Content Strategy Tutorial: 5 Step Process to Create a Winning Website Content Strategy

What’s up everyone. Today, I’m going to be going over a five-step process for creating a content strategy, and I’m going to be creating one in this video. So, I first want to start by going over the five-step process that I use when I’m creating any content strategy. So, it looks something like this. So here are the five steps that I follow. Start with a main topic. Find the top keywords for your topic, create content ideas for the top keywords, choose the types of content that you will create, and then choose projected dates that you plan on publishing your content. And how do you plan on marketing your content? So, this is how I start to come up with a content strategy. Obviously step six would be to start creating your content.

But what you really want to start with are some different ideas that you can use and some different keywords you can really target to make sure that you’re reaching people who are actively searching for things in Google, in YouTube or wherever you want to reach people. Now coming over here to a sample content strategy. So, this is just a sample here, but this is what my content strategies look like. So, I start with topics here. So, you’re going to see right at the top, here are some topics, farmhouse Christmas decor, farmhouse bathroom decor. And then as I’m expanding these topics, I find different keywords that I can really target with my content. And what I’ll do is I’ll create separate content for each one of these keywords. It doesn’t mean you’re just focused on that one keyword, but this is the main thing that your content is really focused on. 

So ultimately what you want to do is combine keywords and combine content so that you’re solving people’s issues. So, when someone does go to Google and they look up “farmhouse Christmas tree skirts,” I have a bunch of farmhouse Christmas tree skirts for sale, and then some different design ideas that people can use. So that’s the basic concept of when you’re coming up with a content strategy. Now, if I’m doing it for Top Digital Marketing Agency & SEO Services, it’s going to look something like this. So, this is going to be landing pages. And over here, I’m going to do keywords. You’re going to see topics over here. So, landing pages, I want to cover some topics around keyword research, around content marketing and around Google ads. So, these are just some samples and this is kind of how I start to come up with my own content strategies. Start with a main topic here and then expand that topic by finding some of the top keywords here for each individual topic.

So, for example, with landing pages, I can do something like landing page examples, landing page design ideas, landing pages through MailChimp, landing pages for a WordPress website, how to create free landing pages, best landing page providers. So, I can start to create content around all these different keywords. So, the first thing I want to do is go over how I come up with keywords based on the topics that I’m covering. Now, the topics that you’re covering should be really focused on your website, your niche, your industry, what are you going over? What are the things that you really want to cover? So, for example, if I come back to this sample here with farmhouse decor, I basically start with farmhouse decor and I expanded that into some of these different keywords. Christmas decor, bathroom decor. I can do something like living room decor over here, bedroom decor.
So, I can continue to expand these keywords and try to find all of these different things that people are looking for. And you can keep breaking down your topics into secondary topics and finding all these different keywords here. So, coming back over to my process here really quick, making it really simple. One is topic, two is keywords, three is content ideas, four is content types and five is dates and marketing. So, what it’s going to eventually look like as you start to create all of this different content is if I come over here, I started with topics here. So, these are the topics that I want to cover. I started with keywords around this main topic here. So, I’m focused really on Christmas decor. 

Now, as I start putting together a bunch of different pieces of content around Christmas decor, which I’ve already done, I can scroll down here and what you’re going to see is farmhouse Christmas decor. The date that each post was published, the actual content itself. So, 200 plus farmhouse Christmas decorations, farmhouse Christmas ornaments, Christmas signs, tree skirts, garlands, the focus keyword of my article. So, these are the main keywords that I really want to target with my content, the types of content that I use. So, for this, it’s just a blog. Sometimes you might be infographic. It depends on the types of content that you want to create. So, what some people do is they’ll record a podcast or record a video and then have a corresponding article. That’s what I try to do with Top Digital Marketing Agency & SEO Services. I don’t have corresponding articles for all my videos, but that’s ultimately what my goal is. 

