Everyone says you need to do SEO, then they say you need a blog. It gets kind of exhausting.
The old advice used to be that you needed to write blog posts almost daily, really long ones too, and do that consistently for... well forever.
You're the founder of a startup. How in the hell are you supposed to have time for all that?
Not to mention, when you have to write that much, how can you possibly make sure it's unique and helpful in a way that is better than the millions of others doing that?
You don't.
So here are some options for content outside of blog posts which can still help with SEO (and other things!)
Make a podcast
I have this weird feeling that people might overlook this one, cause it kind of feels like bullshit. It has a "jumping on a trend" vibe that I am generally trying to avoid here, but seriously, podcasts work well.
A podcast works on a few different levels:
First, when you properly transcribe it (which you can do with AI and then just edit by hand) it serves as an enormous amount of content that can be used for your content hub we talked about earlier.
On top of that, you can bring in guests and let them do most of the talking. As long as the guest is relevant to your audience, and you can keep things compelling, you can create an incredible number of episodes for less work than you imagine.
On top of all that, it positions you as the expert. Each new expert you bring on, gives you some more credibility.
What about the tech though?
For a podcast to work, I would recommend having at least one good mic. Don't use your laptop or phone mic.
I am not saying you have to go spend thousands on this, either. A cheap usb mic is often still better than whatever your laptop has.
The Rode Podmic is usually pretty affordable for the level of quality you'll get out of it.
That's it. That is all the tech you need. You can easily keep the podcast audio only.
From there, you need a way to edit the audio (if you want, even this can be optional). You can use audacity for free.
Then you need to publish it.
Publishing it technically CAN be done for free, but can be pretty labour-intensive and technical. I would recommend using a service to publish the podcast.
I've used Libsyn a ton to great impact, but I have also heard good things about Podbean. Whichever looks best to you.
Make it interactive
You might remember a time when big visual infographics were all the rage across the internet. Every business was making them.
The idea was that they were compelling and people would link to them - this sort of worked at first, but then something happened:
People would just screenshot them or literally take the image and just post it on social media. No link, no clicks, nothing would come to the business who made it other than potentially some impressions on the tiny logo they put in the corner of the infographic.
They fell out of favour because of that. The idea, though, is sound.
You need to make something that will drive links because people want to share it, but it needs to follow some rules:
It can’t be an image or something that can be easily shared as is. The value needs to be personalized, so each person can only share a link, so others can use it for themselves
It needs to be closely tied to what your business does (no clickbait).
Be unique.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Quizzes
A quiz is interactive and can even have a bit of social sharing built in. If they are well-made, people will happily share their results, which loops in more people who then share it.
It's a good loop, but it only works if the quiz is compelling and unique.
Calculators
Similar to quizzes but slightly less of a loop. A calculator can be a great driver of links, more out of need rather than the want to show off. There are lots of people searching for calculators, and you can be the answer to those searches, but it generally won't create much of a viral loop.
Interactive maps
I share this one often because it has been incredibly successful for me in the past. Similar to a quiz, it can create a very good viral loop.
Create a map visualization of data that can be super useful for reporters. If the data is up-to-date, you can easily point reporters to it on a regular basis when they have a local story specific to your niche.
There are lots of other creative, interactive, tools and games you can make that help create viral loops. The main thing is that they must require interaction, forcing the user to show a link to it rather than pasting a screenshot or image of it.
Templates and other downloadables
We live in a digital world, and often we only think about digital content. The issue is that the first sentence is false: we don't live in a digital world. The vast majority of what we do is set in the real world.
In many industries, there are tons of people that could use help with real world things they do every single day.
I've used this to great effect with some clients in terms of organization templates: sign in sheets, rules templates, meeting room schedules and more.
Sometimes, making a quick template for Word or similar and sharing it on your site can help a ton of people who will search for and download it.
Doesn't hurt if it has your logo on it.
Calendars
I am a big Bluejays fan - meaning I am big and also a Jays fan - and something I do every year is add the Jays schedule to my Google calendar.
It's awesome, with a single click I now know when every single game is and who they are playing against.
I am not alone here - this is incredibly useful for a ton of people.
Making a calendar that can be shared to almost any calendar app is relatively simple.