’s uh yeah it just has an export for The web and you get you have all the Features and often you can cut the image Size in half or you know something it Looks the same uh it helps a lot uh and Then after that your image optimization System will take over We also have we create a new folder for The media we use a plugin called wp Media folder Which Uh kind of like transform you know the Media ever in wordpress no it’s just Like you throw your stuff in and you Just get a giant list and that’s it well This allows you to create folders etc so
You create one folder per post and it Allows us to keep things organized and Not get too overwhelmed when your site Has thousands and thousands of images Uh and we also rename the images to Match The keywords that we they both either Use the keyword or their descriptive and We write ad tags as well for all of them At that phase so the upload phase has a Pretty decent image optimization Happening at the same time So that’s That’s the upload phase really like it’s Not too bad and then uh to finish off is The the publish phase and i know a lot Of people think this is just click click Publish and it is uh but there’s there’s A few extra things happening at this Point i took five minutes about it There’s a few extra things happening First i want to talk about uh a question We get a lot which is should you Publish in batches or just Throw everything up as soon as it’s Ready And typically we’re in favor of putting Up as soon as it’s ready but what often Happens is we end up publishing like Five articles at the same time just Because as things are coming through our Process when it comes to like the editor Or the seo person um They tend to just batch their work they
Like they’re not doing it as soon as Something comes through they’ll do it Every two three days uh so inevitably They’re they come in small batches but I’m a big proponent of just publishing It as soon as possible even if you’ve Got a new site uh it gets out there Faster and um you know it just gets it To index and age yeah yeah So when you when you hit publish uh First thing go check the actual live Version because often there’ll be some Mistake or something won’t have worked Or some image will have broken and just Go have a visual look read through it And make sure it’s working fine Add it to your rank tracker so whatever You’re using for that add the keyword And any variations you’re targeting to To there so you can keep an eye on it as Well And then this is the point where you Want to do the kind of reverse internal Linking so If there are other pages on your site That you can link from to this one You’ve just published then go and find Those add those internal links at this Point it may give it an extra little Push and you can also add it to your External link target list so if you feel Like you’re gonna need to build some Links to it to to get it moving then This is the point to to start thinking
About that and start doing that there Are kind of two ways to think about this And it depends what How your site’s performing so Typically a site will either be In this position where you publish a Post and then Within a matter of hours or days You figure out where you’re going to Rank it kind of less lets you lose And then for other sites typically Typically newer sites or lower authority Sites you’re pop you’re publishing Something and it can be Six months plus before you seem to even Stand a chance of of ranking of of being Considered Uh so depending on on which mode you’re In will depend on on the kind of Priority of where you want to be Pushing pushing link building um for for That i would say anything else to add on Publishing or is that it no not really The very important stuff is yeah um Submit it in webmaster’s console so it’s Index faster yeah um so like we do that It’s like If your site has enough authority it Should be indexed pretty fast if you are A new site expect to wait a while uh That’s just how google works but um it Just helps sometimes like on sites that Are a bit older and bigger like it will Make you rank significantly earlier uh
By doing this so i would do that as well If you if you have a content promotion Process and you’re big on social and all That obviously this is the point that’s How you do that kick off kick off that Um but you know to be honest we Very rarely do that um just because i Think we should share our content better I think we don’t do a good job on social For that um but also it’s important to Understand that Social sharing drives some traffic but Unless you have really a big following It’s also like not that big of a deal You know for most people who would do Sites the way i think they do uh it Doesn’t matter that much unless you do Pinterest on your big damage it’s also Not as good as it used to be because the Algorithms uh favor you know just Different types of content paid content You share stuff on your facebook page And hardly any of your followers your Organic followers actually see you need To create content for the platforms like Youtube content that will be popular on Facebook et cetera it’s like it’s not Really the same as your seo content That’s targeting an evergreen keyword Yeah so it’s unlikely that this kind of Article will do extremely well on Facebook i mean you know if i show an Article on facebook on some sites we get Like 100 clicks or something great
Um but is it does it really pay the Bills at the end of the month not really Uh and it’s kind of a one-off 100 things So it’s like sometimes we do it we Probably should do it more but i don’t Think it’s a game breaker anymore unless You’re like a big influencer or Something So yeah that’s pretty much our editorial Process post uh Search intent uh it’s like i’m happy we Finally kind of like nailed the way to Add value while still playing around Search internet it was something that Like you know it it’s often feels like It’s just a copy paste game at this Point uh you can go a little bit deeper Than that and i think that this ability To go deeper Over time will become the Thing that makes you stand above the Crowd rank higher et cetera and people Who will have this ability like because Search engine is still pretty new like Like people are just adapting to it but Eventually as it becomes more Competitive i think these little nuances That we try to bring into this podcast Will be what makes the difference Between uh all these samey articles that Are uh treating the same topic so i Would recommend you start implementing This step so uh hopefully when this Becomes more communicative you are in a
Good place and you are not losing your Rankings in traffic etc because i’m Telling you we will hear stories about That when people who have just done Copy-paste articles Start being outpaced by people who try To push it a little bit deeper um so That’s pretty much it for this podcast If you guys enjoyed don’t forget to Subscribe like drop us a comment tell us What you want us to talk about next uh We are off to portugal with mark now i Can’t wait i’m so happy The winter has been long so Thank you for listening and we’ll see You in two weeks for another episode bye [Music] You