Now, when it comes to marketing, these are the different places where you want to send out your actual content to people who are going to find it in different ways.  So, Pinterest, I can use images to show some of these top farmhouse Christmas decorations and drive traffic back to my blog post. Same thing with Facebook and email, what I can do is create a roundup of all these different blog posts here, and maybe I’ll send it out a couple of times to people throughout the holiday season so they can find exactly what they’re looking for. And then last but not least over here is the URL. So here is where all the actual pieces of content are published. So, if we come over here to my example you’re going to see, I have 200 plus farmhouse Christmas decorations and holiday decor. If I scroll down here, you’re going to see all these different categories of content that I’ve created. This is also an example of a content cluster. So, I’m trying to target the keyword, farmhouse Christmas decorations, and you’re going to see some of these different keywords involved.

And if I click on farmhouse Christmas ornaments, click here, it’s going to bring me down to farmhouse Christmas ornaments. People can find my actual page here for farmhouse Christmas ornaments. And if we open it, you’re just going to see it’s just more products listed for sale. So, it’s a great way to really organize all of the different content you want to create, and also target a lot of different keywords. And some of these really popular keywords are going to eventually drive organic search traffic back to your website. And you can use them for Pinterest for Facebook, because these are the things that people are actually looking for. And people who have an interest in farmhouse decor with a farm home are going to want to see these different products that I have on my website and look up some of these different design ideas as well. So, this is really the basic concept of coming up with a content strategy and executing your content strategy.
So, what we’re going to do here is I’m going to come over back to my spreadsheet and we’re going to be doing this for Top Digital Marketing Agency & SEO Services. So, we’re going to come over here and start with our topics and keywords. I’m just going to be doing this for landing pages, but I just wanted to go over as you set up more and more content ideas for different topics that you want to cover, it’s going to look something like this. So, content marketing, I might have content marketing strategies, examples of content marketing, how to market your content, how to use content marketing for new websites and so on and so forth. So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to start here with topics, and then we’re going to start finding some different keywords around these topics.

And this is the exact way that I do it. So, what I’ll generally do is I’ll start right in YouTube and I’ll just come up to the search bar up here at the top and we’ll type in landing pages. And now I can see here landing pages that convert for affiliate marketing, tutorial, landing pages for website, landing pages for real estate, landing pages MailChimp, Facebook ads, Shopify, WordPress. So, these are some of the different topics and keywords that people are looking for in YouTube. I can also just look up landing page and you’re going to see tutorial, design, WordPress, that convert, for affiliate marketing, MailChimp, Wix vs website, and elementor. So, all of these different things, if I start creating content around all these different keywords, and let’s just say, for example, I put together 15 different videos that cover all of these different topics here.

It’s going to drive probably hundreds of thousands of views on my YouTube channel over the course of time because there’s people actively looking for these different topics. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take all these keywords here and I’m going to enter them over here on my content strategy. So, I entered these keywords here and these are all just based on YouTube and the free ideas that they give me. Now, the other thing that I can do is I can come back over to YouTube and just type in landing pages and click on enter, and just look at some of the content that is already coming up here. So, “Landing pages that convert: 6 must haves for 2019” 28,000 views. “How to make a beautiful landing page that converts”. So clearly if I come over here, you’re going to see in my content strategy landing pages that convert, this is absolutely a piece of content that I need to create.

So, we come back over here to landing pages again, and then we just see some more ideas here. “How to create a landing page”, “The secrets of high converting landing pages”, “How to create a beautiful landing page in MailChimp 2019”. And just looking at the view numbers here. So, this one here, 36,000 views, one year ago, 32,000 views, 12 months ago, 23,000 views, four months ago, this one, almost 300,000 views one year ago. Obviously, some of these people have very large audiences, especially Neil Patel. So, they get a lot of views, no matter what, but getting almost 300,000 views on a video shows that a lot of people are looking for this topic. And right here, the one at the top 28,000 views, 10 months ago. So, this is something where I can start creating some of this different content and try to target all these different keywords here. The things that people are actually searching for it actively in YouTube. 

