Content Priority Guides

Content priority guides should go hand in hand with your SEO Plan

When you set out to draft content for your site, you really need to consider the needs of the search engine and the user, cooperatively. As we’ve moved into the modern era, a lot of the conversation has shifted to conversational content. While there is merit to this system, your content still needs to be indexed and serve the search engine in some matter or form. To ensure your content is achieving these goals, you’ll want to start with a priority guide.
What is a content priority guide? It is a visual layout and/or map of how you’ll want to tackle the task of drafting content and what you’ll need in order to get that content to rank. In reality, it can be a super simple guide format and needn’t be more complicated than something like this:

• Main Content – Core message and the information you deem to be most important
• Sub-content – Support content or content that can help you develop what the user needs to know – this should also further the objectives for the SERPs
• User content – this should support your SEO goals, but it is typically focused on the needs and discussion points of users.

We have our own version of this product more heavily visualize at Eightfold. You can view our content development system and take the pieces you need to make your self successful. Content development procedures should be able to leverage products like this to make them more successful.

Where should you use a priority guide?

Pretty much in every aspect of user focused content development. My main process is focused on blog content, but make sure it is SEO worthy! The core element of the blog content should be using the same simple method as above! Create a focus point, draft the sub headers and then create that content as needed. For the aspect of the blog that focus on the SEO, ensure that you are tagging your content appropriately and that meta properly supports it.

Use Google E-A-T in your efforts

Make sure you are considering Google’s own best practices with your priority guide. I look to E-A-T when it comes to their principles and seek to apply those rules whenever possible.
In summary, ensure that you are doing everything in your efforts to create content to ensure that you are making something that works for the search engines. And apply the best practices from Google to ensure that you are doing everything you can to build content up in the eyes of the search engines.