The Ultimate List of Content Marketing Strategies & Best Practices: 102 Curated Tips from Industry Experts
- Melissa Morse
- Jun 26, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 6, 2024
As a lifelong learner, I am obsessed with staying up-to-date on the latest search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing tips and techniques, which is great for you because I’m sharing my knowledge to help you advance your content marketing career.
Over the last few months, I’ve been obsessed with Semrush Academy training, bookmarking any website resource or blog that shared strategies on the subject.
I recently stumbled upon Advanced Content Marketing with Brian Dean. One of Brian’s content strategies was to build a ridiculously long list (RLL), one of the fastest ways to get traffic to your blog.
This got me thinking … why not share my bookmarks with the world so that you can reap the content knowledge I’ve been hoarding over the last few months?
With that said, here is my RLL of curated content marketing strategies and best practices from industry experts at Semrush, Search Engine Journal, Content Marketing Institute, Wix, HubSpot, Yoast, and so many more!
I’ve organized this list based on content marketing functions, focusing heavily on SEO and content creation. The level of information ranges from very basic to advanced techniques, so it may not be useful depending on your expertise.
I hope you find something that inspires you to create engaging content for your website — So with that, let’s dive in!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — Keyword Research, Technical SEO, and Measuring SEO with Google Analytics
SEO Basics, Planning, and Strategy
The best place to start is with some basics. If you’re new to SEO, these resources will be your guiding light to getting up-to-speed quickly. Explore how to create an SEO roadmap and free tools you can use that will enhance your SEO strategy.
SEO Basics: How to Do SEO for Beginners
SEO Basics: How to Do SEO for Beginners
by Connor Lahey, Content Strategist at Semrush
As Connor says in the very first sentence of the post, “This is the complete guide to SEO for beginners.” And this is also an AMAZING example of good SEO in practice. I love the table of contents on the left side of the page, for easy navigation, and the content is bold and linked to draw your attention to the important information. As a visual learner, the imagery does a great job pointing out what to look for when optimizing and measuring your SEO efforts.
What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide
What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide
By Vlado Pavlik, Senior Content Writer at Semrush
Another great example of a well-done web guide, Vlado breaks down what search (or user) intent is, and how to determine intent. The FAQ at the end is also another fantastic SEO tactic. Including questions and answers is a surefire way to rank well for “Informational intent” keywords — like “What is SEO?” Or “What are intent keywords?”
WIX SEO resource center
Wix’s SEO resource center provides a wealth of templates, checklists, and trackers to aid in content optimization, technical SEO audit tracking, and keyword performance monitoring.
116 Top Free SEO Tools
By Jon Clark, VIP Contributor at Search Engine Journal
You’ll come to see that I’m a big fan of free tools because who isn’t these days, especially when you’re a small marketing team on an even smaller budget? With that said, Jon’s list is a significant starting point for understanding what tech and tools you’ll need to get your SEO efforts off the ground effectively.
SEO Strategy: How to Create One for 2024 (+ Template)
SEO Strategy: How to Create One for 2024 (+ Template)
By Carlos Silva, Senior Content Writer at Semrush
Ok, you have a solid understanding of SEO basics and search intent, and you have your tools and tech prioritized. Now it’s time to put an SEO strategy into place. Carlos outlines how to create one, and even offers a template to help get you started — I love a good template!
SEO Roadmap: How to Create One + Free Template
SEO Roadmap: How to Create One + Free Template
By Asif Ali, Freelance Senior Content Writer at Semrush
SEO roadmaps are basically a single doc that outlines the strategy you’ve put in place. Make use of the free template that's included with Asif's guide to creating an SEO roadmap because it's SO organized and will make tracking a breeze.
How to create an SEO roadmap
By Amanda King, Search Engine Land Contributor
I swear I use other sources besides Semrush — and here’s one of them! Just like Asif, Amanda does a fantastic job of outlining how to create an SEO roadmap and also includes a FREE template! What I LOVE about Amanda’s article is that there are original images included with the piece, not stock photos. This helps give Amanda some credibility by showing the reader the steps taken and the expected results.
SEO for Brand Awareness: A Complete Guide
SEO for Brand Awareness: A Complete Guide
By Yannick Weiler, Freelance Senior Content Writer at Semrush
Another thing you’ll want to include in your strategy or roadmap is SEO’s impact on Brand Awareness, and Yannick provides a comprehensive outline for getting there. Take note content marketing professionals: Yannick and contributors Shannon Willoby and Bartłomiej Barcik demonstrate the power of Semrush by utilizing images and internal backlinks.
Mastering the art of inhouse SEO [2024 edition]
Mastering the art of inhouse SEO [2024 edition]
By Kevin Indig, Writer of the Growth Memo
Over the last year, I’ve interviewed with so many organizations that were looking to bring SEO in-house to save on agency costs, which spells trouble for agency marketers. Kevin shares deep insight into transitioning into in-house SEO roles, or how to remain successful if you’re already in this position at your company. Kevin does a fantastic job at showcasing authority with this thought leadership piece, by including quotes from top leaders at known brands, like Jackie Chu, SEO intelligence lead at Uber.