Now, the other thing I’m going to do is come over to the Google keyword planner. So, we’re going to do discover new keywords, and I’m just going to enter here and we’re going to click on get results. So, this is going to pull up some of the top keywords by relevance and by average monthly searches. Now, the other thing I want to do is I want to come over to Google search and I’ve already entered landing pages here, clicked on enter. And what I want to do is see what the top results are in Google search. So ultimately since I’m creating blog articles and I’m creating YouTube videos, I want to see what’s ranking well already in YouTube and what’s ranking well already in Google and basically copy a lot of those ideas.

So, we’re going to come over here. You’re going to see what is a landing page. So, we’re going to come back to our content strategy and we’re going to do “what is a landing page”. So now we’re going to come down here again, keep scrolling down. You can use this people also ask section. So, do landing pages work? What does landing page mean? How much are landing pages? Is a landing page a homepage? So, some of these different questions as you can answer, usually I’ll just use these questions as I’m developing and creating my content. Next one. “19 of the best landing page design examples”. So, with that, I can do landing page examples. So, we’ll come over here, landing page examples. And one thing I can do is separate out, do landing page designs. Now I can also just put those together just like HubSpot did in that example, but I’ll keep these separate for the time being.

I can always combine keywords eventually as I continue to create more content. So, we’re going to come over here to landing pages again, what is a landing page? What is a landing page beginner’s guide to landing pages, free landing page builder? So, all of these are very similar, so you can see, I need to create a piece of content. What is a landing page? And I need to do something landing page design ideas or design examples. So, we’ll keep scrolling down here, at the very bottom of the page you’re going to see the searches related to landing pages. So, examples, “best landing pages, 2018-2019”, “Landing page builder”, so that’s one that I can take out and “Landing page templates”. So, I’m going to come down here and I’m going to do landing page builder and landing page templates. Now keep in mind as I come up with all these different content ideas, I don’t necessarily need to create a piece of content around all these different keywords, but it’s very helpful to know the different keywords that people are actually typing in.

Even if you don’t know the actual search volume of all these different topics and keywords here, it doesn’t really make a huge difference just because I know people are looking for this type of content. So, as I start to create it, I can know that people are going to find my content and it’s going to help me ultimately rank higher in Google and rank higher in YouTube. Now we’re going to come over here to the Google keyword planner and re typed in landing pages. So, what I want to do is see some of their top keywords by relevance. So free landing page. You’re going to see examples here. A lot of average, monthly searches, landing page design. So, we have these already added. We don’t have “free landing page”. So, we’re going to come back over here to content strategy and I can do “free landing page”.

Now, one thing you can try to do type in some of these keywords into the keyword planner and see the actual search volume and use that to kind of guide the types of content that you create. But what I’ll do is I’ll just come up with all these different content ideas and then try to create things based on what I know the best, what I can create the quickest. And then I’ll eventually go back and say, okay, if I’m going to do something landing pages for Shopify, it might take me a little bit longer to create that tutorial, to create that piece of content. So that’s something I might put on the back burner for a little bit.

Come back over to keyword ideas. And we’ll just add a couple more here. So best landing pages, WordPress landing page. So, squeeze page, maybe that’s something I want to do is go over squeeze pages, Wix landing page. So, I’ll do use those two as my last ones. So, we’ll come down here, I’ll do Squeeze page and we’ll do Wix landing pages. So now we have our topic landing pages. We have some of the top keywords that people type in related to landing pages. We can continue to build this out over time, but this is a really good starting point to start coming up with our content strategy. When I’m doing a content strategy, I’m really just focused on the types of content that I want to create. 

So, we’re going to do is I’m going to come over here to my other spreadsheet, and you’re going to see here at the top, I have landing pages. As I start to build these out, I’ll have landing pages and then I’ll scroll down here. I’ll do keyword research. So, as I continue to build more and more of these content strategies around some of my top keywords, this is basically how I do it. So, I do this a lot with Google ads, with Facebook ads to make sure that I’m covering the topics that people are actually looking for. And then sometimes I’ll just cover topics of the things that I know the best. So, we’re going to come up to the top here. 

The first thing over here is date. So, you don’t necessarily need to date. You can just come up with here with the content ideas and to say, okay, I want to create all these pieces of content in the next 60 days. You don’t have to necessarily date things. I try to use date targets because it helps me kind of organize some of the things that I’m creating over the course of time. So, what I’m going to do here is date 11/11/2019. Just for reference today is November 7th, 2019. So, what I can do is content. So, I’m going to start here, come over to keywords. And I’m just going to start right at the top and do landing pages tutorial.

