Are you looking for your next source of content inspiration? Is coming up with an idea for new content always a challenge? It can be, especially for SEO professionals.
Content is king, and it’s a fact that content marketing has been the most effective way to drive traffic and increase conversions. But what does this mean? It means that you need to create great content on your website or blog in order to get more visitors, and ultimately convert them into customers.
But how do you go about creating quality content? How can you make sure that the content you create is high quality, that it brings in traffic, and has the potential to drive readers?
And this is one of the most important aspects of your online marketing strategy.
It’s what will bring in new customers and keep them coming back, so it needs to be high quality.
But how do you know if your content is good enough? And how can you make sure that it gets seen by as many people as possible?
Read on to find out what makes great content and how to come up with your own ideas from being inspired.
Analyze What Other Websites Are Publishing
Looking at your competitor’s websites in your field can yield a treasure trove of content ideas. You can see what they’re doing well, and what they could improve upon. This gives you an idea of where you should focus your efforts.
You can also look at other sites that are similar to yours but have different niches. For example, if you own a site about dogs, you might want to check out dog-related blogs and websites. Or if you sell pet products, you might want to take a look at websites selling pet food, toys, etc.
You can even search for specific keywords related to your niche. If you run a site about pets, you might search for “pet care tips” or “best dog treats.”
This can give you some really interesting ideas for topics to write about.
Write Case Studies Featuring Clients
Another great source of inspiration is case studies. These are stories about real clients who used your product or service. They may include testimonials from satisfied customers or examples of their success with your product.
Case studies are very popular because they provide evidence of the value of your product or service. In addition, they show that your company is capable of delivering results.
If you don’t already have any case studies, consider asking your clients to share their experiences with you. You can then use these stories to inspire future posts.
If you’ve ever tried writing a case study, you’ll know that it takes time and effort to produce something worthwhile. So before you start writing, think carefully about whether it would benefit your business.
Also, remember that case studies aren’t just for businesses; they can also help individuals. For example, if someone writes a story about using your product, you can publish it on your website.
Brainstorm Ideas Using Your Main Topic
The best way to come up with fresh content ideas is to brainstorm. Start by thinking about what kind of content you’d like to write. Then, list all the things that come to mind.
Now, think about which ones are relevant to your audience. Write down everything that comes to mind.
Then, pick the top three or four items and organize them according to topic.
For example, if you were writing about dog training, you might group together:
- Dog training techniques
- Training methods
- Best breeds for beginners
- What makes a good trainer
Once you’ve done this, you’ll have a better idea of what kinds of articles you need to write.
Finally, once you’ve got your content ideas organized, go through each one and ask yourself: Is this useful to my readers? Will it help me attract more traffic?
Experiment With New Processes
When you first get started, you probably won’t be able to create much new content every day. But as you gain experience, you’ll find that you can churn out several pieces of quality content per week.
So try experimenting with new processes. For example, instead of writing a post straight away, why not spend a few minutes planning it?
Or maybe you could set aside a certain amount of time each morning to write. This will ensure that you always have plenty of material ready when you sit down to work.
There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Just make sure that you’re producing enough content so that you never feel stuck.
You should aim to publish at least one blog post per week. As you get better and faster, this could very well increase.
The sky’s the limit as far as publishing is concerned.
Use Semrush’s Content Topics Research Tool
If you’re looking for an easy method to organize topics based around certain topic clusters, you may want to utilize Semrush’s content topic research tool.
This free tool allows you to search for keywords related to specific topics. Once you’ve found some, you can add them to your own database.
You can use this tool to quickly identify the most important topics in your niche.
This is a streamlined way of content ideation that’s worth exploring for your niche.
And, because these topics are already grouped into categories, you don’t even need to worry about organizing them.
Use AHREFs to Deep Dive Into The Topics a Site Covers
Another great way to generate content ideas is to look at other sites that cover similar topics.
Using Ahrefs’ site explorer, you can easily see how many backlinks those sites have.
In addition, you can view their domain authority (DA) score.
A high DA means that the site has been around for a while and has lots of links pointing back to it.
As such, it’s likely that they have a lot of valuable information on their site.
You can then use this knowledge to brainstorm new ideas.
For example, you could start by researching the top 10 pages on the site.
From there, you can use Google Trends to see whether people are searching for terms relating to the page.
If they are, then you know that it’s a topic that people care about.
Now you just need to come up with a unique angle on the subject and target the keywords people are searching for.