Improve SEO: 11 Steps to Improve Your Rankings
Improve SEO: 11 Steps to Improve Your Rankings
By Kelly Lyons, Senior Blog Editor at Semrush
I’m going to round out this topic with some insights into how you can go about improving your SEO rankings, while you’ll definitely need to go through the rest of this SEO section to get a full understanding, I’ve included this resource in the basics section because it is pretty basic information. It’s also another Semrush “use our tool” style blog, which is great if you are a Semrush user, but if not, Kelly also shares some useful tips.
Keyword Research
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with SEO basics, and have mapped out an SEO strategy, it’s time to dive in and start implementing that strategy, beginning with keyword research. Discover tips for effectively finding and using keywords, including question keywords, and applying advanced research tools to drive organic traffic to your website.
What Keywords Are & How to Use Them
What Keywords Are & How to Use Them
By Rachel Handley, Senior Content Writer at Semrush
If you’re new to keyword research, this article provides a great overview of the difference between organic and pay-per-click (PPC) keywords, how to find keywords, and how to identify keywords your competition is using. Rachel explains how you can capitalize on keyword trends and conduct analyses using Semrush’s tools, but I feel like this knowledge can easily transfer to any SEO keyword tool.
Keyword Research: An In-Depth Beginner’s Guide
Keyword Research: An In-Depth Beginner’s Guide
By Shelley Walsh, Search Engine Journal Staff Writer
If you want a more detailed guide to beginner’s keyword research, Shelley provides it! The great thing about this article, unlike Semrush’s content (no offense, Semrush, I still love you), Shelley shares non-Semrush tools to help you get the job done. For instance, Shelley identified Answer The Public, saying it “is a powerful tool that scrapes data from Google Autocomplete and connects a seed keyword with a variety of modifiers to produce a list of variants.”
Keyword Research for SEO: What It Is & How to Do It
Keyword Research for SEO: What It Is & How to Do It
By Rachel Handley, Senior Content Writer at Semrush
Another Semrush piece from Rachel — this time she explains keyword research using Semrush to achieve your goals. My favorite part about this blog is the unique tips for using search page results to identify keywords. For instance, this tip:
“You can conduct basic keyword research by looking at search suggestions in search engines. For example, Google offers autocomplete predictions when you start typing. And you can use this as a way to identify popular queries in your niche.”
Question Keywords: How to Find and Use Them
Question Keywords: How to Find and Use Them
By Semrush Contributors
This piece from Semrush could be classified as another “basics,” but my favorite part is the “How to Use Question Keywords on Your Website.” I’ve used some of the tips from this article on past websites, and while I no longer have access to the data, at the time, we were seeing great ROI on the pages that utilized this strategy.
One caveat, written pre-March 2024 Google core update this strategy could be obsolete. However, I believe this strategy will still hold up, especially if Google continues to prioritize Reddit content in search rankings. (More on Reddit in a minute.)
Keyword research for SEO: the ultimate guide
Keyword research for SEO: the ultimate guide
By Camille Cunningham, Content Specialist at YOAST
This is legit, the ultimate guide to keyword research! Not only is this piece structurally an SEO dream but it’s also loaded with great for every aspect of keyword research. Bonus points for Camille’s examples of laying out your keyword research into an Excel/Google Sheet — I love a well-organized dashboard that I can visually understand at a glance.
Advanced Keyword Research with Semrush (ft. Keyword Magic Tool)
Advanced Keyword Research with Semrush (ft. Keyword Magic Tool)
By Semrush Contributors
One issue with keyword usage, especially if you worked in SEO 10+ years ago, is keyword stuffing. Once content creators realized keywords would get them higher up on the search engine results page (SERP), they would stuff all their keywords into every aspect of their content.
After reading through all these tips, you’ve probably come to realize that things have vastly changed from SEO in 2014. While keyword usage is still extremely important, you need to be strategic about it. This article is a great starting point for learning how — and it’s even more helpful if you’re using Semrush for your keyword research, but that’s beside the point.
Reddit Keyword Research: Uncover Hidden SEO Opportunities
Reddit Keyword Research: Uncover Hidden SEO Opportunities
By Aida Knezevic, Freelance Senior Content Writer at Semrush
So I mentioned the March 2024 Google Core Update and Reddit SERP rankings … if you haven’t noticed, Google has started to prioritize Reddit as the number one destination to source content from.
I kid you not, I searched “Reddit rankings Google Update” and this was the first page that popped up — a link to the r/SEO subreddit. If you weren’t aware, Reddit and Google also recently struck a pretty stupid deal (in my humble opinion).
According to Reuters, “Social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with Google to make its content available for training the search engine giant's artificial intelligence models, three people familiar with the matter said.”
Search for that info on Google, and coincidentally, the first source is Reddit, which outranks brands with high domain authority, like Reuters and CBS News.
Because of this, Google ended up using the AI model to spit out info like “Eating Boogers Boosts the Immune System.” So yeah, great idea guys! All that to say, the Semrush article I mentioned before this rant is a good resource to keep in your back pocket. If this trend continues, you’ll want to be posting on Reddit to get eyes on your content.