And generally, what I’ll do with this first piece of content here, so if I come over to the sample, what you’re going to see is my first piece of content here is essentially the main page that I want the people to visit, things that I want to rank high in Google. So, if I come over here to Google, I like to look at what’s already ranking high and everything is what is a landing page? How does it work? So, what I’m going to do is combine the keywords. What is a landing page? So, we’re going to come over here to content. I’m going to combine two keywords, landing pages, tutorial, and what is a landing page. So, I’m going to come over to content and I’m going to do, “what is a landing page?’ Complete landing page tutorial”.

So that’s going to be the piece of content that I’m going to create, and this is going to be essentially my main page. So, if we think about this in terms of content clusters, this is going to be the center of my cluster and all these other pieces of content here are going to be arms that come off of my content cluster. So, the first one would be what is a landing page, complete landing page tutorial. The next one Is going to be “How to create landing pages with MailChimp” So we come over here to keywords and you can see, we have “landing pages MailChimp” here. So, the next one, we are going to do “How to create WordPress landing pages”. So that’s going to be number three, come back over here to keywords. And you’re going to see landing page design, landing pages that convert, landing page examples. So, I want to kind of combine some of these different things. So, I’m going to come over to content and do landing page design ideas that convert.

The next one is going to be examples. I’m just going to do beautiful landing page examples. Now here’s something to keep in mind, is as I create this piece of content of beautiful landing page examples, what I can do over here is say, let’s just say, I want to do 10 of them. So, 10 beautiful landing page examples, landing page design ideas that convert, maybe I want to do seven of these. So, you can always add to the types of content that you’re creating as you continue to create it. So, I’m going to come back over here to keywords. We’ll just enter two more pieces of content here. So, we’ll do “landing pages elementor”. So now we have the beginning of our content strategy created. So, you’re going to see content here. What is a landing page, complete landing page tutorial. Now this is going to be our main page. So, when I do come over here to URL, this page, I know is just going to be this. So, it’s going to be the main page. So, I’m just going to keep it as simple as possible. So, people are going to find this major piece of content here, and I can continue to update it over time. And the URL will just stay the same as landing pages, just like that. 

Now the next one is going to be how to create landing pages with MailChimp. So, I’m going to come over here and do the same exact thing. So, I don’t have these pieces of content created yet. So now what this allows me to do is as I set up these URLs, and as I set up my initial piece of content, I can continue to go back and improve it over the course of time. And if MailChimp completely changes the way that you build landing pages with MailChimp, I know that next year, the year after whenever they make that change, I can also make that change to my content. And I’m not going to lose any of my rankings or any backlinks that I’ve acquired over the course of a couple of years. So, if I come back over here, the next is going to be focused keywords.

So, with this one the main thing is just going to be “Landing page tutorial” “Landing pages”. So that’s going to be my focus keyword. I could also put “what is a landing page?” here, but I’m just going to focus on these two keywords. Next, it’s just going to be “MailChimp landing pages” next, it’s going to be “WordPress landing pages” next will be “Landing pages that convert” and “Landing page examples”. So, you’re going to see here. We have our content that we’re going to be creating. We have our focus keywords over here “Landing page tutorial, MailChimp landing pages, WordPress landing pages, landing pages that convert”. So, you’re going to see with content, we’re kind of creating some different pieces of content that are going to interest people who are visiting our website or watching our videos. So, these are going to be our focus keywords. So, this is why you start by finding all of these different keywords here, because it helps you come up with content ideas.

So, we’re going to come over here. And the next thing we want to do is we have our content here. So, we started with topics. We got our keywords. Now we came up with some different content ideas. So, the next thing is going to be our focus keywords and after that content types. So, for all of these, I’m going to be doing blog posts and video. So, it’s going to be the same for every single one, blog post and video. So, we’ll just take that right down. So, these are going to be the main content types that I’m creating. 