Do a Content Gap Analysis
A content gap analysis helps you analyze your competitors’ content. It does this analysis by analyzing the top 5-10 competitors that you enter into the tool.
Then, it will return the results of competitors that have content that they are ranking for, but you are not.
It also shows you what type of content your competitors are using to rank for the keywords you are targeting.
This gives you a good idea of what types of content you should be creating to beat your competition.
Follow Industry Trends
Identifying which industry trends are worth writing about can help you create new content ideas.
To find out what’s going on in your industry, you can use tools like Buzzsumo.
Buzzsumo lets you search for trending articles. You can then read through the article titles and determine if they’re relevant to your niche.
Once you’ve identified the ones that are relevant, you can go ahead and write about them.
You’ll often find that the best content ideas come from analyzing the trends throughout your industry.
See What People Are Talking About on Facebook and Twitter
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow you to see what people are talking about.
There are two ways to do this:
1. Go to the social media platform and search for the keyword or phrase you want to learn more about.
2. Use a third party tool like Social Mention to get a list of all mentions of your keyword or phrase.
The first option is better when you’re looking for general trends.
The second option is better when you want to focus on specific topics.
Either way, you can now use the data to come up with new content ideas.
Use Hacker News as a Content Resource
Hacker News, also known as https://news.ycombinator.com/, is a premier news source for Hackers. And most in the technology industry would do well to follow this blog.
While it may seem daunting at first, we promise you that once you start reading, you won’t stop.
And you’ll quickly realize how much useful information you can glean from these posts.
In fact, some great content ideas in the past have come from reading HN (at least for us).
As a site that aggregates news daily from the technical sector, it’s highly useful for finding these types of topics.
Explore Facebook Groups for New Topics
Facebook Groups are a great way to investigate new topics. The way they work is: there are many types of groups throughout Facebook that focus on specific topics.
For example, there are groups for business owners, fitness enthusiasts, etc.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular topic, you can join one of these groups and ask questions.
When you do this, you’ll usually receive answers within minutes, depending on how many subscribers there are to these groups.
So don’t hesitate to jump right in and ask questions.
Use Google Trends to Find Content Ideas
Google Trends is a great tool to use to identify what content ideas are currently, well, trending. In addition, it also shows you exactly which ideas are all worth writing about.
This means that you can easily find content ideas by searching for keywords that have been mentioned recently.
For example, if you wanted to know what people were saying about “content marketing,” you could type that into Google Trends.
Then click on the trend line and you’ll see the top 10 results.
From here, you can scroll down and read through each result to see what other people are saying.
From there, you can decide whether or not those ideas are worth exploring further.
Use Twitter to Figure Out What People Are Interested In
Believe it or not, Twitter is yet another channel you can use to gain content inspiration. People share content all the time on this social network, and it’s great fodder for content ideation.
To get started, simply go to Twitter and search for your target keyword.
You’ll then be able to view tweets related to that term.
After viewing these tweets, you can either reply directly to them or retweet them so others will see them too.
Or you can even create your own tweet using the same keyword.
Once you’ve done this, you can begin thinking about what kind of content you’d like to write about.
It’s important to note that Twitter isn’t just used for sharing links. It’s also a great place to find content ideas.
So keep an eye out for interesting tweets and figure out how you can best use them to create different angles for your content.
Utilize Data.gov to Find Government Data
Does your content revolve around data? If so, data.gov may be for you. You can use this site as a treasure trove for finding data that’s ripe for inclusion in your content to help you expand on and make your point.
Here’s a quick list of things you can learn from data.gov:
- How much money does the government spend on certain programs?
- Which states have the highest unemployment rates?
- Which cities have the most violent crimes?
- Which counties have the lowest median income?
- Which schools have the highest dropout rate?
The possibilities really are endless when it comes to data.gov. So take advantage of it!
Figure Out Where Your Audience Hangs Out Most Online, and Follow Them for Content Inspiration
If you want to know who your audience is, you need to look at where they hang out online.
Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., allow you to do just that.
On these platforms, many people congregate online to discuss various topics that interest them. They share links, they create threaded discussions, and share their expertise.
The more prolific users in your audience space will most likely be known as “influencers.” These types of users are highly productive on social media and produce a lot of content.
This is why it’s important to follow these types of users for content inspiration.
They’re often more active than average, and they’re likely to engage with your content.
Plus, they’re usually very open to new ideas and willing to share their knowledge with others.
And, if you work your magic correctly, you may earn a nice backlink to your website in return for engaging in this kind of discussion.