Measuring and Improving SEO
Now that you’ve got the basics of SEO and keyword research under your belt, you’ve likely started putting these practices in play — But how do you know if your efforts paid off? By using Google Analytics and other tools, which allow you to track your progress and make improvements.
In this section, I’ve identified a few resources to help you monitor and report on your SEO efforts. Let's dive in!
How to Use Google Analytics for SEO: 6 Best Practices
How to Use Google Analytics for SEO: 6 Best Practices
By Zack Duncan, President, Root and Branch
If you’re new to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Zack provides a great overview of getting started, setting up your properties, and using the tools to track your SEO efforts. There are pro tips throughout this guide — and if you’re a visual learner, Zach shares images of the platform to help you align your practices.
8 Best Free Google SEO Tools: What They Do & How to Use Them
8 Best Free Google SEO Tools: What They Do & How to Use Them
By Semrush Contributors
After learning GA4, you can feel confident branching off to other Google SEO tools, which will help you maximize and optimize your SEO efforts. This Semrush article provides an overview of other Google SEO tools, like
Google Search Console: This tool allows you to track your site’s health and performance — it’s great for Technical SEO as well, more on that later.
Google Page Speed Insights: Another technical SEO tool, which helps you understand how fast your page is loading and which barriers are blocking performance.
Google Keyword Planner: Part of Google Ads, the Keyword Planner is an OK tool for getting keyword ideas. However, it has its limitations because it is free. If you want an in-depth research tool, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz will get the insights you desire.
14 Google Sheets Formulas Every SEO Needs To Know
14 Google Sheets Formulas Every SEO Needs To Know
By Sebastian Hovv, Director, SEO 101
What do you do with all the data these SEO tools produce? Clean it up in a Google Sheet and get a deeper look into your SEO efforts. I am obsessed with Google Sheets' formulas and pivot tables! If you’re using multiple resources to gather SEO insights, you can create a Google Sheets Dashboard for improving your SEO strategy. Sebastian breaks down Google Sheets basics and shares must-use formulas to help you clean up and manipulate data for more in-depth insights.
The Mini Guide to SEO Reporting
The Mini Guide to SEO Reporting
By Moz Contributors
It’s called a “mini” guide, but this is a very comprehensive outline for SEO reporting newbies. Also, if you want ideas for creating a site guide that is optimized for SEO, take this as your inspiration! Each chapter is linked to its own page, the heading structure flows seamlessly from page to page, and call-outs and images help keep readers engaged. Not to mention, the info in this guide is also extremely helpful and worth checking out if you’re new to SEO reporting.
How to Create 10x SEO Reports
By Cyrus Shepard, Founder of Zyppy.com
What is a 10x SEO report? A direct way to communicate the value of your SEO efforts and drive action. In this video/transcript, Cyrus explains the 5 key things you’ll want to include in your SEO report, like KPIs, search visibility, site health, top content, and opportunities. He breaks down each item in more detail and shares specific examples to help you understand how to successfully report SEO to stakeholders.
The SEO Customer Funnel: KPIs & SEO Metrics Worth Monitoring
The SEO Customer Funnel: KPIs & SEO Metrics Worth Monitoring
By Tory Gray, CEO & Founder, and Sam Torres, Chief Digital Officer, The Gray Dot Company
Another great example of an article that is optimized for SEO and still engaging! As a marketer, you’re likely familiar with the Customer/Marketing Funnel, but how do you apply SEO tactics to the buyer’s journey? This is your guide! Tory and Sam provide a great overview of tying your SEO goals into the Customer Funnel, and there are even free templates! (I’m a sucker for a free download!)
Technical SEO
Rounding out the SEO list are my curated resources for technical SEO. I left this for last because some organizations pass this task off to developers, or have their own teams, leaving marketers time to focus on other SEO efforts. However, if you’re an SEO fanatic, or really just like diving into the “why/how” of things, then I have 2 resources for you!
What Is Technical SEO? Basics and Best Practices
What Is Technical SEO? Basics and Best PracticesBy Tushar Pol, SEO and Content Marketer
As I said, if you’re new to technical SEO, you may have a ton of questions. Look no further than Tushar’s basics and best practices article! There are a ton of great tips and easy-to-understand explanations for the “whys/hows.” Once you’re familiar with this concept, go back and revisit the “8 Best Free Google SEO Tools” post I mentioned. Combining your knowledge with these tools will take your SEO efforts to a whole new level.
Core Web Vitals: What They Are & How to Improve Them
Core Web Vitals: What They Are & How to Improve Them
By Hava Salsi, Freelance Senior Content Writer at Semrush
What are Core Web Vitals? Google’s Core Web Vitals is a collection of metrics that indicate how user-friendly a website is based on its load time, visual stability, and interactivity. Hava does a fantastic job at breaking down this technical concept to help you understand how to improve page load speed and increase user engagement.
So there you have it, my curated list of SEO resources, tips, and best practices. Now that you have a solid grasp of SEO, let’s move on to content creation and optimization — where you’ll have the chance to put these SEO strategies into play!