Marketing, what I want to do is send it out to all my different social media platforms. So that’s going to be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. I should be better on Instagram, but I don’t really do Instagram. We’ll put that here and then we’ll do mailing lists, so email. So, this is going to be how we’re going to market this content. I can also do Pinterest as well, so I can publish the video to Pinterest. If I can create Pinterest specific content that can help me as well. Pinterest doesn’t drive huge results for me. So, it’s not something I really focus on, but we’ll take this marketing and we’ll do this across all of these different channels. So, it’s going to allow me to understand where I want people to see this different content. And then URL, I always create URLs that allow me to update my content over time.

So, to come back over to my sample here, this is going to be the last thing I’m going to go over. So, with my farmhouse Christmas decor, if I come over here, you’re going to see my URLs Christmas decorations, ornaments, wall decor, signs, tree skirts, garlands, pillows, stockings, wreaths, and then Rae Dunn Christmas decor. These are your URLs that I can always update over the course of time. So, if I come over here to dates, this is what’s great about creating a content strategy is once you have this all completed here, all you need to do now is update these pieces of content when the time comes. So, what I can do is next year, maybe I want to start in September. I update all these pieces of content and then I’ll republish them again the same day and I’ll just do 2020. So, I can do October 1st, 2020 and make sure all of these pieces of content are updated. And that can add more keywords that I didn’t cover from the year prior. So, if I come over here, you’re going to see farmhouse Christmas trees. I don’t have a piece of content on my website about that yet. Tree toppers, same exact thing. So, I can continue to expand the content that I’m creating. And it all starts with a simple content strategy. And it’s just a 5-step process. I’m going to go over that one more time.

Come up with your topics. So, what’s the main topic you really want to cover. What’s the issue that you’re solving that people are having. So, for me, with landing pages, people want to know how to create landing pages, how to create free landing pages, how to create landing pages that convert. So that’s going to be my goal is to teach that to people as best as I possibly can. Next find the keywords that people are actually typing in, the things people are actually looking for. Once you have a list of 10, 20, 30 keywords, you can start developing content ideas. So, content ideas are where you take yours and you come up with ways to present content to solve the keywords that people are typing in. Ultimately, so you can cover this topic as well as you possibly can. Next is going to be content types. So, what are the types of content that you create? So, for me, video is a huge part of the things that I do every single day. That’s really the main piece of content that I focus on. So, when I come up with a content strategy, the main content type I focus on is video. My secondary content is my blog posts. 

But last but not least is dates and marketing. So just kind of have an idea of when you want to get this published by how you’re going to market your content. That’s a part of your marketing strategy. It’s part of your content strategy. Now step six, I don’t have down here is start creating the content. However, when it comes to content strategy, I think the main thing you really want to focus on is just coming up with this list, just like this. So, you can start finding some different keywords for your business. And then what you want to do is put together all these different content ideas. And the last step is going to be to create that content. 

So, once you get all this content created, you can always go back and continue to improve it over time. It’s not as easy with video, but you’ll notice with a lot of my videos. I republish my Google ads tutorials every year. My Facebook ads tutorials every year because the interface has changed some of the different targeting options change. So that’s something I continue to improve year after year with a brand-new video. And then on my website, I can keep the same URLs and just keep improving the content on that page. 

So, this is how to develop a content strategy. It’s a pretty simple process. It’s really just these five main steps right here. And then over here, start with your main topic, find the top keywords for your topic, create content ideas for those top keywords, choose the types of content that you will create and then choose the projected dates and marketing for your content. So, this is how to create a content strategy, be on the lookout because I will be creating a lot of new content based around landing pages.

Don’t use these dates. I’m not someone who really keeps my dates as organized as this. Sometimes it takes me a little bit longer than I think to make content. Sometimes I can create a little bit earlier, so hopefully I’ll have all this out by the end of the year. My goal is to put together a lot of different things about landing pages. Cause it’s something I haven’t covered a lot with my videos and it’s something I work on a lot. So, I should be able to create these pieces of content so I can help people learn more. And ultimately when we come into YouTube here and someone types in landing pages,