Explore Quora for Unique Topics
Quora is a question and answer site that has a wide variety of broad topics that you can engage in discussion with others on.
There are tons of questions here, and some of them are quite unique.
For example, there are many questions on the topic of “How to become a better writer?”
Another popular topic is “SEO” (of course).
These kinds of questions are perfect for generating content ideas because they’re not only unique but they’re also extremely relevant.
You can even ask yourself questions to generate content ideas. For instance, one question you could ask is “How do I explain content marketing in easy to understand terms?”
Then, you could write up your thoughts on the topic and share them on Quora.
You could do the same thing by asking yourself questions like “how can I improve my writing skills?,” or “what should I write about next?”
Utilize Reddit for Unique Topics
Reddit is another discussion site similar to Quora, although it’s geared towards news rather than general information.
It’s also a great place to find unique topics to discuss.
One of the best ways to get started is to search through the subreddits (subforums) that pertain to your niche.
Once you’ve found one that interests you, start reading posts and commenting on them.
As you comment, try to keep an eye out for any interesting threads that have been created.
When you see one that piques your interest, jump into the conversation and contribute your own thoughts.
As you do so, make sure that you add appropriate value and that you don’t violate any community guidelines.
In addition, don’t forget to check out the comments section. This is where you’ll find a wealth of useful information from other Redditors who contribute valuable information.
As you build your subreddit subscriptions, you should be able to get a feel for how to come up with new content based on your niche.
Browse Discussion Forums in Your Industry
Forums are a great way to come up with interesting new content.
The reason being that forums are typically populated by people who are passionate about what they talk about.
So, when you post a thread on a forum, you’ll probably receive a lot of responses from people who are interested in the subject matter.
By taking the initiative to lead discussions on certain topics, you can find other like-minded users. These ideas can help you to create new topics for your site.
For example, if you have a site that talks about building computers, there are plenty of computer discussion forums online, such as the one on tomshardware.com.
Forums are a wealth of user-generated content that will help you build your own robust content strategy.
Find Out What People Are Talking About on YouTube
Believe it or not, even though it’s a video site, it’s still a search engine. It’s also owned by Google. It’s one of the most-trafficked video sites in all of the
past year, so it’s a great idea to get acquainted with it by researching topics.
There are many different types of videos on YouTube. Some are instructional, some are funny, others are just plain entertaining.
If you’re looking for something specific, type it into the search bar at the top of the page.
Then click on the first result. If it looks good, watch it. If it doesn’t, move on to the next one.
This process will give you a better understanding of what people are talking about in your industry.
You might even stumble upon a video that has already gone viral. This is information that you can use to identify which topics have a chance of going viral.
It’s important to note that this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, a topic will go viral because it was posted by someone famous.
Most times, however, it happens because the topic resonates with the audience.
Regardless of why it went viral, once you know what people are talking about, you can use that knowledge to write blog posts and articles on your given topic.
Explore Data Surrounding Your Topic
The world of data is an interesting one. Finding data on your topic is a great first step towards making sure that you can defend your arguments on a topic
accurately.
There are many sources of data. From Government websites to educational institutions, a treasure trove of data means that you will never (at least, not anytime soon)
run out of data to present with your topic.
You can use data to:
- Identify trends within your niche
- Find out what people are saying about your topic
- Determine whether or not your opinion is supported by facts
- Help you make more informed decisions
When you start exploring data around your topic, you’ll quickly realize that it’s much easier than you thought.
Once you have performed your research surrounding the data that’s available within your niche, you should be able to come up with a solid argument for your point of view.
Then you can take things a step further. You can actually prove your points using that data.
When you find yourself writing an article, depending on your topic, don’t forget to figure out a way to include concrete data along with it.
Creating Great Content is Always Worth It
Content creation is a huge part of any online marketing campaign. Whether you’re creating blogs, infographics, or eBooks, there’s no question that content is key to success.
In fact, if you want to rank higher in search engines, you need to create quality content.
Quality content is defined as anything that helps educate, entertain or inform your target market.
Whether you’re writing a blog post, creating an infographic, or writing an eBook, you need to think about how each piece of content will help your readers learn new things.
If you’re trying to get traffic from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, then you also need to consider how your content will perform on those platforms.
Your goal is to provide value to your readers. When they see that you’ve provided them with valuable information, they will be more likely to share this content with their friends (or audience).
This is where you can really start seeing results. If you’re providing great content, your followers will spread the word about your work.
And this is why creating great content should always be an in-depth consideration in any successful SEO strategy.
